Project Gutenberg's The Rover Boys in Southern Waters, by Arthur M. Winfield

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Title: The Rover Boys in Southern Waters or The Deserted Steam Yacht

Author: Arthur M. Winfield

Release Date: August 4, 2008 [EBook #26193]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROVER BOYS IN SOUTHERN WATERS ***

Produced by W. R. Marvin

THE ROVER BOYS IN SOUTHERN WATERS

or

THE DESERTED STEAM YACHT

By Arthur M. Winfield

Chatterton-Peck Company Publishers

Copyright 1907 by The Mershon Company

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE ROVER BOYS AND THEIR FRIENDS II. ABOUT A MISSING HOUSEBOAT III. A FRIEND IN NEED IV. HAROLD BIRD'S STRANGE TALE V. STUCK IN THE MUD VI. FIGHTING BOB CATS VII. THE HOUSEBOAT IN THE BUSHES VIII. IN THE SWAMP IX. TWO YOUNG PRISONERS X. THE CHASE ON THE RIVER XI. WHAT THE ROCKETS REVEALED XII. STUCK ON A SNAG XIII. THE CAPTURE OF SOLLY JACKSON XIV. ON A GULF STEAMER XV. THE CASTAWAYS OF THE GULF XVI. A DESERTED STEAM YACHT XVII. IN UNDISPUTED POSSESSION XVIII. IN PERIL OF STEAM XIX. THE STORM ON THE GULF XX. A NIGHT OF ANXIETY XXI. THE PICTURE IN THE CARDCASE XXII. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING ON THE WATER XXIII. THE ENEMY TRIES TO TAKE POSSESSION XXIV. IN THE ENGINE ROOM XXV, ONE PLOT AND ANOTHER XXVI. TURNING THE TABLES XXVII. DAN BAXTER'S REPENTANCE XXVIII. HATCHWAY AND DOOR XXIX. AN EXCITING TIME ALL AROUND XXX. HOMEWARD BOUND—CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

My Dear Boys: "The Rover Boys in Southern Waters" is a complete story in itself but forms the eleventh volume of a line known by the general title of "The Rover Boys Series for Young Americans."

Eleven volumes! Just think of it! What a great number to write about one set of young people and their doings! When I started out, as I have mentioned before, I thought to pen three volumes, possibly four. I was not at all sure that the boys and girls would wish any of them. But no sooner had I given them "The Rover Boys at School" than there was a demand for "The Rover Boys on the Ocean" and then "The Rover Boys in the Jungle," and then, year after year, there followed "The Rover Boys Out West," "On the Great Lakes," "In the Mountains," "On Land and Sea," "In Camp," "On the River," and "On the Plains," where we last met them.

In the present tale the scene is shifted to the lower Mississippi and then the Gulf of Mexico. As before, Sam, Tom, and Dick are introduced, along with a number of their friends, and all have a variety of adventures and not a little fun. While on the Gulf the boys discover a deserted steam yacht, board the craft, and try to ascertain who is the owner, and this leads to a mystery which I leave the pages that follow to unfold.

Once again I take the opportunity to thank the thousands of young folks all over our broad land who have signified their appreciation of my efforts to afford them amusement and at the same time teach a moral. Were it possible I should like nothing better than to write to each and shake everyone by the hand. But that is out of the question, so I can simply pen my thanks, and subscribe myself,

Affectionately and sincerely yours,

ARTHUR M. WINFIELD.

THE ROVER BOYS IN SOUTHERN WATERS

CHAPTER I

THE ROVER BOYS AND THEIR FRIENDS

"The houseboat is gone!"

"Tom, what do you mean?"

"I mean just what I say, Sam. The houseboat is gone—vanished, missing, disappeared, drifted away, stolen!" ejaculated Tom Rover, excitedly.

"Tom, don't go on in such a crazy fashion. Do you mean to say the houseboat isn't where we left it?"

"It is not,—and it is nowhere in sight on the river," returned Tom
Rover. "Come, we must tell Dick and the others about this."

"But we left the Dora in charge of that big planter last night," insisted the youngest of the Rover boys. "He said he would take good care of the craft."

"Well, he is gone too. I hunted high and low for the houseboat, and for that planter, but without success."

"Maybe the boat drifted away, with the planter on board, Tom. The current has been pretty strong since those heavy rains."

"She was tied up good and tight," answered Tom Rover, his usually merry face wearing a troubled look. "I can't understand it."

"I must say I didn't like that planter's manner much. He looked to be rather a sly one. Come on, let us find Dick and the others at once," went on Sam Rover. "If the houseboat has been stolen we want to know it right away, so we can get on the trail of the thief."

"True for you, Sam." Tom Rover heaved a short sigh. "My! what a lot of troubles we have had since we started on this houseboat trip!"

"Yes—but we have had lots of sport too."

The two brothers were standing near the bank of the broad Mississippi River, just below the town of Shapette, in Louisiana. The party to which they belonged had reached the town on their journey down the Father of Waters the day before, and an hour later the houseboat had been tied up at a bend in the stream and left in charge of a planter who had appeared and volunteered for the task. The planter had given his name as Gasper Pold, and had stated that his plantation lay half a mile inland, on higher ground. He had mentioned several people in Shapette as being his close friends—among others the principal storekeeper—and the boys had thought it all right to get him to look after the houseboat while they paid a visit to a sugar plantation where one of their party had a distant relative living.

To my old readers the Rover boys, Sam, Tom, and Dick, need no special introduction. Sam was the youngest, fun-loving Tom next, and cool-headed and clever Dick the oldest.

When at home the three boys lived with their father, Anderson Rover, and their uncle Randolph and aunt Martha in a pleasant portion of New York State called Valley Brook, near the village of Dexter's Corners. From that home they had gone, as already related in "The Rover Boys at School," to Putnam Hall, an ideal place of learning, where they made many friends and also some enemies.

A term at school had been followed by a brief trip on the Atlantic Ocean, and then a journey to the jungles of Africa, where the lads went in a hunt for their father, who had become lost. Then they had gone west, to establish a family claim to a valuable mine, and afterwards taken two well-deserved outings, one on the Great Lakes and the other in the mountains.

From the mountains the Rover boys had expected to go back to Putnam Hall, but a scarlet fever scare caused a temporary closing of that institution of learning and the lads took a trip to the Pacific coast and were cast away on the ocean, as told of in "The Rover Boys on Land and Sea," the seventh volume of this series.