Chapter XXII: To the Rescue

Joe Brinker was a sorry sight as he staggered forward, and fell almost at the feet of Jack. He certainly looked as though he had been through a rough experience since last they saw him with Clarence aboard the _Flash_.

"Why, it's Joe!" exclaimed Nick, as though he had just recognized the intruder.

Jack had jumped forward, and was now bending over the newcomer.

"Here, Josh, any hot coffee left in the pot?" he demanded, seeing that the other looked utterly exhausted, as though he might not have partaken of food for many hours.

Josh immediately poured out a cup, and handed it to Jack.

"Sit up here, and swallow this, Joe," said Jack, supporting the fellow with one arm, and holding the tin cup to his lips.

Joe eagerly gulped down the warm drink. It seemed to do him a world of good right on the spot; for when a cup of hot tea or coffee is available, it is utter folly to think strong drink is necessary in reviving a chilled or exhausted person.

"Oh! that tastes fine. Got any more, boys? I'm nearly starved," he exclaimed, almost crying with weakness.

Already had Nick hurried over, and seized upon several cold flapjacks that possibly he had placed away, against one of his little bites between meals. Surely Nick ought to know what an awful thing hunger was. One of the most dreadful recollections of his life was a time when he had been compelled to go all of eight hours without a solitary scrap of food passing his lips!

Soon Joe was devouring the flapjacks with the eagerness of a hungry dog, to the evident delight of Buster, who always found pleasure in seeing any one eat heartily.

"Now tell us what happened, Joe?" said Jack, after they had watched the other make away with the last scrap, and look around for more.

"Yes, don't you see we're just crazy to hear?" Josh exclaimed.

"Did you get caught in that storm?" demanded George, suspecting the truth.

Joe nodded his head in the affirmative, and they could see a shudder pass over his form, as though the remembrance was anything but cheerful.

"Then the _Flash_ must have been wrecked?" George went on, horrified as the remembrance of Clarence's face came before him.

"Gone to flinders!" muttered Joe. "Smashed on the rocks, and not a scrap left to tell the story. Gee it was tough, all right!"

"W--was Clarence drowned?" Nick gasped, with awe-struck face; and quivering all over like a bowl full of jelly.

"Oh! no, neither of us went under," replied Joe, promptly, to the great relief of all the boys. "But we came mighty near it, I tell you, fellers. I'm a duck in the water, you know, and I guess I helped Clarence get ashore. He said I did, anyway. And there we was, far away from everything, with not one bite to eat, or even a gun to defend ourselves against wild animals."

"Wow! that was tough!" admitted Nick, sympathetically; as he remembered his own exploit when the Canada lynx invaded the camp, and how useful the shotgun proved on that occasion.

"But it wasn't the worst, fellers! There's more acomin'!" Joe went on, shaking his head solemnly.

"My gracious! did wild animals get poor old Clarence after all?" George asked.

"No," Joe went on, with set teeth, "but a couple of men did that was as bad as any wild animals you ever heard tell of. They found us trying to make a fire to dry our wringing wet clothes; and they just treated us shameful. See this black eye I got just because I dared answer back. They kicked poor Clarence like he was a bag of oats."

"Two men, you say?" Jack asked, frowning darkly. "What sort of men could they be to act like that toward a pair of shipwrecked boys?"

"They looked like lumber cruisers, or prospectors that never struck it rich," Joe continued. "They had a grouch agin everybody. First thing they took what money we had, and Clarence's fine watch that was water-soaked and wouldn't run. Then they found out who we was by reading some letters he carried. I saw 'em talking it over; and then they tied us to a couple of trees."

"Why, I never heard of such a wicked thing!" ejaculated the startled Nick; whose mouth kept wide open while he listened to this thrilling story of Joe's.

"Do you think they meant to try and force blackmail?" asked the far-seeing George, whose father was a lawyer, it may be remembered.

"They said something about him writing home for more money to buy another motor boat," Joe replied. "And Clarence said he never would do it, not even if they tortured him. But I'm afraid a few more kickings like they gave us will break down his spirit."

"Then you managed to escape?" Jack went on, wishing to learn the whole thing.

