CHAPTER XVII
GETTING OUT OF THE MUD
Clay's face plainly expressed the dismay he felt as he bent over thegunwale and looked downward in the growing light of the morning. The_Rambler_ lay in a bed of soft, oozy mud, with harder ground betweenher and the "tow-head."
"I presume," Alex. said, "that the people of this country will be gladto see that the river lowered in the night! So are we?"
"We ought to have provided against this," Clay exclaimed, inself-reproach. "We might just as well have anchored a few yardsfarther down. What next, I wonder?"
"The longer we wait before getting the motor boat into the water,"Alex. said, "the harder work it will be, for the river is loweringevery minute."
Clay scratched his head and estimated the distance to deep water.
"We'll have to put on our bathing suits and take to the mud," hedecided. "By all taking hold, we may be able to get her out of thismess. Nice job it is, too!"
"Sure!" Alex. grinned. "Mud baths are healthful! There's Mike Cogan,the Chicago politician, he goes to take mud baths twice a year! If wehad him here now we wouldn't charge him a cent for his cure! I thinkhe'd like it, too."
"I'll wake Case and Jule, and we'll get right at it," Clay said. "Iwish a lot of husky plantation hands would happen along in a shantyboat."
"There was a group of them over on the Mississippi side last night,"Alex. explained. "We might get them, if they are there yet. Say," hecontinued, with a grin, "I believe that is where the little coon went!He saw the camp-fire and heard the plantation songs, and couldn'tremain away from his own people!"
"In that case," Clay suggested, "the little rascal will be back soon."
"Never can tell about boys of the Mose stripe," Alex. predicted. "Hemay follow the men off and never show up here again."
Clay started for the cabin to arouse Case and Jule and then turnedback to ask:
"Did that pocket book--the bag, rather, that had the diamonds in, makeits appearance before or after Mose disappeared?"
"I don't know when Mose lit out," was the reply. "At one time I hearda splash in the river and looked to see what it was about, but Mosewas not in sight then. There was only a large stick floating in thestream. Still, he might have gone at that time. If he did, he leftlong after the bag was thrown on deck. What about it?"
"I was thinking that he might have followed off the person who threwthe bag," Clay explained, "though I can't understand why he shouldhave gone away so secretly. Did the dog make any remarks about thetime the bag reached the deck?"
"Nix on Captain Joe! He's getting too sleepy! He stirred only once inthe night, and that was when the boat was coming up to us. Hefrightened the pirates away, when Case and I had planned to shoot 'emup!"
"Then," concluded Clay, "when we reach the truth of it, we'll discoverthat it was Chet who was around here last night, and who threw the bagon deck. You know we have been thinking, all along, that he might havetaken it."
"That's what Jule insists on," Alex. returned, "while the rest of usthink one of the visitors took it, and that Chet chased off the boatto get it back, not knowing that the diamonds had been taken out ofit."
"It seems clear now," Clay replied, "that Chet took it. In the firstplace, there is no good reason for supposing that the visitors wouldfind the bag, or take it if they did find it; or take any trouble toreturn it after they had found its contents of no value. Chet got it,all right, and, disappointed and chagrined at the substitution we hadmade, he lost no time in throwing it back at us."
"Chet was broke, wasn't he?" asked Alex., with a sly grin.
"So far as I know, yes. Anyway, he didn't look like a millionaire whenwe took him on board and fixed him out with a suit of your clothes!"
"Then how would he ride up the river in a steamer, or ride down theriver to the next town to take the steamer, or hire a rowboat and paythe captain of the steamer for letting him off in his boat as soon ashe saw the light of the _Rambler_?"
"You smash all my solutions," laughed Clay. "Now, give me one of yourown, so I can smash that,"
"I ain't no prophet!" grinned the red-headed boy, "but I'm gamblingthat when we get down to the bottom of matters we'll find Red, theRobber, in the mess!"
"We have already found him in the mess," laughed Clay. "He knew,according to your story, that I had put something in the safetyvaults! Besides, he seemed to own the steamer you were on, didn't he?"
"He seemed to be the boss."
"Suppose we quit guessing and get the _Rambler_ out of the mud,"suggested Clay, then.
Case and Jule were called out on deck, and the lads, clad only intheir bathing suits, were soon wallowing in the soft mud, which was sodeep that they could get no footing at all, and so could not lift onthe boat. In fact, the more they tried to lift the boat, to slide ittoward deep water, the deeper she seemed to sink.
"We're up against a beautiful proposition!" Jule exclaimed, climbingback on deck and leaning over the gunwale. "If we jar the boat anymore, we'll have to take a trip to China and pull it through from theother side!"
Clay plowed out of the mud and made his way to the "tow-head" where hebegan examining the growth of willows. He seemed satisfied with whathe saw, for he began cutting the long wands and called to the othersto join him.
