CHAPTER V
A NEW CAPTAIN ON BOARD
Clay continued his work on the motors for a long time after thedeparture of Alex. and Jule. It was impossible to make them work withsafety without the repairs Case had gone after, but the boy decidedthat the present would be a fine time to clean them.
While he worked, polishing and oiling, Mose and Teddy came out of thecabin arm-in-arm! At least the little negro boy had one arm around thecub's neck!
"You've got over your scare, eh?" Clay laughed, as the two came to hisside.
"Ah sure tu'n white las' night!" Mose declared, rolling his eyes untilthey looked like white billiard balls. "Ah's so scared!"
"You are black enough this morning," Clay suggested. "Where did youcome from?"
"Ah done come f'm San Louee," was the reply. "Ah lib on de levee."
"Did you run away from St. Louis?" asked Clay. "Did you come all theway from the levee on the roof Alex. fished you off from?"
Mose, still playing with the cub, explained that he had sneaked onboard a steamer at St. Louis, but had been put ashore at a landingabove Cairo by the mate. Then, so great had been his desire to getfarther south for the winter, he had taken a drifting boat and pushedout into the swollen stream.
The boat had been crushed in a mass of wreckage, but the boy hadmanaged to crawl up on the floating roof where he had been found. Themammy he had spoken of as having been so liberal with him in thebestowal of names was an old colored lady who had given him a place tosleep on cold nights and occasionally fed him when he was hungry. Heknew nothing of his parents or any relatives. He was just a leveewaif.
After a time Clay went to the cabin and lay on his bunk, which letdown from the ceiling, being usually drawn up during the daytime. Themotors were still under process of cleaning, and various parts layscattered about.
Presently the boy heard a great racket on deck. Captain Joe's deepvoice came in threatening growls, and Mose and Teddy scampered intothe cabin. Clay sprang to his feet and made for the deck, not doubtingthat Alex. and Jule had returned and were up to some mischief. Beforehe reached the door he heard the sound of a heavy blow.
He could see no one through the doorway, which Mose had left open,although most of the deck was in sight, yet the blow he had heardwarned him that something out of the ordinary was taking place. Hestepped back to a shelf for his revolver.
He knew that during floods bands of outlaws frequented the river inquest of plunder, and it was his first impression that one of thesehad discovered the motor boat and was trying to board her. He wonderedat the silence of the dog.
As the boy reached for his weapon, a gruff voice from the cabindoorway commanded him to face about and hold up his hands.
"And hold 'em up empty, too!" the gruff voice said.
There was nothing for Clay to do but to obey. It was with an effort,however, that he kept his arms extended. The leering eyes of the manwith the face of a fox who stood before him with a revolver pushedalmost into his face caused such hot surges of rage to fill the boy'sbrain that he came near facing the peril and springing upon theoutlaw.
Mose, levee bred and wise to the unlawful purpose of the intruder,moved stealthily toward the shelf where Clay's revolver lay, in plainsight. In another second it would have been in the little fellow'shand, with what result Clay could not imagine, but the outlaw saw themovement and edged forward, still keeping the revolver leveled atClay, much to the latter's disgust.
"Here, you coon!" the man shouted, "get over in that corner and staythere! Move, or I'll give you a lift!"
The brute gave Mose a savage kick in the side as he spoke. It was onething for Clay to be placed in a humiliating position, to bethreatened with a gun, but it was quite another for him to standinactive and see a boy brutally treated! Disregarding all his thoughtsof the uselessness of the move, the boy sprang at the outlaw.
Although only a boy, Clay was muscular and in training. The man he hadattacked was stronger and heavier than the lad, but he was slower ofmovement, and the result of the conflict might have been a victory forClay if the two had been permitted to continue the struggleunmolested.
While the meager furniture of the little cabin was being broken andtossed hither and yon by the combatants, while Teddy was jumpingabout, eager to get hold of one of the fighters--as he had been taughtto do when the boys were wrestling--and while Mose was doing his bestto get over to the shelf where the revolver lay, there came a quickjar on deck, a jar caused by the bunting of a boat against the hull ofthe _Rambler_, and then hurrying footsteps on the forward deck.
Clay fought all the harder when the sounds reached his ears, for hewas sure that Alex. and Jule had returned, and that short work wouldnow be made of the intruder. He was gradually securing a hold on hisenemy which would have ended the battle when he was seized andlifted--by a giant, it seemed to him--clear of the cabin deck and heldthere while the outlaw slowly regained his feet and picked up hisweapon.
Clay saw that it was the other side that had received thereinforcements, and motioned to Mose to remain quiet and keep out ofsight. He feared that further activity on the part of the negro boywould add to his punishment.
After catching his breath, the outlaw with whom Clay had beenstruggling lifted a pair of bloodshot eyes to Clay's face and sprangat him, his huge fists clenched until the knuckles showed hard andwhite.
