22. The Secret of the Freighter

The boys left the hold of the freighter and made their way over the deck to the sloop. What little light there had been was now dying down and a wall of darkness was sweeping over the ocean. Unnoticed even by themselves, a silence had fallen over the boys.

They got lanterns in the hold of the Lassie and paused long enough to light them. When this had been done they once more climbed aboard the freighter, their lights twinkling out against the darkness. The freighter was gently pitching and tossing, and the loose gear was sliding all over the deck.

“I guess I’ll lash that wheel down,” Don decided, as they crossed the deck. He handed his lantern to Terry and locked the thrashing wheel in place. Instantly, the lumber boat rode more smoothly and evenly.

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“That will keep the lumber from bouncing around when we go to work down there,” said Jim. “But say, suppose it was only a rat that we heard!”

“It could hardly be that,” Terry answered. “A rat could never make a pounding like that. We’ll just have to go to it and shift that lumber.”

Once more they descended into the hold and looked for pegs to hang up the lanterns. Finding convenient nails hanging from crossbeams they hung the lamps and looked over the tangle of lumber.

“Let see how this works,” suggested Don. Cupping his hands he called: “Hello! Anybody in this place?”

Almost immediately the thumping came to them from beneath the lumber. The boys looked at each other.

“Somebody is under there, sure as I’m standing here,” said Jim.

“Yes, that’s sure,” nodded Don, stooping over the first piece of lumber. “Let’s get going.”

He dragged one board toward him and Jim quickly took hold of the other end. Between them they swung it to one side and began the base of an orderly pile. Terry had started another and they swung that up.

“It is going to take us some time,” said Don. “But we can do it if we’re careful of the way we pile it.”

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The lumber had been originally piled in orderly stacks, but a lack of proper bracing had allowed it to fall, probably under the pitching and rolling of the freighter. It had evidently been tossed around like match sticks, for it was badly tangled, and the boys found some difficulty in getting hold of some of the pieces. Fortunately for them there was enough room to one side to pile the pieces up neatly, and they worked rapidly and silently, realizing that it was necessary to save breath.

From time to time the thumping continued, and the boys shouted encouragement to the author of the noise. As nearly as they could judge the sound came from the very center of the pile, and they were puzzled as to how anyone could be held captive under such a load and still make a noise.

“Unless,” decided Terry. “The lumber has formed some kind of a house or shelter over his head and he is safe in there.”

Before very long the perspiration was running in small streams down the foreheads of the toiling boys, and their breath was coming with increasing difficulty. The air in the hold was not good, as not very much circulated down from above, and they found themselves longing for a breath of the invigorating salt air. But they did not slow up in their job; they piled lumber to one side with a will, the new pile riding above their heads.

“We’re getting near to the bottom,” panted Jim, after they had worked for an hour and a half.

He spoke the truth, for they were now within a foot of the bottom of the pile. Gathering their strength together the boys increased their speed and gathered up the remaining boards. As they got to the bottom Don said:

“This explodes Terry’s theory. There isn’t room enough under these boards for anyone to even lie down.”

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They had now reached the last board and they cleared it aside. As soon as it was disposed of they saw an iron ring and a trap door in the floor of the hold.

“Oh,” exclaimed Jim, as he bent over the ring. “The banging must have been coming from underneath this door.”

They took hold of the ring and pulled, and the trap door swung upward, to drop over backward with a crash. There was a movement in the darkness below and then a shaggy head was poked out of the trap. It was a wild-looking face, thickly bearded, with two burning eyes fixed in sunken skin. The man reached toward them, clutched with one hand, and then fell forward, his eyes closed.

“Quick,” ordered Don, bending over him. “He’s fainted. No knowing how long he has been down there. We’ve got to get him on deck.”

It was not easy to raise the man out of the hole and carry him on deck, for he was a heavy-set man, but the boys did it somehow. The hardest part was getting him up the ladder, but that, too, was accomplished and they placed him on the deck. Then, while Terry went to get the lanterns Don and Jim poured water over the man’s face and rubbed his wrists. After Terry had set the lanterns in a circle on the deck the man opened his eyes and looked around him.

“By golly,” he said in a deep voice. “Vot der dunder happened to dis ship? Vere is der crew?”

