Chapter XIII: The "wireless" in Tow

"What's that?" exclaimed Mr. Gregory, hardly able to grasp the astounding news that Jack Stormways so modestly launched at him.

"Why, you see, we camped in a little cove last night," continued the boy; "and as luck would have it, these fellows had entered another one close by. Seems that an accident had happened to their boat, so that, with a hole stove in her bow, they could not go any farther. So they figured on stealing our dandy little _Tramp_, you know, and leaving us to hold the bag."

The police officers looked at each other and nodded their heads, as if to say they knew a smart young fellow when they saw one.

"Yes, and naturally you objected to such a bold procedure, Jack, and determined to turn the tables on them; was that it?" asked the bank president, smiling broadly, as though he might be the happiest man in the country just then.

"Yes, sir," Jack made answer. "We set a little trap, and they tumbled into it. So we tied them up, as you see, though we tried not to treat the poor chaps too roughly while doing it, and have fed them as well as we could. I found that bag, and we expected to go ashore at Covington to turn the men and the property over to the right authorities. And seeing that it's yours, sir, will you please take it off my hands? I hope it's all there."

While the boats drifted down-stream Mr. Gregory, with trembling hands, opened the bag, and proceeded to hastily look over the papers. There were some thousands of dollars in bank notes tied up in packages; but he hardly gave these any attention, for the bonds represented the solvency of his bank.

"Good!" he presently cried, aloud; "I believe they're here, every one. I'm the happiest man going right now. And, Jack, shake hands with me, my boy. Your father will have cause to feel proud of you when I tell him how you've acquitted yourself."

"Don't forget Jimmie Brannagan, Mr. Gregory," said Jack. "He had as much to do with it as I did. Now, don't you say a single word against that, Jimmie, do you hear? And, Mr. Gregory, since you've got back everything, please go as easy as you can with these fellows. They're hardly more than boys, you see, and perhaps one more chance might be the making of either of them."

"That speaks well for your heart, Jack, although I'm afraid you're mistaken in the matter. But I promise you to get as light a sentence as I can for them. I ought to feel in a forgiving mood, for a terrible load has been taken off my mind this day, thanks to you boys."

"And how about that same reward we do be hearin' talk of, sir?" asked Jimmie.

"Jimmie!" exclaimed Jack, frowning; but Mr. Gregory only laughed.

"He's quite correct, Jack," he said promptly. "Jimmie knows his rights, and isn't afraid to press them. There was a reward offered for the capture of the thieves, and a larger one for the recovery of the stolen property. After you come back from this little excursion I want both of you to drop over and call on me. I'll have something for you worth while. Perhaps it may be an engrossed resolution of thanks from the directors of my bank; and possibly it may be something more."

So, after all, Jack did not set foot ashore at Covington when they arrived opposite the place. The two prisoners had been transferred to the police launch, with something more substantial in place of the cords that Jimmie had wound around their wrists; and after each of the officers had warmly shaken hands with the boys, Mr. Gregory gave them a last grip, when the larger boat was turned in toward the bank.

"Well, that was an adventure worth while!" remarked Jack, as he settled down to look after his engine and hit up a livelier pace; for Memphis was a long ways off, and that had been settled on as their next station.

"I do be having to laugh whin I think of poor Buster," observed Jimmie, with a broad grin on his good-natured countenance.

"Why about the Hippopotamus?" queried the skipper, without looking up.

"What d'ye suppose he will be afther saying now, whin he hears what happened till us again? Didn't ye listen whin he said, 'Oh, splash! nothin' iver happens till the wan of us save Jack and Jimmie!' And by the token it do same to be thrue. We're the broth of boys that git in the ruction ivery toime."

"I wonder if Buster has been overboard again?" mused Jack, smiling at the recollection of the tremendous splash the fat boy had made the time he dropped into the Mississippi, and held on by the trailing rope.

"I do be thinkin' ivery toime a big wave comes along; 'there's Buster takin' wan of his headers again, and makin' the river quake!'" chuckled Jimmie.

So they beguiled the minutes while lunch was being prepared; which, since it was only a cold one, did not take much time. Then they sat and enjoyed themselves, while the _Tramp_ bustled merrily on her way, and the speeding shore panorama interested them constantly, on account of the changes taking place.

Occasionally Jack consulted his maps, in order to find out what the name of some town they were passing might be, and in this way locate their position.

"Will we make it, do yees think?" asked Jimmie, after one of these periods of study on the part of the skipper.

"I think so; I hope so," replied the other. "Because, you see, we ought to pull up there and get ready for a fresh start. So far we've done just elegant work; but there's no telling what trouble is waiting for us below. The river gets bigger all the time, until there are places where you can hardly see across to the low shore on the other side. And those false cut-off channels will give us the time of our lives, maybe."

"Of course, ye ixpect that George will be waitin' for us all the while at Memphis?" remarked Jimmie a little later, as he swept the watery horizon to the south, and the shore line closer by with the fine glasses.

"Well, I suppose so," replied Jack. "That is, if he's managed to pull through without another blowout or breakdown."

"Sure, ye have another guess coming Jack, me bye, and that's no lie," remarked Jimmie, a smile beginning to creep over his wide face.

"Then you've seen something," declared the other. "Here, take hold of this wheel and give me the glasses."

