Without deciding the point the boys tied up some distance above the city and prepared supper. The moon arose in a clear sky about eight o'clock and the boys did not turn on the electric lights after eating.

They sat in the moonlight on the deck and watched Captain Joe, Teddy and Mose tumbling about.

"If it wasn't so much trouble to dress," Case said, after a time, "I'd like to go to a theatre to-night, and have a swell supper afterwards."

"You don't want much!" laughed Clay.

"Why not go, then?" asked Alex. "I'm not too lazy to put on a decent suit."

"Do you mean it?" demanded Case, rising from his chair.

"If the others will stay and guard the boat I mean it," was the reply.

"Go if you want to," Clay answered the inquiring look, "for Jule and Mose can help me keep off the pirates! Only don't remain away all night."

"Ah done like to see dis town!" Mose suggested.

"You'll have to wait until some other time, Mose," Clay replied. "You must stay on board and help repel boarders now!"

The little negro grinned as if perfectly satisfied with the arrangement, and went on with his boxing match with Teddy. Case and Alex. dressed as rapidly as possible and were taken ash.o.r.e, in the four-oared boat captured above Memphis, at the foot of a street not far from a trolley line running to the business center of the city.

When Clay returned with the rowboat, Mose was on one of the willow mattresses which had been brought down the river.

In a few minutes Clay called to him to come on board, but there was no reply. Mose was nowhere in sight. He had evidently started out to see the city on his own hook!

"I reckon that is the last we'll ever see of him," Jule commented, as they gave up the search for the boy. "He'll get to shooting c.r.a.ps in the city and live there forever. Can't do anything with a kid like that."

"It is hard work to knock any sense into the head of a boy brought up on the St. Louis levee," Clay admitted, "but I hope he'll return."

"Perhaps he followed Case and Alex., and will return with them," Jule suggested.

"That would be like him," Clay admitted.

The boys were not sleepy and the moonlight was fine, so they sat on the deck until midnight, waiting for the others to return. They had not returned at one o'clock, and the watchers were becoming anxious when a call from the sh.o.r.e came to their ears. In a moment the call was repeated, shriller than before, and then there followed a splash in the river and a shot.

The boys saw a figure swimming toward the _Rambler_ and got out their guns.

"Doesn't look very formidable!" Clay observed, as the figure came nearer. "It looks like Mose! Now, what the mischief is the little c.o.o.n up to, I'd like to know?"

"It is Mose, all right," Jule a.s.sented, "and there's some one on sh.o.r.e shooting at him. He may have been up to some of his pranks on sh.o.r.e."

Directly the shooting on the sh.o.r.e ceased, and then Mose came on faster, not being obliged to swim under water half the time. He crawled, chilly and dripping, on deck and rolled his eyes at Clay.

"Dey done got um!" he exclaimed.

"What about it?" demanded Jule. "Who's got them?"

After much questioning it was learned that Mose had left the _Rambler_ in time to overtake Case and Alex., that he had followed them into the city, and had seen them talking with Chet Vinton, the mysterious boy who seemed to turn up in the oddest places and to disappear in the strangest manner.

The boys had talked with Chet for a long time, the little negro said, and had not gone to the theatre at all. Instead, they had gone into a disreputable part of the city with the boy, and had there met two men believed by the negro to be thieves.

At last, at a late hour, the boy declared, still with much hesitation, Case and Alex. had attempted to leave the little cottage where they were sitting and had been forcibly detained. Chet, Mose said, had been the first one to oppose their departure. Then he, Mose, had dashed away to warn those on the boat and had been followed by some of the men he had been watching.

He described in glowing terms and very bad English how he had jumped fences and chased through moonlit backyards, and how he had been shot at at every step of the way!

"I reckon you were shot at because some one mistook you for a thief."

Mose looked reproachfully at Jule, and rolled his eyes wider than ever.

"What are we going to do now?" questioned Clay. "I don't know how much of this story to believe."

"One of us might leave the boat and go back with Mose," the other suggested.

At mention of his going back to the place from which he had fled, Mose rushed into the cabin, lowered his bunk, and covered up, head and ears, in the bedclothes! Captain Joe tried to worry him out, but without success.

"I believe the dog can find them," Clay remarked, presently.

"I'm willing to go and try what he can do," Jule answered.

"If we could get that foolish negro to come along!" Clay commented.

Jule went back to the bunk and shook Mose by the shoulder.

"Come on," he cried. "We're going to take Captain Joe out with us and find the boys. You'll have to go along and show the way!"

"Fo' de Law'd's sake!" wailed the boy. "Let dis c.o.o.n die in hes bed!"

"Come on!" insisted Jule. "You've got to come."

After many arguments and many promises of reward in the shape of yellow shoes and red shirts, the boy consented to go ash.o.r.e again.

Clay warned Jule to be watchful and cautious and saw him go away with Mose and Captain Joe with a feeling that a great deal depended on his good judgment.

Jule and Mose were obliged to wait some time for a late car, and the walk to the quarter of the city toward which their steps were turned was a long one, so it was nearly three o'clock in the morning when they came to a dilapidated old shanty near the river front. Mose declared this was the place, and Captain Joe seemed to think so also, for he said quite positively, in his best dog-English, that there were people he knew in that old ruin, which was dark in every window and door.

Now and then, as the boys and the dog stood in front of the house, loiterers of the night paused in their aimless wanderings and regarded them speculatively, possibly mistaking them for disreputables like themselves. For a long time there was no sign of life in the house, and then a soft footstep was heard at the front door and the boys heard a k.n.o.b stealthily turned.

Listen as they might, they heard nothing more for a long time, and then a figure dropped softly out of an open window and moved off toward the river, evidently failing to see the watchers crouched near at hand.

"That's Chet!" Jule muttered, starting away, but Mose shook his head vigorously.

CHAPTER XXIV

SOMETHING DOING ALL THE TIME

Jule was at a loss what course to pursue. The boy who had left the house might be Chet, in which case he felt that he ought to follow and induce him to return to the _Rambler_, if that were possible.

The diamonds which had been placed in the deposit vault belonged to Chet. At least the boy had had them in his possession when he came aboard the boat, and in the absence of any other claim upon them they belonged to him. If they did not belong to him, then their owner ought to be found. If they did, he ought to have possession of them.