CHAPTER XX
THE DARKEY UP THE TREE
While Case talked with the young man Clay went back into the cabin totalk with Alex., who was now changing into dry clothing.
"Do you think the story that man is telling is all right?" he asked.
"I think he is telling the truth about the river thieves," Alex.replied.
"I was wondering if that wasn't just a bait to help them get onboard."
"It may be, but there are river robbers in this section. They told usthat where we bought the gasoline. These may be the robbers, for all Iknow, but we ought to make sure of that before turning them down.They'll starve here, if they have lost their boat and provisions. Ofcourse they can get wild game, but I don't see how they are going tocook it. We ought to give them a chance, anyway."
Clay went back to the deck and listened to the conversation betweenCase and the visitor, who seemed a little annoyed at the doubting ofhis word.
"Where did you live in Chicago?" he heard Case ask.
"In furnished rooms on Elizabeth street, near Washington boulevard,"was the reply.
"Where did you work?" was the next question, impertinent and personal,but seemingly necessary at that time.
"At a machine shop on Clinton street, not far from West Madison.
"Then you are machinists?"
"Yes, all of us. Business is dull in our line just now, and we thoughtwe'd make a hit with ourselves by spending a winter in the south."
"When did you leave Chicago?"
"We left Chicago last September," answered the man, turning toward therail. "We expect to get back sometime during the next century, if allChicago boys are as hospitable as you are! Now, with your permission,I'll go back to my friends."
"How do you know we are from Chicago?" asked Clay, stepping forward.
The other laughed lightly and pointed to the boat's name on articlesscattered about.
"But, aside from that," he said, "we'd know you anywhere. The Chicagonewspapers carried a lot of feature stuff about your boat and yourtrips."
"All right, stranger," one of the three answered, in rather a pleasanttone of voice. "Just as you say!"
"What do you want?" asked Alex., still shivering from his cold bath.
"We want a ride out of this consarned swamp," was the reply.
"How did you get in here?" asked Clay. "Get out the way you got in!"he added.
"Our shanty boat is smashed to flinders and our grub is gone,"complained the other. "It don't look as if we could walk out of here,does it?"
"Was that your fire we saw?" asked Case, drawing closer to thegunwale.
"We had a fire before the flood pounced down upon us," was the reply.
"What shall we do?" asked Clay, facing the others. "If they are on thesquare we can't leave them here. They would starve!"
"They may be pirates!" suggested Jule.
"I don't believe it," Case declared. "They don't look the part.Besides, if they had designs on the boat, they could have picked usoff in the darkness, and we'd never have known where the bullets camefrom. They're all right!"
"One of you come aboard," Clay instructed, "and we'll see what youlook like."
In plain view of the boys the man who had done the talking handed hisgun to a companion and struck out for the boat, walking on logs partof the way, wading part of the way, and swimming when he could doneither. In a moment he was on deck.
"The three of us," he explained, "were out of work at Chicago. We hada little cash, and decided to come down here and spend the winterwhere we wouldn't have room-rent or restaurant bills to pay. Wethought we could cut and market enough fish-poles out of the brakeswamps to pay our way back in the spring."
"That wasn't a bad idea!" Jule declared.
"We were getting along all right," the other went on, "until the riverthieves began troubling us. They stole our food, and at last beganstealing our poles. We were getting ready to go out when the floodsmashed our shanty boat into smithereens. Now we are up against it,unless you take us with you. And," he added, with a quick glancearound, "you'd better take us on board, for the thieves are back therein the swamp, with their envious eyes fixed on this boat. They aremostly negroes, and escaped convicts."
"You ought to know that we've got to be careful," Clay said, as theman was about to leave the boat. "We don't know anything about you,except what you have told us, but we're going to take a chance on you.Tell your friends to come on board."
In five minutes the three were in the cabin, trying on some of Clay'sclothes, for their own were not only wet but they oozed black muck.When they were dressed again they passed their revolvers over to Clay,with the statement that they wouldn't need them unless the riverpirates took a hand in the game that night.
"Have the ruffians been here long?" asked Clay.
"About a month ago," was the reply, "a lot of negroes broke away froma convict camp off to the west somewhere. They came into this swampand built a camp on a knoll, which must, by the way, be under waternow. They are murderers, housebreakers and sneak thieves of the mostdesperate kind. We tried to make friends with them, but it was of nouse. They think their camp is unknown, and so object to our gettingout and telling where it is. I half believe they will try to keep youfrom getting out for the same reason."
"If it is all the same to you boys," another of the visitors said,"we'd like something to eat. We were half starved when we came onboard. I think I can catch a fish or shoot a duck, so our supper won'tcost you anything only the bother of having us around. What do yousay? Do we eat?"
"I should say so!" cried Alex., sticking his head out of the cabin,"and when you are out after game get enough for me a little lunch. Ihaven't had anything to eat since dark!"
"Is that rowboat at the side all right?" asked the visitor, pointingto the boat which had been found up the river. "If it is, I'll get alittle ways from the motor boat, in the shadows, and see what I can dogetting ducks."
"The boat is all right," Alex. answered, "and I'll go with you. I'mbeginning to feel the lack of adventure. I get awfully tired of thismonotony sometimes!"
They all laughed at the idea of there being any monotony in thesituation, there in the swamp, with the river roaring around them andthe watchful thieves in the thicket, and Alex. seemed quite annoyed atthe thought that they regarded his remark as a joke.
"Perhaps something will happen before you get back," Clay grinned.
"The boat may smash," said Jule, cheerfully. "It has been banged aboutquite a lot since we got it. Or you may find some of the robbers.There's no knowing what streak of good luck you may get into!"