"What's doing?" asked Case.
"This ain't no island improvement corporation!" Alex. grinned.
"I know what he's up to!" Jule shouted, and in a second he was off thedeck, cutting willows and throwing them into a heap at the edge of thehard ground.
"We've got to make mattresses of these willows," Jule declared, wipingthe sweat from his face. "I read about that in a paper not long ago."
"To sleep on?" asked Alex., with a wink at Case.
"Silly!" roared Jule. "Get busy, both of you."
When a great stack of the willow wands had been cut, Clay and Julebegan roughly braiding them together. In this way two mattresses afoot in thickness and nearly twelve feet square were constructedbefore noon. During all this time the boys had seen nothing of Chet,of Mose, or of the negroes who had camped on the shore the previousnight. They had also overlooked breakfast!
The novelty of their employment had so engaged their attention thatthey felt no need of food until Teddy appeared on the deck sitting uplike a man, begging for his breakfast! Then Alex. threw down the wandshe was carrying to Clay, who was doing the weaving at that time, andsprang over to the boat with a chuckle of amusement.
"You're all right, Teddy Bear!" he cried. "We don't know enough to eatwhen we're hungry, do we? We'll show 'em what it is to feed up rightwithout delay."
"What you going to get for dinner?" demanded Jule, putting a hand tohis stomach to show how empty it was. "I want a whale fried whole!"
"Get your whale, then," advised Alex.
"Perhaps you think I can't!" laughed Jule. "Pass out my line and rodand I'll show you whether I'm a fisherman or not!"
Alex. did as requested and Jule waded through the mud to where therewas a bit of hard ground, next the island, with a little swirl ofwater close by.
"Watch me now!" he cried.
But the boys did not care to watch him. Case and Clay continued thework of braiding mattresses, and Alex. got out a gun and sat on deckwatching for ducks, of which there were plenty in that vicinity.Presently a yell from Jule called the attention of the others to him.He was fighting a fish which seemed to the astonished boys to be notless than ten feet in length, and the fish was pulling him downstream.
"Give me a hand!" the boy shouted. "He's pulling me in!"
"Let go the line!" cried Alex.
"And lose it!" answered Jule. "Not much! Give me a hand!"
Case and Clay both rushed to the boy's assistance, and with greateffort a monster fish was landed in the mud. Jule was jubilant.
"The biggest catch of the trip!" he declared. "Who says I can'tproduce a whale when I feel the need of a whole one fried?"
Case and Clay leaned back and screamed with amusement. Alex.
looked onwith a grin which was more provoking than the laughter of the others.
"Have all the fun you can," roared Jule, "but don't get gay!"
"Throw him back into the river!" Clay advised, poking at the catch."That is just a big catfish, and no one eats them save the negroes!They're tougher than the tripe at Bill's restaurant, in Chicago!"
"I guess you won't throw him away!" yelled Jule.
"All right!" Clay answered. "Take him to bed with you, if you want to,but kindly see if you can't get a bass for our dinner. There areplenty of them in here."
Reluctantly Jule started the catfish back toward his natural element,and the big fellow seemed to thank him with a parting wave of his tailas he took to the water. In a few moments he had a fine large bass,weighing six or eight pounds, and before long Alex. had a couple ofducks, so work was suspended while dinner was cooked and eaten. Afterthe meal the work was continued until Case declared there were enoughwillow mattresses on hand to float a city.
Then the mattresses were hauled alongside the _Rambler_ and aconsiderable part of the cargo of the boat was put out on them. Thuslightened, and having a strong footing, the lads had no difficulty inpushing the _Rambler_ out into deep water.
"What shall we do with the mattresses now?" asked Clay, as the boatswung off the bottom. "We have spent too much time on them to throwthem away!"
"Tow them along," advised Case. "It won't cost us anything to totethem along, and we may have use for them. A man could build a tent onthem, by fastening them together, and live there. I'm strong fortaking them with us."
This was finally agreed to, and the boys were about to start down thestream again when a shout from the Mississippi side of the riverattracted their attention.
"There's that little coon!" laughed Case. "See the rascal! He's goingto swim to the boat, or going to try to!"
"He never can do it," Clay declared. "We'll have to swing the_Rambler_ over that way and pick him up. He's making a swift run,though!"
"Well," Alex. replied, "just you look behind him and see what he'srunning from."
Half a dozen negroes and one white man were now seen running down theriver bank in pursuit of Mose. They seemed to redouble their exertionswhen the _Rambler_ shot over toward the boy, but were obliged to haltwhen the boy was picked up and the boat went on down stream, towingthe willow mattresses in her wake!
Mose dropped down on deck, panting and rolling his eyes.
"Ah'm scared white!" he chattered. "Fo' de Lawd, dat's de man whattrun dis coon an' Captain Joe into the ribber up no'th! Ah's scared ofhim!"