"Eleven hunderd an' sixty-five an' some odd cents... that mortgage?"-Page 339 "Is that right, boys! Three hundred a week clear!" Cap'n Jim like to blew up. We started out fer another look at the farm. On our way to the barge we run foul of Cap'n Taylor, out on one of his dyspeptical trips over the fleet. "Come on, Cap'n Taylor, an' see a submarine gold-mine!" Cap'n Jim hailed him, an' explained the deal. Cap'n Taylor swelled up under a full head of his official importance, slow an' pompous, an' headed fer Number 7 like a sawed-off band-leader. I quartered over to Cap'n Jim. "Jim," I says low, "if the king don't happen to cast his vote, hearty-like, fer this here mushroom deal, don't fergit yourself nor nothin'. You ain't sold any yet." Cap'n Jim looked at me, a little scared. "Dave, you don't figger I've busted any reg'lations, does you?" "Keep your shirt on till the brass collar has his look at the farm." Cap'n Taylor busted his shin climbin' down into the barge through the steam that was comin' out of the open hatch. Instead of cussin' a little, like any natural man-"Tut tut," he says, purple in the face. He sized things up an' clum back on deck. "Who done this?" he asks, low, like a safety-valve singin' before she pops. "I done it, cap'n," ol' Jim speaks up chipper an' prompt. "Who strung that steam-line down here?" "I did I mean I had it done," says Cap'n Jim. "Who put that dirt in this barge?" Cap'n Taylor was gettin' close to the hydrophoby point. I spoke up: "Us boys put that dirt in this barge.' "Fer me, Cap'n Taylor," ol' Jim jumped in, like he always done, between the trouble an' the man next to it. Cap'n Taylor begun to orate. "For your personal gain you have used men and materials paid for by the United States. This is a serious offense. By your own confession you are guilty and you are liable to imprisonment in a federal penitentiary." I stood there ponderin' how henious a desperado Cap'n Jim had got to be that winter. Cap'n Ed walked over an' laid his hand on Cap'n Jim's arm. "He's only one of them buzzin' kind, Jim," he says. "He ain't goin' to do any stingin' around here." Cap'n Ed turned round and faced ol' Taylor. "You better let Colonel McDonald do all the crucifyin' that's done in this district. Me an' the rest of the boys that was in this mushroom deal with Cap'n Jim has been workin' fer the colonel an' his kind fer forty years. It's got us so it takes a man to pester us much." We walked away an' left Taylor standin' there. "There's one crop due, anyway, an' he can't tear up the nest till you git that out, Jim," I says. "An' she's worth fifty dollars, an' mebbe more." "Taylor ain't goin' to tear up no nest," Cap'n Ed broke in. "That little pup is scared to tear up any nest till the colonel hands out the orders." By the time we got to the office-boat we was all feelin' better. Passin' it, the clerk inside sung out fer us: "Telegram just come fer Cap'n Taylor orderin' you boys out to bust up the ice-gorge before she freezes any further up-stream," he says, handin' us the telegram to look at. Us boys on the bank filled them wheelbarrers faster'n they was took away.-Page 342. Along with them ice-bustin' orders the telegram reported a ten-inch raise in the upper country. 66 When that raise hits the gorge somethin' busts," I says. "An' that'll be this here fleet if we don't bust the gorge before the raise gits here," says Cap'n Ed. He was right, same as I learned he was that time in '84. Cap'n Jim's crime an' such matters was all smothered under them orders as far as we was concerned, but afore we started out Cap'n Taylor took time to write an awful report o' the mushroom barge an' the wave o' sin that had hit the fleet. He sent the letter to Chester in a skiff so as she'd ketch the first train to St. Louis, an' then he took charge of the icebustin'. First thing he done was to order Cap'n Jim to stay on the fleet while we was gone. Then he orders a ton o' dynamite loaded on the for'd end of the tug, an' after it was lugged on we started out. The river was choked at Cinder Bend, about a mile above the mouth of the cutoff where the fleet was layin', an' froze fer a mile above, clean across from bank to bank. "Line of shots through the centre of her?" I asked Cap'n Taylor. That was the only way, an' the usual way, an' the way that busts a ice-gorge, but I was actin' pacifyin'-like after thinkin' over the mushroom rumpus. "I'll show you where to place the charges," he answers, mean as poison. "Right, sir!" I says. We was firin' with a battery, an' so I started in overhaulin' the leadin' wires an' gettin' the kinks outen 'em. Cap'n Ed nosed the bow of the tug agin' the ice. We run out a plank an' started marchin' out under Cap'n Taylor's orders-him yellin' at us because he was too scared of the dynamite we was carryin' to come close enough to us to talk. We strung out a dozen shots or so, eight or ten sticks o' sixty-per-cent dynamite to the shot, an' connected 'em up to the leadin' wires what run to the firin' battery. The battery was settin' on the bow of the tug. Cap'n Taylor fired the shot. Each charge blew a clean little well straight down through the ice, bustin' about as much of it as you git in Memphis fer a nickel. We done this over an' over, an' finally the lower part of that ice-gorge was all waffled up with wells we had blowed through it an' that was all the good it done. We used up all the dynamite we'd brought, an' Cap'n Taylor give her up fer a failure, blamin' the luck on a book he'd learned his ice-bustin' out of. We went back to the fleet. As soon as we got there Cap'n Taylor called up the St. Louis office on the telephone. "Only medium successful, colonel," we heard him warble. Then he eradicates a few more gobs o' silvery tones to Colonel McDonald an' hung up. "Colonel McDonald will be down here to-morrow morning to supervise a new attack on the ice-gorge," he tells us. Cap'n Ed an' me started out huntin' Cap'n Jim. He was readin' his mushroom book