After supper had been eaten the boys switched on all the lights and sat out on deck. There was a brilliant moon, but they preferred to let everybody in that vicinity know that they were there--hence the electric lights.

"If any one sneaks up on us now," Alex. laughed, "he'll have to get to us by the under-water route! And, even then, one of us would be apt to see him. Captain Joe is losing his record as a watch dog, but I guess Teddy can take his place."

Captain Joe, as if he understood every word that had been said, and resented the insinuation, walked up to the prow and sat in a meditative mood, looking over the small "tow-head" which sheltered the boat from the current. He sat there motionless so long that Alex.

finally called attention to him.

"Ah knows what he's done seein'!" exclaimed Mose. "Dar's a big fat c.o.o.n watchin' us from dat mess ob bushes. Ah done seen him long time ago!"

An inspection of the spot pointed out showed half a dozen evil-looking negroes watching the boat.

CHAPTER XI

FIRE-FACES ON THE ISLAND

"What are they squatting there watching the boat for?" queried Jule, as the prow light fell full on the group of negroes on the island.

"They don't look good to me!"

"If we keep away from them," Case suggested, "and don't try to stare them out of countenance, they'll probably keep away from us. They do look fierce, though!"

While the boys discussed the matter the negroes moved away from the sh.o.r.e of the island, where they were under the boat lights, and secreted themselves behind a patch of willows which fringed the "tow-head," for the place where they were was little else.

"I don't believe they have any idea of letting us alone, if they can manage to get on board the _Rambler_," Clay declared. "I have often read that lawless negroes and whites are alike alert for plunder during flood seasons, and it is floating goods those fellows are after, unless I am much mistaken. We'll have to keep a sharp watch to-night."

"Wouldn't it be wiser to drive them away?" asked Alex., with one of his grins.

"We have no right to drive them away," Case suggested. "We may get into trouble if we try it. I'll watch half the night and not mind it at all."

Alex. nudged Jule in the side and whispered in his ear for a moment.

"Jule and I will watch the first half," he then said. "Perhaps they will go off home by midnight, and Case won't have to watch at all."

"Alex.," Clay exclaimed, "you've got some mischief in your mind.

Heretofore you've come out of your sc.r.a.pes with whole bones, but sometime you'll get into serious trouble if you don't stop running out nights. I strongly advise you to let those levee negroes alone! You go to bed early, and I'll watch the boat!"

"Who's got mischief in the mind?" grinned Alex. "I guess I can stay up until midnight without gettin' into trouble! You see if I don't make the dandy watchman to-night! When it comes to keeping guard, I'm the candy boy!"

"You usually manage to get into trouble when you are left alone!"

laughed Clay.

"If I can't be good to-night," grinned Alex., "I'll be careful."

Nothing more was seen of the negroes at that time, although the boys were satisfied that they were still on the island, as no boat had been seen to leave it.

After a time Clay, Case and Mose went to bed, leaving Alex., Jule, Captain Joe, and Teddy on deck. The dog seemed particularly wide awake, moving about as if he scented danger, while the cub sat looking toward the island with twitching nostrils.

"Seems as if the dog and the cub know there's something coming off here to-night," Jule remarked, as Captain Joe put his paw on the gunwale and sniffed the air. "Do you really think they have a way of discovering approaching peril which human beings have not? Captain Joe certainly looks as if he saw something unpleasant coming."

"I often think dogs have an instinct which warns them of danger,"

Alex. replied.

"Well," Jule went on, "we'll soon see what comes of the signals of danger he is now handing out to us! Whatever he sees or senses is on that island."

The boys watched for a long time, but there came no sounds of life from the island.

"You're like the dog," Jule said to Alex., presently. "You are getting ready for a break of some sort! Suppose you loosen up and tell me what it is?"

"You remember that night on the Amazon, when we scared the life out of a couple of renegade Englishmen and a native Indian?" asked Alex.

"Sure I do!" was the reply. "That was the funniest ever!"

"Well," Alex. explained, "I'm goin' to try something like that on these negroes."

"Better let 'em alone!" advised Jule. "They are wise to tricks!"

"Shucks!" Alex. laughed. "I'll have them walking on their heads, and walking the water at that. I wish I had a boat, so I wouldn't have to swim to the island!"

"We've lost a rowboat every trip!" Jule exclaimed. "I wonder why we didn't pick the one we had off the raft and fix it up. It wasn't badly smashed."

"We may find it yet," Alex. said, hopefully. "We have come down just a little faster than the current, and so it is probably behind us. When it comes down we'll get it and make it as good as new."

"Yes, when we get it!" laughed Jule. "There's a thousand people along the island beaches and mainland levees watching for boats! Just like these negroes are watching for anything at all that seems worth picking out of the water!"

"It won't do any harm to keep a lookout for it," Alex. decided. "Now,"

he added, turning out the lights and throwing off his coat, "do you want to go to the sh.o.r.e with me? If you will go I'll show you a race that will beat anything you ever saw."

"And leave the boat alone?" demanded Jule. "I should say not. I'll remain here and see that your retreat is properly covered. You'll want some one here to hold a gun on the negroes you seem determined to stir up."

"Now don't get a grouch on," pleaded Alex. "I'm doing this purely in the interest of science! I want to see how far the emanc.i.p.ation proclamation has relieved the negroes of the south from the old-time superst.i.tions of the race! Not to put too fine a point upon it, kid, I want to see what a good healthy ghost will do to a lot of river thieves! Do you get me?"

"Going to play ghost, are you," laughed Jule. "Then I'll be a ghost, too!"

Alex. listened at the cabin door for a moment, but heard no sounds indicating the lack of sleep on the inside. Then he crept in, fumbled around in the darkness until he found two old bathing suits and a square package which smelled of sulphur.

"Now," he explained to Jule, as he came out, "we'll put on these bathing suits, so as to have dry clothes ready when we return from the island! You take a part of the matches, for we may become separated in the thicket. We won't do the Mephisto act until we get to the island, then rub the sulphur on thick--on your hands and face."

"I guess I know how!" Jule remonstrated.

The boys placed their clothing in two piles on the deck and donned the bathing suits--much to the wonder of Captain Joe, who wrinkled his nose and looked suspiciously at the boys. His remarks on the subject of bathing in a swift river in the night time were not in favor of the experiment. However, he crouched down by Alex.'s feet and expressed himself as willing to share in the doubtful expedition.

"When we get into the willows," Alex. explained, "I'll let out a yell which will put Mose's efforts in that direction away to the bad! Then you run at them on the right and I'll close in on the left, and we'll see a race that will put the Greek events out on a blind siding with fires banked. When you are ready, drop in and swim for the bunch of willows straight ahead. Swim slow and don't make any noise."

The boys left the dark deck of the _Rambler_ and entered the water.

There was little current where the boat lay, and they had no difficulty in making the willows pointed out by the promoter of the midnight excursion. The lights of Memphis made a faint haze in the sky to the south. The wash of the river drowned all individual noises. In the distance the caving of a bank sent down a heavy sound.

Believing that they had left the boat without awakening any of the sleepers and landed on the island without attracting the attention of the negroes, the boys crouched down in a thicket and listened.