"I'm not looking for any good luck of that kind!" the visitor said, ashe drew the rowboat around and clambered into it. "I've had all thecheerful incidents of that character I care to have. When I get backto Chicago, I'm going to get a room next to the Desplaines streetpolice station and go to bed at seven o'clock every night."
"What's your name?" asked Alex., abruptly as he pushed off from the_Rambler_.
"Gregg Holder," was the reply. "I'm just Gregg to all my friends, butI'm Bully Gregg on South Halstead street. The others are Eddie Butlerand Hank Quinn."
"That settles it!" grinned Alex. "I'm going back."
"What for?" asked Gregg, in surprise. "Don't you want a duck or afish?"
"Sure I do," was the reply, "but I'm afraid! You're the man thatfought Murphy to a draw? What? And Eddie Butler is the boy that bestedMurray!"
"You've got that right, kid," was the reply. "We've all been in theprize ring, but we're no slum toughs. If you think the bears andsnakes and robbers are better company than we are," he added, "we'llget out of your boat!"
"You're just the lads to give the pirates a good drubbing!" Alex.laughed, "and so we'll ask you to remain with us and learn somethingof the rules of polite society! Let me take one oar, unless you wantto keep on going round in a circle!"
"There's something pulling on the boat," Gregg said. "I can't keep iton a straight line. See if you can find out
what has tangled us."
Alex. turned on his searchlight and cast its rays on the water ahead.Then he dropped his light in the bottom of the boat and stuck hishands out straight. Gregg looked up as the light fell, then droppedthe oars and stuck his hands out straight!
"This is the adventure you wanted!" Gregg said, as half a dozennegroes showed on a hummock only a few feet away. "We're held up bythe river thieves!"
"What do you fellows want?" Alex. demanded, looking straight into themuzzle of a gun that seemed to have a bore as large as the Hudsonriver tunnel.
"We want that boat, so we can get on board the motor contraption,"said a voice.
"That's no negro!" whispered Alex. "It is a white man blacked up!"
"Right you are!" replied Gregg.
"What are you boys talking about?" demanded the holder of thethreatening gun.
"We were telling each other how glad we were to meet you!" Alex.snarled.
"You're a nervy kid, anyhow," said the other. "Push the boat up here,so we can get in. We were raised as pets, and don't want to get wet."
There was nothing to do but obey instructions. They knew the desperatecharacter of the men they were facing. If they followed orders andwaited for an opportunity to turn the tables on their captors, theymight get out of the mess with whole skins, but if they forced a fightthere and then there would be little hope for them. When there werefour of the pirates in the boat, crouching down under the gunwales,who made the fifth, the spokesman gave his orders.
"Now you boys row back. When we get close up I'll show myself and putthe whole party under cover. See? My men will also have their guns,and if you disobey instructions in the slightest particular, you'll beshot in the back."
"That's where you like to shoot, I take it!" growled Gregg. "If I hadone of you out on the bank I'd break him in two pieces and feed him tothe snakes."
"Cuss if you want to!" commented the robber. "We can settle all thatafter a time. Just now, get over to that boat, and call out thatyou've found another castaway in the swamp! We'll be on board beforethey can say a word."
This looked like turning the _Rambler_ over to thieves, but there wasno way in which the boys could reverse conditions just then, so theyrowed toward the motor boat, calling out that they had found a sickman in the jungle. The robber prodded them with the muzzle of his gunwhen they did not give the right inflection to their voices.
When the boat entered the circle of light the boys on board the_Rambler_ were all leaning over the gunwale, looking for the boys andthe rescued individual. There were no weapons in sight, and Alex.feared that all the revolvers were stowed away in the cabin, and thatthe _Rambler_ would be taken without a shot being fired in herdefense.
When the boat touched the hull of the _Rambler_ the robber sprang tohis feet, presenting two long guns as he did so.
"I'll empty these guns into the crowd of you," he said, in a low, evenvoice, "if there is one move on deck. We are coming aboard, and thebetter you use us the better we shall use you. Just sit still, boys,"he added, addressing his men, "until I get on deck."
He was lithe and strong, and was on the deck in an instant, withoutopposition, his guns threatening the amazed boys and their visitors.Captain Joe gave forth a volley of ugly growls, and would haveattacked the man, but Clay ordered him back.
"Never mind the dog," he said. "He won't bite!"
"If he does, he'll get a chance to bite lead!" the robber exclaimed."Now, men," he went on, "climb up into the boat. Leave the rowerswhere they are."
Four husky negroes, all with traces of whisky in their breath, beganclimbing over Alex. and Gregg to reach the motor boat. As they weresteadying the rocking craft, they carried no weapons in their hands.
Then something happened which was as much of a surprise to the boys asit was to the men who were trying to capture the _Rambler_!
A rope with a wide noose at one end came whirling out of the sky andfell over the robber's head, resting for an instant in a neat coil onhis shoulders!
He clutched his weapons closer and looked up. Then the line tightenedabout his muscular neck until his feet left the deck and his face grewred with the blood of strangulation, then grew white. The revolversclattered to the floor, and the man's figure toppled and fell as therope slacked.
When this strange thing happened, Alex. and Gregg were bending theirheads down to permit the negroes to clamber over them. Still they sawthe rope fall, saw the man gasp as it closed about his neck, and feltthe negroes springing back in dismay.
Then they arose with their heavy oars in their hands and struckslashing, crunching blows at the heads below them! One negro lifted anarm to shoot, but it fell with the bones of the shoulder crushed topulp. One by one they dropped out of the boat, some with broken arms,some with broken heads. After they had all disappeared, either underthe surface of the lagoon or into the darkness of the swamp, a shrillvoice came from the tree where Mose had taken refuge from the snakesand the alligators:
"Go on, white folks," it said, "Ah goin' hang dis immitation coon upon dis tree!"