A RIVER ROBBER IN A NEW ROLE
With half a dozen stones of splendid value rolling over the palm of
his hand, Clay regarded the boy accusingly.
"Where did you get the diamonds?" he asked.
The boy did not answer. Clay had expected confusion and shame. Instead
he met with anger and reproach. Chester ("Chet" from that day forward)
shot forward like an arrow and tried to wrest the bag from his hands.
Clay put him back tolerantly.
"Give them back to me!" Chet shouted so loudly that the boys out on
the deck entered the cabin and stood in an astonished group about the
two.
Clay, grasping the bag and the lose gems, held his hands high above
his head.
"Where did you get them?" he persisted.
"Give them back to me!" yelled Chet. "You've been following me for
this, have you? You're all as bad as the river thieves I've met up
with! Give them to me!"
"What do you think of the little one for a diamond dip?" asked Alex.,
pointing at the flushed face of the agitated boy. "He's some clever!"
"I reckon he belongs with Red, the Robber, all right!" Jule put in.
"He seems to be pretty well fixed!" laughed Case. "Those gems are
worth more than a hundred thousand dollars! Did you swipe them from
the men who robbed the Rock Island warehouse, kid?" he added.
Chet turned a flaming face toward this new accuser.
"Don't you dare call me a thief!" he shouted. "The diamonds are mine!
I never stole them. Give them back to me, you--you--river pirates!"
"That's good, coming from him!" grinned Alex. "Come on, little one,
and tell us who these stones belong to."
"I tell you they are mine!" Chet again insisted. "I never stole them!
You give them back to me! If I had the strength I'd tear your heart
out!"
"Of course!" laughed Clay. "Of course you'd do something desperate if
you had the strength! But don't trouble yourself about the diamonds!
If they belong to you, you shall have them. But we don't want to
harbor a thief, you know!"
"I don't believe you'll ever give them back to me!" sobbed the boy.
"I've brought them down the river, all this way, to be robbed of them
at last!"
In a spasm of grief the lad threw himself on the cabin floor and burst
into an uncontrollable fit of weeping. The boys stood around for a
moment, looking rather sheepishly at each other, and then all left the
cabin but Clay.
"Come kid," the latter said, lifting Chet from the floor and holding
him in his arms like a baby, "don't act like you'd lost your last
friend! If you're honest, you've found friends instead of losing them.
You shall have the diamonds back, if you can show that they belong to
you. Brace up, now, and go on to bed!"
Chet regarded Clay through wet eyes for a moment and then slipped away
to the bunk which had been set aside for him. The frank inspection
seemed to have in a measure restored his equanimity. Clay sat down by
the side of the bunk, the diamonds in his hands.
"Why don't you tell me all about it?" he asked of the boy. "Why not
settle the whole matter right here, and so have done with it? Where
did you get them?"
"I've promised not to tell," was the reply.
"You are not making a very good beginning," Clay admonished.
Chet made no reply whatever, but turned his face away. Clay went on,
patiently:
"Where is your home?"
"I haven't got any home," was the reply. "I never had one."
"But you must belong somewhere," Clay insisted. "Where did you live
last?"
"I'm not going to tell you anything at all," Chet replied, "until I
see the man that made me promise to keep silent, and until he gives me
leave to talk with you."
"Is the man you mention Red, the riverman?" asked Clay.
"Didn't I just tell you that I wasn't going to talk?" demanded the
boy.
"All right," Clay responded. "Take all the time you want! In the
meantime, I'll keep the diamonds. Will you promise to remain on the
boat?"
"If I had the diamonds, I'd quit you right now!" said the boy,
savagely. "I may as well tell you the truth. If you keep the diamonds,
I'll stay until I get them, but I'll find them and take them with me
if I can. You just mind that!"
"You're a frank little chap, anyway!" laughed Clay.
"I wasn't brought up to tell lies!" was the astonishing reply.
"Who brought you up?" asked Clay. "You just said you never had any
home!"
"Never did!" was the reply. "Say, you won't blame me if I find where
you put the diamonds and run off with them, will you?" he added, quite
gravely.
"I don't see how I can blame you, after such fair warning," laughed
Clay.
"And you won't help any one to find me?" persisted the little fellow.
"No," answered Clay, "if you are sharp enough to get the diamonds away
from me, I'll never let on that I ever saw or heard of you. Is that
satisfactory to you?"
"Will you shake hands on that?" asked Chet, sitting up on the bunk.
"Gladly! Now, go to sleep and wake up in a more communicative mood
to-morrow."
"I'll stick to what I said!" Chet answered, and Clay left him alone in
the cabin. When he reached the deck he was at once surrounded by the
boys, all eager to know the outcome of the conference. Clay told them
of what had taken place.
"He's a nervy little chap!" Clay concluded, "and I like him very much
already."
