OUR BOYS & GIRLS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 873, 23 November 1888, Page 5

OUR BOYS & GIRLS.

BROKEN ADRr FT .

By Charles Barnard.

(Conti- flU ed.) Tne concert was a tine one, and as nobody was in any hurry * jQ ge t home, the audience wished many pi eces repeated. It was late when the conr pany broke up and scattered over the tow, t 0 their various boats. Twice, on the w, a y home, Mrs Hamilton stopped at cabin doors to speak to friends, and at one P .ace she even waited to have a cup °£ y4 a. Mr Hamilton said he would go on aD 'd look after the boat, and Mrs Hamilton ’’•at down on the deck of the ‘Flying Fish’ with Mrs Tuttle and the other women. While they were quietly sipping their tea, they heard loud shouts from the direction of the ‘boats astern, and in a moment Mr Hamilton came running back over the boats. ‘The man on the last boat has been asleep. The “ Betsey Jane ” is adrift—lost ! ’ The news spread over the entire tow in an instant. Where did it happen ? When did she break away ? It might have happened hours and hours ago, and perhaps the boat was then drifting about, miles astern, , Eliza’s mother heard the news calmly, without a word. She merely picked up a lantern and resolutely started off over the tow as fast as she could walk toward the tow-boat. * Where are you going and what are yon going to do ? ’ said the people. ‘ I ’m going to take the steamboat if it is possible, and go back for my children.’ All the men said it could not be done. The captain would not stop for the lost boat. The ‘Betsey Jane’ would certainly drift ashore. No harm would ever come to it, stranded high and dry, and they could take a boat and row back and find it. * My children are ou board. Some steamer will run them down in the dark.’ This seemed only too likely, and they all ran on toward the head of the tow ; and in a moment or two there ware half a hundred men and women gathered on the great piles pf lumber on 'the‘forward boats. The tow by this time had passed West Point, and was approaching the great bend just above lona Island. The men shouted and called, to the steamer, but there was no reply. The noise of the engine drowned their voices and the steamer went steadily on, dragging them all farther and farther away from the lost boat. The steamer was two hundred feet ahead, and the water was beaten into creamy waves by her great paddles. They were just then rounding the curve, and every one said the captain would not stop in such a dangerous place ; so the poor mother had to stand there in the cold night-wind, while the long, snake-like, tow crept round the bend in the black and silent river. - At last a boat was lowered overboard, and Mr and Mrs Hamilton and two men started to catch up with the steamer. By holding on to the towing-lines they managed to ' drag themselves up to her low stern and olimb aboard, leaving the boat danoing on the, creamy water in the wake of the steamer,. In a moment the poor mother climbed sit 0 [winding stairs to the lofty pilot-ho;* ae where the captain stood at, • t jj e wheel. *Oh, sir ! The boat if lost.’ ‘ Well, marm, I can’t help it. r .ffae man on board must look out for her.’ ‘ There’s nobody on board b at Jwr > little children. ’ * The captain did not Bay a wop d for a moment, and then he lowered the window and looked all about the black rivf r as if searching for something. * ‘ We can’t stop here. I’ll go q n to the bay at Peekskil), and. ’ ‘Oh, sir, can’t you take tbe steamer back ?’ ‘ Just what I was thinking o’ doing, but we must find a place to aneb or ‘the tow first.’ ’ The night-boats will be corning up. They will run into the children’s ’ooat.’ ‘No, marm. They ara not’ due hero yet.’ It took more than an hoar to reauh the wide place in the river, opposite Peeikskill, and to swing the long tovy close in shore out of

