And Alex. did have a fish! It was firmly hooked, and came flopping out of the water when he drew in the line. Still under the table, with his eyes on the bear, the rescued negro boy licked his chops when he saw it. Clay observed the action and went to him. After a time the little fellow was coaxed out of his hiding-place.

"That's a pet bear!" explained Clay. "He won't bite you!"

The boy seemed to want to believe the other, for the sake of the fish supper which appeared to be coming soon, but he edged away from the cub, all the same!

"You hungry?" asked Case, coming up.

The little fellow nodded, and Case went on.

"What's your name?"

"Abraham Lincoln Charles Sumner Horace Greeley Banks!"

The little chap repeated the names in a sing-song tone, with the air of one who had been carefully drilled in the repet.i.tion. The boys broke into shouts of laughter, and even Teddy Bear nosed his way through the little group and stood gazing at the negro boy with reproving eyes! The boy tried to dodge away, but Clay held him fast.

"Jerusalem!" Case cried, as soon as he could control his voice. "What a name! Where did you get it, chile?"

"Mah mammy done 'stowed it on me!" was the reply.

"Well, it is too long," Clay decided, "so we'll just call you Mose! Do you happen to be hungry, little one?" he added, with a glance at the fish.

In answer the boy laid his hands on the region of his stomach and grinned.

"Where do you live?" asked Alex., ringing the water out of his clothes, which had been removed as soon as he reached the deck. "What will your mammy say to your going off on the river? She'll wallop you, chile, good an' plenty!"

"I done run away!" answered the boy.

"That's two to-night!" grinned Alex., preparing to dress the fish for supper. "How many more are we likely to find before we get to the Gulf?"

Teddy Bear, who seemed to feel that he was deserving of some attention for having rescued Mose from instant death in the river, now came up and brushed his soft nose over the boys' hand. Mose's eyes grew wider, but, seeing that the bear did not offer to bite, he ventured to stroke his head, whereat the cub sat up on his hind feet and asked to have a boxing lesson!

"That bear is a spoiled child!" Case remarked, as Teddy began sparing.

"He is no good at all--just a clown!"

"Where did you run from?" asked Jule, anxious to know more of the negro boy.

"San Louee," was the reply. "I done lived on th' levee!"

"From St. Louis, eh?" Clay said. "Where do you want to go?"

"I done hire out to you all," was the reply.

"Of course!" Alex. laughed. "Didn't we bring him up out of the waters?

He'll make a fine playmate for Teddy Bear!"

"If he doesn't disappear, as that other waif did," smiled Clay.

"Where do you suppose that boy went to?" asked Alex. "He never swam to sh.o.r.e, that is, to the other sh.o.r.e, and if he had landed on the pier when the men came on board they would certainly have seen him. I reckon the darkness just ate him!"

"And the man who came to speak a good word for him!" Clay went on. "If he had been the thief wanted for the Rock Island diamond and fur robbery, he couldn't have been more mysterious. The boy said he would be made to tell about the robbery if they found him, and this man wanted to get him out of the way, so I guess we can put the pieces together and patch out the truth. The man is one of the robbers and the boy belongs to him!"

"If I had the Sherlock genius you toss out so easily," Jule cut in, "I'd put it in a book. Why should the robber come to us to speak a good word for the boy? He ought to have known that we'd see through the game."

"He may not be the robber at all," Case observed. "There was some mystery connected with the two, and that's all we know about it! The man is gone, and the boy is gone, and they are probably drowned, so we may as well count the story closed."

"I'll go you a dinner at the Bismark, as soon as we get back to Chicago," Clay insisted, "that we find both the man and the boy before we get down to the Gulf!"

"You're in for the dinners, then!" Case exclaimed. "And now," he went on, "what are we going to do to-night? Are we going on down the river, or are we going to get into some cozy little slip and anchor for the second time?"

"I'm no good Solomon on an empty stomach," laughed Clay. "Wait until Alex. has his fish supper served! You want some, too, don't you Mose?"

he added, turning to the little fellow, who stood gazing from the bear to the fish, now ready for the pan.

"I's done gone empty cl'ar to mah toes!" was Mose's reply.

After the fish had been eaten Mose was put to bed in one of the bunks, and the boys decided to go on down the river. They wanted to get away from any such entanglement as had been suggested by the visit of the officers and the search of the motor boat.

They made a long distance with little trouble, as they were going with the driftwood, and at daylight tied up in a small bayou, at the end of which a deserted old house stood lowering down upon the flood with a touch of mystery in the broken windows and overhanging eaves!

CHAPTER IV

TWO BOYS GET A TUMBLE

"I'd give a cent to know just where we are!" Jule declared, as he stood on the deck of the _Rambler_, waiting for Case's call to breakfast, the advance odors of which were creeping out of the cabin, where Mose and Teddy Bear lay on a rug together, evidently the very best of friends!

"Give me the coin, then," Alex. exclaimed. "We are about ten or fifteen miles below Hickman, Kentucky, and we are on the Missouri side; and there's a loop of river which runs north a long way and comes back again. Some day the Mississippi will cut through the neck of land, and then there'll be another large island, with houses set back from the river a long distance! Give me the cent!"

Jule gravely pa.s.sed the coin over to Alex., who as gravely pocketed it, and drew Jule to a seat beside himself on the gunwale of the boat.

Captain Joe came up to the boys as they sat there and wagged his tail, his nose pointing toward the deserted old house at the end of the bayou.

"Do you see what the bulldog wants?" Alex. asked, in a moment.

"He wants a run on sh.o.r.e," replied Jule. "He wants to get off the boat and do stunts on the gra.s.s. I'm with him in that, too!"

"He's pointing to the old house!" Alex. suggested, with a grin.

"Good idea!" winked Jule. "Suppose we go over to the ranch and see what sort of a place it is? We'll just sneak off after breakfast and be back in an hour."

"Right," agreed Alex. "We may find a buried treasure! Or plunder from the Rock Island warehouse may be hidden in some dusty attic! What?

That sounds like a story of John Paul Jones, out of a book!"

"I reckon all we'll find will be rats," the practical Jule replied.

"But I like to ramble over old houses. It evidently used to stand on the bank of the river, but some washout left it back so far that it was deserted. It looks like there might be ghosts hiding in it right now! Do you hear anything?" the boy added, as he bent his ear toward the neglected mansion, sinking to decay now for many a long year. "Do you hear anything that sounds uncanny? I thought I heard a ghost call!"

"I half believe you mean it!" laughed Alex. "I believe you really think you hear something ghostly! If I were rich once for every ghost there is in the world, I wouldn't have a cent to my name! What does this ghost call sound like?" added the boy.