Harry Watson's High School Days: or, The Rivals of Rivertown

So Paul, with boyish recklessness, determined to take the chances for trouble, and pass the Glider, come what might. He knew Elmer to be somewhat reckless; but found it hard to believe that the other would risk having his own bones broken, just to smash the successful boat of his rival.

But Paul counted wrongly. Elmer, when he became enraged, was not the same cool, calculating schemer that he had the name of being under normal conditions. And, urged on by the sarcastic sneers of the ugly Pud, as well as his own keen disappointment at seeing his pet iceboat fairly beaten, he might even take chances which at another time would have appalled him.

“That’s too bad!” Paul heard Harry exclaim.

“Oh, what’s happened?” Paul cried, in sudden alarm. “Are we going to lose out, after all that magnificent gain? But Harry, see, we’re still creeping up! Only twenty feet more, and we’ll be on even terms! What do you mean?”

“Look far ahead!” answered Harry.

“I see that the river narrows again,” the other boy replied instantly. “Is that what you mean?”

“Yes. We’re going to have to try and pass, while in that narrow stretch!” Harry sent across to his reclining chum; for their heads were only a few feet apart.

“But there’s plenty of room for both! I remember that cut well, Harry! I had my canoe upset there once, shooting the rapids when the river was low in Summer. Yes, it’s sure wide enough for even five boats abreast!”

“If they’re piloted by honest fellows, who mean to deal squarely with each other,” said Harry, significantly.

Paul was conscious of the fact that his chum was putting the decision squarely up to him. He felt a little uneasy. What if they should meet with a serious accident in trying to pass the Glider in such confined quarters? Was it right for him to drag Harry into this peril?

“What ought we do, Harry?” he demanded, quickly; for they were rushing toward the place where the banks of the Conoque drew closer together, and fast overtaking the rival boat.

“Are you willing to take the risk?” came the immediate reply.

“Yes; but how about you?” asked Paul.

“I’m with you, Paul,” the pilot sent back, impetuously. “The chance is too good to be lost. And perhaps I can find a way to outwit him, if he tries any funny business. Be ready to do your part like lightning, if I give the word.”

“I’m on! Go it, for all you’re worth, Harry!”

There was really no time for further words. They had now reached the beginning of the narrows, and at the same time found themselves close up with the tail end of the other iceboat.

Paul, sending one nervous glance that way, could see Pud Snooks glaring at them as though he could eat either of the two alive. There was an expression on his heavy face that bordered on desperation; and Paul became more than ever convinced that Elmer and his crony must have made up their minds to attempt some crooked play, in the hope of balking the efforts of the Lightning’s crew to pass them.

All this while Harry had been studying his chances. He had purposely come up from behind, and had chosen the leeward side of the boat in advance. This was done with a distinct purpose. If, as he expected, Elmer altered the course of the Glider, and attempted to block their way, Harry meant to suddenly shift his helm and shoot up on the windward side.

This movement he calculated to make so suddenly as to momentarily confuse the opposing pilot. And when Elmer could collect his senses enough to follow suit he would be just so many seconds too late; for by that time possibly the Lightning might be on even terms; and the big sail would blanket the Glider, shutting off the wind that was so essential to her forward progress.

Then perhaps, before she could recover from this staggering blow, the Lightning, which would not have lost her headway for even a second, might be out of reach, and rapidly leaving her outwitted rival in the lurch.

At such a time as this it requires an active brain to hatch up a scheme that carries with it a chance of success. Fortunately Harry was built that way. He saw his opportunity, and grasped it without hesitation.

Paul, as yet, had not the remotest idea just how his chum meant to work the deal. He recognized the fact that those on the other boat would try to get in the way, regardless of accidents, and block their passage. Thus Elmer would always claim that he had never been passed by any other iceboat, and if both craft were reduced to kindling wood by the collision, little he cared in his present reckless frame of mind.

But Paul had the utmost confidence in his comrade. He had seen Harry in action before now, and recognized the fact that he was gifted with a bright mind, capable of grasping the situation, and turning even a little thing to advantage.

