THE RAMBLER HEARD FROM
"He's got the motor boat in his pocket--perhaps!" Clay said, dejectedly.
"We'll have to walk back to Chicago, I take it! Well, we may as well
laugh as cry, so here goes for the merry side of things. It might be
worse, you know!"
"I fail to see how it could be much worse," Case observed. "We are shy
clothes and everything! Right now we look like a lot of monkeys dancing
about in the forest!"
Jule was by this time within hailing distance, and Buck called out to
him, asking where the boat was. For answer the boy pointed down the
river.
"I knew it!" said Case, with a shiver.
"How did it happen?" asked Buck.
"It drifted away," replied Jule, when he came within speaking distance,
"but some men down the river caught it. It will be up here in a few
minutes." "Whoop-ee!" shouted Case.
"I've got a picture of our walk back to Chicago!" Clay exclaimed,
dancing about in his ruined sweater and trousers. "Not yet--not for your
Uncle Zeke!"
"Why didn't you get into the boat and ride up?" asked Buck.
"There was no place to land," was the reply. "There comes the boat now,
with three men aboard of her."
"I give it up," declared Rube, rising to his feet. "At the present time
if cows were selling for a cent apiece, the whole party couldn't buy a
piece of cheese an inch in size!"
"Don't you be too sure about that!"
And Jule took the missing roll from a pocket in his shirt and presented
it to the owner. The moment of blank amazement over, the boys placed the
roll of money on the ground, and, joining hands, circled around it until
they were all out of breath.
"I found it on the ground where the bear left it," said the boy in
explanation. "Wasn't he a good, kind bear to leave anything at all?" he
added, whimsically.
"How do you know there was any bear?" demanded Case. "The fix the
clothes were in might have been the work of mischievous boys, for all
you knew."
"Not much," Jule replied. "Boys wouldn't have a nest in that hollow
tree, would they? And boys wouldn't be sliding down, and raking the bark
off the tree, would they?"
"Then you knew just what we were to meet?" demanded Clay.
"I thought Alex had been caught without his automatic, and that the bear
had chased him away," answered Jule.
"That's exactly what happened," said Alex. "The bear came out of the
tree and I had to run for it. When I got to the tree I found the bear
close to my heels. I think he would have got me only for the mouth
organ. How I did long for my automatic!"
"Why didn't you run while the bear was attending to the clothing?" asked
Rube, who was so glad to get his money back that his face wore a chronic
and perpetual grin.
"To tell the truth," replied Alex, with a sly smile, "I wasn't here when
the brute showed up! I was away on a little trip of my own. Now you have
the whole story."
"Well," said Rube, "as we have to make another trip to the village, and
it's getting along toward the middle of the afternoon, perhaps we'd
better be deciding who's to go. We can't all go in the rigs we have on,
that's a sure thing. The bear didn't leave us too many clothes--not
enough to hurt any."
"I've got an idea!" suggested Alex. "It will save us a trip to town and,
at the same time, expedite matters. What's the matter with my going to
the burg and buying for us all?"
"Well, if you'll promise not to follow off any bears; that's the
ticket!" said Buck.
"The bears are likely to follow Alex off!" laughed Case.
The motor boat now dropped anchor in front of where the boys were
standing, and the party was subjected to no end of "roasting" because of
their disreputable appearance.
"Looks like the Garden of Eden!" roared the man who seemed to be in
charge. "Where are your clothes?" he went on. "If I was the proprietor
of that layout, I'd be looking around for a rag man!"
"The bear caught sight of our clothes first," Clay answered. "Got time
to take one of the boys back to the store?" he asked. "As you see, we
are in need of clothes."
"I should say so!" replied the other.
The story was soon told, and the men were off for the town in a hurry.
For once, Alex did the job of buying the clothes as it should have been
done, and was soon on his way back to the boys.
As he understood the motor thoroughly, it was not necessary for the
boatmen to return with him. They left him with many expressions of good
will, and many admonitions to give all members of the bear family a wide
berth in future.
It was fortunate that the provisions purchased by Buck and Rube were
intact, they having been hidden in a separate place.
The clothes fitted all the boys very well indeed, but Rube, owing to
what Alex called "his length of beam," was forced to don a suit about a
foot too large for him and a foot too short.
"These clothes are all right, only they don't fit!" said Rube, looking
down at his protruding legs. "They fit me too quick the long way, and
they are about the size of an elephant the short way."
"You shouldn't notice it!" volunteered Alex. "If this thing keeps on,
you'll be short in your bank account."
"How much is there left in that roll?" asked Clay.
"Now, don't you worry about the roll wasting away," replied Rube, "for
there's more where that came from."
