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[Illustration: On the top of the ridge-boards, the lads saw a
half-dressed negro boy.]
THE RIVER MOTOR BOAT BOYS
ON THE MISSISSIPPI
OR
On the Trail to the Gulf
By HARRY GORDON
Author of
"The River Motor Boat Boys on the Colorado,"
"The River Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence,"
"The River Motor Boat Boys on the Amazon,"
"The River Motor Boat Boys on the Columbia,"
"The River Motor Boat Boys on the Ohio."
A. L. BURT COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1913
By A. L. Burt Company
THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Contents
I--A Rambler Reception Day
II--Alex. Goes Fishing
III--A Waif from the River
IV--Two Boys Get a Tumble
V--A New Captain on Board
VI--Captain Joe Makes a Hit
VII--Searching for the _Rambler_
VIII--Faces at the Window
IX--Red Declines to Talk
X--More River Outlaws
XI--Fire-Faces on the Island
XII--Half Full of Diamonds
XIII--A River Robber in a New Role
XIV--Alex. Breaks Furniture
XV--The Leather Bag Missing
XVI--What Dropped on Deck
XVII--Getting out of the Mud
XVIII--Swept Into a Swamp
XIX--Pilgrims from Old Chicago
XX--The Darkey up the Tree
XXI--Dodging a Police Boat
XXII--The Sheriff Knows a Lot
XXIII--A Night in New Orleans
XXIV--Something Doing All the Time
XXV--Commonplace, After All
THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI
CHAPTER I
A RAMBLER RECEPTION DAY
A white bulldog of ferocious aspect lay sound asleep under a small
table. Lying across the dog's neck, with his soft muzzle hidden
between capable paws, was a quarter-grown grizzly bear. Now and then
Captain Joe, as the dog was named, stirred uneasily in his sleep, as
if in remonstrance at the liberties which Teddy, the cub, was taking
with his person. The bulldog and the cub snored in unison!
The table under which the animals slept stood in the middle of the
small cabin of the motor boat _Rambler_, and the _Rambler_ was pulling
at her anchor chain in the muddy water of the Mississippi
river--pulling and jerking for all the world like a fat pig with a
ring in his nose trying to get rid of the line which held him in
captivity.
Although early in November, there were wandering flakes of snow in the
air, and a chill wind from the northwest was sweeping over the
Mississippi valley. There had been several days of continuous rain,
and, at Cairo, where the motor boat lay, both the Mississippi and the
Ohio rivers were out of their banks.
In spite of the wind and snow, however, the cabin of the _Rambler_ was
cozy and warm. In front of the table where the bulldog and the young
bear lay stood a coal stove, on the top of which two boys of sixteen,
Clayton Emmett and Alexander Smithwick, were cooking ham and eggs, the
appetizing flavor of which filled the little room. A dish of sliced
potatoes stood not far away, and over the cherry-red coils of an
electric stove at the rear of the cabin a great pot of coffee was
sizzling and adding its fragrance to rich contributions of the frying
pan.
While the boys, growing hungrier every second, stirred the fire and
laid the table, footsteps were heard on the forward deck of the motor
boat, and then, without even announcing his presence by a knock, a
roughly-dressed man of perhaps forty years stepped into the cabin and
stood for a moment staring at the bulldog and the bear, stood with a
hand on the knob of the door, as if ready for retreat, his lips open,
as if the view of the interior had checked words half spoken. Alex.
Smithwick regarded the man for a moment with a flash of anger in his
eyes, then he caught the humor of the situation and resolved to punish
the intruder for his impudence in walking into the cabin without a bit
of ceremony.
"Look out for the bulldog and the bear!" he warned. "They consumed two
river-men last week! The bulldog tears 'em down, an' the bear eats
'em!"
"What kind of a menagerie is this?" began the visitor, but Alex. gave
the bulldog a touch with his foot, and the dog and the bear were in
the middle of the space between the table and the stove, snarling
fiercely, before the startled intruder could open the door. "Call the
brutes off!" he added as Teddy began boxing the empty air.