And so he just lay there, holding on for dear life, ready to “take his medicine,” as he termed it, should there be a spill; and also keeping himself in readiness to do his little part should the skipper give a quick order; for it was Paul’s duty to look after the sail, and handle the sheet if they had to tack during their run, with the wind heading them off.

Now they were nosing up, so that the fore part of the Lightning seemed but a yard or two behind the rudder of the opposing craft, once called the “Queen of the Conoque,” but apparently destined to yield up that proud title to the later model owned by Paul Martin.

“Ha!”

It was Paul himself who gave utterance to this exclamation. Apparently he had been holding his breath for half a minute past, in anticipation of what was to come; and this signified that the startling event was being put into play.

Elmer had shifted his tiller just enough to change the course of his boat, and veer slightly to leeward. Of course this necessitated a change in the running of the pursuing craft, otherwise the Lightning must immediately strike the stern of the leader.

Harry followed suit, and for a moment both boats continued on that slant. But it could not last, of course. The shore was too close by; and if they continued to veer to leeward both must go aground, to the utter demoralization of the delicate craft.

Paul could see that leering face of Pud almost within reach of his hand. It seemed as though the bully might be asking what he was going to do about it; and giving him to understand that he might as well cut his halyards, and let his sail drop, because he and Elmer were grimly determined that no iceboat should ever sail past the Glider, come what might.

So Paul set his teeth hard, expecting a spill of some sort when the bow of his boat struck the stern of the other, while going at this amazing speed. Perhaps his face was white, which fact could hardly be wondered at under the circumstances. But there was no sign of fear there. Paul proved game when the test came, just as Harry had known would be the case.

A foot – why the distance between the two boats must be measured by inches now, so rapidly had it been cut down by the rush of the pursuing craft.

Just as Paul gave a gasp, expecting to feel the shock of the collision, and perhaps be tumbled headlong over the smooth ice, he felt Harry make a sudden move.

The skipper of the Lightning had waited until the very last second, and then swung the tiller around!

Instantly obeying the rudder, the able boat changed her course. She no longer headed to leeward, but swung in the other direction, aiming for the windward bank of the river.

“Oh! bully! bully! bully!” cried Paul, as the plan of his chum flashed across his mind; and at the same time he occupied himself in tugging at the sheet in order to shape the bellying sail to the new course of the rapidly-driven boat.

Apparently Elmer was taken quite by surprise by this movement on the part of his rival. His mind was not quite equal to grasping the full significance of it, and responding so rapidly that he might still have a chance of bringing about a disastrous collision.

When he swung around, Pud was also slow to do his duty with the rope governing the sail. He had been altogether wrapped up in setting himself for the anticipated shock of an upset; so that it took him several seconds to grasp the new conditions.

When they did succeed in changing their course, just before bringing up on the lee shore, it seemed as though it might be too late, for the able Lightning had improved her opportunity in a glorious manner.

Elmer was seized with a fit of blind fury. He realized that he had been beaten at his own game, and by the boy whom he had always felt that sense of unjust hatred ever since the day Harry Watson first came to the Rivertown High School, and carried off the honors of that bob-sled dash down the hill.

The one thing he wanted to do now was to smash into the Lightning, regardless of consequences. Elmer believed in the “rule or ruin” policy. If his boat was no longer to be the fastest on the Conoque, he would at least never allow another to carry off the honors.

And so the reckless boy deliberately headed for the rival craft, his aim being to come down upon the port quarter of the frail Lightning with such an impetus that the other boat must be utterly demolished.

Paul saw what was impending. His quivering words of delight ceased to flow; for again he feared that this implacable and unscrupulous foe was in a position to carry out his quickly-conceived scheme of revenge.

But Harry knew better. His quick and experienced eye judged distances better than that of his chum. True, he edged in a bit closer toward the nearby shore; but that may have been for a double purpose. It gave him a trifle longer to make the pull; and at the same time rendered the possibility of Elmer and Pud coming to grief a certainty.

Five seconds is not a very long stretch of time; and yet there may be times in the experiences of some people when it seems next door to an eternity. And Paul was now feeling something that way.

