JUST A MINUTE TOO LATE
“Gee whiz!” exclaimed Buster, presently, and the others heard more or
less of a loud crashing, which would seem to indicate that the fat boy,
who was always rather clumsy in his movements, had stumbled and fallen
amidst the impediments that sprinkled their course.
“Hurt, Buster?” questioned Herb, who was close behind.
“Naw, only knocked a little skin off my knees, I guess. Better luck next
time,” was the cheerful reply, as the unfortunate one scrambled to his
feet, and again resumed his forward progress.
When Jack and his five mates started off, the man Jenks, and his
employer, Algernon Lorrimer, apparently did not mean to be left entirely
in the lurch. They were in the group now pushing through the wooded part
of the island, and trying to surmount the many difficulties that beset
their course.
Algernon had about as much trouble as Buster to navigate safely; now it
was some unnoticed log that threatened to trip him up, and again a
hanging vine tried to choke him outright. Jenks hovered near by, ready
to come to the rescue of his employer should the latter succeed in
getting into a severe pinch. As Josh afterward said in commenting on
this solicitude on the part of the machinist, perhaps Jenks had not been
paid his week’s wages as yet, and wanted to make sure he would have an
employer to whom he could look for the expected cash.
One thing proved of considerable assistance, and this was the moon.
Battered though it might be, and with one side partly gone, still the
faithful old sky lantern was able to give out a considerable amount of
silvery light.
“Lucky we’ve got that moon, let me tell you,” grunted Buster, as he
continued to boom along, making enough noise, so Josh declared, to warn
the whole neighborhood of their coming.
“Some people’d need three moons to get along half way decent,” was what
Josh declared from some point close by.
“Hush!” Jack remarked, and at that they all fell quiet again.
Indeed, it was no child’s play making their way through the dense growth
that covered the main part of the island. Even in the daytime they
would have had more or less trouble in accomplishing such a task; and
when attempting it with only the deceptive moonlight as a source of
illumination, the task became doubly difficult.
Once Jack called a brief halt.
It was his idea to try and ascertain whether there were any sounds
ahead, such as might indicate the presence of busy workers, getting
their belongings from the boat that was about to be abandoned to the one
that had just fallen into their possession, through a stroke of luck,
backed up by daring.
It might be in the shape of voices, a cough, or any sort of sound that
would betray the presence of human beings; why, even a sneeze, such as
that famous one of Buster, would do the business.
But somehow nothing of the sort seemed to come to their strained
hearing; at any rate most of them failed to catch such a welcome sound.
Yet when Jack bade them start on again, lowering his voice to a
thrilling whisper almost, it seemed as if he felt a new confidence,
showing that he believed he had heard something or other.
Instead of getting better the nearer they drew to the other side of the
little island that had such a bad name, it seemed as though conditions
steadily became worse.
Buster and Algernon simply could not hold up to the pace set by such
agile chaps as Jack, George, Andy and Josh, so that they were gradually
but surely falling back, and being put out of the race.
Herb was not much better, for it was never a habit of the easy-going
skipper of the solid old Comfort to hurry more than he could reasonably
help.
But then probably it would not matter so much after all. There were
still five in the front rank, for Jenks had now forged alongside the
others, thinking he might best serve his master by trying to recover the
boat, rather than standing by to pick him up in case he fell. And more
than that, there was Jack handling that reliable Marlin of his in a
fashion that seemed to speak volumes for his intentions, once he sighted
the enemy.
When excitement rules the camp it is wonderful how many things can be
crowded into a small space of time. People seem to pass through a
lifetime in a few minutes, providing events come tumbling over one
another, helter-skelter like.
Now, when they came to figure upon it later on, the motor boat chums
were of the opinion that even under such adverse conditions they could
not have been more than six or seven minutes in passing through the
wooded center of the island. It was only a small affair at best, and by
daylight could have been crossed in much less time. And yet there was
Buster, for instance, who must have been laboring under the impression
that fully half an hour had already passed since they first started to
break into the thick growth, and butt up against all these crazy
obstacles--the logs that would get under a fellow’s feet, the encircling
loops of dangling wild grape-vines; the trees that bobbed up most
unexpectedly, and tried to knock one’s brains out, and a lot of other
things along the same line “too numerous to mention.”
