CHAPTER XVI
WHAT DROPPED ON DECK
"I guess my turning on that light started something!" the boy mused,as he darkened the small electric globe in the cabin and sat down toawait developments. He kept just inside the cabin door at first, forthe wind was cold and searching.
For a few moments he could hear the working of oars and the push ofthe current on an advancing boat, and then all was silent save thesighing of the wind and the wash of the river, still burdened at timeswith floating wreckage. It seemed to him that the boat which hadslipped away from the steamer had anchored somewhere near the_Rambler_.
"I fully believe," Case grunted, as he finally left the cabin andlooked out upon the dim river from the deck, "that if we should flythrough the air on a cloud there would be some scamp watching us fromanother cloud! It's rotten, the way we are chased about!"
The boy did not know that his complaint had found words until he hearda chuckle close to his side and turned about to faintly distinguishthe freckled face of Alex., who stood looking over the river to thesouth.
"You've got no kick coming!" Alex. declared. "You wouldn't go on theseriver trips if we found nothing more than scenery, any more than Iwould! It seems like living to be chased about, as you call it! If itwasn't for the mystery and adventure in the jaunts I'd be at home inlittle old Chicago--and that's where you'd be, too!"
"Well," Case returned, "I'd like to get one night off occasionally!"
"What is it now?" asked Alex. "I heard the steamer pass, but thatdidn't mean anything to me. What's going wrong now? Tell your olduncle Alex. all about it!"
"Uncle nothing!" laughed Case, restored to better humor by theoptimism of the other. "If you want to know what's on the string, goand get a glass and try to find a rowboat in this mess of river andblack sky. A safety razor that won't cut air will be given to thefirst one that discovers the boat!"
"Oh!" cried Alex. "There's a boat watching us! All right! Now I feelbetter! I was beginning to wonder when we'd have something to stir usup!"
"The boat dropped off when the steamer went up," Case explained. "Isaw it under the lights, but of course it vanished in the darkness assoon as the big boat passed."
"There's something going on, then!" Alex. declared. "Of course theywouldn't know on board the steamer in the dark, that we were here, andso the thing which is going to happen is set to come off on shore. I'mgoing to stay awake and see what it is."
"You see," Case stated, hesitatingly, "I heard a bump on the hull ofthe _Rambler_, just as the steamer was churning into sight, aroundthat bend, and turned on the prow light to see about it! That's whythe rowboat dropped off here, I take it."
Alex. gave vent to a long, low whistle.
"Then we've got into the spot-light again!" he said. "It won't be anytrouble for me to keep awake now! Shall we tell Clay the glad news, orlet him sleep?"
"Oh, let him sleep! We can run this watch, all right!"
While the boys whispered and listened, the long, bellowing roar of alocomotive whistle came to their ears from the east. Then came thedistant rumble of a train.
"What do you make of that?" asked Case. "I thought we were in theheart of a wild river country, and here come a train of cars--palacecars, I'll go you, at that!"
"About three or four miles from the river, in the state ofMississippi," laughed Alex., "runs the old Yazoo & Mississippirailroad. There are little towns all along its line. Perhaps the boatdropped off the steamer to make one of the country bergs! We neverthought of that, did we?"
Case pulled the other by the arm and both drew away from the gunwale.
"There's a boat out there now," he declared, in a whisper. "I heardthe tunk of an oar then! I'll bet they are trying to get on board!"
"Got your gun?" asked Alex.
"Sure thing I have," was the reply.
"And your searchlight?"
"You know it!"
"So have I," Alex. went on. "Now, if they try to board the _Rambler_,we'll lie low until they begin to climb over the rail. Then we'll turnon our electrics. If they are strangers, and look like river pirates,we'll shoot them up! What?"
"But why not turn on the prow light?" asked Case.
"Because we can handle the electric flashlights quicker. If we have toshow the light and shoot, be quick to change your position after thelight is switched off. Then, if they shoot back, they won't hit you."
There was a boat approaching. There was no doubt about that. And thepeople on board of her were doing their best to keep their movementsfrom being known by those of the _Rambler_. Case and Alex. could hearthe dash of oars, and now and then a rough command. The two boys satin silence and waited.
Then, as Case and Alex. afterward complained, something happened which"spoilt all the fun!" Captain Joe came out of the cabin and gave fortha series of threatening growls, and Teddy added to the warning bysaying things in bear talk!
The mysterious boat came on no longer. There were still sounds of theworking of a heavy craft in a strong current, but these gradually diedout.
"I'd like to throw you both into the river after them!" Alex. scoldedat the animals, as they came around him, asking to be congratulated ontheir success in driving off the visitors! "Now we'll be haunted bythose fellows for a week, while if you had kept quiet we'd havesettled with them right here!"