He saw the oncoming Glider rushing down at them – he could mark the strained faces of the two desperate fellows who sprawled there on the thin planking that served as a deck to the runners – and he caught his breath with a queer little click as he wondered whether after all Harry was going to carry his clever game through to a successful end; or if the new boat was destined to be smashed then and there on its first glorious cruise.

Then the crisis came.

In changing his course so much, in order to strike the Lightning squarely in the port quarter, Elmer had failed to realize that he was heading up in the teeth of the wind more than his rival. And in this way he was handicapped so far as keeping up his pace was concerned.

So the Glider swept to the rear of the new boat, just comfortably missing her. The victory had been won, since the Lightning had thus forged ahead, and passed her rival!

Paul started to give a whoop of delight. Then he stopped, for there was heard a sudden loud smash as the boat of the baffled plotters struck the shore.

“She’s done for! Gone to flinders, Harry! Oh, what a race, and they’ve got just what they deserve. But I hope neither of them has been badly hurt!” exclaimed Paul, who, even in the excitement of victory could think of the defeated foe.

“I feel the same way as you do about it, Paul,” replied the pilot at the tiller of the now undisputed champion of the Conoque, as he headed straight up the narrows toward the wide reach above; “but I don’t think that cuts much figure in it, for I’m sure I saw Pud jump to his feet out of the wreck; while Elmer was crawling out, and limping around as we turned that bend just below.”

“Well, if ever a sly schemer got caught in his own trap that fellow was,” remarked Paul, his indignation now getting the better of his sympathy. “And he sure deserves all he’s got. We’ll go on a way further, and then turn back. Perhaps we’ll overtake our two friends, the enemy, limping along the ice on the way home; and they may even accept a lift back.”

But after all, Paul’s good intentions were fated never to be put to the test, for although they saw the wrecked Glider piled up in a shattered heap on the shore in the narrows, nothing of the two unlucky skippers was discovered on the way down the river; and they concluded the boys had made their way ashore, to hire some farmer to drive them all the way back to Rivertown.

When the story of the eventful race was told to the boys of Rivertown most of them declared that Elmer and Pud had been paid in their own coin; and few sympathized with them when they appeared on the streets with sundry strips of court plaster decorating their faces, and with decided limps.

“At any rate,” said Paul, as he separated from his chum at the Watson gate, “we did have a great time of it; and I reckon it’s done you a heap of good, Harry,” in which opinion the other certainly shared; and declared that he was glad he had accepted the invitation to try the new iceboat.

CHAPTER XXV – “ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL”

Keeping more and more to himself, Harry finally gave up the pleasure of skating with his friends after school, preferring to go on long runs alone.

As he was gliding over the ice on one of these occasions, he saw a girl and a boy skating well out toward the middle of the river, so far from him that he could not recognize them.

For two days before, there had been a decided thaw and the ice in the middle of the river was not considered safe by the majority of the skaters. Accordingly, when Harry beheld the two figures, he was amazed.

“Must be from Lumberport or Cardell,” he told himself. “None of our people would be foolish enough to go out there. Guess I’ll see who it is.”

And without delay, he started toward the couple.

“Good gracious! It’s Viola and Craven!” he gasped, when he was near enough to get a good look at them. For a moment, the boy was uncertain what to do. The girl had been keeping more and more aloof from him, and correspondingly more and more in the company of the rich student; and well he knew that Elmer would resent his advice in some insulting manner.

To his relief, however, the couple seemed to be so engrossed in one another that they did not see him, and after watching them for several minutes he was on the point of turning away when he saw them both sink, and then heard terrified screams for help.

The cries also reached some of the other boys and girls farther down the river, and they set out to the assistance of the struggling skaters. But none of them had the speed of Harry.

With a swiftness that was astounding, the boy rushed over the ice toward the hole that was constantly growing larger.

Badly frightened, both Viola and Elmer clutched frantically at the edges of the ice, only to have them break away, sometimes in small chunks, again in large pieces.

“Let Viola hang onto the edge by herself. Go farther down, you Craven!” shouted Harry as he dashed toward them.