"You bet he's all right, that kid!" Alex. said. "If he wasn't, he
wouldn't have told you that he would get the gems the first time he
got a chance. Besides, see how he is keeping the promise made to some
other fellow! Where are you going to keep the diamonds, Clay?" the boy
continued. "Don't you ever think the kid won't try hard to find them!
I hope he won't feel called upon to cut all our throats in order to
obtain possession of them! I believe he would do it if he thought it
necessary!"
"Well," Clay answered, speaking in a low tone and looking in through
the glass panel of the cabin door to see that Chet was still in his
bunk, "I think I'll go ashore at Memphis, for supplies, you know, and
put the gems in a deposit box at one of the banks."
"That's a fine idea!" cried Case. "He'll never get them there!"
"But you want to look out that you're not pinched in the bank," Alex.
advised. "That warehouse robbery is making some noise, and if a boy
from a river boat is seen to have diamonds, it is the jail house for
yours!"
"If you put them in a bank deposit box," Jule observed, "you'd better
do them up so as to look like a package of papers--bonds, or stocks,
or something like that."
"That is a good idea, too!" Clay exclaimed. "I'll do it!"
"I'd give a lot to know more about the boy and the diamonds," Clay
mused, as the boys began getting breakfast.
They had talked so long, after reaching the boat, that they had not
before realized that it was most morning, and now there was a flush in
the east which told of sunrise.
When Clay went back into the cabin to see about the fire, he found
Chet crouching on the floor just back of the door. He yawned as Clay
entered the apartment.
"What are you doing here?" asked Clay, in amazement.
"Guess I'm trying to find my way to the door!" was the half-smiling
reply. "I didn't seem to know where I was when I woke up!"
Clay accepted the excuse, and went on with his preparation of
breakfast. However, he doubted what the boy had said. Notwithstanding
the previous good impression he had formed of the waif, he wondered if
the lad had not crept out of bed and stationed himself by the door in
order to hear what was said about the disposition of the gems.
"I'll have to be more careful," Clay thought. "That boy is a clever
one!"
After breakfast the waif was rigged out with a suit of Alex.'s
clothes. In the new attire he seemed to be a different boy from the
one taken from the camp.
The boys did not accept as the truth all he said about himself, though
that was not much. When he declared that he had never had any home,
they commented on the fact that his speech and manners were those of a
boy who had been given a fair education.
Chet at once took to the pets of the boat, Mose, Captain Joe, and
Teddy, the bear cub, and they immediately recognized him as a member
of the family.
While he was playing with the cub on the prow, Clay made an oblong
package of the diamonds, scattering them in between sheets of paper,
and marked them "Bonds." The bag in which they had been found was half
filled with burrs, and small bits of a broken dish and tied tight. It
resembled the bag as it had stood before any change had been made when
Clay had finished with it.
This bag Clay resolved to keep in his pocket until he could place it
under the eyes of the boy who claimed it, the idea being to see if he
really would snatch the supposed prize and take to the river again.
Clay hoped that he would not, for all liked the little fellow. That
afternoon they ran down to a Memphis pier and Clay went ashore with
the gems.
He was in time to secure a deposit box at a bank and stow the diamonds
away. The cashier with whom he did business asked questions regarding
his age and permanent residence, and seemed satisfied with his
answers. He was, indeed, especially interested in Clay's description
of the _Rambler_ and the voyages the boys had made in her, and asked
permission to visit the party that evening if he found time.
Clay gladly gave the required permission, ordered supplies sent to the
pier, and then started out for a look at the beautiful city. Almost at
the entrance to the bank he met Alex., who had the flushed appearance
of a boy who had been walking pretty fast.
The two walked together for a block without speaking, save for the
initial greeting, and then Alex. proposed that they go to a restaurant
and have a "steak about as big as a parlor rug," as he expressed it.
Clay agreed, but laughed at the notion.
"Why not take it on board?" he asked. "We can cook it much better than
any city chef," he added.
"Well," Alex. replied, "I saw a neat little restaurant back here, not
far from the river front, and I thought I'd like to go there and have
a feed."
So the two turned into the restaurant, when they came to it, and took
a small table at a rear corner of the room. It being late for dinner
and early for supper, there were few in the place.
One party, at the front of the room, at once attracted Clay's
attention. There were three men in the party, one young, smiling and
flashily dressed; one old, grizzled and clad in a well-worn business
suit; and another dressed expensively and with great care. This man
had a surprising growth of red hair which showed evidences of great
care. His face was smooth-shaven, and had the appearance of having
recently been divested of a beard, the flesh showing soft and white,
as if not long exposed to the weather.
When this man arose to pay the check and laid a hand on the back of a
chair, Clay noticed that the hand was very large and finely kept. The
man was something over six feet in height! Clay gave Alex. a kick
under the table and directed his gaze to the large man, then passing
over to the cashier's window.
"Take a good look at that man," he whispered. "Ever see him before?"
"I saw him when I passed," was the reply, "and brought you here.
That's Red, the Robber."