CHAPTER XVIII
SWEPT INTO A SWAMP
"Who threw you and Captain Joe into the river, up north?" demandedJule. "Wake up and tell us what's the matter with you. What were thosepeople chasing you for?"
Mose only sat up on deck and rolled his eyes as the _Rambler_increased the distance between the pursuers and himself. Seeing thathe was now beyond their reach, he arose and leaned over the gunwaleand made funny insulting faces at them.
"What does he mean?" asked Jule, turning to Clay. "Who's chasing him?"
"Don't you remember how Sam, the Robber, the fellow who, with Red,captured the _Rambler_ in the bayou, threw the boy and the dog out,and how they lay in the grounds at the old house until dusk and thencame to your rescue?" asked Clay. "You must have a poor memory, Ithink."
"I didn't know whether it was Red or Sam who threw him in," Juleexplained.
"So that's Sam over there with the negroes?" questioned Alex. "Whatdid you do to them, Mose? Where did you go last night? What do youmean by forming an exploring expedition all by yourself and having allthe fun?"
"Ah went 'shore to hear de singin'," the boy replied, "an' dey cotchme stealin' de yaller leg chicken, an' say de's goin' to beat dis coonup plenty!"
"You swam all that way to steal a chicken?" asked Jule. "Was itcooked?"
"Yaller leg chicken!" insisted the boy.
"Was it cooked?" persisted Jule. "Where did they get it?"
"Dey say it done lef' de roos' an' follow dem into camp!"
"Did you eat a whole one?" asked Case. "A whole yellow-leggedchicken?"
Mose grinned and showed the whites of his eyes.
"Ah shore did!" he replied, and Jule declared that he would willinglyhave helped him do it if he had only known about it!
"What were they talking about last night?" asked Clay, as the_Rambler_ turned a bend and lost sight of the negroes and Sam, stillgesticulating fiercely, on the east shore.
"They're sho' goin' to get you-all!" was the reply. "They goin' tosteal dis boat, first thing you know. Ah'm scart ob dat white man!"
The little fellow could tell very little of the talk he had heardwhile detained in the negro camp. He knew that Sam, the Robber, wasthere with the negroes, and that he was continually urging them tohelp him secure the _Rambler_, but that was all. Of their plans heknew nothing but this.
During the afternoon the boys passed a great many steamers, going upthe river, some with supplies for those who had been made homeless bythe flood. Fortunately the levees had held, but the water had filledin back of them, in some instances and destroyed much property. Thelagoons and swamps up river were still flooded, and in places farmingland was still being washed away.
All the way down, until night closed in, they saw gangs of negroes onthe levees, fishing drift wood out of the water. In some instancessmall out-houses were brought out in good condition. One shanty boatthe boys saw had the cupola of a house set up on the prow, and a farmbell in the top of it was ringing as the raft bobbed in the currentsof the river. Now and then families were seen gathered on the levees,evidently waiting for a steamer to take them off.
The boys kept up good speed until night and then tied up in a smallcove on the lower side of an island, not far from the Mississippiside.
"We have been going pretty fast," Clay observed, as the boat wasworked in behind a point so as to be out of the wash of the steamers."We haven't a thing to do until we get back to Chicago, and we cantake all the time we want getting back. How is that for a peacefullife, Mose?" he added, turning to the little negro boy.
Mose showed a mouthful of white teeth and a pair of chalk-whiteeyeballs.
"It takes a corkscrew to get conversation out of Mose!" Jule observed.
"I think I can make him talk," laughed Alex. "Mose," he went on, "I'llgive you a plate of honey for supper if you'll tell me where Chet isand who threw the leather bag on deck last night?"
"Some one fro' what?" asked the little fellow.
"Some one threw this on the boat in the night," Alex. answered,handing the bag to the boy. "Did you hear any one around before youleft?"
The negro boy rolled his eyes for a minute then took the bag and heldit under the nose of Captain Joe, who sniffed at it for a second andthen walked back to the place in the cabin where Chet had slept.
"De dawg sho' know who fro' dat bag!" he said, patting Captain Joe onthe head.
"That shows why the dog didn't make a row when the person who threw itgot close enough to the boat to heave it on deck!" Jule laughed.
"It takes a little coon to find out things about animals!" grinnedAlex. "Here we've been studying over who tossed the bag, and Mosesettles the question in a minute. That is sure some coon!"
"There's an affinity between a boy and a dog, anyway!" Clay laughed.
"I wonder if the kid is right?" Case questioned.
The boys discussed the matter during supper, and, right or wrong, Mosewas given his plate of honey, which he was obliged to divide withTeddy!
The night passed away without incident, and early morning found the_Rambler_ on her way to the Gulf again. The day was not different fromother days for a week. The boys passed plantations and villages,swamps and lagoons, which seemed to have escaped the force of theflood, but now and then came to a wrecked cabin toppling from a bank.