But instead of obeying, having found a piece that would hold, the rich boy clung to it, allowing Viola to be carried past him.

“Oh, if I were only in the water with him, I’d fix the coward!” cried Harry. “I only wish the others were near enough to see what he did.”

Thanks to his speed, our hero was so close to the hole that he was obliged to exercise caution lest he, too, break through.

“Here, give me a hand. That ice’ll hold you!” shouted Elmer, as his rival approached.

But Harry seemed not to hear him.

“Hey, you fool, get me out of this; then we two can get Viola.”

His pleading, however, was without avail. Straight along the edge of the hole Harry skated until he was abreast of the girl of whom he was so fond.

“Just keep hold of that ice cake a few moments longer,” he called encouragingly. “I’ll have you out in no time.”

“But I’m too far from the edge. You never can reach me!” sobbed Viola. And as she saw the firm ice so close to her, she made a frantic effort to swim out, with the result that she lost her hold on the floating ice cake.

Harry had been hoping that the current would carry the girl in toward a part of the river where it would not be so difficult for him to get to her. But the instant he saw her hands slip from the cake, he sprang into the water.

Being a good swimmer, it required only a few strokes for him to reach the side of the girl, but as he did so his troubles began.

Handicapped by his clothes and his skates, when Viola seized him in the despairing clutch of a drowning person, he was almost drawn under.

“No, no, you mustn’t grab me around the throat, Viola!” he gasped. “Put your hands on my shoulders. If you don’t, you’ll drown us both. I won’t let you sink – and if you’ll only do as I tell you, I’ll have you safe and sound in a jiffy.”

Something there was in the tone in which the boy spoke that not only soothed the frenzied girl, but gave her confidence, and though she did not remove her hands from around Harry’s neck, she ceased her struggles, permitting him, by means of the ice cakes, and treading water, to make his way toward the firm ice.

The other boys and girls who were hastening to the assistance of their schoolmates had watched the rescue eagerly, and when they saw the boy half roll, half lift the girl out onto the solid ice, they cheered lustily.

But in saving Viola, Harry had overtaxed his strength. Indeed, it had only been by putting every ounce of his power into the effort that he had been able to raise the girl from the water; and the instant he saw her safe, he sank back.

The realization that she was on sound ice, however, restored the girl to her senses; and as she beheld the boy who had saved her from the icy waters lose his hold, she spun about; and with a quick move, caught his coat sleeve as his arm went up in the air.

To the task of pulling Harry from the water, however, Viola was not equal.

“Hurry! Hurry! Help me!” she shouted to the leaders of the other would-be rescue party. “I can’t hold him much longer!”

“Hey, you, come and get me first! I’ve been in the water longer!” yelled Elmer.

But fortunately for Harry, it was Paul and Jerry who were in the van of the skaters, and at Viola’s cries, they put on every ounce of speed they had, relieving her of her hold just in the nick of time.

Harry, however, was more used up than the others had believed, and it was several minutes before he opened his eyes.

“Is – is Viola safe?” he gasped.

“Indeed, I am, Harry!” returned the girl, bending over him. And there was a light in her eyes that thrilled the boy who had rescued her.

When he tried to get up, Harry found he had no strength.

“Somebody go get a sled,” commanded Longback.

“And let him lie here cold and wet, while you’re going for it?” stormed Viola. “Pick him up and carry him, some of you.”

Instantly Paul, Jerry, Dawson and another boy seized Harry, and half supporting, half carrying him, they got him to the shore, while Nettie and the other girls helped Viola, leaving Elmer to the tender mercies of Pud and Socker, who had finally arrived in time to drag him from the water.

But even they wasted few words on him, ashamed as they were to think that he should have sought to save himself at the sacrifice of Viola.

Straight to bed did Mrs. Watson put Harry when he was brought to the house, giving him warming drinks; while his chums rubbed his benumbed arms and legs. But he did not respond to their treatment as quickly as he should, and in alarm, his aunt finally sent for a doctor.

Grave, indeed, did the man of medicine look after he had completed his examination of the boy.

