The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview Part 54

"I don't see anything, Jerry."

"Don't you see the lights coming toward us?"

Harry strained his eyes.

"I see them now."

"It's a steamer coming this way."

"My gracious, we'll have to get out of the way or we'll be run down!"

"She is close in sh.o.r.e," went on Jerry. "I believe she'll pa.s.s between the other row-boat and ours."

"Let us hold up a minute and see what she intends to do," said Harry.

He rested on his oars. Soon the craft came closer. It was the excursion boat on her return.

"She is not coming near us," said Jerry. "Pull on."

Harry had just taken to the oars again, when a wild cry rang out. It came from the row-boat which held Peters and Crosby.

"Stop! Don't run us down!"

"The steamboat is onto them!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jerry.

Scarcely had he spoken when there came another cry, followed by a crash.

"They've been struck!" yelled Harry.

"Pull ahead!" cried Jerry. "Like as not they have either been killed or are drowning!"

He sprang to Harry's side, and with an oar each they sped on to the a.s.sistance of the unfortunate ones.

In the meanwhile the steamboat stopped.

"What's the trouble?" called a voice.

No answer was vouchsafed, and a moment later the steamboat went on.

"Like as not, Si Peters and Wash Crosby are dead," observed Harry, as he bent to his oar.

"We'll soon know the truth," replied the young oarsman.

Both boys pulled a swift stroke, and were soon on the spot where the catastrophe had occurred.

In the meanwhile the steamboat was fast disappearing in the distance. Soon the last light faded from sight.

In the darkness of the night Jerry and Harry could see but little.

"There is an oar," cried Harry, pointing it out.

"And there is part of the row-boat's bottom," said Jerry. "It looks as if the row-boat was actually ground to pieces."

"Then it isn't likely that Si Peters and Wash Crosby escaped."

"Well, we'll take a good look around."

The two continued to row about, but for a long while saw nothing but bits of wreckage.

Then our hero beheld a form floating just to their right.

"Take both oars, Harry," he said, "and be careful, for that is Wash Crosby's body."

Harry took the oars and began to row slowly.

As he moved on, Jerry stood in the bow.

At that instant a strange thing happened. Si Peters came up under the boat, giving it such a shove that Jerry was hurled overboard.

Then, with a swiftness that was really surprising, Si Peters clambered into the row-boat.

In his hand he held part of a broken oar.

"Jump out after Jerry Upton!" he growled as he advanced upon Harry.

Without replying, Harry leaped up to defend himself. As he did this he saw that Jerry and Wash Crosby were fighting in the water.

Neither Crosby nor Peters had been hurt by the collision, both having left their craft before the steamboat struck it.

Their one thought now was to get the good row-boat away from our two heroes.

Jerry, thinking Wash Crosby seriously hurt, was taken completely by surprise.

Crosby caught him by the shoulder and forced him far under the water, and then did his best to hold him there.

Crosby was a powerful fellow, and he well understood what defeat and capture meant--a term in prison.

But, as we know, Jerry's muscles were like iron, and his first surprise over, he went for Crosby tooth and nail.

With a powerful twist he freed himself from the rascal's grasp and swam some distance away.

Then coming up behind Crosby, the young oarsman let out with his right fist.

The blow took the Rockpoint bully behind the ear, and Crosby let out a wild yell of pain, broken by a gasp for air, as he went under the bosom of the ocean.

As he went down, our hero gave him an extra shove and then swam with all speed for the row-boat, which had drifted several yards away.

He saw Harry and Si Peters standing up in the boat. Peters had just struck at his chum, and Harry had partly dodged the vicious blow.