ALEX. GOES FISHING
"Things seem to be coming our way!" Alex. observed. "Can either of you
boys see the fellow who is doing the talking?"
Clay stepped to the cabin door and opened it. The night had fallen
swiftly, and the deck was quite dark. The boy started toward the
switch which controlled the prow light, but the voice checked him,
coming, not from the pier, but from the water at the side of the motor
boat.
"Don't turn on any lights!" the voice said. "I'm right here under the
overhang. I came to ask you to do me a favor! You look like decent
sort of chaps!"
"Thanks for the compliment!" Alex. put in, from the cabin door, where
he stood with a freckled nose wrinkled to its full capacity--and then
a little more!
"Keep still a minute, can't you?" demanded Clay. "Let us see what it
is the man wants us to do for him. Why don't you come on deck?" the
boy added, bending over in the hope of getting a view of the strange
visitor.
"I don't come on deck," was the reply, "because I'm not lookin' for
trouble! I'm in bad here, strangers, an' I want you to take the boy
down the river with you!"
The lad who had recently come on board now came up to the cabin door
and stood in a listening attitude. In the deep dusk his face could not
be seen plainly, but Alex., who stood close to his side, knew that he
was shaking with the chill of the water.
"The boy says he is running away," objected Clay, bending still lower
over the deck railing. "We are not going to aid in any such a game,"
he added.
"Shucks!" came the answer, still from the water. "He ain't got nobody
nor nothin' to run away from, that kid ain't! Hide him until you get
out of Cairo, an' then I may be able to do something for him."
"What's the answer?" Alex. cut in. "Why should he want to be hidden?
Perhaps you're the man that robbed the warehouse at Rock Island! He
just told us that he knew who did it! Come on deck, and we'll talk it
over."
"If you want to get away from Cairo without sampling all the jails in
the county," the unseen man continued, "you'll slip anchor an' get
down the river right soon! The men who are watchin' you are comin'
down the pier now. I reckon they saw me talking from the bosom of the
river. Before I duck under an' head for Missouri, I'll tell you that
the kid you've got there is O. K. Take him along with you!"
Then, much to the amazement of the boys on the motor boat, a shot came
out of the darkness in the direction of the pier, and a bullet cut the
water close to where the man lay, near the prow, half afloat and half
clinging to the hull of the _Rambler_.
"You see!" the unseen man said. "Drop down until this excitement is
over!"
"That's a cheerful kind of a merman," Alex. declared. "He heard the
shot and took his own advice to disappear, anyway! What do you think
of him? Heading a lot of gunmen in this direction an' then advising us
to run away!"
For a moment nothing was heard save the sighing of the wind and the
wash of the river. Lights were showing in the city, which was not far
from the pier, and one large street lamp disclosed the figures of a
dozen men running toward the motor boat! The man who had done the
shooting stood near the foot of the pier, a revolver in his hand. Clay
sprang for the switch which controlled the prow light.
"That's more like it!" came a voice from the shore, as the light
flared out on the cluttered pier and the swirling waters of the river.
"Why didn't you do that before?"
"Quit your shooting and come on board!" Clay advised. "We understand
the use of firearms ourselves! Come aboard and tell us what all this
is about."
"We'll come, fast enough!" said one of the advancing party. "Keep your
lights on."
In a minute more the little motor boat was crowded with rough-looking
men, all armed, and all insisting that every nook and corner of the
_Rambler_ should be searched.
The boys offered no objections, but sat on the deck railing waiting
for the men to perform their task and go away. Captain Joe and Teddy,
however, objected strenuously, and it required the efforts of all
four, before the search was completed, to keep the pets from being
shot by those whose legs had been nipped by sharp teeth.
Finally one of the men, who seemed to be in command, demanded of Clay:
"Where did the boy who came on board go?"
"He must have gone into the river," was the reply. "Just after the
shooting I looked for him, but he was not here. Who is he, and what is
he wanted for?"
"He belongs to the man who robbed the warehouse office up at Rock
Island," was the gruff reply. "If you shelter him you'll be breaking
the law. What was that swimmer saying to you?" the fellow continued.
"That's the man we want! Why should he come to you, anyway?"
"I don't know why he should come to us any more than I know why you
men should come on board with your insulting suspicions," Clay
answered. "When you make up your minds that neither the man nor the
boy is here, we'll go on down the river."
The search continued for some moments, and the men reluctantly went
ashore.
"Honest!" Alex. then asked of Clay. "Honest, now! Where did the boy
go?"
"He must have taken a jump into the river," was the boy's reply. "He
certainly is not on board the _Rambler_. He just disappeared when
those men appeared."
"Then he's probably drowned!" Alex. commented. "No one could swim long
in that current. And the man, too, probably went under! Too bad!" he
added, soberly.
"Well," Clay declared, "I've got enough of the hospitality of this
city. Suppose we drop down to-night? It will be risky sailing because
of the flood, but at the same time it may keep us all out of jail.
Those men may come back after they get a few more drinks."