They secured a supply of gasoline at a small place near the Arkansasline and at night found themselves in the heart of a desolate country.When they tied up they were at the mouth of a lagoon which seemed tolead into a great swamp.
"It is a sure thing that no leather bags will be thrown on deckto-night," Clay observed, as supper was prepared. "We are even off thetrack of the steamers, for they seem to stick to the opposite side ofthe stream."
"This would be a dandy spot for a band of river pirates to inhabit,"Jule added.
"Don't talk about pirates!" admonished Clay. "You'll have Mose turningwhite again. Some day he'll turn so white with fright that he willnever turn black again, and he wouldn't like that, would you, Mose?"
"Ah's 'tented wif mah color," answered the boy.
"That's all right, as long as you are on the boat," Alex. put in, "butyou jump into the lagoon and see how long you'll last. An alligatorwill leave a fat pig any time to make a dinner off a black boy!"
"Quit scaring the boy!" exclaimed Case. "First thing you know, he willbe afraid to swim ashore to steal a yellow-legged chicken roasted bytramps!"
When darkness fell a soft wind came out of the west and a slow rainbegan falling. It was wild and uncanny outside, but bright and warm inthe cabin. Alex. entertained his chums for a time with stories of theMississippi, and explained how Grant had shortened the stream bycutting a new channel at Vicksburg, but all were tired, and by nineo'clock all were asleep save Jule, who was to stand guard that night,and Mose who was moving restlessly about.
"Come on into the cabin, Mose," Jule finally ordered, "and go to bed,like a good coon! You'll get wet out on deck!"
The boy entered the cabin and sat down near the stove, in which asmall fire was burning. Jule regarded him attentively.
"What's the matter with you to-night?" he finally asked.
"Ah hear a roar!" was the reply.
"That's the wind in the cypress trees," Jule explained.
"Is it de win' makes de ribber come up?" asked Mose, in a moment.
"Is the river rising?" asked Jule, going to the door and switching onthe prow light. "It ought to be running down."
By the light of the electric the boy saw that the river was indeedrising. Little knolls which were above water when the boat had beenanchored were now under a swift current. The river was sweeping pastthe mouth of the lagoon with a new force.
Presently trees and wreckage of different sorts were seen driftingdown, and there came a rushing sound which added greatly to theweirdness of the scene.
"This beats me!" Jule muttered. "The flood has been going down fornearly a week. There must have been heavy rains up to the north, andat the sources o
f the rivers emptying into the Mississippi. I wonderif it will do anything to us?"
At that moment a timber crashed against the _Rambler_, jarring itconsiderably.
Clay and the others were out of their bunks in a minute, and out ondeck to see what had taken place. Alex. was the first one to grasp thesituation.
"We'll have to turn on the motors to hold this boat," he said. "Theanchor lies in the mud, and will pull away at the first push of acurrent. First thing we know, we'll be down there in a cypress swamp!"
"You're excited!" Case called out. "We passed the flood two days ago."
"That's the trouble," Alex. explained. "We passed the flood! The crestof it is still to the north of us. It has undoubtedly been raining upriver, and that has swelled the volume of water."
"Do you mean that we got down the river in advance of the flood?"demanded Case.
"We have been going a little faster than the current, haven't we,notwithstanding our tying up nights?" Alex. asked. "This little boathas been going some! To-night the crest of the flood overtakes us.See?"
"It doesn't look reasonable!" Case insisted. "I don't believe it!"
"The kid is right," Clay declared. "I have often read about boatsmeeting the flood the second time, once when they passed it, and oncewhen it caught up with them."
The roaring sound which Mose had referred to now grew louder, soundinglike the rush of a long and heavily loaded freight train.
While the lads listened, hardly knowing what to do to protectthemselves, Mose pointed a shaking hand at a spot far down the lagoon.Clay looked and saw a great blaze on what seemed a wooded knoll to thewest of the river.
"There's a camp down there!" he said.
"That makes it nice!" grinned Alex. "No honest men ever made camp inthat hole at this season of the year! It is dollars to tripe that ifwe don't put on power the crest of the flood will wash us down, whenthe full strength comes, and beach us among a band of river pirates!If we don't get under way up stream we'll have do to something to makethe anchor hold!"
While the boys were discussing some way of accomplishing this, forthey did not like the idea of breasting the flood, the crest of theflood came seething down the stream, a wall of water four feet high!It swept over the point of land between the river and the bayou anddashed against the _Rambler_.
The anchor held for a minute, then the boys knew that they were inmotion. The current seemed stronger there than in the river itself.
"The water is cutting a new channel below," Clay shouted, as the_Rambler_ was swept away, "and we are headed for that swamp. Now, weare in a peck of trouble!"