"I'll show you whether we will or not!"

All this time the raft had been drifting down stream, and the _Rambler_ had, of course, remained stationary. As the man uttered this implied threat, he cast off the line of a boat, motioned to two men who stood near, and the three entered and began rowing toward the sand bar.

"We'll overtake you in a half an hour," the man who had done most of the talking from the raft called out to his companions, "and we'll bring back something cheering if it is to be had on that boat."

"About the only thing you'll get on this boat," Case shouted, "will be bullets. If you don't sheer away, you'll get a volley right now."

The men stopped rowing and backed water as the boys drew their automatics and stood in a row at the edge of the bar.

"Aw, come on kids, give us a couple of cases and we'll go on our way.

We're going to get it anyhow."

"There isn't a drop of intoxicating liquor on board," Clay a.s.sured the man. "This is not a b.u.mboat. We're just boys out on a pleasure trip."

"That's what they all say!" roared a husky brute from the fast disappearing raft. "Go on, Steve, and get the goods."

"You bet I will!" answered the raftsman, and again the men bent to their oars. Clay fired a warning shot and the boat paused again for a moment.

"Will you send us a case?" shouted the leader of the boat party.

"Send you a case of cartridges!" laughed Alex.

Two of the men now turned to the oars in order to keep the boat from drifting farther down, while the leader sat close to their seat, saying something to them in a low tone. The two oarsmen were shaking their heads, but the other was beating one hand against the other vigorously.

"I know," the boys heard him say, raising his voice as he became excited "that that is the same boat, and that these are the same boys.

You remember what I told you when I came up the river on a fast boat and hired out on the raft!"

The boys could not hear the reply, but presently the leader's voice sounded again above the wash of the river. He was evidently under great excitement, and was speaking rapidly and vehemently.

"There is more value in that motor boat," he said, "than there is in the whole raft. What does it matter if the timber does float down without us? We've got a boat and can put up any old yarn that comes to mind."

The rowers still seemed to object to the plan the leader seemed to be urging, and finally the boat was allowed to drift down with the current.

"This old world is a pretty small place after all," Clay remarked as the stern of the rowboat disappeared around a little bend. "If you don't believe it, just consider the events of this trip. We meet Max on the river and he laps over on us at Quebec. We meet outlaws on a rocky island three hundred miles away, and they show themselves at the mouth of the Jacques Cartier river."

"And we're likely to meet them again, unless I'm very much mistaken,"

Case warned. "I don't believe they went down after the raft at all."

"What was that you said about swimming over to the sh.o.r.e?" asked Alex.

"To get a fish for dinner," Jule cried.

Alex dashed into the cabin, tumbled about in the wreckage for a short time, and came out clad only in a bathing suit.

"I'm going to swim to sh.o.r.e all right," he said, "but I'm not going over there to get a fish for dinner."

"If you see one, catch him by the tail," Case shouted as the boy entered the water.

Alex wrinkled a bruised nose in the direction of the sand bar and dived under, to reappear on the sh.o.r.e line a couple of seconds later.

"Now, what do you think that little monkey is after?" asked Jule.

Captain Joe and Teddy seemed to be asking themselves the same question. At any rate, they decided to go and see, and both were soon in the water. The boys saw Alex race up a sandy bluff and disappear in a thicket.

Here and there on the other side of the river were scattered houses, but he seemed to pay no attention to these. The animals trotted after him and soon all were out of sight. The boy was gone only a short time and when he returned on board and dressed his face looked anxious.

"Do you know," he said, "those fellows never went down the river at all. They dropped down under the bend and landed. If we don't get off this sand bar this afternoon, we'll have to sit up all night waiting for trouble."

"Then we'll get off this afternoon," Case observed. "I'm so const.i.tuted that I have to have my sleep regularly."

"Keep me awake nights if you want to," laughed Alex, "but don't let me go hungry! I was reared a pet and can't stand it."

There were now various crafts in sight on the river, but none came near the bar. Signals made by the boys met with no response.

"They are a suspicious lot of fellows," Clay decided.

After several vessels had pa.s.sed without paying any attention to the shouts and signals of the boys, they gave up trying to secure immediate a.s.sistance and devoted themselves to the preparation of dinner--to the great joy of Captain and the eminent disgust of Teddy, the cub, who had certainly eaten too much honey.

The cabin was indeed in bad shape, standing at an angle of about thirty degrees. Many of the dishes were broken, and some of the food which had been cooked in the morning lay in a messy heap on the floor.

However, the boys managed to boil coffee and cook eggs, and so, with bread and b.u.t.ter and canned food, they made a very good meal.

"Now, what are we going to do?" asked Jule. "We can never get this boat off alone, and the vessels on the river won't help us."

"I wonder if the tide doesn't come up here?" asked Clay.

"If it does, it was not far from high tide when we struck the sand bar," Jule replied, "and the situation will grow worse instead of better."

"Let's get out our shovels and dig a ca.n.a.l to the river," Case suggested. "We can't play any Robinson Crusoe stunt here very long."

"And the bold, bad men from the raft will be down on us to-night if we stay," Alex added, "so I'm for doing anything to get off the bar."

The boys were actually preparing to dig a trench across the bar when a steamer to which they called more as a matter of form than with any expectation of receiving a.s.sistance, turned toward their side of the river and slowed down.

"h.e.l.lo, there, boys," came a voice from the bridge. "You must have been having a head-on collision with a sand bar."

"Why," Clay exclaimed, "that's Captain Morgan! What was it I was saying about this being a pretty small world?"

"Right you are, Captain," called Case. "We're up against it all right.

Can you send us a line?"

"Certainly," answered the captain. "I'll have you out of that in no time."

And he did! The line was sent in a rowboat, attached to the prow of the _Rambler_ and slowly, steadily, so as not to strain the timbers or produce cracks in the hull, the motor boat was drawn from her uncomfortable position, practically uninjured. Clay was soon grasping the captain by the hand. The other boys shouted their greetings and remained on board to tidy up the _Rambler_.

"Young man," Captain Morgan said, "if I had a hundred boys, and the whole mess of them, combined and individual, got into as many sc.r.a.pes as you four kids do, I'd keep them under lock and key!"

"You'd miss a lot of fun if you did," said Clay.