The _Rambler_ was now securely fastened in between the two trees, standing on a level, or floating on a level, rather. There was considerable water under the deck, it having worked its way down through the joints about the hatches, and the boys proceeded to lift all available covers and bail it out.

"How are we ever going to get out of here?" asked Jule, working away with a basin and a sponge. "These trees will hold us forever."

"We'll have to cut them down, Silly!" answered Case. "Just as soon as the water goes down, we'll crawl out on one of the mattresses and fix the propellers."

"Mattresses!" answered Jule. "They drifted away long ago."

"Look ahead and see," remarked Case, and Jule did so.

The willow and brake mattresses which had been towed down stream were loose from the motor boat, but they were in sight, having lodged against the mud bank farther in the swamp. They could be reached, the boys figured, by a little wading after the flood subsided, which it was certain to do before long.

"You see," Case went on, "the trees will hold the boat up, like it was in a dry dock, and we can fix the propellers and the leak and then chop down the trees and get out. Perhaps we can follow this channel out to the river. If there wasn't an opening somewhere, the current here wouldn't be so fierce!"

"There may be a channel," Clay agreed, "but if there is it must be full of standing trees and hidden snags. If we ever get out of here, we'd better run back to the main channel, and keep out of such holes in future!"

"There wouldn't be any fun in river trips," laughed Alex., swinging an axe at the head of a water snake which was trying to get up on the deck, "if it wasn't for the adventure there is in it! I wouldn't have missed this for anything!"

With the last word of this endors.e.m.e.nt of the situation on his lips Alex. took a header over the gunwale of the boat into the water! A great trunk had bunted the _Rambler_ on the port side, and she had tipped so as to knock the boy off his feet and over the railing before he could make up his mind what was coming off!

"Wow!" cried Clay, as the boy came, spluttering to the surface.

"You wouldn't miss this for anything!" roared Case.

"Bring a couple of snakes and an alligator out with you!" requested Jule.

Mose, sitting on the limb, high up in the tree, called down to the boy that a water snake was trying to get into his pocket, and that an alligator was nosing about his leg.

Disregarding all comment and advice, Alex. crawled back on deck and sat looking wrathfully into the flood. But his anger did not last long.

"If that log hadn't come along," he said, "I should have forgotten my bath. When it comes daylight, I'm going to get up a race with that alligator, with the snake as referee! Mose can enter if he wants to!"

Mose shivered at the thought. He was now climbing higher. When near the top he gave another yell and hustled down to a lower limb, where he sat with his hands clinging tightly to the trunk.

"Fo' de Lawd's sake!" he shrieked.

"What is it now?" asked Jule. "If you don't come down I'll shoot you!"

Mose pointed to the rim of the light zone and cried that the river robbers had come to get the boat. The boys looked where he pointed and saw three young men standing in a submerged grove of cypress trees.

All were armed and all were bearded and forbidding in appearance. As the boys looked one stepped forward.

"Just a second," Clay called. "That is near enough!"

CHAPTER XX

THE DARKEY UP THE TREE

While Case talked with the young man Clay went back into the cabin to talk with Alex., who was now changing into dry clothing.

"Do you think the story that man is telling is all right?" he asked.

"I think he is telling the truth about the river thieves," Alex.

replied.

"I was wondering if that wasn't just a bait to help them get on board."

"It may be, but there are river robbers in this section. They told us that where we bought the gasoline. These may be the robbers, for all I know, but we ought to make sure of that before turning them down.

They'll starve here, if they have lost their boat and provisions. Of course they can get wild game, but I don't see how they are going to cook it. We ought to give them a chance, anyway."

Clay went back to the deck and listened to the conversation between Case and the visitor, who seemed a little annoyed at the doubting of his word.

"Where did you live in Chicago?" he heard Case ask.

"In furnished rooms on Elizabeth street, near Washington boulevard,"

was the reply.

"Where did you work?" was the next question, impertinent and personal, but seemingly necessary at that time.

"At a machine shop on Clinton street, not far from West Madison.

"Then you are machinists?"

"Yes, all of us. Business is dull in our line just now, and we thought we'd make a hit with ourselves by spending a winter in the south."

"When did you leave Chicago?"

"We left Chicago last September," answered the man, turning toward the rail. "We expect to get back sometime during the next century, if all Chicago boys are as hospitable as you are! Now, with your permission, I'll go back to my friends."

"How do you know we are from Chicago?" asked Clay, stepping forward.

The other laughed lightly and pointed to the boat's name on articles scattered about.

"But, aside from that," he said, "we'd know you anywhere. The Chicago newspapers carried a lot of feature stuff about your boat and your trips."

"All right, stranger," one of the three answered, in rather a pleasant tone of voice. "Just as you say!"

"What do you want?" asked Alex., still shivering from his cold bath.

"We want a ride out of this consarned swamp," was the reply.

"How did you get in here?" asked Clay. "Get out the way you got in!"

he added.

"Our shanty boat is smashed to flinders and our grub is gone,"

complained the other. "It don't look as if we could walk out of here, does it?"