an' figgerin' profits. "Come on an' we'll have a look at 'em," I says, an' the three of us started fer the mushroom barge. "Colonel's comin' down here in the mornin', Jim," Cap'n Ed tells him. "Have a mess o' mushrooms ready fer him or else away you goes to the pen by to-morrow night." Cap'n Jim smiled. "Wonder what in Cain makes 'em hesitate so much to grow. I never seen such a dang slow comin' fifty dollars as what this first one is." 7. We lifted the for'd hatch off of Number Cap'n Ed clum down, Cap'n Jim follerin', an' then me. While I was lettin' go the hatch-combin', I heard a yell that like to scared me gray-headed. It was them two pirates, war-dancin' all doubled up on the timbers inside the barge. "They has come!" sings Cap'n Jim. "They has fer sure, ol' boy!" says Cap'n Ed. "By gum! They has!" I yells, fer peepin' up through that black loam was five or six little round white buttons-as purty a small crop o' mushrooms as was ever forced by steam. Ol' Jim was wild with finance an' figgers. We set there an' helped him git rich till the supper-gong choked off the steam-heated income we was earnin' fer him, an' after supper we figgered till near midnight. In the mornin' I run the tug over after the colonel. He come down the levee from the depot, steppin' high an' showin' high seat by the stove. "Have a cigarette, captain," he says, passin' over his silver case. He knows how I hates 'em. "Thanks, colonel," I says. I took one an' stripped the paper offen her an' stowed her in longside the fine-cut I was chewin'. When we got out in the channel, the colonel sized up the ice-gorge a long time through the glasses. "That's bad, captain," he said to me. "With a raisin' gauge she is," I answers. "The crest of the raise is due here at noon," he says. "Ice'll go out ahead o' the crest, colonel." "How far will she back up in the cutoff?" he asks me. "I figger she'll back past the fleet," I says. on the bank. As fast as they got there they started fer the tug, each one of them luggin' a case o' dynamite. They piled a ton of it on the for'd deck. The colonel come aboard. "Let's go, captain!" he calls to me, wavin' his hand up-stream. Cap'n Taylor come struttin' up just then. "Stay with your fleet, Taylor," colonel says to him, "and when the gorge goes out get all your men ashore." Cap'n Taylor turned to Cap'n Jim an' the rest of the boys that was stayin' behind. "Over the fleet and cast off all the lines," he orders—as fool a thing as he could say. "Git my trunk out, Jim," I yells, "if you has time." Cap'n Jim waved, understandin'. "A string of shots down the channel, Davy," he yells back; "one string-an' big ones. I nodded my head to him. "Let go, for'd," I orders, givin' her the bell. "All gone, sir!" Up-stream to the gorge we went, crowdin' a eagle fer speed. I run her hard agin' the ice an' held her there under a slow bell. Colonel was first man over the plank. "Half a case to the charge," he directs. "Spot 'em every fifty feet." They busted the dynamite cases open by droppin' 'em cornerin' on the ice. Follerin' the dynamite dottin' the channel line, the firin' wires strung out. An' then, a mile up-stream, before we had a chance to fire a shot, I heard the ice let go like the roar of a twelve-inch gun. The gorge was goin' out! I grabbed the megaphone. "All gone!" I yelled, but they didn't need no warnin' after that first big crash. Colonel was last man aboard. "Race her to the point," he ordered, "and land us there, then run the tug around the bend where she'll be in the clear." "In the clear," I answers back, givin' her the bell. We made the run down stream with colonel keepin' the whistle goin' to signal the boys on the fleet. Passin' the point I made a runnin' landin' an' the colonel jumped ashore with the gang an' headed down the bank. I run the tug around the point where she'd be safe an' made her fast with all the lines we had. Me an' the crew headed overland fer the fleet. By the time we'd got there the ice was already backin' up in the mouth of the cut-off, steady an' even an' slow. Cap'n Jim come over to me. I looked down at the mushroom barge. "Them hatches is off!" I says to him, surprised that he'd have tried to gather his danged mushrooms at a time when things was all headed fer Hades. "Them hatches is off, Dave, an' your trunk is ashore. But the mushrooms-is done for." Slow he talked, an' mournful. "You better fergit your private grief an' them triflin' mushrooms awhile," I says, "seein' that the whole shebang is up the spout." He looked at me, smilin' crooked an' "Mebbe she ain't," he says. queer. "Meanin' what?" I asks him, desperate. "Them visions has got you. They ain't no miracles happens this far north." "Steady a bit-an' wait," he says. I figgered the excitement had shifted his cargo some up aloft. The ice-wall, solid three feet high, was creepin' up to the first barge. Fifty feet of eight-inch ice, crumblin' under the pressure, was layin' between the barge an' the edge of the movin' drift. Where the edge of the ice was crushin', chips was snappin' up an' tinklin' where they fell. We heard the timbers in the first barge springin' an' lettin' go. "She's gone, Jim!" I says, an' when I said it the ice sunk into the side of the barge like stickin' a shingle in mud. The drift moved over the wreckage an' the barge was out of sight. I heard ol' Jim a-breathin' hard. "Steady a bit-an' wait," he says. The edge of the drift was bitin' deep in the oak of the second barge. We seen the sheathin' timbers foldin' in an' heard the ribs takin' the strain. Then, like the first, the ice moved on an' the second barge was sunk. "Your mushroom barge is next," I said to Cap'n Jim. His knuckles was showin' white through the skin of his clinchin' hands. "Mebbe she ain't," he says. "Steady a bit an' we'll see." I looked at the mushroom barge. The steam-pipe runnin' into her ketched my eye. "Jim," I says, "shut off that steam. We don't want everythin' fogged up when that there steam-pipe busts." |