"Well, you see, the chance to even up old scores is a fine one, since we"re two to your one," the other remarked, bitterly.
"So far as I know, there are no scores to settle," said Frank. "I never knowingly wronged you, or tried to interfere with your business when in college. In fact, on several occasions, I"ve even left a group of fellows when you came along, because I didn"t want to have any trouble."
"Yes, and that"s one of the things I"ve got against you, Langdon,"
declared Oswald, with a scowl. "It looked as if you felt a contempt for me, and couldn"t even bear to be seen in my company. Some of the fellows said as much, and told me I was foolish to stand for it."
"But you surely knew yourself that it was never intended that way, Fredericks. I wanted to be left alone to go my own way, and I knew that some fellows had made up their minds to bring us to blows. Now, fighting isn"t at all to my taste, though I"m sorry to say I"ve had to do my share of it in my day. Just forget that there"s such a fellow as Frank Langdon alive, and I"m sure you"ll never know otherwise for all of me."
"He"s squealing, Ossie!" exclaimed Duke Fletcher.
"Yes," broke in the second college chum, Raymond Ellis, "because we"ve got him penned up here, where we can give him what he ought to have gotten long ago, he sets up a whine that he looks on fighting as a moral sin, and doesn"t want to indulge in it."
Frank laughed in the face of this chap.
"Depend on it, Ellis," he said, with cutting coldness, "that if ever I am forced into fighting in a crowd where you figure, I"ve got something to give you that"s been hanging fire a long time; in fact, ever since you knocked down that half-witted Bailey boy, and bruised his face because he said something you didn"t just like. When I heard of it I said to myself that some fine day, if the chance comes, I"m going to pay that debt back. If you think that time has come now, all right. Bluff, you oughtn"t to be in this game, because you"ve never done anything to irritate his lordship. They may let you out, perhaps."
"Let me out!" roared the impulsive Bluff; "and leave you here alone with the whole bunch of cowards? I"d like to see them do it, that"s all! And what"s more, right now I want to give solemn warning that the first move any fellow makes toward laying so much as the tip of his finger on you, Frank, bang goes this gun!"
Bluff looked the part to the life. He was mad clear through, and the way he swung that menacing weapon of his, first toward Oswald, who ducked, and then covering one of the others, who turned as white as a sheet, told the story.
Frank, who knew that the gun was quite dest.i.tute of a single charge, since Bluff had been even then on the way to have it mended, could hardly keep from laughing outright. But then, how were those fellows to know anything like that?
"Here, hold on with that blunderbuss!" exclaimed Oswald; and small wonder that there was a suspicious quiver to his voice, for Bluff certainly looked equal to doing all he threatened so wildly.
"It was all a joke, see!" cried Ellis; and then as the gun swung again so that it began to point toward him, unable to stand the strain any longer, he dropped on his hands and knees, and crawled under the table.
Frank knew that nothing was to be feared any longer.
"I"ll trouble you to unlock that door," he said, wheeling on the astonished young man from St. Paul, who had been witnessing these things, without having a word to say, the smile dying out of his face.
"Oh! sure, just as you say," mumbled the other, hastening to comply; "queer how some people don"t seem able to take a joke at all."
"Yes, it looks like that, perhaps," returned Frank, severely; "but only for my chum here happening to bring his gun along, we might be having a parrot and monkey time of it right now. Step to one side, or I might rub up against you in pa.s.sing. Come on, Bluff, you did it for them that time, sure enough."
With that Frank stepped outside, and Bluff quickly followed. Hardly had the latter gotten free from the cabin than he turned, and "broke" his gun, to show the disgusted conspirators it was quite empty, and that they had been hoodwinked by his quick wit.
Still, none of them seemed to feel like rushing out after the retreating pair. Frank, accompanied by his chum, walked to the shantyboat where the sign of the locksmith hung. After a look at the pump-gun, the man said he could fix it in ten minutes, so that it would work all right.
Accordingly the two boys sat down to wait until the job was completed.
It was getting quite dusky when they were ready to leave; and Bluff, after a look outside, seeing that it would be necessary for them to pa.s.s the pleasure boat of Fredericks again, bought half a dozen loaded sh.e.l.ls from the man.
"Now," said Bluff, after he had injected one of these into the firing chamber, "I feel safe in pa.s.sing that boat. If they make any sort of a move against us, I"ll let fly a load in the air first to warn "em that the repeater isn"t on the shelf any longer, but ready to do business at the same old stand."