"Glad to know it--we may want to make another touch!" was Alex's reply.
"We're pretty deep in that roll now, if anybody should ask you," he
added, with a wink at Jule.
"Now, see here," Rube responded, "don't you ever think I take any chance
whatever in losing this money. You boys haven't said a word to me about
how you are hooked up! We've been too busy for that. But don't you ever
suspect that I don't know. You haven't mentioned any names, except Clay,
Alex, Case and Jule, but I read all about you and the _Rambler_ in a
Chicago newspaper, and the minute you referred to the _Rambler_ I had
you located."
"It seems that we are getting notorious," suggested Clay. "We can't make
a move that some newspaper don't record."
"Lucky for you that it is so," Rube continued.
"Why is it lucky for us?" demanded Jule, interrupting.
"Well," Rube went on, "when you picked up Paul Stegman last night in the
rain, and began talking about the _Rambler_ and Captain Joe, I had you
sized up. So when Buck came down the river in his motor boat, I got
aboard, thinking you kids might need a little lookin' after. Now you've
got the whole story."
"And so, without knowing it, we had a bodyguard from the time we rescued
Paul from the river?" Case interrupted. "It was mighty good of you
both."
"I wonder how Paul is faring?" Clay suggested.
"Oh, the boat thieves probably threw him overboard," Case declared. "I'd
like to wring their necks!"
"Now," Rube said, "I've got a hunch that you boys are able to look out
for yourselves, so I'll ride as far as the _Rambler_ and quit you there.
I have a little work to do for myself. If you are as level-headed in
future as you have shown yourselves to be in the past, you won't need
any watching."
"How do you know we'll catch the _Rambler_?" asked Jule.
"I'm just supposing a case," replied Rube with a grin.
"You just bet we'll catch her!" Alex contributed. "And when we get her
next time, we'll keep her. This chasing after boats all the time ain't
what it's cracked up to be."
It was late in the afternoon when the _Esmeralda_ got under way, just as
Clay had planned. A close watch was kept on both shores as the boat
proceeded downstream.
Naturally, the _Rambler_ would take the easiest course, which was
downstream, but for this very reason the boys decided to search every
foot of water until they came to it. As soon as it was dark enough, the
thieves might seek to baffle pursuit by heading up the river.
At last darkness settled down on the water. Had the night been made to
order it could not have served the purpose of the boys better. If the
_Rambler_ had crept into some hiding place along the stream her lights
would show them where she lay.
In case her lights were not burning and her motors were not running it
would be a difficult thing to locate the boat, and for this reason the
_Esmeralda_ was kept slowed down.
From the first Clay had not believed the story told by Rube. He might be
interested in a ranch, and Clay did not doubt that he was, but that was
not the reason for his appearance on the scene just at that time. The
boy did not care to make himself disliked by prying too openly into the
affairs of the others, yet he was positive that there was a hidden
motive back of the one reason given.
Clay talked the matter over with the other boys, but could not reach a
satisfactory conclusion.
"Perhaps he's an officer," suggested Jule.
"In that case," replied Clay, "he would be apt to know some of the other
officers."
"From first to last," answered Jule, "we haven't met a single man who
has shown any authority. I guess he's just helping out for the fun he's
getting out of it."
"And Buck? What about him?" asked Case.
"Give it up, boys," cried Alex. "You're all tangled up now, and the more
you guess the more you'll get tangled."
The _Esmeralda_ slipped downstream with no lights in sight. Whenever
they came to a long stretch of river the motor was set in motion, but
ordinarily it remained silent.
Of course the boys were unable to pick out the localities for speeding,
they being strangers to that section of country, but here Buck and Rube
proved very capable guides.
They knew the upper Rio Grande as the schoolboy knows his primer. In
fact, knowing the stream so well, it was remarkable that they had never
before landed at Hayes. But Hayes is a small place, and, besides, they
had never had occasion to visit the burg.
At ten o'clock a slow rain began falling, and, the boat at the time
being just around a point of land from a creek, Buck, who was in charge,
shut off the power and permitted the craft to drift.
"Do you see anything that looks like a light?"
It was Rube who asked the question.
At that instant, almost before the words were off his lips, came a low
whistle of warning.
"There they are!" said Case.
"Keep still," admonished Clay.
The boat drifted on, past the mouth of the creek, and let an anchor drop
silently into the water.
"I don't know what we've struck, but we know that wasn't no coyote's
call," declared Case.
"It had a human sound," interrupted Jule.
"Listen!" warned Buck. "We'll hear it again in a moment. I thought I
heard it then."
"That was only rain," explained Alex. "The first one might have been
that, too."
At that instant, before another word could be spoken, a great light
flashed out, followed by a shrill scream.