CHAPTER XIV.—A VISIT FROM RIVER PIRATES.
Case slept a long time in his chair on the deck of the Rambler. The currents pulled at the anchor chain, and now and then a floating derelict of a log or discarded box bumped against the sharp-nosed prow, but the boy was tired, mentally and physically, and did not mind in the least.
Teddy, the bear cub, nosed close to him, seeking physical warmth from the chill of the night, and finally went to sleep himself. When Alex and Captain Joe looked back from the rim of sand which lay between the shore line and Chimney Peak, there were no lights to be seen on board the motor boat—only the bulk of the craft outlined against a starlit sky.
Finally, when Case did awake, it was with a sense of impending danger. There is a quality in the human brain which stirs at the vibrations of a hostile influence, and Case felt it now.
It was not long before he understood this threat fully, for his chair was knocked from under his body and he fell with a bump on the deck, lighting on Teddy, who set up a most dismal howling. While the cub scrambled out from under the boy’s legs, there came a commotion in the cabin. Case tried to get up, for he knew that a struggle was on there.
But he was not permitted to get up. There was a strong hand at his throat and a knee which dripped water on his chest.
“All right!” some one said, in the direction of the cabin.
“All right here!” the figure above Case replied, and then the boy was jerked to his feet. “I’ll bring him along in. Get a move on, kid!”
At first Case thought it was King’s voice, but in a second he saw that it was not, for the fellow broke into a series of oaths and cries of pain as Teddy seized him by the leg and set his sharp teeth together.
“Come out here!” the fellow shouted. “Come out here and kill this bear! He’s chewing my leg off. Hurry up! Bring a gun, too!”
There was a movement in the cabin and the door opened. Case saw that Clay and Don were in no better shape to prevent the murder of the cub than himself. He was afraid that the little bear had used his teeth once too often. But Case usually acted on the theory that a game is never out until it is played out, and he did so on this occasion.
“Take a swim, Teddy!” he shouted to the bear, giving him a push with one foot. “Take a run and jump into the river. Get busy now!”
The cub had often heard these words. When the boys were ready for a river bath Teddy was usually ready, too, and he was always addressed in the words Case used now, or some almost exactly like them.
So the bear, thinking, doubtless, that a new game was on, gave one parting snap at the fellow’s leg and went headfirst into the river. Case tripped the man who ran to the railing with a revolver in his hand, and was rewarded by a violent blow on the head.
“Coming! Coming, Teddy! Get a move on!” Case called out to the bear, and it was with a good deal of satisfaction that he heard the intelligent animal snorting with the race spirit as he made clumsily for the shore. Doubtless the bear wondered why Case was not at his heels on this, as on other occasions, but he kept on swimming and so escaped death.
Dazed as he was by the blow he had received, Case heard the fellow shooting at Teddy, and heard Clay and Don arguing with the men who were the cause of the commotion in the cabin.
“Come!” the boy heard a hoarse voice saying, “we have no time to lose. “You boys went to a bank at Yuma to-day and drew out a lot of money and a package of government bonds. We want them! Produce!”
“You are mistaken,” Clay replied, his voice sounding harsh and strained, as if he was just out of a struggle. “We put our money in the bank, and the bonds in the bank. We drew nothing out. Take what I have in my pocket and go. There’s nothing else here for you.”
Case heard one of the men rattling the coal stove, and a shudder of horror went through him. Would the midnight raiders be brutal enough to resort to torture? He had heard of terrible, inhuman things that river pirates had done. He tried to get up, but was held fast.
“Here!” a voice in the cabin said. “Don’t wait to heat up that old stove! Just turn the electric current on this coil. That will prevent his going to bed with cold feet to-night!”
“He is telling the truth about the money and bonds,” Case said to his captor. “They were left in the bank at Yuma, and he gave another lad money enough to get to Chicago, so we're about broke.”
“Tell that to the marines!” chuckled the other. “We know what we are doing, all right. You were seen to take the money away from the Yuma bank! He’ll remember about it as soon as the coils get hot, too!”
