CHAPTER III.

THE CABIN BY THE SHORE.

The water was icy cold and as Bob went beneath the surface it seemed to him that his blood froze in his veins. Thanks to the cork jacket which he had kept on his head bobbed out of the water almost immediately and, as he rose on the top of a wave, he looked about for Jack, and saw him only a few feet away.

"Where's the captain?" he shouted.

"Don't know," Jack shouted back shaking the water from his eyes.

Both boys were expert swimmers and, with the help of the life preservers, they had no difficulty in keeping afloat although the big waves dashed over their heads filling their eyes with salt water.

"I'm afraid he's a goner," Bob gasped as he fought his way to his brother's side. "He didn't have on a preserver, you know."

"And I reckon we're goners too in spite of them," Jack chattered back.

Bob felt in his heart that Jack was right unless a miracle happened as he well knew that no one could live long in that cold water which seemed to penetrate to the very marrow of the bones.

"Swim hard so as to keep up the circulation," he began and then paused as his eyes caught sight of something floating in the water only a few feet to his right. A few powerful strokes brought him to the spot, but the object had disappeared. With a prayer on his lips he dove and swam downward with all his strength. Down, down, he struggled until he knew that he had reached his limit. Then, just as he was about to turn, his outstretched hand came in contact with something and he knew he had found what he was after. The memory of that awful struggle to the surface haunted his dreams for months afterward. But, although it seemed as though his lungs would burst with pressure and he more than once nearly lost his hold, he finally succeeded and, to his great relief, he came up close beside Jack.

"Hold him a minute," he gasped.

As Jack relieved him he drank in great gulps of air and immediately felt the strength pouring bade info his body.

"Is he dead?" Jack shouted.

"Don't know, but we must keep him up as long as we can."

"You bet."

Holding the form of the captain between them they fought the waves striving to protect him from their fury as much as possible. The wind had swept the overturned boat far beyond their reach and they knew it would be useless to try to reach it.

"I--I'm about all in," Jack gasped after they had fought but a few minutes.

Bob knew that he himself was in about the same condition, but he would not give up as long as an ounce of strength remained.

"Let me have him while you rest a bit," he said trying to keep his teeth from chattering and the weakness from his voice.

"Not--much," he heard Jack murmur.

Bob did not have enough strength to insist and so they kept on until it seemed he could not possibly take another stroke. Was this to be the end?

"I--I've got to--give--" he heard Jack cry but, at the same moment his heart gave a great leap for his feet touched something and, the next instant he was standing only waist deep in the water and helping Jack to recover his footing while holding the captain's head above water with one hand.

"Just in time," he encouraged his brother.

"I--I'll say--it was," Jack's teeth chattered so that he could hardly speak.

Between them they managed to drag the unconscious form of the captain through the shallow water to the shore, which was covered to a depth of several inches, with snow.

"What are we going to do?" Jack panted as he looked about him. "We'll all be frozen stiff in a few minutes if we stand here. Suppose we can get a fire going?"

"I've got a waterproof box of matches somewhere but I'm afraid we'll not be able to find anything that'll burn."

"Well we'd better--" Jack began and then uttered a cry of joy. "There comes somebody," he shouted.

Through the gloom they could see a point of light swinging in such a way that they knew someone was approaching with a lantern.

"This way, quick," Bob shouted, and, a moment later a tall, thickset man stood beside them.

"Whar from you come, oui?" he asked.

"We were wrecked and--and, is there a house near?" Bob replied.

"Oui, ver' close by," the man told them and then, putting his hands to his mouth shouted: "Hey Jacques, Pierre, come queek, queek."

It seemed that he had hardly called before an answering shout came through the night and two forms, dimly seen at first, soon joined them.

"You tak' heem to the house queek," the man ordered, and as the others picked up the captain as though he was a child, he turned to the boys.

"You think you walk heem? Eet's just behind that bush clump."

"Sure, we're all right," Bob assured him as they started off through the snow.

As they rounded the clump of bushes a good sized log cabin loomed before them and, in another minute, they were inside in front of a roaring fireplace.