"Yes. I worked loose, and slipped away when neither of 'em was lookin'," answered the ragged and dirty figure. "But give me some more grub, fellers. I'm starving, I tell you. They refused to give us a bite to eat till Clarence agreed to do all they wanted of him. Anything, so's I can fill up. I've got a hole down there that feels like Mammoth Cave."

Again it was Nick who hastened to procure another stock of eatables, crackers and cheese, or anything else that came handy.

"When did you escape, Joe?" asked Jack, seriously as though some plan had already started to form in his active brain.

"Don't know for sure," replied the exhausted one. "Sometime after noon, though. They was layin' down and snoozing when I got free. I wanted to find a knife, and cut Clarence loose too; but the risk scared me. And Clarence, he told me to hurry and get off for help. You see, one of the men was sitting up, and rubbing his eyes; so I just sneaked away."

"Did they follow after you, Joe?" asked George.

"Never waited to see," replied the other, "but just cut stick, and hurried off. Oh! I've had an awful time getting along near the shore. Dassent get out of sight of the lake because you see I was that scared I'd get lost. I tumbled a thousand times, cut my head and hands on the rocks, nearly slipped into the lake twice, and was just ready to lay down and die, when night came on. Then I saw a fire over here, and just managed to make the riffle. Give you my word, fellers, if it'd been half a mile more I never'd got to camp."

"Then Clarence is still in the hands of those two rascals?" Jack asked.

"I reckon he is, 'less they saw fit to let him go free; and from what I seen of 'em, that ain't their game."

"How far do you suppose that place was away from here?" came from careful George.

Joe sat silent for a minute. He seemed to be trying to figure what manner of slow progress he may have made since effecting his freedom.

"I thought I'd gone nigh twenty miles, judgin' by the way I felt," he finally said; "but come to figger it out I reckon it mightn't abeen more'n five."

"Toward the west, you mean; for you came from that direction?" Jack continued.

"Yes, that's so, over that way," pointing as he spoke.

Jack turned to his chums.

"It's up to us, boys," he said soberly. "Clarence has never been one of us; but he belongs to our school. We'd never forgive ourselves if we went back to the Soo tomorrow, and left him in the hands of these scoundrels. Do you agree with me?"

"That's right, Jack!" sang out George.

"Sure we would be cold-blooded to think of it," Josh declared.

"Them's my sentiments," Herb spoke up; and both Nick and Jimmie nodded their heads violently, to prove that they were in no way behind their comrades in wishing to do a good deed toward one who had long been an open enemy.

"Then let's consider what way we ought to go about it," Jack proceeded, with an air of business. "It's out of the question for us to try and go back the way Joe came. We couldn't make it under hours; and from his looks none of us are hankering after the experience. But there is a way to get there quickly."

"The boats?" George put in.

"One boat ought to carry all who will go, and let that be the _Comfort_, with five of us on board, taking the two guns to make a good show," Jack proceeded.

Nick immediately set up a whine.

"I guess I have feelings," he declared. "Don't I know you're just going to shut me out of this rescue game? I'm ready to do my part as well as the next one, ain't I? What you want to leave me behind for?"

"You've got to obey orders, Buster," said George.

"And besides, with so many aboard, the bully old _Comfort_ might founder," Josh thought it necessary to remark.

"Besides, you are going to have your share of the work, and along a line you always like," Jack went on; "for while we're gone, it shall be your duty to make a new brew of coffee, fill Joe here cram up with all he can eat, and have something ready for Clarence when we bring him back. So you see, Buster, your duty is as important as any of ours. Every one in their particular line. You can't fight as well as Jimmie here; but you do know how to provide against starvation."

Nick smiled broadly again, entirely appeased.

"Count on me, Commodore," he said, briskly. "Where's that coffeepot right now? I'll do my duty to the letter. Why, it's a pleasure to look after the wants of a hungry fellow. It gives me something of an appetite just to think of the work I've got cut out for me."

Jack put Nick and Joe out of his mind, after trying to get a little information from the latter, with regard to the character of the place where the _Flash_ had been wrecked, and the two hard looking customers were supposed to be still stopping.

They went aboard the _Comfort_. Jack himself decided to run the boat, with the assistance of Herb and George. Above all things, silence was of more value to them just then than speed, if they hoped to steal up on the captors of Clarence without being detected.

"Good luck!" called Nick, as the broad beamed motor boat started quietly away.