“What’s that you say?” thundered one of the men from the steamer, as
Alex explained to the houseboat men that neither party had any interest
whatever in the _Rambler_.
“You’d better keep truth on your side, young man!” the other whiskey
boat man put in.
“That’s right,” Alex declared, dodging away from one of the men who made
an attempt to seize him. “That’s right! These whiskey boat men never saw
this craft until last night. We rammed their steamer because they tried
to block us in a lagoon, and I hope we sunk her.”
“You did all of that!” one of the others replied.
“According to the boy’s statement,” Mose cut in, “you fellows have no
right on this boat at all, so I’d advise you to make yourself skurce.”
The recent arrivals saw that they were not making good in their bluff to
the houseboat men and so resorted to sterner measures.
Quick as a flash one of them seized the muzzle of the rusty old shotgun,
drew it away from the clumsy hands holding it, and dropped the weapon
into the river. Almost at the same instant, two automatic revolvers
flashed out of the hip pockets of the outlaws.
“Now,” the man who had been doing most of the talking thundered, “you
river thieves get off this boat!”
“We will when we get pay for our net!”
“You never owned a net!” shouted the other. “You never had the price of
a dozen fish hooks at one time, say nothing about a net!”
“Anyway,” Mose insisted, “I brought you over to this boat and kept the
boy from running away before you got here.”
“Now, you’re talking sense,” the outlaw sneered. “Throw him a couple of
dollars, Chet,” he added.
The fellow’s companion tossed two silver dollars scornfully down on the
deck and turned to Alex.
“You get into the cabin,” he said, “and stay there. We’ll settle with
you later on.”
Alex had no idea of remaining on board the _Rambler_ after it had passed
into the possession of the outlaws. He knew that the desire for revenge
on their part might lead to murder. He had no fear of being turned, over
to the officers of the law, for the outlaws were in no position to make
charges against others. He stepped into the cabin as requested and
closed the door after him.
“Now, Teddy Bear,” he said, “you and I have got to jump away from this
darling old boat, and we’ve got to do it right soon.”
Teddy, awakened from a sound sleep, scratched his nose with a soft paw
and replied in the most polite of bear talk that he would do whatever
Alex thought best.
The men who belonged on the houseboat were by this time off the deck of
the _Rambler_. The outlaws, however, were watching the boy very closely.
They laughed when they saw him talking with the bear.
“That’s a cute pet you have there!” one of the men exclaimed, speaking
through the broken panel of the door.
“It is indeed,” Alex answered cheerfully. “Teddy Bear is a pretty good
friend. We’ve had him a long time.”
“What’re you going to do with him?” asked the outlaw.
“Take him back to Chicago with us.”
The outlaws laughed and regarded the boy and the bear with humorous
faces. Alex sat down and watched them curiously.
“I don’t see you getting back to Chicago right away,” one of them
finally said. “That is, not to-day nor to-morrow.”
“Oh, we’re going down to Cairo first!” Alex grinned.
The two outlaws turned away with a laugh, and as soon as their backs
were in view Alex opened the swinging sash of the rear window and
motioned for Teddy to leap out.
The bear cub followed instructions, and landed lightly on the after
deck. In an instant Alex was through the window and the two sprang into
the water and made for the shore.
The outlaws would doubtless have remained unconscious of the escape
until the boy and his companion had reached the thicket only that the
men on the houseboat shouted and pointed at the bear.
“Look at the menagerie!” one of them cried.
This brought the outlaws to the shore-side of the boat, and directly
several harmless bullets whizzed close to the two swimmers.
“Go it, boy! Go it, bear!” was shouted from the houseboat.
The three men already disgruntled by the manner in which they had been
treated by the outlaws, were now inclined to support Alex and the bear
in their efforts to escape.
While the men on the _Rambler_ sent badly aimed bullets after the two in
the water, the men on the houseboat hurled billets of wood and whatever
else they could lay their hands on at the outlaws.
This action on their part, while doing no physical harm whatever, had
the effect of directing the attention of the outlaws from the boy and
the bear to the three men. When Alex and Teddy disappeared in the
thicket on the east side of the little creek, immediately in the rear of
the houseboat, the outlaws were still firing, and the others were still
pitching wood and pieces of coal over the deck of the motor boat.
After a very long run upstream, out, perhaps fifty yards from the
water’s edge, the boy and the bear threw themselves down on the moss
beneath a forest tree and panted out congratulations to each other on
their escape.
“Teddy,” almost whimpered Alex. “We’ve gone and lost the _Rambler_!”
The bear looked very grave indeed.
“We’ve gone and lost the _Rambler_!” Alex went on, “and have nothing to
show for it at all! I set out to catch a fish, and lost the boat!”
Teddy rubbed his soft muzzle against Alex’s, cheek and looked
sympathetic. He seemed to understand every word said.
“And now, bear,” the boy went on, “we’ve got to walk five or ten miles
up this bank of the river and swim across. I guess the boys must be
pretty near a dozen miles away.”
Teddy, while looking sympathetic, thrust his muzzle into Alex’s, pocket
looking for crackers.
“Je—rusalem!” exclaimed Alex. “I wish I had some, Teddy. I never was so
empty in my life!”
After a short rest, the boy arose and the two proceeded on their
difficult journey. Now and then they came to weedy fields where corn had
been grown and where great shocks of stalks still stood, but for the
most part their way lay through a narrow slice of forest which fringed
the river. Alex took occasion, after a time, to investigate some of the
corn shocks but found no ears.
“Pretty soon,” the boy mused, “I’ll be hungry enough to eat the stalks.