"You geet dem wet things off queek now and tak' one bon rub with deese towel," their benefactor ordered as he pulled a couple of coarse, but clean towels from a chest. "Dem boys dey look after heem," he added nodding toward the other side of the fire where Jacques and Pierre were already at work stripping the wet clothing from the captain.

"Is--is he alive?" Bob asked.

"Oui, heem still breath some, but heem one mighty close call. Mebby heem geet well, mebby not. Eet for the bon Dieu to say. We do the best we can."

"God must have sent you out to us," Jack declared rubbing his body till it glowed.

"Oui, Le Dieu, heem tell me go out. Me go."

A few minutes later wrapped in heavy blankets they were toasting their feet in front of the fireplace and drinking hot coffee while the captain, also wrapped in blankets, had been placed in one of the bunks which lined one side of the cabin, after everything possible had been done. He was still unconscious and they knew that his life hung in the balance.

"I never thought I'd be so warm again," Jack sighed contentedly as he sipped his second dipper of hot coffee.

"Nor did I," Bob agreed. "It was little short of a miracle. But what I can't understand is why there wasn't more surf where we came ashore."

"That's so. I never thought of it, but it does seem strange. Maybe we drifted into a cove or something."

"Reckon we must have."

"We'll ask one of the men when they come in," Jack said as he listened to the sounds which came from a back room, which he supposed was the kitchen and which indicated that they were getting a meal.

"Wonder what became of the other boats."

"They didn't come in where we did, that's sure."

"Maybe they were picked up."

"I hope so."

The faint light of the coming dawn was just beginning to steal in through the window when, a little later, they heard a low moan from the bunk where the captain had been laid. Bob hurried across the room, closely followed by Jack, and bent over the bed. The captain's eyes were open, but in them was no sign of recognition.

"Hard to the starboard," he muttered. And then, "Starboard I said, not port."

Bob laid his hand on the man's forehead and, as he expected, found it very hot.

"He's burning up with fever," he told Jack.

"You--you think?"

"Pneumonia, most likely."

Just then the door opened and Pierre came in with the announcement that breakfast was ready.

"The captain has recovered consciousness, but he's out of his head," Bob told him.

"Oui, we thot he would be. Jacques, heem gone for doctor."

"How long will it take?"

"Eet tak' long time--too bad--eet thirty mile an heem have to walk, but heem go ver' fast an' come back wid horse, mebby gas wagon."

"But he may die before he gets the doctor here."

"I think not. We geeve heem medicine."

"Pray God he may live," Bob sighed.

"Oui, we pray. Now you geet eats. I watch heem."

Had food ever tasted so good as those baked beans and hot biscuit to say nothing of the huge wedge of apple pie which followed? Both boys agreed that if it had they had forgotten when or where.

"If I eat another mouthful I'll burst," Bob declared as he pushed back his chair.

"Well, I can still chew, but that's the limit. There won't another bit go down," Jack added.

Breakfast over they found that their clothes had dried and they were soon, as Jack put it, clothed in their right minds once more. The three Frenchmen, they soon learned, were trappers and had lived here for years as they were brothers and none had married.

The captain was raving as they came again info the big living room and, at times, Pierre was having his hands full to hold him in the bunk.

"Heem ver' bad, but heem got lots strength an' that bon sign," he said as they approached.

"You think he'll pull through?" Bob asked anxiously.

"No can tell." Pierre shook his head.

"Can we do anything?"

"Non. I geeve him medicine, all we can do."

As they walked slowly around the clump of bushes and looked out over the tumbling water they saw that their conjecture regarding the surf, or rather the lack of it, had been correct. A small cove, the points of which were only a few yards apart, broke the violence of the waves, making the water inside comparatively still.

"It's lucky we hit the opening," Bob said as he watched the rollers come in and break outside the cove.

"I'll say it was. I doubt if we could have gotten ashore outside without having the life knocked out of us," Jack agreed.

"It's awful when you think what may have happened to the rest of them," Bob said as they turned back.

"But they may have been picked up or got ashore all right."

"We'll hope so at any rate."

It was nearly two o'clock when the doctor came in a small touring car with Jacques. After a hasty examination he confirmed their fears that it was pneumonia.

