CHAPTER XXXV.
BIM'S HEROISM.
As the burning steamboat swept down towards the low-lying raft thedestruction of the latter appeared so certain that its crew abandonedall hope of saving it; and, taking to their skiff, sought by its meansto escape the threatened danger. It was a forlorn hope, and promisedbut little. Even with Billy Brackett's strong arms tugging at itsoars, the heavily laden skiff seemed to move so slowly, that but forthe ever-widening space between them and the raft they would havedeemed it at a stand-still. They gazed in silence and with fascinatedeyes at the on-coming terror. At length, with a sigh of thankfulness,they saw that they were beyond its track, and Billy Brackett's laborswere somewhat relaxed.
Suddenly, as though endowed with a fiendish intelligence, the blazingfabric took a sheer to port, and headed for the skiff. A hoarse crybroke from the old negro, whose face was ashen gray with fright. Itwas echoed by Binney Gibbs. The others kept silence, but their faceswere bloodless.
By a mighty effort Billy Brackett spun the skiff around, and with theenergy of despair pulled back towards the raft. The stout oars bentlike whips. If one of them had given way nothing could have saved ourraftmates from destruction. Had the tough blades been of other thanhome make, and fashioned from the best product of the Caspar Mill, theymust have yielded. With each stroke Billy Brackett rose slightly fromhis seat. Arms, body, and legs made splendid response to the demandsof the invincible will. Years of careful training and right livingwere concentrated into that supreme moment. Another might have soughtpersonal safety by plunging overboard and diving deep into the river.Glen and Winn might have followed such an example. Binney and Solon,being unable to swim, could not. But Billy Brackett was too true anAmerican to consider such a thing for an instant. Generations ofYankee ancestors had taught him never to desert a friend nor yield to afoe; never to court a danger nor to fear one; to fight in a righteouscause with his latest breath; to snatch victory from defeat.
As the skiff dashed alongside the _Venture_ the vast, glowing, seethingmass of flame, smoke, and crashing timbers swept by so close that theraftmates were obliged to seek a shelter in the cool waters from itsdeadly heat. Clinging to the edge of the raft, with their bodiesentirely submerged, they gazed breathlessly and with blinded eyes atthe grandest and most awful sight to be seen on the Mississippi. Itwas a huge lower-river packet, and was completely enveloped in roaringflames that poured from every opening, and streamed furiously from thetall chimneys the trailing banners of the fire-fiend. The boat wasunder a full head of steam, her machinery was still intact, and thegreat wheels, churning the glowing waters into a crimson foam, forcedher ahead with the speed of a locomotive. The back draught thus causedkept the forward end of her lower deck free from flame. Here, as sherushed past, the boys caught a glimpse of the only sign of life theycould discover aboard the ill-fated packet. It was a dog leaping fromside to side, and barking furiously.
They had hardly noted his presence when a curious thing happened.There came an explosion of steam, a crash, and the starboard wheeldropped from its shaft. Thus crippled, the blazing craft made a grandsweep of half a circle in front of the raft. Then, as the other wheelalso became disabled and ceased its mad churnings, the boat lay withher head up-stream, drifting helplessly with the current. The packetwas not more than a couple of hundred feet from the raft when its wildprogress was thus checked, and now the barkings of the dog, that hadalready attracted the boy's attention, were heard more plainly thanbefore.
All at once Billy Brackett, who had regained the wave-washed deck ofthe raft, called out, "It's Bim! I know his voice!"
With this he again sprang into the skiff, with the evident intention ofattempting to rescue his four-footed comrade. Winn Caspar was just intime to scramble in over the stern as the skiff shot away. "I may beof some help," he said.
As they neared the burning boat, they saw that the dog was indeed Bim.He answered their calls with frantic barks of joy, but refused to leapinto the skiff or into the water, as they urged him to.
He would run back out of their sight instead, and then reappear,barking frantically all the while. Once he seemed to be draggingsomething, and trying to hold it up for their inspection.
"The dear old dog has some good reason for acting in that way," saidBilly Brackett, "and I must go to him."
Winn had not the heart to remonstrate against an attempt to aid Bim,even though its extreme danger was obvious. The blazing hull, fromwhich most of the upper works were now burned away, was liable toplunge to the bottom at any moment, and the boy shuddered at thethought of being engulfed in the seething whirlpool which would thus becreated. He involuntarily cringed, too, at the thought of the red-hotboilers ready to burst and deluge all surrounding objects with scaldingsteam and hissing water. Still, he would not have spoken a single wordto deter Billy Brackett from his daring project even had he known itwould be heeded.
While these thoughts flashed through Winn's mind, his companion wasclambering up over the low guards, and Bim's joyful welcome of hismaster was pitiful in its extravagance. The dog seemed to say, "I knewyou would come if I only waited patiently and barked loud enough. Nowyou see why I couldn't leave."
