The River Motor Boat Boys on the Mississippi.

by Harry Gordon.

CHAPTER I

A RAMBLER RECEPTION DAY

A white bulldog of ferocious aspect lay sound asleep under a small table. Lying across the dog's neck, with his soft muzzle hidden between capable paws, was a quarter-grown grizzly bear. Now and then Captain Joe, as the dog was named, stirred uneasily in his sleep, as if in remonstrance at the liberties which Teddy, the cub, was taking with his person. The bulldog and the cub snored in unison!

The table under which the animals slept stood in the middle of the small cabin of the motor boat _Rambler_, and the _Rambler_ was pulling at her anchor chain in the muddy water of the Mississippi river--pulling and jerking for all the world like a fat pig with a ring in his nose trying to get rid of the line which held him in captivity.

Although early in November, there were wandering flakes of snow in the air, and a chill wind from the northwest was sweeping over the Mississippi valley. There had been several days of continuous rain, and, at Cairo, where the motor boat lay, both the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers were out of their banks.

In spite of the wind and snow, however, the cabin of the _Rambler_ was cozy and warm. In front of the table where the bulldog and the young bear lay stood a coal stove, on the top of which two boys of sixteen, Clayton Emmett and Alexander Smithwick, were cooking ham and eggs, the appetizing flavor of which filled the little room. A dish of sliced potatoes stood not far away, and over the cherry-red coils of an electric stove at the rear of the cabin a great pot of coffee was sizzling and adding its fragrance to rich contributions of the frying pan.

While the boys, growing hungrier every second, stirred the fire and laid the table, footsteps were heard on the forward deck of the motor boat, and then, without even announcing his presence by a knock, a roughly-dressed man of perhaps forty years stepped into the cabin and stood for a moment staring at the bulldog and the bear, stood with a hand on the k.n.o.b of the door, as if ready for retreat, his lips open, as if the view of the interior had checked words half spoken. Alex.

Smithwick regarded the man for a moment with a flash of anger in his eyes, then he caught the humor of the situation and resolved to punish the intruder for his impudence in walking into the cabin without a bit of ceremony.

"Look out for the bulldog and the bear!" he warned. "They consumed two river-men last week! The bulldog tears 'em down, an' the bear eats 'em!"

"What kind of a menagerie is this?" began the visitor, but Alex. gave the bulldog a touch with his foot, and the dog and the bear were in the middle of the s.p.a.ce between the table and the stove, snarling fiercely, before the startled intruder could open the door. "Call the brutes off!" he added as Teddy began boxing the empty air.

"Don't stand in the doorway!" Alex. warned, while Clay Emmett turned his face away so as not to betray his enjoyment of the situation. "It makes 'em mad to keep the door open! What do you want?"

The visitor stepped outside and beckoned to the boys through the gla.s.s panel. Alex. went out on the deck and stood waiting. The visitor was evidently a riverman, tall, muscular, heavy of hand and sullen of face. He wore rough clothing, neither clean nor whole, and his face was well covered by a bushy beard, light in color except around the mouth, where it was stained with tobacco. Alex. noted that he looked away whenever their eyes met for an instant.

"I'm Gid Brent, the riverman," he said, in a moment, "and I've come to warn you boys against starting out alone, on the river in this boat."

"That's kind of you," Alex. replied. "What's the matter with the boat?"

"It is the river there's something the matter with," replied the other. "The water is high, and is pouring into all the old channels and ditches from Cairo to the Gulf. If you start out without a pilot, you'll run into some bayou and end in a swamp, a couple of hundred miles from the main channel."

"You're a pilot, eh?" asked Alex., with a provoking grin.

"Yes; and I'm called the best on the river," was the boasting reply.

"And you're looking for a job?" Alex. continued, insinuatingly.

"I might accept the right kind of a job," Brent replied, "but I shouldn't want any menagerie on board with me. Where are you boys going?"

"Oh, well," Alex. said, gravely, though there was fun in his eyes, "if you object to our pets, that settles it! We brought Captain Joe, the bulldog, from the Amazon, and Teddy Bear, the cub, from British Columbia."