"Both lungs are congested," he told them. "But his heart action is strong and he's evidently lived a clean life, two very important factors in a case of this kind."

"Then you think he has a chance?" Bob asked.

"Sure he has," the doctor assured him. "But, of course, you never can tell how pneumonia is going to turn out. Much depends on the nursing."

"Can we get a trained nurse?"

"You've got one." The doctor nodded toward Pierre who had stepped over to the fireplace. "What that fellow doesn't know about nursing hasn't yet been learned. I'd rather have him than anyone I know."

"He was the captain of the steamer."

"Is that so? How did it happen that you three were together?"

Bob told him the story of their escape. "Did you hear anything of any of the other boats?" he asked when he had finished.

"Yes, three of them came ashore about ten miles down the coast and the others were picked up early this morning a few miles out."

"Then there were no deaths?"

"Not unless some of them die from the effects."

"It's good to know that," Bob assured him.

The doctor left an hour later promising to come again the next day and somehow the boys felt encouraged although they realized that the captain was a very sick man.

"We'll have to stay here till it goes one way or the other," Bob whispered to Jack as the doctor drove off.

"Of course, unless we'll be in the way."

But Baptist, the older of the three brothers and the one who had found them, assured them that so far from being in the way, they could do much to help as they had their traps to see to. So they remained and did all they could to help about the place. When the doctor came the next day he found his patient about the same and told them that in all probability there would not be much change for another week at least. When he left the boys asked him to take a message to wire to their father and also to the ranch that they were safe.

Day followed day with little or no change in the sick man. Pierre was untiring in his nursing and the boys soon found that the doctor's praise had not been misplaced. No woman could have been more tender than was this rough appearing Frenchman. Night and day he watched by the bed of the stricken man leaving his post only long enough to snatch a few hours' sleep each day. At times the captain was in his right mind for a few minutes and then he recognized them with a faint smile of gratitude. But for the most part he lay in a stupor. Only occasionally did he rave and then his mutterings were all of the sea.

Once his heart nearly stopped beating and Pierre thought, for a moment that he was gone, but an injection of a powerful stimulant brought him around. Then, a few days later, came the crisis and the two boys waited with bated breath while Pierre bent over the bunk watching for the slightest sign of change.

"Queek. The blankets," he shouted suddenly, and they grabbed from before the fireplace the thick woolen blankets which had been hanging there for several hours.

"Shut the windows," Pierre ordered as he snatched them from their hands.

Quickly he wrapped the man in the warm folds and then sat with his fingers on his pulse.

"Heem will live." Pierre sprang to his feet as he made the announcement and the boys never forgot the look on his face as he closed his eyes. They knew he was praying and they bowed their heads.

"See heem sweat."

Bending over the captain, who lay with closed eyes, they could see the great drops of sweat on his forehead and knew that Pierre had spoken the truth. The fever was broken and, barring the unexpected, the captain was on the road to recovery.

"Thank God," Bob breathed as they moved away.

"Amen," Jack added.

Great was the joy of Baptist and Jacques, when they returned from a trip to their traps shortly before dark, to learn the good news.

"And it's all due to your nursing, Pierre," Bob declared.

"Non--non. Le Bon Dieu, heem watch over heem," the Frenchman insisted.

"Yes, he'll pull through all right now," the doctor said when he came the following day. "Didn't I tell you he was a good nurse?"

"He's the best ever," Bob assured him.

Another week and the captain was able to sit up though still very weak.

"I owe my life twice to you boys," he said slowly as Bob pushed his chair nearer to the fire.

"But most of all to Pierre," Bob reminded him.

"I know, and he shall have his reward if he will accept it. I am not a poor man by any means, but what do you think? Can I offer him money?"

"I don't think he would accept it?"

"Nor do I. And yet I must do something. What would you suggest?"

"Wait till you get home and then send them all a good present."

"I'll do it. You don't find men like them very often."

It had been arranged that the boys were to leave the next day. Now that the captain was well out of danger they felt that they must not delay longer and the doctor was to take them back to the little town thirty miles down the coast, where they could get a train for Seattle.