the way of the passing steamers ; and half an hour more to make the boats fast to a rock on the shore, to free the steamer fiom her charge and start her upon the search for the missing boat. /' ; Two men were placed on the bo. ws below. There Were four more onthenpp ; ar deck, and from the windows of the pi» ofc .house th® poor mother looked out with, straining eye® into the vast blackness ahe ad How the firemen piled 'their roaring fires I The engineer urged the g reafc machine to f u u speed, and his men r an . to and fro> oiling every joint. Showery of sparka poured oat of the tall smokesW jk> and the wooda and mountains re-echor jd w ff k tbe furious beating of the paddles. .; T ke craZ y o j d boat seemed to awake to so v J 0 remembrance of her famous speed in the da y e . when she was the fast passenger.be , a t on the Albany day-line and was the pri de D f ke r captain. Ah Iw. hat’s that ? See that black thing olo'je unr fer the shore ! ’ Tba fc s not the boat, marm. She couldn’t get away down here by this time. We will not find her this side of Gold Spring, for I reokfon she broke loose at the time the “ Poughkeepsie freighter” passed us.” On and on they went, rushing round the sharp bend at West Point, and steaming straight ahead through the Highlands. The boat would be drifting about somewhere above Cornwall. They would soon find it. Nothing to be seen. Not a sign of a boat' anywhere. They went up even as far as< Newburgh, and crossed the river, and crept slowly down" stream close inshore. The wind® would drive her over to that side, and ahe> might be aground somewhere along the bank. Then they saw the lights of a steamer coming up-stream, and they turned out into th® middle of the river to meet her. It was the ‘Saratoga,’ of the Troy night-line. There were warning whistles, and the two boats stopped and met in the darkness. Black figures came out on the lofty decks of the passenger steamer, and the captain of the tow-boat shouted through, his hand : s : 4 Boat lost: Two children pa bo ard. Seen her as you came up along anywhere? ’

No ; they had seen nothing. The Albany boat was just behind; perb aps she had sighted it. The great white boat moved on again and.left the tow-boat to continue her search. The Albany boat was stopped, too, and the same report was ma de and the same question asked..

No ; they had seen nothing. ‘ x’m thankful,' said. the mother; as she leaned out of the pilot-jdouse window and saw the monstrous boat move slowly away in the darkness; ‘l’m thankful,—for that danger is past. I’m glad they didn’t see it. They might have gone right over it in the dark, ness.’ •:

there was one of the perils escaped*. ‘Betsey Jane ’ had not been run down,, and there would be no more steamers till* daylight. Round and round went the towboat, orossing and reorossing the river', poking her slender nose into every nook and corner; stopping here and there, blowing her whistle furiously, and listening for any answering shouts or calls. The sentineL high on the bluffs at West Point, paused in his lonely tramp, and leaned on his gun to look down on the river, wondering what the strange steamer was about. He called th® corporal; and the corporal, too, looked down, en the black river. He even called out th®. guard, and sent men down to the >-‘ hnr „ w ; t R a lantern. They thought the ea-p&Tof & steamer must be crazy. Tfc^ n P thore ap _. peared a palo glow in the e»' dtom sky , and the steamer turned dow n . str eam. The ag&lD * -o their posts upon, mysterf ’ V -* s a ° solution of the

tW g w^ g ß ter ’ fOP was morning. Now they would be sure to find tte losfc boafc . The steamer kept F Qe middle o£ the stream , , slowly a) on g overy one on th® n„vt W; ° a V? ton they went, round the next bend, past lona laland and into a bay near Peekskill,"

t tb at near shore ? ’ The * Betsy 8 , f . serenely along close inshore, vT,- I '/*. , r i®®' -o’-mutton sail spread out .on the , ? * t the stern stood Captain Eliza, Dravely st eer i D g straight for the anchored ®° w ,l us * ahead. Swiftly the steamer cam® . , side, and there was a grand rush on ooara ,r he ‘Betsy Jane’; but the mother H? at, and the father cam® next, with a tow l> ne in his hand. jw they did cheer! All the people on h«r tow saw them. Tho steamer rang her i and blew her whistle, till the woods and P? juu tains echoed sgain. The grim old cap*in,- leaning but of his lofty window, wiped Aa eyes with a big red hankerchief, and told the engineer it was the biggest trip the <Jef steamer had ever made. Every one Captain Eliza was a splendid navigator. ShO? had brought her father’s boat iu safety down the river, and her little baby brother never awakened until he was safe in his mother's arms ! ‘Hitch on that tow-line,' said the captain to the deck-hands. Then he rang the bell sharply: ‘Full speed ahead ! ’ ' The End.