“Some one lied to you about the transaction at the bank,” Case insisted. “Who said we took the money and bonds away?”
“I wish I had that fool bear back here!” Case’s captor snarled. “I’d burn his teeth out of his head! I shall be lame for a month.”
“Who told you we took the money and bonds away?” persisted the boy.
“Why, an old gentleman who stood close by saw you, and we heard him speaking about it later. He said it wasn’t safe for boys like you to have so much ready money in this wild country, and we agreed with him. So we are going to help you take care of it. You’ll hear that fresh kid inside telling the truth as soon as his feet touch the hot coils.”
“If you brutes burn Clay,” Case declared, “we’ll give up our trip up the river and follow you to the end of the world but we’ll bring you to the gallows! You just remember that!”
“You’ll crow lower when your own feet feel the fire!” laughed the other. “You’re brave, all right, but you’re a fool, too!”
Case threw himself back on the deck and closed his eyes. Every instant he expected to hear Clay’s cries of anguish as the torture began. There seemed to be no help anywhere. Don was as helpless as himself.
All around the boat the night shut down, chill, silent, inscrutable. Far up the stream the lights of a small town shone indistinctly. To the west the peaks of Chimney mountain rose into the starlit sky. From the ocean, a long distance away, a light wind ruffled the water.
Everywhere was peace, and everywhere the great facts of Nature stood in friendly attitude to each other. It was only the human element that was warring! There seemed to be no hope of rescue anywhere!
Case blamed himself for sleeping while on watch. He blamed Captain Joe for not giving the alarm when these ruffians sneaked on board. But where was the dog? He had not seen him since his rude awakening. And where was Alex? He had not heard the boy’s voice in the cabin. He knew that Alex would be doing a lot of talking if present!
The boy knew that there were four men on board. He could hear a craft of some kind bumping against the side, and so he knew that they had followed the Rambler from Yuma by way of the river. He could not see the faces in the cabin, for the door was kept closed, but he could hear the preparations for torture going on!
He lay not far from the hatch which covered the motors when the boat was at anchor. If he could only get a little closer and run his hand down into the pit he might be able to switch off the electric current so the coils would not heat. He resolved to try.
Things were not going well in the cabin, for the boy heard the captors snarling and cursing at the coils. They did not seem to understand how to turn on the current, and so there was delay. Case pushed along to the hatch. As he did so his enemy released his hold for a moment and turned toward the cabin, saying as he did so:
“If you chumps don’t know how to run that stove come out here and guard this kid and I’ll do the work myself! It is easy enough!”
The fellow started for the cabin and one of the men inside turned toward the deck. For just an instant Case was free. He reached over to the hatch, lifted it so as to get his hand into the pit and turned off the electric current from the containers. In a second the boat was in darkness, and the pirates were groping about for their prisoners!
Case made a quick motion toward the railing, but was seized and drawn back. Clay and Don, who had succeeded in getting out of the cabin, were thrust back again. Still, the turning off of the current had resulted in delay, and that was something.
Clay called out to Case to know if he was still alive, and was given a courageous reply. Case’s guard bent over him with clenched fists.
“You turned off the electricity!” he shouted.
“Turn it on again, or I’ll spoil your face for you. Do it quick, too!”
There seemed to be no help for it. Case took all the time he could in lifting the hatch and turning the switch, but at last the lights flared up again, making the boat as light as day, for during the dark interval one of the men had turned the switch which fed the prow light.
While Case lay there, not daring to move hand or foot, his mind went back to Alex and the dog. Had they been killed at the first moment of invasion? Had they resisted and been thrown into the river?
“Come, now,” a voice in the cabin said, “you may as well tell us where the money is. We are bound to have it, you know!”
“I have told you the truth about the money?” Clay responded.
“Heat up the coils!” shouted the first speaker. “We’ll have to warm his feet for him! It is a cool night, anyway, and it may do him good.”