“If he’d been exposed for another half hour, I doubt if we could have brought him around,” he announced. “As it is, it will be several days before he will be up and about.”

But the physician was mistaken – his days were weeks.

His nervous system overtaxed because of his worry in regard to his father, Harry’s physical condition had run down, and the chill he received caused him to go off into pneumonia.

Harry’s illness, however, served one good purpose – it caused a reaction in the feelings of his schoolmates. When it became noised around that he had endangered his life to rescue the girl who was skating with his implacable enemy, the boys and girls of Rivertown High realized that he was made of good material. And their change in feelings was shown by calls they made to ask about his condition, and the delicacies they sent in. But only Paul, Jerry and finally Viola were allowed to see him, though they were forbidden to talk to him.

Little, indeed, did he talk, and then only to ask if word had come from Jed Brown. And as his aunt was forced, day after day, to declare that she had heard nothing, the boy seemed to lose all interest in getting well.

But the crippled veteran, though silent, had not deserted the boy who had rescued him from the bully.

Arrived in Lawrenceburgh, he had vainly pleaded with several influential men to arrange for a stay in the execution of sentence upon Harry’s father. But one and all, they turned a deaf ear to his pleadings, and Mr. Watson was forced to go to prison.

But on the very day he entered upon his term of punishment, old Jed stumbled upon a clue which was to prove his innocence.

Chancing to drop into a tobacco store which was kept by one of his war comrades, he was amazed to find still another member of his old company dressed in handsome clothes and wearing a diamond ring. As the man had always been a ne’er-do-well, the change in his circumstances puzzled Jed, and when the fellow had taken his departure, he asked the shop-keeper what had caused it.

“That’s what I’d like to find out,” returned the tobacconist. “For the last six months, Bill has been going around with his pockets full of money. He’s living at the Ransom House, too.”

This being one of the chief hotels in Lawrenceburgh, the fact still further emphasized the turn in the veteran’s fortunes.

“Ever give you any idea how he got the money?” asked Jed.

“Says he done it by writing. Bill always was a good writer, you know. Don’t you remember how he used to forge pass orders for some of the boys when they wanted to leave camp?”

The words sent an idea to Jed’s mind, and bidding the shop-keeper a hasty good-bye, he hied himself to the Ransom House, where he made many inquiries about the former soldier. At first he made little headway; but just as he was giving up in despair, he saw another old comrade.

“Say, what’s the matter with you Rivertown folks?” asked this man. “Have you come down to see Bill Hawkins, too? Ned Snooks visits him about once a month.”

At the mention of the Rivertown butcher, the crippled veteran gasped. Then he remembered that bad feeling had sprung up between the butcher and Mr. Watson over a real estate deal in which the former maintained that he had been swindled – and Jed immediately concluded that Ned Snooks was at the bottom of the charges against Harry’s father.

But it was one thing to believe this, and quite another to prove it – yet with that perseverance which had distinguished him as a soldier in the ranks, Jed set about obtaining evidence; and finally succeeded in extracting a confession from Hawkins, that, acting for the butcher, he had forged the name of Snooks to some checks, and managed to lay the blame on Amos Watson.

Elated, Jed again approached the influential men who had refused to intercede for their fellow townsman, and after convincing them of the truth of the confession, received their aid in obtaining Mr. Watson’s release from prison, and subsequent exoneration from the charge of forgery.

Ignorant of the illness of Harry, the old veteran did not report on his progress, and the first news the boy had of the change in his father’s condition was when a telegram was brought to him.

With trembling fingers he opened it, then uttered a faint cry of joy, as he read:

“Harry Watson,

Rivertown.

Charges against me proven false. I want you to come to Lawrenceburgh to spend Sunday with me.

Father.”

Better than any tonic or care was the news to Harry, and though he was not able to go to his father, Mr. Watson came to him, bringing good old Jed Brown with him, and happy, indeed, was the reunion.

Despite his villainy, Mr. Watson refused to prosecute Ned Snooks; but public opinion was so aroused against the butcher that he sold his property, and moved away from Rivertown, while the man he had so wronged decided to live in the town, and in due course opened a real estate office.