Of course none of them gave much heed to what their conduct would be
when they managed to overtake the enemy.
That would have to be left pretty much to accident. Perhaps some of
the boys, under the belief that they must present quite a hostile
appearance, with all sorts of clubs and cudgels in evidence, not to
speak of that gun Jack carried, fancied that the two burglars would take
to flight at sight of the advancing legion. But Jack, and perhaps Herb
also, did not delude themselves with this expectation; for they could
remember just how that fellow aboard the stolen boat had warned Jenks
off, and even wounded him in the arm when he refused to stop short.
They set him down as a dangerous character, which he undoubtedly must
have been, to have carried out the bold programme connected with the
looting of the up-river bank.
At any rate, they must be getting close to the other side of the island
now, for there was a perceptible slope downward, and this must mean the
crest had been left behind.
Yes, and sure enough, the trees were getting less dense, though the
brush might be as thick as ever. Jack hoped for one thing that luck
would favor them, and allow of their breaking out upon the little beach
at just the exact spot where the two men were working.
At the same time he did not feel any too sanguine of success, for which
there were numerous reasons. Surely the two thieves must be aware of the
fact that the pack was pushing toward them, for there was plenty of
noise accompanying their forward progress.
And knowing this, would it not be the easiest thing for them to gauge
their time of flitting by the closeness of the coming host? Jack thought
so, even while still exerting himself to the uttermost in order to get
to the shore as speedily as possible.
Ah! now he could see more light ahead, which told in so many words that
they must be close to the river again. Their troubles were behind them
now; that is, insofar as they concerned navigating the dense jungle that
covered the island of the bad name.
Those still ahead would be of an entirely different nature, and might
consist of running up against the desperate thieves.
Just then Jack heard a voice, a very gruff voice, which he recognized as
belonging to the man who had run off with the white boat.
“That all, Jim?”
The speaking of that name thrilled Jack, for only too well did he
remember that it was mentioned in the newspaper article describing the
robbery; and if he had had the slightest doubt before as to the identity
of the precious pair, it was now a thing of the past.
If the man addressed made any sort of reply Jack failed to catch it. He
hoped, however, that it would be of a negative character--that they
might still have something more to do; because Jack had located the
voice, and was of the impression that it came from a little further up
the narrow beach. They had come fairly close to the spot where the
transfer of belongings was being made, but did not hit on it exactly.
And it is an old saying that a miss is as good as a mile; at any rate it
would likely prove such in this case.
And so they presently burst out of the cover, and found themselves
looking on the moonlit surface of the flowing Mississippi again.
Jack, Jenks, George and Josh had somehow come out in a clump, with Andy
close at their heels. None of them more than cast a fleeting glance out
on the dancing water, for they could see immediately that there was
nothing calculated to interest them there.
Jack immediately turned up the beach, and started to sprint, for it was
open here, and the absence of obstacles offered them a splendid chance
to do something worth while.
There happened to be a little point setting out just above, on which
grew some stunted trees and considerable brush. This helped to make a
cove, perhaps something like the one which the boys had selected as
their harbor, and in which the three motor boats rested snugly even
then.
And as the two fugitive thieves had chanced to come down that side of
the island they must have picked this out for a stopping-place, where
they could hide their craft.
Rapidly did the running Jack, backed up by his allies, near this point
of land. Once it was reached, and he believed he would be able to see
what lay beyond; though somehow Jack did not appear to entertain any
doubt as to the nature of this discovery.
He had already reached its outer edge, and in another ten seconds must
have been able to push directly through, when, just as he feared, he
heard sounds that announced the finish of that stage of the game.
The loud crackle of a motor’s exhaust broke the silence; and from the
rapidity with which it worked he knew that the engine had been started
at almost full speed.
“Oh! rats!” burst out George, who had been doing his best to get
alongside Jack, and succeeded too, “they’ve got away from us!”
They kept on running, however, and speedily broke through the fringe of
shrubbery that shut off their view. As they did so it was to hear a loud
hoarse laugh, that came rolling in from the water, and to see a white
boat rushing away over the glistening surface of the river.