Case hastened to put the _Rambler_ under motion, and, with Fontenelle and Howard still on board, headed her into the current. At a signal from Fontenelle, the launch _Cartier_ drew up her anchor and followed.

To Captain Joe's vicious barking was now added the surly voice of the bear cub, so the boys knew that the animals were not far away. In fact, as they paused to investigate the ugly nose of the bulldog was pushed through the curtain of shrubbery at the edge of the stream, and Teddy leaped snarling into the water.

Fontenelle greeted the approach of the animals to the boat with shouts of laughter. Even in their haste to reach the boat, the animals could not avoid snapping and striking at each other, playfully. No more shots were heard, but presently a great tramping in the undergrowth came at the point where Joe and Teddy had made their appearance, indicating human presence there. All on board the _Rambler_ anxiously awaited the appearance of those who were struggling in the jungle.

"Would the menagerie run away and leave the boys in captivity?" asked Fontenelle, as the bulldog and the bear cub were a.s.sisted, streaming, to the deck. "They seem to have had a long run."

"Indeed, they would not," replied Case. "If Clay and the others were tied up in the woods, Captain Joe and Teddy would be there with them.

No, it is my opinion that it is Alex making all that racket in the brush. He's a noisy little chap, and particularly troublesome when hungry."

The next moment proved Case's reasoning to be correct, for the undergrowth parted again and the three boys appeared on the bank.

"Ship ahoy!" Alex shouted, wrinkling his freckled nose. "Do you want to take on pa.s.sengers?"

"I hope," Case called back, "that you fellows haven't gone and lost the rowboat. And where is the two-foot fish you were going to bring for breakfast? I don't see it anywhere."

"Well," Jule called out, as the _Rambler_ edged toward the bank, "if we have lost a boat, you seem to have found one."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Case.

Jule pointed, and Case went to the gunwale of the _Rambler_ and looked down upon the fragile canoe in which Max had paddled up the river.

"I didn't know that we were towing it," he said, "but its presence here accounts for Max getting away without being seen or heard. He never stopped to get his boat, and may be swimming under water yet, for all I know. I hope he's clear down at the bottom."

"No danger of one of those wharf rats getting drowned," Fontenelle laughed. "I have seen them remain under water for what seemed to me to be five minutes, and Max is some riverside boy."

"Shoot the canoe over," cried Clay, "and we'll come aboard."

"Where's your boat?" demanded Case.

"Well, you see," explained Clay, "when we missed the _Rambler_, we started for the St. Lawrence by the water route, but when ruffians on the bank began shooting, we tied up the boat and took to the thicket."

Case released the line and sent the light canoe spinning over the surface of the river. Clay caught the rope deftly and one by one the boys paddled over to the motor boat. Alex threw himself down on the deck and gazed imploringly up at Case.

"I expected," he said whimsically, "that you'd welcome me on the bank of the river with a pie!"

"The next time you get us into trouble," Case laughed, "I'll meet you on the bank of the river with a club."

The three boys were presented to Fontenelle and Howard and then preparations for breakfast were begun.

"Alex got taken prisoner up in the woods," Jule grinned. "We cut him loose and tied up the cook. We were thinking of getting breakfast there, but we preferred fish and pancakes to lead and gunpowder, so we made a run for the boat."

"Is the cook tied up yet?" asked Case.

"I reckon they cut him loose in about ten minutes," Alex replied, "for they seemed to be about three steps behind us all the way to the river, but they didn't catch us."

"Do you think we would better go back after the rowboat?" Case asked, as the boys sat down to a breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, beans and hot coffee. "We ought not to loose it."

"Look here," Jule said. "We've been sowing rowboats over the world for a year or two. We lost two on the Amazon, one on the Columbia, two on the Colorado and had three smashed on the Mississippi. Now, I think we'd better go back and get this boat."

"All right," Alex grinned. "You go on back and get it."

"Well, don't you ever think I can't," Jule replied. "I can sneak up there and swipe that boat from under their noses. But you needn't think I'm going to set out as long as there is anything here to eat."

While the boys took breakfast, the situation as explained to Case by Fontenelle was described to them, and after a time Case beckoned Clay away to a corner of the cabin and asked him a question over which he had been puzzling ever since the arrival of Fontenelle.

"Now you understand the situation," Case said, "and I want you to answer this question right off the handle. I've decided it half a dozen ways, but I have been fortunate enough so far to keep my mouth shut."

"What is the question?" asked Clay.

"Wait," Case said. "I'll make a little explanation first. These Fontenelle people have only the legend of the lost channel and the loss of the charter and the family jewels in this section. They haven't a single clew which tells them to look in any special spot first.

"So far as I can make out, young Fontenelle and his friends come down here every summer, in answer to the demands of the elder Fontenelle, for a sort of a vacation. So far as I can make out, they have never honestly searched for the lost channel. In fact, the young man has doubts of its existence. Now, what I want to know is this."

"Why didn't you say so before?" asked Clay with a smile. "I know what your question is. You want to know if we ought to show Fontenelle the map which was brought to the _Rambler_ so mysteriously."

"Aw, of course, you could guess it after I had stated the case fully,"

Case declared. "But you haven't told me what you think about it. Ought we to give Fontenelle the map?"

"Well," Clay answered, cautiously, "the map doesn't belong to us. It wasn't intended for us. It was handed to us by a man who evidently believed that he was turning it over to Fontenelle."

"Yes," Case said, "it does look as if the map belongs to Fontenelle, but look here! He doesn't believe in this search. It is my idea that he doesn't even care whether he secures the lost property or not. He won't consider the matter seriously if we give it to him. He'll just laugh and poke it away among a lot of old papers and that will be the end of it."

"You are undoubtedly right," Clay answered.

"Now," Case went on, "we've had enough trouble with these outlaws to arouse my fighting blood. Besides, I'd like to have a look at that lost channel. Lost channels appeal to me, you know! I'd give a lot to find it. Why not keep the map and go on with the search?"

"But the other fellows would be searching, too, and the whole event would deteriorate into a big summer outing," Clay insisted.

"All right, then," Case suggested. "Suppose we go on up the river to Quebec, and Montreal, and the Thousand Islands, and then come back after these fellows have gone home, and find that channel."

"That listens pretty good to me," Clay answered. "I am willing to go on at once if it is a sure thing that we come back, but I don't want to sneak away from these fellows after they have started the fight."

"That shows courage, all right enough," Case added, "but I'd rather hunt for this lost channel with these toughs on the wharf at Quebec, and," he added, more seriously, "that's where I think they'll be by the time we get back here. They won't stay here long after Fontenelle goes away."

"Very well," Clay replied, "if Jule and Alex are willing, we'll be on our way this afternoon."

This understanding having been reached, the two boys went back to their guests, while Jule went ash.o.r.e in the canoe.

"Now, watch the little rat," Alex laughed. "He'll tie that boat up and blunder through the briers, when he might paddle up the stream close to the bank without taking any chances."

But Jule did nothing of the kind. He kept on up the stream in the canoe. Presently he rounded a bend and disappeared from sight.

In a short time Fontenelle and his friend left the _Rambler_ with the understanding that the two crews were to meet in the evening if the boys did not sail away in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, as the reader already knows, the boys had decided to leave before the parting took place, but they did not care to be urged to remain and join in the summer vacation picnic which was sure to follow.

They had started out for a trip covering the whole length of the St.

Lawrence river from the Gulf to Lake Ontario, and were determined to cover the course before shipping their boat back to Chicago.

In less than an hour Jule was back with the rowboat, having seen nothing of the outlaws.