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Don shook his head. “You’ve got me. We were cruising by in a sloop and we saw the freighter apparently deserted. We were down in the hold when we heard your knocking and we moved the lumber to find you. How long have you been down there?”

The captain sat up and rubbed his shaggy head. “I dink a million years, but more like idt iss a day. You zee, my crew one terrible superstitious bunch of foreigners, and I vind t’at some of dem get ahold of some licker. I dink to myself dat maybe somebody hide it in dat hole down dere, so I go down to look. Well, at dere time de ship she roll and roll and dat lumber not too steady, I see, and I say to myself, ‘Captain Jan Vulfer, you beeg fool,’ but I go all der same. I not dell my crew dat I go. Vell, ven I am in dat hole der boat give vun beeg rock and down come de lumber, making of me a prisoner. I yell and pound but nobody come near me. Vun leetle candle dat I had vent oudt, and I been dere until I hear you boys and den I pound some more.”

“Yes,” said Jim. “We thought somebody was caught under the lumber and we dug you out. Good thing we came along when we did, or you would have died in there.”

The skipper nodded solemnly. “You bet you! You nefer know how much I appreciate vot you done.” He looked around the ship. “Dot cowardly crew must haf thought I was took avay py spooks and dey run avay from der ship. By golly, I get dem back!”

“I guess that’s the answer,” said Don. “Suppose we get you something to eat, captain?”

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The captain jumped to his feet with alacrity. “Done!” he shouted. “Vot you got to eat? If you run short, ve got plenty on der Plack Mummy.”

“We have plenty,” laughed Jim. “Want to come aboard the sloop, captain?”

The captain assented and they helped him over the rail to the sloop, where Jim quickly prepared a substantial meal for him. While he ate he told them that he was a skipper for a local firm from Maine, who shipped lumber, and that he had been given an especially unruly crew on this last voyage. He was determined to get them back to the ship. Meanwhile, he assured the boys of his gratitude to them.

“Look at your hands,” he said, “all filled up mit blisters. By golly, you fine fellows to work like der dickens for me.”

“Nonsense,” laughed Terry. “You wouldn’t expect us to go away and leave you there in that hold, would you?”

Captain Vulfer shrugged his heavy shoulders. “Maype lots of fellows vouldn’t go down in dot hold ven dey hear dot hammering. I bet you my life idt sounded mighty like spooks, eh?”

“Yes, it was a bit scary,” the boys admitted.

The boys and the skipper slept on the deck of the freighter that night and early in the morning the captain was up and moving about. He was in good spirits and the boys found that they liked him very much. He combined a fund of good humor and keen business sense, and he could be authoritative and energetic when he wanted to be. He thought his crew would be found close by at some shore resort and asked the boys if they would run him ashore.

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This they readily agreed to do, and after a hearty breakfast on the sloop they got under way. It took them three hours to run to shore, and they visited two small towns without finding any trace of the runaway crew. But the Dutch captain was not cast down.

“Ve’ll surely vind dem,” he told them. “You zee, dey run away from der ship in fear, but dey von’t know vot to do mit demselfs. Dey can’t get anodder job until dey bring dat ship in, and I bet you ve find dem drinkin’ dere head off in some blace.”

In a cheap hotel in the third town they found the missing crew. All of them were sitting in the bar when Captain Vulfer walked into the place, his arms folded and his brows knitted together. Surprise and disbelief greeted the skipper as his motley crew saw him towering before them.

“So!” thundered the skipper, as the boys looked on from the doorway. “Dis iss vere I vind you, hey? Joost because I go down der hold and take maype a little nap behind der lumber. You cowardly children! Unless you make one hurry up back to der boat I get you all put behind der bars in Portsmouth ven I get dere. Scatter, you dunder and blitzen mice!”

The crew scattered. With eyes popping out of their heads they made a rush for the long boat in which they had come ashore. And right behind them, cruising slowly in the Lassie, came their watchful skipper. He made them row back to the freighter, and once aboard he drove them with a will of iron to clean up the ship.

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Just before leaving the boys the skipper shook each one cordially by the hand and pressed a beautiful hand-carved model of a full-rigged ship upon them.

“Joost something dot I make myself,” he said. “You maybe keep it vor your clubhouse, eh? Bye, bye. I never forget you, py golly.”

They waved to the captain as he leaned over the rail, until the low-lying Black Mummy passed out of sight under full power.

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