CHAPTER XVII
GREAT RISKS
GREAT RISKS
GREAT RISKS
Once back in his own quarters, Bobby tried to quiet his racing thoughts and think out some plan of action. If only he might talk to Fred and the other boys!
Then he thought of that night and their secret rendezvous and his heart leaped with joy.
“Say, make believe I won’t have something to tell them! They’ll probably think I have been dreaming or am crazy,” he thought excitedly.
He had to caution himself again not to let his imagination run away with him. He had to be careful also not to let his excitement be seen by his mates. It seemed to him that they were already regarding him suspiciously.
He must be cool and calm if he and his chums were to stand any real chance of escape. “Steal a longboat,” Takyak had ordered. All very well, but how was such a thing to be done without being discovered?
“Provision it,” Takyak had said again. All very well, but how were they going to provision it without any provisions?
Well, that was his problem and his chums’, and they must find a way to solve it. And the solution must come very quickly, within the next twenty-four hours. At eleven o’clock on the next evening, Takyak had said.
What was the name of the place he had said they would be near? Baffin Land! He had heard of it, and he knew enough about its location to know that they were no longer approaching the Frozen North, but that they were actually in it.
Suppose Takyak’s information had been wrong? Suppose they should not pass close to Baffin Land on the following evening? Suppose—always supposing that they had been able to procure the longboat and provision it—suppose upon casting themselves adrift on the ocean they were to find that, after all, they were too far from land to reach it before being overtaken by any one of the terrible dangers that menaced them there in that unknown land?
Suppose—but with an impatient movement Bobby shook off the unwelcome thoughts that crowded his mind. If they were to embark on the adventure at all he must put all such doubts behind him.
There would be danger, of course, plenty of it, but not much more than if they remained here on this ship under the ugly eye of a suspicious captain.
Some way or other Bobby managed to get through the hours that had to pass before he could hope to meet his chums. When the time came at last he hurried, as fast as caution would permit, to the rendezvous.
He found two figures there before him. Fred and Mouser had evidently been more impatient than he.
When he saw Bobby, Fred opened his mouth to shout a greeting, but thought better of it just in the nick of time.
“I’ll spill the beans yet,” he said, in a sheepish whisper, and at that moment another silent figure approached them through the shadows.
It was Billy, excited and eager, and their number was complete.
“Now let’s get down to business, Bobby, and tell these fellows why we called a meeting,” suggested Fred.
“You’d better not talk so loud or we’ll be telling our story to Captain Garrish,” cautioned Bobby, and the boys glanced about them uneasily.
“I passed somebody on my way up here,” said Billy, in a whisper that could barely be heard.
“I don’t know who it was, but I had a notion that he followed me for some little way.”
“Then we haven’t any time to lose,” cried Bobby, and for the first time the boys noticed the suppressed excitement in his voice.
They crowded close to him, trying to see his face in the deep shadows of the northern night. There were plenty of questions they wanted to ask, but Bobby would give them no chance.
Rapidly, he told them what had happened in Chief Takyak’s cabin that afternoon, and they listened, open-mouthed, with wonder, hardly able to believe what he was telling them.
Then, when they really gathered what it meant, they wanted to toss their cape aloft and give vent to their glee.
It was Bobby who restrained their enthusiasm. “No use getting excited yet,” he said. “We haven’t escaped from this old vessel yet, you know.”
“We’ll have to now,” said Mouser, suddenly sobered. “It’s up to us to give old Garrish the slip to-morrow night.”
“It won’t be so hard to get the boat,” Fred observed. “We ought to be able to do that. But it’s getting the provisions that worries me. We’ve got to have food!”
“Tell us something we don’t know,” grumbled Mouser. “It’s easy to say we’ve got to get it—”
“And we will get it too,” Bobby interrupted decidedly. “I tell you, fellows,” he added excitedly, “what would be the matter with our getting busy now?”
“Great, if you’ll tell us what to do,” agreed Billy.
“Speedy action suits me down to the ground,” added Mouser, eagerly. “When do we start, Bobby?”
“Right now,” answered Bobby, his words tumbling over one another in his excitement. “See?” he added, lowering his voice still more and pointing over his shoulder toward the stern of the ship. “We’ll take that longboat over there when the time comes. Our job to-night will be to see that she’s provisioned. We’ll take enough food on board to last us a week if we need it.”
“Provision her,” Fred echoed excitedly. “I get you, Bobby. We can break into the hold and get what we need from those boxes—”
“But wait a minute,” Mouser broke in quickly. “If we provision the longboat now, what’s to prevent the food being discovered to-morrow?”
“I’ve thought of that,” said Bobby shortly. He was impatient of every moment’s delay. “But we’ll have to take our chance. We can stow most of the stuff away where it won’t be seen and we can cover the rest with the old tarpaulin I saw in the boat when I passed it to-day. What say? Are you coming or do you want to stand there all night arguing?”
Their answer was to follow Bobby’s lead as he crept silently along the deck to a hatchway they knew they could open.
It was a risky business, taking provisions from the hold at night, and the boys fully realized the risk they were running. But excitement made them forget danger.
They were in the midst of the adventure now and their blood answered to the thrill of it.
They worked swiftly, talking little. Not for nothing had they been kept prisoners in that hold, forced to live for days out of food taken from the boxes.
For the first time since they had been thrown into the place the boys began to be thankful for their experience. It certainly stood them in good stead now.
Scarcely need even for a light, though Bobby struck a match now and then when they couldn’t remember the exact location of something they wanted.
“What are we going to carry them all in?” asked Fred, coming close to Bobby. “I’ve got more than I can manage.”
“Here! Take this,” ordered Bobby briskly, and thrust something rough into his hands. “It’s an empty sack,” he explained. “Dump everything into it and we’ll sort the things out later.” In an amazingly short space of time the feat had been accomplished, the longboat was fully provisioned with ship’s biscuit, fresh water, and enough canned goods to keep them going for a long time if they were careful.
“Pretty neat, I call it,” whispered Billy exultantly. “Got by the watch without half trying. Say! What’s that?”
Some one was approaching slowly but steadily along the deck. They knew by his peculiar stride that it was the second mate.
The boys did not linger to greet him. A moment later they had disappeared, as completely as though the deck had opened and let them through.