The boys listened for some sound of life on the river—for some trading boat to come creeping up! But there were no indications of the approach of any river craft whatever. Still, there was a slight jar!
Perhaps the Rambler had been struck by a floating log! Perhaps an eddy had sent the boat pulling harder against her chain! There was a slight movement on the aft deck. Perhaps the dog had been asleep there, or perhaps Teddy had returned to the Rambler and was creeping up out of the water The deck guard stepped to the prow to shut off the light.
Then a shot came from the rear, and the pirate threw up his hands, balanced unsteadily on the rail for an instant, and fell into the river like a stone. Case sprang out of the way as the fellow’s companions rushed from the cabin, brandishing their guns and demanding to know who had done the shooting.
Other shots came in quick succession, and another pirate dropped limply to the deck while the remaining two sprang over the railing and, not stopping to secure their small launch, struck out for the shore.
When Clay and Don came out of the cabin they found Alex and Captain Joe watching the two heads bobbing in the water. Case had arisen to his feet and was looking with all his eyes at Teddy, perched in a boxing attitude on the roof of the cabin.
There was little excitement in Alex’s face as he turned to Clay.
“I ought to shoot them both,” he said, pointing to the swimmers. “I know what they were about to do. Shall I shoot them?”
Clay shook his head and Alex put up his revolver.
“How did it happen?” the latter asked. “Who are those men?”
“They are river pirates,” Clay replied, “and I don’t know how it happened. Case was on guard, but the first thing I knew the men were in the cabin, holding a gun in my face. I guess Case must have been asleep.”
“I was,” Case said, sheepishly. “I ought to be shot!”
“He was asleep when I went away,” Alex, with a sly wink, contributed. “I ought to have got him up, but he looked too sleepy!”
“Where did you go?” demanded Case. “You’re a fine boy, not to make me get up and attend to business! And Captain Joe must have been sound asleep, too, or he would have given the alarm!”
“Captain Joe went to the beach with me,” the boy cut in. “We were just striking out for the mountain when we saw that something unusual was going on on board the Rambler. Then I saw Teddy swimming to shore and he told me what was doing! At least he insisted with his teeth on my returning right off. Guess we got back here just in time!”
“I guess you did!” Clay admitted. “The pirates were thinking of warming my feet! I almost wish you had killed them all!”
A motion on the deck caught the attention of the boys, and Clay went out to find the pirate who had fallen at the second shot trying to crawl to the railing. The boy did not interfere. The wounded man reached the railing at last and threw himself into the river.
“I don’t believe he is strong enough to swim ashore,” Clay said, “but we’ll leave that part to him. If he lives, he’ll be hanged some day, so he may as well drown now. Any man who will resort to physical torture to extort money has no claims whatever on humanity.”
“Now,” Don observed, with a quiet smile, “suppose we go on up the river? You boys were having trouble enough with me before this pack of pirates took the notion to steal my money from you. It seems to me that the only safe place for us is up in the Grand Canyon! I move that we get under way to-night and keep going as long as the river will permit.”
“That’s good advice,” Clay replied. “We’ll get as far away from this country as possible before daylight! This thing is getting on my own nerves! I’ve been looking for a quiet week or two, but I haven’t found them.”
The boys lost no time in getting the motors started. Then followed beautiful days on the river. The boys fished and slept and held boxing tournaments with Teddy, and sailed on under the sun and under the stars until the banks grew higher, the mountains closer to the river, and they knew that they must begin to take great care in navigating, for the Colorado river is not noted for its peaceful disposition!
One night they drew into a little creek running into the Colorado from the California side and built a roaring fire on the shore.
“Across the river,” Case said, pointing, “are the Blue Ridge mountains, and the summits you see are Mount Perkins and Mount Davis. Ten or fifteen miles up the river is Black Canyon, and thirty miles above the entrance to the canyon is Fortification Rock! There the Colorado turns to the east. Here our wild sport begins.”