And the boys must be hungry, too,” he went on, “but all the provisions
we had are on board the _Rambler_. I don’t know what they’ll say to me
when I go back and explain what happened.”
After a long, long walk, during which it seemed to the boy that he had
covered at least a score of miles, he discerned on the opposite bank of
the river the little cove in which the _Rambler_ had been moored that
morning. Although he strained his eyes hoping to see the familiar
figures of his chums, he could see no motion whatever.
“I guess they’ve got starved out and gone away,” the boy complained. “I
suppose when I get over there, there’ll be only a burned-out camp-fire
and nothing to eat. The next time I go out fishing for catfish, I won’t
go. It always brings bad luck.”
Realizing that he might have to swim across the whole width of the
river, the boy kept on upstream knowing that it would be better to have
the current in his favor when he entered the water.
While he sat looking across the stream, several river craft passed, some
going up and some going down. Once he thought of calling to a small
motor boat and asking the occupants to ferry him across the river. But
he soon changed his mind not knowing what sort of people he would be
likely to find in any of the river boats.
While the boy stood near the bank of the river looking out, Teddy, as
usual, was nosing about looking for something to eat. The boy had hardly
noticed the absence of the bear when a succession of long shrill
squealings came from a thicket not far distant.
“There!” the boy mused, starting away on a run. “Teddy has gone and
scared the life out of some one.”
“Fo’ de Lawd’s sake! Fo’ de Lawd’s sake!”
The voice died away, and was succeeded by a commotion in the bushes just
ahead of the running boy.
The next moment a little short, fat, dumpy negro with a fringe of gray
hair running around an otherwise bald head, came into view, trying to
run very fast, but succeeding only in stumbling over every obstruction
which came in his way, and landing flat on his back with his heels high
up in the air. The sight was indeed a comical one.
“Fo’ de Lawd’s sake! Fo’ de Lawd’s sake!” repeated the negro, his eyes
rolling in his head like great white marbles.
Teddy, evidently unconscious of the sensation he was creating, came
dashing after the fallen darkey, and at once assumed a boxing attitude.
“Take him away! Take him away!” roared the negro. “Ah’s done bein’ eat
up! Take de b’ar away, take him away!”
Instead of taking the bear away, Alex, hungry and tired as he was, threw
himself down on the grass and roared with laughter.
“Ah’s done bein’ eat up!” shouted the negro although Teddy was at least
two yards away.
“He won’t hurt you,” Alex said as soon as he could control his voice.
“Teddy is a tame bear.”
“Ah never did take to bears!” the negro shouted rolling his fat body
farther away. “Ah don’ see no good in b’ars.”
After some persuasion the boy induced the negro to come nearer. This he
did with fear and trembling, and ever with a watchful eye on the playful
cub.
“What’s your name?” asked Alex.
“Uncle Zeke,” was the reply.
“Do you live here?” was the next question.
“Ah libs way up de ribber,” was the guarded reply.
“Then you must have come down in a boat?” asked the boy.
“Ah sure did!” answered the negro.
“Well,” Alex said then, “we want to get over to the other side of the
river. Will you take us across?”
The negro backed away from the bear again and seemed to be about to take
to his heels. He turned back in a moment, however, as if anxious to be
friendly with the boy and declared:
“Ah nebber did cotton to no b’ar!”
“Oh, he won’t hurt you,” the boy explained, “he’s just a tame cub. We’ve
had him ever since he was as big as a kitten. Row us across to that
little cove over there and I’ll give you a dollar.”
Uncle Zeke fingered his bald pate and entered into negotiations for the
job, still with his eyes fixed suspiciously on Teddy.
“Ah’ll done row you over for a dollar,” he said.
“But the bear’s got to go,” Alex insisted.
“Dat’ll be anudder dollar,” insisted Uncle Zeke.
“All right,” Alex laughed, “where’s your boat?”
Delighted with having made so good a bargain, Uncle Zeke led the way to
the river bank not far away and pointed out a fair-sized rowboat rocking
in the water.
“Why!” Alex exclaimed excitedly. “Where did you get that boat?”
“Ah bought it,” replied the negro.
The boat was the one belonging to the _Rambler_!
It had been left, it will be remembered, on the Kentucky shore of the
river some distance above Wolf Creek. The boys who had landed in search
of gasoline and spark plugs had left it hidden in a thicket. During
their absence, the _Rambler_ had made her way downstream for some
distance, and so the rowboat had not been recovered. It looked familiar
to Alex now.
“Where did you buy it?” asked the boy.
“Niggerman sold me dat boat,” answered the other.
“All right,” Alex said. “Take us across and I’ll give you the two
dollars.”
He had no intention of leaving the _Rambler_’s boat in the possession of
the negro, but he thought it advisable not to make any claim to the boat
until he had reached the other side of the river.
With Teddy sitting at the very stern of the boat as far as possible from
the rower, the two were ferried across, striking the bank a few paces
above the east shore of the cove.
“Now,” Alex said as he stepped ashore, “come on over to the camp and
I’ll give you your money.” Uncle Zeke eyed the bear critically.
“Ah nebber did cotton to no b’ar!” he said.
“Well,” Alex went on, “you’ll have to come over to the camp or I can’t
give you your money.” Very reluctantly the fat, old negro waddled over
to the heap of embers which was all that remained of the fire the boys
had built early that morning. Alex’s wandering attention was brought
back to the negro directly by a short, sharp cry of alarm.
“Fo’ de Lawd’s sake!” he cried. “Fo’ de Lawd’s sake!”