He swept the shore line with a careful scrutiny.

"I see him," he remarked presently. "And it's just as you said, Jimmie; George is in a peck of trouble again with that cranky high-power engine. They've tied up to the shore and have got the red flag flying that was to be our signal of distress. Poor Nick; I can just picture him right now, grunting over all the misfortunes that haunt them, while the rest of us have had so little trouble. I'm afraid he'll waste away to mere skin and bones yet."

The _Tramp_ was soon headed for the spot where they could see their comrades waving their arms wildly as if afraid the second boat in the race might pass them by.

"Same old story?" asked Jack, as he brought alongside and gripped the hands of the forlorn shipwrecked travelers.

"Rotten luck!" groaned Nick, shaking his head dolefully. "I'm pining away, fellows, inch by inch. Why, my clothes are ready to drop off me, I'm getting so like a scarecrow. Mebbe you don't believe me, but it's a fact. And I'm that nervous I keep quivering all the time like a--a----"

"A bowl full of jelly;" burst out Jimmie. "Sure, I do belave ye, Buster. And as Jack and me sail along so cheerful loike, me thoughts often fly till ye, and I fale that only for that stubborn will ye'd have gone and given up long ago."

"What's wrong this time, George?" asked Jack.

"Oh! everything now," replied the disgusted skipper of the _Wireless_. "No use in my trying to tinker with the job. It will take a practical machinist to overhaul the plagued contraption. I guess you'll have to give us a tow to Memphis, where I can put a man to work getting this engine in some sort of shape."

"All right!" Jack exclaimed. "And the sooner we start the better, if we want to make it before dark. Get a line out, and we'll fasten to this cleat at our stern. Then we can talk as we move along; because Jimmie and myself have got a lovely little fairy story to tell you, to pass away the time."

Nick looked at the others suspiciously.

"Now, what's been coming your way, I'd just like to know?" he grumbled. "Never saw such luck as you have in all my life. 'Tain't fair, that's what. Here I have all the tortures, the scares and the duckings, too, when I've lost my swimming wings; and you fellows gobble everything that comes along in the way of fun."

"Sorry," laughed Jack; "but they will keep piling these things upon us. We have nothing to do with it at all, Buster. Only when it happens, we just have to get out of the hole the best way we can, you know."

"I just bet, now, you've met up with them old bank smashers again. Look at 'em grin would you, George. Ten to one they grabbed the fellers and recovered all that fine boodle we read about! It would be just like Jack's luck!"

"We did that same, thank ye, Buster," said Jimmie, assuming a proud attitude, with a hand thrust into the bosom of his coat, and his chest thrown out.

"They did!" shrieked Buster, falling back. "Do you hear that, George? Ah, me! why was I born under an unlucky star? Get busy now, Jack, and tell us all about it. Next to being a hero myself I like to hear about you doing big things. Reel off the yarn now, and don't you dare hold back a single thrill."

Of course the other boys were deeply interested in what Jack had to tell. They stopped him many times to ask questions, under the belief that he was not going deeply enough into details. But finally the story was told.

Toward four in the afternoon they began to realize that they were drawing near a large and busy city on the eastern shore. Boats could be seen upon the river, and cotton began to be in evidence everywhere.

"This is Memphis, all right," said Jack, as he looked through the glasses at the buildings on the high bank of the river.

"How long will we stay here?" asked Nick, who had some idea on his mind, as the others readily understood from his abstracted manner.

"A day or two," replied Jack. "All depends on how long it will take to have the _Wireless_ engine overhauled thoroughly; and then you know, we have to wait until the other boys drop along. They may get here tomorrow. But what do you ask for, Buster?"

"Why, I was thinking that perhaps I might be able to find a pair at some store here. They would be apt to keep such splendid life saving things, I guess," replied Nick, anxiously.

"A pair of socks?" asked Jack, pretending not to understand.

"Sure, 'tis a pair of oilskin pants he manes," cried Jimmie. "Didn't ye say how the wans he had on filled out wid air the toime he wint overboard. 'Tis ilegant loife presarvers they make whin naded!"

"Oh! quit your kidding, fellows!" said Nick, in disgust. "You know what I've been shy on all this blessed trip. A pair of wings; not angel wings, but canvas ones, to keep a new beginner swimmer from sinking. I tell you I'd never lost all this flesh with worry on this cranky, wobbly boat if I'd known I had those jolly things along. I do hope I'll find them in Memphis."

"You just bet I do," declared George, with a sigh. "Because I've heard nothing else all the journey but your whines about those pesky missing silly wings. Get a whole dozen sets if you can, Pudding, and it'll make you any happier. I'll stand the bill, for the sake of the peace of mind it brings."

"That's just the way he goes on, fellows," said Nick, pretending to look deeply injured, but slyly winking at Jack. "I never can make a peep but what George comes down on me. I'm afraid he's getting dyspepsia. What do you think, why he even began to complain of my cooking."

George made no verbal reply, only pressed both hands across his stomach, and looked forlornly at the skipper and crew of the _Tramp_, who shouted with laughter.

And in this fashion, with the derelict _Wireless_ bobbing behind, they finally drew up at the wharf in front of the Memphis levee, where a score or two of black roustabouts and loungers flocked around them to look with evident delight upon the two neat little cruisers from the north.