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He's gone down to 'Frisco now, an' I'll bet a dozen ounces that jest cos he's aboard, the old boat'll go down an' back without runnin' aground a solitary durned time." No one took up Cairo Jake's bet, so that it was evident he uttered the general sentiment of the mining camp of Quicksilver Bar.
"So you are, David," said he, "and we'll overhaul her together, and the best way to secure the boat'll be to drag her high and dry"; and as he said this, the stem of the boat touched the ice, and we both of us jumped out, and, catching hold of her by the gunwale, walked her up the slope by some five times her own length, where she lay as snug as though chocked aboard her own mother, the schooner.
There's an unpleasant set of passengers aboard; the barometer points to rainy weather, so you'd have to stay in the cabin all the time; our cook is sick, and his cubs serve up the most infernal messes; we're light of freight, and have got to stop at every warehouse on the river, and the old boat'll be either shrieking, or bumping, or blowing off steam the whole continual time." Mrs.
"Lay hold on this rope," Eben ordered. "We've got to hist the sail or this boat'll be aground. Now, pull fer all yer worth." "Without a word the two men did as they were bidden, and as the sail slowly rose it flapped wildly in the wind, and threatened to tear itself loose from the yards.
"Let's swim it, Jerry," he said disgustedly. "The boat'll never hold up the oars and us too. They weigh a ton." "Pile in," answered Jerry, with the first laugh since that tragic moment when he had seen a different boat swept over the dam many weary miles up the river. "We'll each take an oar and try some two- handed rowing. This craft was built for ocean-going service. Hold tight; we're off."
"There now," says I; "subdue yeself. The boat'll land in ten minutes more." "Look," says he, "at the light lady upon the bench. And have ye forgotten the nigger man that burned me ear? And isn't the money I had gone a dollar sixty-five it was?"
"Ay, ay," said he, "he passed me word of that. But, ye see, the boat'll set ye ashore at the town pier, and that's but a penny stonecast from Rankeillor's house." And here he suddenly leaned down and whispered in my ear: "Take care of the old tod;* he means mischief. Come aboard till I can get a word with ye."
Pennel were, however, startled into a paroxysm of alarm when poor Miss Ruey came screaming, as she entered the door, "As sure as you're alive, them chil'en are off in the boat, they're out to sea, sure as I'm alive! What shall we do? The boat'll upset, and the sharks'll get 'em."
"If it was a human sort of craft, meant to ride the waves as a good ship should, I'd have more faith in her. I'm afraid that boat'll go to the bottom one o' these days, an' forgit to come up again." The old salt was promptly voted a croaker. Hadn't the "Pollard" been given abundant tests by her crew? Had she failed to come up yet?
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