CHAPTER XVI

WHAT DROPPED ON DECK

"I guess my turning on that light started something!" the boy mused, as he darkened the small electric globe in the cabin and sat down to await developments. He kept just inside the cabin door at first, for the wind was cold and searching.

For a few moments he could hear the working of oars and the push of the current on an advancing boat, and then all was silent save the sighing of the wind and the wash of the river, still burdened at times with floating wreckage. It seemed to him that the boat which had slipped away from the steamer had anch.o.r.ed somewhere near the _Rambler_.

"I fully believe," Case grunted, as he finally left the cabin and looked out upon the dim river from the deck, "that if we should fly through the air on a cloud there would be some scamp watching us from another cloud! It's rotten, the way we are chased about!"

The boy did not know that his complaint had found words until he heard a chuckle close to his side and turned about to faintly distinguish the freckled face of Alex., who stood looking over the river to the south.

"You've got no kick coming!" Alex. declared. "You wouldn't go on these river trips if we found nothing more than scenery, any more than I would! It seems like living to be chased about, as you call it! If it wasn't for the mystery and adventure in the jaunts I'd be at home in little old Chicago--and that's where you'd be, too!"

"Well," Case returned, "I'd like to get one night off occasionally!"

"What is it now?" asked Alex. "I heard the steamer pa.s.s, but that didn't mean anything to me. What's going wrong now? Tell your old uncle Alex. all about it!"

"Uncle nothing!" laughed Case, restored to better humor by the optimism of the other. "If you want to know what's on the string, go and get a gla.s.s and try to find a rowboat in this mess of river and black sky. A safety razor that won't cut air will be given to the first one that discovers the boat!"

"Oh!" cried Alex. "There's a boat watching us! All right! Now I feel better! I was beginning to wonder when we'd have something to stir us up!"

"The boat dropped off when the steamer went up," Case explained. "I saw it under the lights, but of course it vanished in the darkness as soon as the big boat pa.s.sed."

"There's something going on, then!" Alex. declared. "Of course they wouldn't know on board the steamer in the dark, that we were here, and so the thing which is going to happen is set to come off on sh.o.r.e. I'm going to stay awake and see what it is."

"You see," Case stated, hesitatingly, "I heard a b.u.mp on the hull of the _Rambler_, just as the steamer was churning into sight, around that bend, and turned on the prow light to see about it! That's why the rowboat dropped off here, I take it."

Alex. gave vent to a long, low whistle.

"Then we've got into the spot-light again!" he said. "It won't be any trouble for me to keep awake now! Shall we tell Clay the glad news, or let him sleep?"

"Oh, let him sleep! We can run this watch, all right!"

While the boys whispered and listened, the long, bellowing roar of a locomotive whistle came to their ears from the east. Then came the distant rumble of a train.

"What do you make of that?" asked Case. "I thought we were in the heart of a wild river country, and here come a train of cars--palace cars, I'll go you, at that!"

"About three or four miles from the river, in the state of Mississippi," laughed Alex., "runs the old Yazoo & Mississippi railroad. There are little towns all along its line. Perhaps the boat dropped off the steamer to make one of the country bergs! We never thought of that, did we?"

Case pulled the other by the arm and both drew away from the gunwale.

"There's a boat out there now," he declared, in a whisper. "I heard the tunk of an oar then! I'll bet they are trying to get on board!"

"Got your gun?" asked Alex.

"Sure thing I have," was the reply.

"And your searchlight?"

"You know it!"

"So have I," Alex. went on. "Now, if they try to board the _Rambler_, we'll lie low until they begin to climb over the rail. Then we'll turn on our electrics. If they are strangers, and look like river pirates, we'll shoot them up! What?"

"But why not turn on the prow light?" asked Case.

"Because we can handle the electric flashlights quicker. If we have to show the light and shoot, be quick to change your position after the light is switched off. Then, if they shoot back, they won't hit you."

There was a boat approaching. There was no doubt about that. And the people on board of her were doing their best to keep their movements from being known by those of the _Rambler_. Case and Alex. could hear the dash of oars, and now and then a rough command. The two boys sat in silence and waited.

Then, as Case and Alex. afterward complained, something happened which "spoilt all the fun!" Captain Joe came out of the cabin and gave forth a series of threatening growls, and Teddy added to the warning by saying things in bear talk!

The mysterious boat came on no longer. There were still sounds of the working of a heavy craft in a strong current, but these gradually died out.

"I'd like to throw you both into the river after them!" Alex. scolded at the animals, as they came around him, asking to be congratulated on their success in driving off the visitors! "Now we'll be haunted by those fellows for a week, while if you had kept quiet we'd have settled with them right here!"

"Suppose we turn on the power and chase 'em up?" asked Case.

"And give them a chance to do all the shooting!" replied Alex.

scornfully. "I'm not looking for a watery grave in the Mississippi."

"Well," Case continued, "if you don't want to follow them up, just to see what they look like, perhaps we'd better drop down a short distance. If we can't fight them, we don't want to feel that they're right under our noses, waiting for a chance to get us into a hole! I'd rather face a hundred men in the open than know that one was skulking about me in the darkness!"

"This is a fierce old stream for strangers to travel on in the dark!"

Alex. said.

"I know it, but----"

Before the boy could finish the sentence a faint jar came, as if some person had caught hold of the anchor chain and given it a pull, or hung his weight on it.

"There's our friend!" Case whispered. "Now, get ready with your gun!"

In a second, while the boys listened, they heard a hard substance fall on the deck. Alex.'s light flashed around the gunwale, but there was no one in sight.

In the middle of the deck, however, still dripping from the river, lay the leather bag which had held the diamonds, and which had held only burrs and broken crockery when last seen on board the _Rambler_! Alex.

picked it up, found that it was still half full of some hard substances, and shut off the light.

"You saw it?" he asked of Case, as he cuddled down by the boy's side.

"Of course! The leather bag!"

"What do you think of it?" demanded Alex.

"I don't think!" admitted Case. "I've lost the power of thought!"

"But what did they throw it back here for?" insisted Alex.