"Suppose we turn on the power and chase 'em up?" asked Case.
"And give them a chance to do all the shooting!" replied Alex.scornfully. "I'm not looking for a watery grave in the Mississippi."
"Well," Case continued, "if you don't want to follow them up, just tosee what they look like, perhaps we'd better drop down a shortdistance. If we can't fight them, we don't want to feel that they'reright under our noses, waiting for a chance to get us into a hole! I'drather face a hundred men in the open than know that one was skulkingabout me in the darkness!"
"This is a fierce old stream for strangers to travel on in the dark!"Alex. said.
"I know it, but----"
Before the boy could finish the sentence a faint jar came, as if someperson had caught hold of the anchor chain and given it a pull, orhung his weight on it.
"There's our friend!" Case whispered. "Now, get ready with your gun!"
In a second, while the boys listened, they heard a hard substance fallon the deck. Alex.'s light flashed around the gunwale, but there wasno one in sight.
In the middle of the deck, however, still dripping from the river, laythe leather bag which had held the diamonds, and which had held onlyburrs and broken crockery when last seen on board the _Rambler_! Alex.picked it up, found that it was still half full of some hardsubstances, and shut off the light.
"You saw it?" he asked of Case, as he cuddled down by the boy's side.
"Of course! The leather bag!"
"What do you think of it?" demanded Alex.
"I don't think!" admitted Case. "I've lost the power of thought!"
"But what did they throw it back here for?" insisted Alex.
"Why did who throw it back here?" chuckled Case.
"Now, look here, Smarty," Alex. continued. "There are only fourpersons who could have taken that bag from the boat, the cashier andhis two friends, and Chet."
"Unless the dog ate it, or Teddy threw it overboard."
"Oh, quit your foolishness! Now, which one of the four is out there inthe river? Whoever it is has a sense of humor, for the tossing of thebag back shows that the situation is appreciated."
"You notice the steamer came UP the river?" asked Case.
"Yes; what of it?" demanded Alex. "I don't see anything in that."
"Well, that shows that whoever threw the bag on deck came from downstream! It shows, too, that we have been watched every minute, forreasons which we don't know anything about!"
"Yes, in order to keep track of us they might have taken the railroaddown the river bank and then taken a steamer up, so as to meet us onthe way down! I see something in it now. But who is it?"
"It may be Chet!" s
uggested Case. "He may have returned the bag justto show us that he knows about the removal of the diamonds."
"I just believe Chet is out there somewhere, and that he would come onboard if he knew we wouldn't raise a row about the way he left us!"declared Alex.
"I give it all up!" Case returned. "It's your watch now, and I'm goingto bed! If there's anything good to eat thrown on deck out of thedarkness, just wake me up, otherwise let me alone. I'll hunt up mydream book to-morrow and find what it says about leather bags droppingout of the sky!"
Alex. sat alone in the dim night, watching the river and the darkbottom lands of the island for a long time before anything attractedhis attention. Then a light, like that made by a camp-fire, sprang upon the Mississippi side of the river.
He could see figures moving about in front of the blaze, but of coursecould not distinguish faces. Presently the low, weird chant of aplantation song came over the waters. It was evident that a gang ofnegroes, possibly railroad repair men, was passing the night in campon the shore.
As Alex. listened to the plaintive songs he heard a splash in thewater at the side of the boat, and shot his light in that direction. Astick was floating away, and the boy concluded that it was that whichhad made the noise he had heard.
He heard the negroes come to the bank of the river to gather driftwoodfor the fire, and heard their drawling voices saying something of theriver going down fast, but could not catch the full import of theirwords.
The companionship of the fire and the voices was something to the boy,and he sat until daylight began to show in perfect contentment. Thenhe went into the cabin to get a line, it being his idea to surprisethe boys with a fish breakfast.
He looked at the sleeping faces for a moment and started when he cameto a rug in the corner where Mose usually slept! Captain Joe wasthere, his nose in his paws, but Mose was not there! Alex. searchedthe boat. The negro boy was gone! The amazed boy half pulled Clay outof his bunk and began the story of the night.
"We're not yet out of the enchanted land," he said. "We are stillseeing things! The leather bag comes back out of the sky, and Mosegoes up in the air. I'm for getting down to the Gulf right soon."
"Have you looked in the bag for any solution of the puzzle?" askedClay. "There may be a note of some kind there: a note of explanation.See?"
"Yes," declared Alex., pointing over the side, and not answering thequestion about the bag, "I see that we are stuck in the mud, and notlikely to get out until another flood, a year, or perhaps two years,off."