The object to which Bim thus directed attention, as plainly as thoughpossessed of speech, was a little curly-haired puppy, a Gordon setter,so young that its eyes were not yet opened.
Billy Brackett picked it up and dropped it over the side into Winn'sarms. Then he tried to do the same by Bim; but, with a loud bark, thenimble dog eluded his grasp, and dashed away into the thick of thesmoke. Tongues of flame were licking their cruel way through it, andas Bim emerged, his hair was scorched in yellow patches. He draggedout a dead puppy, laid it at his master's feet, and before he could berestrained had once more dashed back into the stifling smoke. Again heappeared, this time weak and staggering, every trace of his white coatgone. He was singed and blackened beyond recognition; but he was afour-footed hero, who had nobly performed a self-imposed duty. As hefeebly dragged another little dead puppy to his master's feet, BillyBrackett seized the brave dog in his arms, and sprang over the side ofthe doomed steamboat into the waiting skiff. Tears stood in the youngman's eyes as the suffering creature licked his face, and he exclaimed,"I tell you what, Winn Caspar, if this blessed dog isn't possessed of asoul, then I'm not, that's all!"
Meanwhile Winn was pulling the skiff swiftly beyond reach of danger.It was none too soon; for before they reached the raft, the glowingmass behind them reared itself on end as though making a frantic effortto escape its fate. Then, with a hissing plunge, it disappearedbeneath the turbid flood of the great river. A second later there camea muffled explosion, and a column of water, capped by a cloud of steam,shot upward. At the same time the scene was shrouded in a darknessmade absolute by the sudden extinguishing of the fierce light, whilethe silence that immediately succeeded the recent uproar seemedunbroken.
Then the momentary hush was invaded by the sound of many voices, someof which were uttering groans and cries of pain. A score of fortunatesfrom the burned packet, who had been driven by the flames to theextreme after-end of the boat, where they were hidden from the view ofthose on the raft, had leaped into the water as they were swept past,and managed to reach it while Billy Brackett and Winn were away.
Now, by means of the skiff, others whose cries for help located them inthe darkness were picked up. Many persons had escaped soon after thebreaking out of the fire by means of the small boats and life-raftcarried by the packet; while still others, comprising nearly half theship's company, were lost. It was one the most terrible of the manysimilar disasters recorded in the history of steamboating on theMississippi; and to this day the burning of the _Lytle_ is a favoritetheme of conversation among old river men.
When Glen Elting learned the name of the ill-fated craft, he startedand turned pale. "The very packet for which we were waiting!" hecried, with bated breath. "Oh, Binney, how many things we have to bethankful for!"
"Indeed we have," answered the boy; "and not the least of them is thatwe are in a position to help these poor people, who have been overtakenby the misfortune that was reaching out for us."
These two were tearing sheets into bandage strips, and dressing woundswith the salve and ointments found in Major Caspar's medicine chest.Solon was providing a plentiful supply of hot-water over a roaring firein the galley stove, and bustling about among the forlorn assembly,that, drenched and shivering, had been so suddenly intrusted to hiskindly care. Billy Brackett and Winn rowed in every direction aboutthe raft so long as there was the slightest hope of picking up astruggling swimmer.
Their last rescue was that of a man clinging to a state-room door, andso benumbed with the chill of the water that in a few moments more hishold must have relaxed. Beside him swam a dog, also nearly exhausted.
When the man was carried into the "shanty," the dog followed him, andwas there seen to be of the same markings and breed as the puppy savedby Bim. Noting this, Winn hunted it up and brought it to her. It washers, and no human mother could have shown more extravagant joy thandid this dog mother at so unexpectedly finding one of her lost babies.She actually cried with happiness, and fondled her little one until itprotested with all the strength of its feeble voice. Then she lay downwith the puppy cuddled close to her, and one paw thrown protectinglyacross it, the picture of perfect content.
Bim had been almost as excited as she, and in spite of his burns, hadcircled about the two, and barked until the puppy persuaded its motherto be quiet. Then Bim and she lay down, nose to nose, and while theformer told his friend how he had found her deserted babies on the boatand had determined to save them, and how his own dear master had comein answer to his barks for assistance, she told him how she had been inthe after-part of the boat getting her supper when the flames brokeout, and had gone nearly crazy at finding herself separated from herlittle ones. She assured him she would have gone through fire andwater to reach them had not her master thrown her overboard, andimmediately afterwards jumped into the river himself. Then shebelieved that all was lost, for in her distress of mind she hadentirely forgotten her brave friend Bim. If she had only rememberedhim, she would have been quite at ease, knowing, of course, that hewould find some way of saving at least one of her puppies, which, underthe circumstances, was all that could be expected.
At which Bim jumped up and barked for pure happiness, until his mastersaid, "That will do, Bim, for the present."