"Well, be careful what you do, that"s all," warned Frank, determined to keep in close touch with his hot-headed comrade, so that in an emergency he could s.n.a.t.c.h the gun away, if Bluff seemed disposed to use it the wrong way.
But they were not molested at all. The big young chap who had been tinkering with the engine, grinned as they pa.s.sed by, and Frank thought he nodded to them in a sort of friendly way, as though to say he understood what had happened, and considered it a good joke on his employer.
"Engine broke down?" asked Bluff, in a friendly manner, as he pa.s.sed.
"Just what she has," replied the other; "and if we send back to St. Paul for a casting we may be stuck right here several days."
"Hope it is a whole month," muttered Bluff, as he trotted along at the heels of his leader; and Frank, for that matter, echoed the wish, since it would save them from more or less anxiety.
When they got aboard the _Pot Luck_ it was to find that supper was well under way, and that the two who ran the house were quite ignorant of what had been going on.
And as Bluff, in his impatient style, started to exclaim how he only wished that Oswald had run up against Frank"s fist, both Will and Jerry jumped to their feet, demanding that they hear the story.
Their indignation was justifiable when told of the trap Fredericks and his set had laid for Frank. And Bluff was only too proud when he heard Frank admit that if it had not been for his having his "terrible weapon"
along at the time, the chances were that when they two came back to the boat, they would be bearing some of the marks of a fiercely contested battle on their faces.
"And I want to serve notice here and now," continued Bluff, as he affectionately patted his pump-gun, and held it up to the gaze of the others; "that after this there"s going to be no sort of sport made of this n.o.ble weapon. Today it saved Frank and myself a mauling. When they saw what it was, they cringed like a pack of cowards. Why, would you believe it? that Ellis just crawled under the table! Shows the kind of fellow he is. And, boys, the gun was empty and out of commission all the while, remember."
"Hurrah! bully for Bluff. He"s got the right name!" shouted Jerry, in his enthusiasm, pretending to wave the hat he was not wearing at the time.
"Promise me to never more sneer at a pump-gun, as long as I carry this prize cannon along!" continued Bluff, seriously, but with a sparkle in his eye.
"We solemnly promise!" said Will, holding up his right hand.
"I"ll try and control my indignation whenever I can, Bluff," said Jerry.
"But all the same I"m thinking it was the fellow behind the gun, and not that weapon itself, that deserves the praise. What"s the matter, Will; you look as if you felt bad because you didn"t have a hand in it, too?"
"Oh! it"s the hardest luck ever," said the other, in deep disgust. "Just to think what a n.o.ble picture that would have made, with our chum holding the crowd at bay with his gun; Frank ready to sail in and help; and Ellis crawling under the table! I"m the most unfortunate fellow you ever heard tell of, to miss such glorious chances. I wish you"d only tell me when you think there"s anything going to happen, so I could jump in, and immortalize you all. But some fine day I"ll be along when one of these things happens; see if I don"t!"
CHAPTER X-A CALL FOR HELP
"I tell you what, Frank, that was a great scheme of yours, to think of buying this little skiff for a dinghy, or tender!" remarked Bluff, three days later, as he paddled ash.o.r.e with the end of the cable they expected to fasten to a tree, as the night was not far away.
"Well, I knew all along that every decent houseboat ought to have a small skiff dangling along," Frank answered, as he leaned over the side, and watched the other hitch the painter to the bow of the large, roomy craft, which continued to point down-stream; for, when fastening up for the night, as stem and stern were so much alike, they never bothered bringing the boat around, as that meant additional work in the morning upon starting.
"And I expect to enjoy a heap of fishing from that same little affair,"
remarked Jerry, "when we get further along down the big river."
"Now, heave ho! everybody, and we"ll have her snug alongside the bank in a jiffy!" Frank called out, taking hold of the cable, while the others used the several stout poles that had been secured for the purpose of pushing. "There she is, right side up with care! Now, let"s hope we"ll be better off than last night, when we got the cross current wash of the Wisconsin River."
"Well, those rowdies from Prairie du Chien didn"t find us after all, thanks to Frank here, who expected they"d be looking, and got us to push across that fierce current, till we hit on a splendid cove," Will observed.
"I saw that the river was rising," Frank observed, "and that"s the only time it"s really safe for a houseboat to enter one of those little bays.
No danger then of being caught on a sandbar, and left high and dry by morning. Now, how about our supper to-night, boys? What"s going to be the bill of fare?"
"Tell me first, Frank, how far below Dubuque are we now?" asked Will, nervously.
"Oh! several miles; and you needn"t think we"ll be bothered to-night,"
the other replied, with a rea.s.suring laugh.