"You bum!" he shouted, lunging at the lad, "I'll give you some of yourown medicine! What do you mean by striking me?"
The blow would have landed squarely in the boy's face, but the man whohad picked him off the outlaw warded it off with a fist like a ham,and set the boy behind the great bulk of his own person. Clay wasencouraged by this defense, and began hoping that he had found afriend instead of another enemy.
But this hope was soon shattered, for the newcomer produced a hardcord, which had evidently once been used as a fishline, and coollyproceeded to tie the boy's wrists. This task completed to hissatisfaction, he pushed the boy over on his bunk and tossed Mose ontop of him.
"There!" he cried. "You keep quiet, or I'll turn Sam loose on you!And, Sam, if you molest the boy again I'll settle with you for it. Itake it he had a right to fight for his boat! And the little coon! Youkeep your hands off him, too!"
The man called Sam flashed an ugly look out of his foxy, inflamed eyesand went out on deck. In a moment he was seen in the doorway again,dragging Captain Joe after him.
"Shall I pitch the dog overboard?" he asked, in a surly tone. "He tooka piece out of my leg and I gave him a rap on the head. He's knockedout!"
Clay sat up on the bunk and glared at the man, who was still holdingthe bulldog by the collar. At that moment, whatever the consequences,the fellow's life would not have been worth a farthing if the boy hadhad a gun!
"Don't let him kill the dog!" Clay said, appealing to the giant. "He'sa good fellow, that dog! Of course he bit that robber! He wouldn'thave been a good dog if he hadn't. Take what you want on the boat, butlet the dog live."
The giant, who was at least six foot six inches in height and large inproportion, looked Captain Joe over after the manner of one acquaintedwith dogs while Clay awaited his decision anxiously.
"The kid is right," he finally declared. "This is a good dog, andwe'll keep him with us. Took a piece out of your leg, did he?"
The big fellow placed his hands on his mammoth hips, threw back hishead until his hairy throat rose like a sturdy column of strength, andpoured forth such a torrent of laughter that Teddy came out of thecabin to see what new sport was being prepared for his amusement. Samstruck at the cub, but the other pushed him away before he had doneany mischief.
"That's a good one!" roared the giant. "Took a piece out of your leg,did he? If he ain't pizened, and lives after that, I'll keep him.There's a heap of pizen snakes down my way that need looking after.Took a piece out of your leg! That's too good for anything! Ho! Ho!Ho! Took a piece out of your leg!"
"I hope he'll some day take a piece out of that throat of yours!"roared
Sam.
"No doubt, no doubt!" replied the giant. "He may be a doin' of it whenthe hangman is busy puttin' a new hemp tie about that weazen of yours!Now let the kids and the dog and bear alone, and help work the boatout into the current. We've got to be getting out of this!"
"You'll have to put the motors together before you move her," Samreplied.
The giant looked thoughtfully at the scattered fragments, then atClay, still in the bunk, and scratched a thatch of red hair whichlooked like a hayrick.
"It seems to need puttin' together," he said, beckoning to Clay.
Then the boy saw that it was the intention of the outlaws to takepossession of the _Rambler_ and shift her down stream before any ofthe boys returned. He thought of Alex. and Jule, marooned on thatdesolate point of land where the old house stood, of Case, trudgingback from New Madrid with the repairs to find the boat gone!
He glanced about hopelessly, searching the shores of the bayou on thefaint chance of seeing Alex. and Jule returning. Captain Joe was nowregaining consciousness in the cabin, and Teddy was trying to interesthim in a boxing match! Mose sat in a corner motionless, except thathis eyes rolled about in anger or panic, the boy could not determinewhich.
"Well, get the engines together!" ordered the giant.
"There are parts missing," Clay answered. "One of the boys has gone toNew Madrid for repairs. She won't run a foot without them."
Sam and the giant conversed together for a moment, and then the formercalled out to Mose, emphasizing his words with a threatening gesture:
"Here, coon!" he shouted. "Can you swim?"
"Ah sho' can," was the reply.
"Then jump ashore and take this dog with you. If I ever see either ofyou again I'll take your hides off!"
"It would improve matters to hold 'em under a while!" he added,angrily.
"I won't have it," the giant returned. "No murder for me!"
"You'll see what'll come of lettin' 'em go!" Sam warned.
"Git!" ordered the big fellow, in a not unkind tone, and Mose, nothingloth, gathered the dog in his arms and leaped into the bayou.
Clay almost held his breath for a moment, until he saw that the coldwater had revived the dog, and that he was swimming. Then hisattention was attracted to the outlaws, who were, with pole and oar,edging the _Rambler_ out into the river.
He believed that the boat would be wrecked the moment it, helpless,struck the mass of floodwood sweeping down. Presently he felt the pushof the current, and the boat went whirling down stream, tipping fromside to side as she spun around, helpless in the current.
Then a great tree struck the stern and half capsized her. The endseemed at hand.