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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 53: Cooper 17
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 300
The soldiers nearly threw Cooper and Wilhelm down onto the raft–not, he thought, a boat, as it was rectangular and close to square, sitting above the water on a simple log understructure, with a couple of what he thought were paddles rather than oars and a rudder at one end which he took to be the stern. He might have called it a catamaran, but that he thought that pontoons and a motor were defining features of that craft. This had a low gunnel, maybe six inches above the deck. It occurred to him that had he failed to stop himself he would easily have tripped over the bow gunnel and landed in the river, where his swimming skills would have been severely taxed to stay above water in the current with his wrists bound behind his back. Maybe he could do it. Maybe, he thought, that was the hope. Obviously the sides were intended only to reduce the amount of water coming onto the deck, not to provide any safety for the passengers or crew.
He also noted that the river appeared to his eye to be running a bit high and fast. There must have been heavy rain in the mountains upstream overnight. With no draft or keel he wondered how stable the raft would be in the current.
They planted him sitting in the center, Wilhelm beside him. He had lost the song when he stumbled onto the craft, but now picked it up again. He felt the boat slide roughly off the beach into the water and immediately be picked up by the current. He wondered at the effort it must take to bring it back, but then maybe the water wasn’t always this swift.
He heard the soldiers shouting at each other in what might have been Italian. It started as what sounded like orders and responses, but then started to grow into anger, and then possibly mild panic. It also did not appear that the boat was going where they wanted it to go
Something occurred to him, so he tried to put it into German. Wilhelm knows how to operate a boat in these waters, and he’s strong enough to handle the current. If you want to live, you need to untie him and let him get us all to shore.
Someone said they weren’t going to untie him, that is, Cooper. Cooper responded that he wasn’t asking them or expecting them to untie him, but it was Wilhelm who could save them, so he had to be untied.
The soldiers struggled with the boat for another half a minute, but at this point water was sloshing over the gunnels and starting to fill the deck. One of them, who seemed to be in charge, barked at Wilhelm asking if he thought he could do anything. He responded that if they untied him and followed his directions he could get them safely to shore. Hesitating only another moment, he ordered Wilhelm released. The Swiss country squire rubbed his wrists, then picked up one of the several paddles and headed to the rudder. He shouted orders, telling the guards where to stand, and having those on one side paddle forward while those on the other side were to back-paddle, pivoting the ship in the water. He adjusted the rudder and shouted for them all to paddle as strongly as they could, shouting to keep them in rhythm with each other. The raft started crossing the current even as it continued downstream, until the bow crunched onto a beach.
“Raus, raus, raus, raus, raus!” he shouted, telling them to get out of the raft. Cooper stumbled to his feet and followed the four soldiers off the bow of the craft onto the land.
As his weight left the bow of the raft, it rose off the ground, and with one mighty stroke Wilhelm pulled it away from the shore and back into the current. One of the soldiers dove for it, but wound up floundering in the water in his armor while his companions struggled to rescue him. Extend the paddle to him, let him grab it, and pull him ashore, Cooper tried to explain in his weak German. It seemed someone got it, and they managed to rescue their companion–but by then Wilhelm was out of bowshot range downriver and across, abandoning the raft on the shore as he climbed the bank to disappear into the mountains.
Cooper looked around. He thought it probably not an accident that they were on the opposite side of the river from the city, and Wilhelm was on the same side as his road home.
“Where to, gentlemen?” he asked, and then when they stared at him uncomprehendingly he repeated it in German.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #505: Versers Advance. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
