Part 26 (2/2)

”Those green lights way over yonder are on the American locks. Now port your helm and steer for that white light standing high above the rest.

Are you on it?”

”On the mark, sir,” answered Steve.

They continued on this course for ten or fifteen minutes, when the captain ordered the wheelman to starboard his wheel. This threw the bow to the left, sending the boat across the bay on a diagonal course.

”Why don't you go straight in?” asked Jarvis.

”We should land high and dry on the rocks if we did,” answered the skipper, with a short laugh. ”Others have tried that very thing. The hulls of some of their s.h.i.+ps are down there under the water now.”

The boys began to realize that navigating the Great Lakes required a great deal of skill and knowledge.

”There is a s.h.i.+p in the locks now,” announced Captain Simms.

Both boys gazed into the night, but they could see no s.h.i.+p. The master signaled the engine room to slow down, explaining, at the same time, that they would have to drift in slowly and stop until the other boat got out.

The channel began to narrow as the master directed the wheel this way and that until they found themselves in a walled-in channel that led directly to the locks themselves.

”Snub her!” commanded the captain, leaning from the pilot-house window.

A ladder was shoved over the side of the moving s.h.i.+p, a man on either side of it on deck pus.h.i.+ng it along so that it might not be dragged.

Quick as a flash a sailor sprang on the ladder, and, grasping the side pieces, shot down to the dock on that side, a distance of some twenty feet. Following came others, all getting down in the same manner. It was a dangerous thing to do and excited the wonder and admiration of the two boys in the pilot-house.

”If I were to try that I would be in the water,” laughed Rush. ”It is a good thing for me that I am at the wheel, for I wouldn't be able to resist trying that experiment.”

Hawsers were cast over from the deck, and these, the men who had gone over the side, twisted about snubbing posts. At the same time the s.h.i.+p's propeller began reversing slowly at a signal from the captain. The s.h.i.+p came to an easy stop. The skill with which it had all been done, made a deep impression on the Iron Boys.

A few moments later the gates of the locks opened and the other steamer moved slowly out. So close did they pa.s.s the ”Richmond” that some of the men reached out and shook hands across the gulf, while the two captains held a brief conversation. Then the ”Richmond” let go her moorings and moved slowly into the Canadian locks. The gates swung to behind them, the water began rus.h.i.+ng from the other end of the locks and the s.h.i.+p rapidly settled until her decks were level with the dock beside which she stood. The men who had gone over the side now stepped aboard and hauled in the hawsers after them.

”Marvelous!” breathed the Iron Boys.

”Slow speed ahead,” commanded the skipper. ”We are now on the Huron level. Here comes your relief. I hope you boys get a good night's sleep.”

”Thank you, sir; good night,” answered the lads, starting for their cabin. It had been a most interesting evening for them.

CHAPTER XVI

THROUGH THE ROCKY CUT

FOUR long and two short blasts roared from the whistle of the ”Richmond.”

It was the private signal of Captain Simms. The s.h.i.+p was bearing down on Port Huron and was at that moment at the mouth of the St. Clair River.

The skipper stepped to the door of the pilot-house with megaphone in hand.

”This is where I live,” he explained. ”My wife always comes out to see me as we pa.s.s. See the light there, in that cottage on the river bank?

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