"Well, get the engines together!" ordered the giant.

"There are parts missing," Clay answered. "One of the boys has gone to New Madrid for repairs. She won't run a foot without them."

Sam and the giant conversed together for a moment, and then the former called out to Mose, emphasizing his words with a threatening gesture:

"Here, c.o.o.n!" he shouted. "Can you swim?"

"Ah sho' can," was the reply.

"Then jump ash.o.r.e and take this dog with you. If I ever see either of you again I'll take your hides off!"

"It would improve matters to hold 'em under a while!" he added, angrily.

"I won't have it," the giant returned. "No murder for me!"

"You'll see what'll come of lettin' 'em go!" Sam warned.

"Git!" ordered the big fellow, in a not unkind tone, and Mose, nothing loth, gathered the dog in his arms and leaped into the bayou.

Clay almost held his breath for a moment, until he saw that the cold water had revived the dog, and that he was swimming. Then his attention was attracted to the outlaws, who were, with pole and oar, edging the _Rambler_ out into the river.

He believed that the boat would be wrecked the moment it, helpless, struck the ma.s.s of floodwood sweeping down. Presently he felt the push of the current, and the boat went whirling down stream, tipping from side to side as she spun around, helpless in the current.

Then a great tree struck the stern and half capsized her. The end seemed at hand.

CHAPTER VI

CAPTAIN JOE MAKES A HIT

While the _Rambler_, in charge of reckless river pirates, was swinging down with the current, threatening to capsize every instant, Alex. and Jule sat flat on a rotten, yielding floor somewhere in the interior of the deserted house, feeling tenderly over their limbs to see if they had received severe injuries during the fall from the room where they had been so inhospitably welcomed by the aged man.

The boys had not fallen far. In fact, it seemed to them that they had only slid down a gentle incline to the story below. A hatch in the floor in front of the hearth had been dropped back, and their chairs had slid into a chute which seemed, from its smoothness, to be in frequent use.

For a minute the boys were alarmed, excited, angry, then the humor of their sudden removal from the apartment above appealed to them. Alex.

was first to speak.

"Vot iss?" he exclaimed. "This must be a page of a comic section in one of the Chicago newspapers. How many legs and arms have you broken?"

"Not a one!" answered Jule. "What kind of hospital treatment do you require?"

"If I felt any better," laughed Alex., "I wouldn't know what to take for it."

It was dark as pitch where the boys were, and they felt about until their hands touched. The personal contact gave them new courage.

"What do you make of it?" asked Jule. "This doesn't look good to me!"

"We've simply b.u.t.ted in on some other fellow's game," Alex. replied.

"We seem to have visited a crank who thinks it best to be prepared in advance for unwelcome guests."

"A moonshiner or a river pirate!" Jule suggested.

"That's about it!" Alex. answered. "We've interrupted the industry of a set of illicit whisky makers or warehouse thieves. The valley is said to swarm with bandits whenever the river is out of its banks.

Now, the question is how are we going to get out and back to the _Rambler_?"

They did not know that at that moment Clay and the motor boat were in a situation far more serious than that in which they now found themselves!

"I wish it wasn't so dark here!" Jule whispered.

"Why the soft pedal?" asked Alex. "We've got a right to talk as loudly as we like, I take it, being alone in a dark old donjon keep!"

"There's some one in the room with us!" Jule explained, in a whisper which barely reached his chum's ears, so faint it was. "I hear him breathing."

"h.e.l.lo!" Alex. called out, then. "h.e.l.lo! Come on out an' be a good fellow!"

There was no answer, and then Alex., reaching into a capacious pocket, brought out a small electric torch and pushed the b.u.t.ton. On board the _Rambler_ or on sh.o.r.e, it was a rule of the boys never to move about without an electric torch and an automatic revolver ready for use.

When the light flashed out, its round circle showed only a room twenty feet square in size, with bare discolored walls. Plastering hung to broken lath, so they knew that they were on the ground floor of the deserted house, and not in the cellar. The floor was worn, and the rough boards which half protected the broken windows showed signs of having been long in position. There was no furniture at all in the place.

"Looks like we might rip off a board and walk out," Jule said, still speaking in a very low tone of voice.

"Don't you ever think we're not watched!" Alex. hastened to say. "I don't know but I made a mistake in showing this light."

"There's only one way to discover whether we are watched or not," said the other, "and that is to try to get away. I'm going after that window."

As Jule spoke he moved toward a window which seemed to open on the bayou, as a gleam of water could be seen through the cracks in the window-guard. The instant his hand touched a crumbling board a voice came out of the darkness.

"I wouldn't do that, boys!"

That was all. Jule stopped at the uncanny interruption with a hand suspended in air, and Alex. quickly flashed his light in the direction from which the sound had come.

There was no one in sight. Rats or other creeping, crawling, things seemed to be working in the disreputable walls, for there was a continuous scratching noise, but there were no other sounds. Alex.

shut off the light and sat down on the floor again.

"I guess it is no use!" he said. "We'll have to surrender!"

"There will always be someone here to see that you don't get away!"

said the voice. "If you make any trouble, you won't get anything to eat! Now, be good!"

"You can keep me as gentle as a lamb by feeding me right!" Alex. said, with a chuckle which was rather forced. "Why don't you show up?"

"You'll see me soon enough," the voice went on. "In the meantime, don't show that electric light again, and if you have any weapons lay them on the floor in this corner."

"I haven't any," lied Alex. "I brought the light instead."

As he spoke the boy nudged Jule, and he, understanding, slid his revolver along the floor in the direction of the voice. It struck against the wall with a metallic thud.