"Don't stand in the doorway!" Alex. warned, while Clay Emmett turned
his face away so as not to betray his enjoyment of the situation. "It
makes 'em mad to keep the door open! What do you want?"
The visitor stepped outside and beckoned to the boys through the glass
panel. Alex. went out on the deck and stood waiting. The visitor was
evidently a riverman, tall, muscular, heavy of hand and sullen of
face. He wore rough clothing, neither clean nor whole, and his face
was well covered by a bushy beard, light in color except around the
mouth, where it was stained with tobacco. Alex. noted that he looked
away whenever their eyes met for an instant.
"I'm Gid Brent, the riverman," he said, in a moment, "and I've come to
warn you boys against starting out alone, on the river in this boat."
"That's kind of you," Alex. replied. "What's the matter with the
boat?"
"It is the river there's something the matter with," replied the
other. "The water is high, and is pouring into all the old channels
and ditches from Cairo to the Gulf. If you start out without a pilot,
you'll run into some bayou and end in a swamp, a couple of hundred
miles from the main channel."
"You're a pilot, eh?" asked Alex., with a provoking grin.
"Yes; and I'm called the best on the river," was the boasting reply.
"And you're looking for a job?" Alex. continued, insinuatingly.
"I might accept the right kind of a job," Brent replied, "but I
shouldn't want any menagerie on board with me. Where are you boys
going?"
"Oh, well," Alex. said, gravely, though there was fun in his eyes, "if
you object to our pets, that settles it! We brought Captain Joe, the
bulldog, from the Amazon, and Teddy Bear, the cub, from British
Columbia."
"Oh, if they're tame!" the other exclaimed. "I might----"
"I'll call 'em out an' see what they say to you!" Alex. replied,
mischief in his eyes, opening the cabin door and inviting the bulldog
and the bear out to the deck!
Captain Joe snarled at the man's feet and Teddy Bear stood up and
squared off in front of him in a boxing attitude! Brent swung toward
the little pier against which the motor boat lay, and the animals,
thus encouraged, sprang at him.
In a minute the pilot was on the pier, racing toward the shore as if
for his life! Clay came out on deck and both boys stood laughing at
the retreating figure. Presently Brent came to an old warehouse, where
security might be found in an open doorway. Here he stopped and turned
back, shaking a fist at the grinning lads.
"I'll be even with you for that!" he shouted. "I'll teach you to set
your dog on me, you miserable little bum-boat tramps! I'll show you!"
"Get him, Captain Joe!" cried Alex., angry at the impertinent language
used, but Clay caught the bulldog by the collar and held him back.
"All right!" smiled Alex. "Let the tramp go, if you want to! Anyway,
I'm about half starved! Funny, Case and Jule don't get back! They've
been gone three hours!"
"They'll get cold beans for supper if they don't show up pretty soon!"
Clay said, turning back to the cabin. "The ham and eggs and potatoes
are just done!"
Even as Alex. closed the cabin door behind himself, running footsteps
were heard, and the next moment two boys of about his own age,
Cornelius Witters and Julian Shafer, made their appearance, racing off
the pier and on to the deck of the motor boat like young colts. They
dashed into the cabin and dropped down into seats at the table.
"What's the matter with the fellow at the head of the pier?" Case
Witters asked. "He called to us not to come down here! Said there was
a crazy boy, a mad dog and a grizzly loose in the boat! Guess you got
him peeved, didn't you?"
"He's too fresh!" Alex. responded. "He came on board as if he owned
the boat, and then had the nerve to tell us that we'd get lost if we
went down the river without a pilot! He wanted a pilot's job! We
should have given Captain Joe a bite out of him!"
"Did he say he was a pilot?" asked Jule Shafer, with a wink at Case.
"Sure thing he did!" answered Alex. "Said he was the best on the
river!"