The _Rambler_ was a staunch little motor boat, fully competent to make
her way in almost any body of water, but the boys were afraid of
driftwood and wreckage, and also of running off into bayous which ran
out into swamps for miles, with almost as strong a current as the main
channel. Those who have read previous volumes of this series will
doubtless recall the adventures of the four boys in Brazil on the
Amazon river, on the Columbia river, far up in British Columbia, and
on the Colorado river, as far up as the Grand Canyon.
A month before that night in Cairo, the boys had launched the motor
boat on the Mississippi far up near its source. They had struggled
with sandbars and falls, but had at last worked round the Falls of St.
Anthony and struck better water. They had met with plenty of
adventures on the way, but nothing of the character of the happenings
of that evening. The portion of their journey really worthy of record
begins at Cairo on this early November night.
The pets, of which the boys were very fond, had, as already stated by
one of the boys, been acquired in Brazil and British Columbia, Captain
Joe having been bought by Alex. at Para, and Teddy having been rescued
from a tree wreck in the great river of the north. Both animals had
been taught all sorts of tricks by the boys.
"That's all right, about our being in danger here," Case observed,
"but, at the same time, if we leave now, in the night, with the river
up, we shall only confirm the suspicions of those on shore. Suppose we
move away from this pier, so as to be out of the way of the mob, and
anchor in another place, where those whose duty it is to look up
suspicious river boats can find us if they desire to? For one, I don't
like the idea of being chased down the river."
"Solomon had nothing on you!" Alex. agreed. "We may as well remain
here until morning. I must confess that I don't like the way the
Father of Waters is acting!"
"Well, let us get somewhere and settle down for the night!" Jule
suggested. "I'm still hungry! Those fellows spoiled my supper. Who
wants more ham?"
"Say," Alex. cried, with one of his inimitable grins, "why not have a
fish for supper? I won't be able to sleep much, on account of
watching, and may as well have a good square meal! Then I'll sit up
and you boys can go to bed."
"Where can you get a fish to-night?" demanded Jule. "Think one is
going to climb up on the deck? Ham is good enough for me right now!"
But Alex. did not abandon the idea of having a fish supper. After the
_Rambler_ had been taken a short distance up the river and anchored in
a little bay which promised protection from the rushing current,
loaded at times with driftwood and the wreck of houses and barns, the
lad again broached the subject.
"I can get the rowboat out," he insisted, "and let her down stream
with a line. Then I can fish under that bank to the east. Don't you
ever think all the river fish have moved into top flats because of the
flood! I saw one jump up just a moment ago! You boys keep a good fire
and I'll guarantee to bring the fish!"
"Go it!" Clay laughed. "I wouldn't go out in a rowboat for a dozen
fish suppers, but you seem to have the luck of the Irish on such
occasions, so get to going!"
"You'll eat the fish, all right!" Alex. taunted, "so help me get the
boat down."
The skiff was lowered from the roof of the little cabin and placed in
the water, with a great splash. It tugged and strained at the cord
which held it, and now and then received severe bumps from floating
debris, but Alex. insisted on drawing it up and jumping in. Then he
set about getting his fish for supper!
For a long time the boy fished without receiving any intimation that
there was a fish left in the river! The boat caught plenty of
driftwood, however. At times great masses of trees and timbers would
go sailing down, advancing out of the darkness into the circle of
light about the _Rambler_ as if brought to life by the presence of
mankind. Then the darkness would receive them again and the water
would run clear for a time.
The little bay where the _Rambler_ was moored was in a measure out of
the sweep of the strong current, still the water eddied and swirled
around the little rowboat in a threatening manner. Sometimes the boy
had all he could do to keep the craft from turning turtle and dumping
him into the river. The other boys, watching from the deck of the
motor boat, often called to him to draw up on the line in order to
avoid a mass of wreckage drifting that way.
The strong, high prow-light of the motor boat cast a sharp
illumination over the river for some distance up stream, revealing the
approach of dangerous wreckage, and the lone fisherman was often glad
to heed the warnings of his chums. At last, however, just as he was
playing a fish which seemed to him as large as a whale, and twice as
ferocious, he heard a call which he disregarded for a second.
"There's a roof coming down!" Clay shouted to the boy. "It is likely
to pay you a visit! Better come aboard!"
"And there's something moving on it!" Jule shouted. "It looks like a
baby!"
Alex. was busy with his line. The fish supper was almost in sight! If
he heard what was said to him he did not heed the warning, for he kept
on playing his fish, which seemed inclined to take the rowboat down
the river to the Gulf of Mexico!
The piece of roof to which the boys pointed swung around the side of
the _Rambler_ and was pulled in toward the shore by the eddy which had
drawn so many lesser objects in. Then, for the first time, Alex. saw
his danger. If the mass struck the boat it might crush it. At the very
least it would be likely to break the line with which it was attached
to the _Rambler_ and send him adrift!
The boy seized the cable and began to draw the boat up to the
_Rambler_, seeking protection under its bulk. Then he heard a cry come
from the raft, and saw a mite of a boy reaching out his hands. The
boat dropped back and the mass, edging in below the _Rambler_, struck
it full on the prow!