"Oh, if they're tame!" the other exclaimed. "I might----"

"I'll call 'em out an' see what they say to you!" Alex. replied, mischief in his eyes, opening the cabin door and inviting the bulldog and the bear out to the deck!

Captain Joe snarled at the man's feet and Teddy Bear stood up and squared off in front of him in a boxing att.i.tude! Brent swung toward the little pier against which the motor boat lay, and the animals, thus encouraged, sprang at him.

In a minute the pilot was on the pier, racing toward the sh.o.r.e as if for his life! Clay came out on deck and both boys stood laughing at the retreating figure. Presently Brent came to an old warehouse, where security might be found in an open doorway. Here he stopped and turned back, shaking a fist at the grinning lads.

"I'll be even with you for that!" he shouted. "I'll teach you to set your dog on me, you miserable little b.u.m-boat tramps! I'll show you!"

"Get him, Captain Joe!" cried Alex., angry at the impertinent language used, but Clay caught the bulldog by the collar and held him back.

"All right!" smiled Alex. "Let the tramp go, if you want to! Anyway, I'm about half starved! Funny, Case and Jule don't get back! They've been gone three hours!"

"They'll get cold beans for supper if they don't show up pretty soon!"

Clay said, turning back to the cabin. "The ham and eggs and potatoes are just done!"

Even as Alex. closed the cabin door behind himself, running footsteps were heard, and the next moment two boys of about his own age, Cornelius Witters and Julian Shafer, made their appearance, racing off the pier and on to the deck of the motor boat like young colts. They dashed into the cabin and dropped down into seats at the table.

"What's the matter with the fellow at the head of the pier?" Case Witters asked. "He called to us not to come down here! Said there was a crazy boy, a mad dog and a grizzly loose in the boat! Guess you got him peeved, didn't you?"

"He's too fresh!" Alex. responded. "He came on board as if he owned the boat, and then had the nerve to tell us that we'd get lost if we went down the river without a pilot! He wanted a pilot's job! We should have given Captain Joe a bite out of him!"

"Did he say he was a pilot?" asked Jule Shafer, with a wink at Case.

"Sure thing he did!" answered Alex. "Said he was the best on the river!"

"Well," Case began, "if he is a pilot he is out of practice! I heard him asking a man about the pa.s.sage from Hickman to Reelfoot lake. When we went up-town that same man who spoke to us on the pier stood on the levee with a bunch of toughs. Their heads were together, as if they were planning mischief. I thought they looked at Jule and I in a strange way, too!"

"I don't believe he ever came on board to get a job!" Jule broke in.

"He's a spy! That's just what he is, and I wish Captain Joe had eaten him up!"

"But why should he come spying here?" asked Clay. "We're not river thieves!"

"Well, there's something odd going on at Cairo!" Case a.s.serted. "There are crowds on the streets, and the policemen seem to be on their metal! I guess we would have been locked up as suspects if we hadn't had on pretty good clothes!"

"Why didn't you ask some one to tell you about it?" demanded Alex.

"We did," Jule answered, "and got our trouble for our pains! There's been a warehouse robbery up the river somewhere, but I don't see why that should make such a stir down here at Cairo. The merchant I ordered the gasoline of said that $100,000 in diamonds and furs had been taken, and that a watchman who resisted had been seriously wounded."

"Perhaps they think we're the thieves!" suggested Clay.

"I shouldn't wonder if they did," Case grinned. "Anyway, the men I talked with seemed to have loose shingles--they acted that way, all right!"

"Loose shingles!" cried Alex. "You'll wash dishes for a week for that!

Loose shingles is slang, and we're not to talk slang. If you wanted to indicate a slant in the belfry, why didn't you say----"

"Slant in the belfry!" roared Case. "Guess that isn't slang! I'll have plenty of help washing dishes, all right. S-a-a-y, listen to that, will you!"

As the boy spoke he lifted a hand for silence, and the four sat at the table silent and motionless. It was growing dusk now, and the deck of the motor boat showed dim under the gathering shadows of the night.

While the lads sat there, listening, Captain Joe, the bulldog, ran to the closed door and sniffed suspiciously.

"There's some one out on deck!" Case exclaimed, then. "I wonder if that fellow has had the nerve to come back here? I'll go and see who it is, anyway."