"Well," Case began, "if he is a pilot he is out of practice! I heard
him asking a man about the passage from Hickman to Reelfoot lake. When
we went up-town that same man who spoke to us on the pier stood on the
levee with a bunch of toughs. Their heads were together, as if they
were planning mischief. I thought they looked at Jule and I in a
strange way, too!"
"I don't believe he ever came on board to get a job!" Jule broke in.
"He's a spy! That's just what he is, and I wish Captain Joe had eaten
him up!"
"But why should he come spying here?" asked Clay. "We're not river
thieves!"
"Well, there's something odd going on at Cairo!" Case asserted. "There
are crowds on the streets, and the policemen seem to be on their
metal! I guess we would have been locked up as suspects if we hadn't
had on pretty good clothes!"
"Why didn't you ask some one to tell you about it?" demanded Alex.
"We did," Jule answered, "and got our trouble for our pains! There's
been a warehouse robbery up the river somewhere, but I don't see why
that should make such a stir down here at Cairo. The merchant I
ordered the gasoline of said that $100,000 in diamonds and furs had
been taken, and that a watchman who resisted had been seriously
wounded."
"Perhaps they think we're the thieves!" suggested Clay.
"I shouldn't wonder if they did," Case grinned. "Anyway, the men I
talked with seemed to have loose shingles--they acted that way, all
right!"
"Loose shingles!" cried Alex. "You'll wash dishes for a week for that!
Loose shingles is slang, and we're not to talk slang. If you wanted to
indicate a slant in the belfry, why didn't you say----"
"Slant in the belfry!" roared Case. "Guess that isn't slang! I'll have
plenty of help washing dishes, all right. S-a-a-y, listen to that,
will you!"
As the boy spoke he lifted a hand for silence, and the four sat at the
table silent and motionless. It was growing dusk now, and the deck of
the motor boat showed dim under the gathering shadows of the night.
While the lads sat there, listening, Captain Joe, the bulldog, ran to
the closed door and sniffed suspiciously.
"There's some one out on deck!" Case exclaimed, then. "I wonder if
that fellow has had the nerve to come back here? I'll go and see who
it is, anyway."
"Why don't you wait and see what he will do?" asked Clay. "If he
thinks we're the robbers, he'll show himself directly. If it is only a
sneak thief, he'll take a jump in the river the minute he knows we are
aware of his presence on the deck. Give him a chance!"
Then three words came in a whisper from the outside of the door. They
were spoken in a trembling voice, accompanied by a soft knock on the
lower panel.
"Let me in!" the voice said. It seemed like the voice of a child, too.
"Come on in, if you want to!" Alex. answered. "This seems to be our
reception day!"
"Sure! Come on in! Don't be so mysterious about it, whoever you are!"
As he spoke Case arose and opened the door. Instantly there tumbled
into the cabin a boy of twelve or fourteen--a slender, thin-faced lad
whose whole appearance indicated little food and little parental care.
He did not rise to his feet.
"Well, what is it?" asked Clay, taking the intruder by the arm. "Why
don't you get up and introduce yourself? What do you want here,
anyway?"
"Don't switch on the light!" the boy pleaded, as Clay stretched his
hand toward the electric switch. "They are watching the boat from the
pier, and I don't want them to know I got in. That's why I didn't
stand up when the door was opened. The railing of the deck protected
me from the view of any one up there. I'm running away!"
"You look the part!" Clay observed, motioning the visitor to a chair.
"Why?"
"Because they'll make me tell who stole the diamonds and furs up at
Rock Island," was the hesitating reply. "They'll put me in jail if I
don't tell!"
"If you know and won't tell," Clay observed, "they surely will put you
in jail!"
"Why won't you tell?" asked Alex. "Perhaps you helped do the job
yourself!"
"No I didn't!" the boy said.
He was about to say more when there came another voice from outside--a
slow, steady voice demanding attention.
"Listen, you kids in there," the voice said. "Listen, and I'll tell
you what to do to save a couple of lives!"