CHAPTER XIX.—TEDDY MAKES A SENSATION.
“What’s that you say?” thundered one of the men from the steamer, as Alex explained to the houseboat men that neither party had any interest whatever in the Rambler.
“You’d better keep truth on your side, young man!” the other whiskey boat man put in.
“That’s right,” Alex declared, dodging away from one of the men who made an attempt to seize him. “That’s right! These whiskey boat men never saw this craft until last night. We rammed their steamer because they tried to block us in a lagoon, and I hope we sunk her.”
“You did all of that!” one of the others replied.
“According to the boy’s statement,” Mose cut in, “you fellows have no right on this boat at all, so I’d advise you to make yourself skurce.”
The recent arrivals saw that they were not making good in their bluff to the houseboat men and so resorted to sterner measures.
Quick as a flash one of them seized the muzzle of the rusty old shotgun, drew it away from the clumsy hands holding it, and dropped the weapon into the river. Almost at the same instant, two automatic revolvers flashed out of the hip pockets of the outlaws.
“Now,” the man who had been doing most of the talking thundered, “you river thieves get off this boat!”
“We will when we get pay for our net!”
“You never owned a net!” shouted the other. “You never had the price of a dozen fish hooks at one time, say nothing about a net!”
“Anyway,” Mose insisted, “I brought you over to this boat and kept the boy from running away before you got here.”
“Now, you’re talking sense,” the outlaw sneered. “Throw him a couple of dollars, Chet,” he added.
The fellow’s companion tossed two silver dollars scornfully down on the deck and turned to Alex.
“You get into the cabin,” he said, “and stay there. We’ll settle with you later on.”
Alex had no idea of remaining on board the Rambler after it had passed into the possession of the outlaws. He knew that the desire for revenge on their part might lead to murder. He had no fear of being turned, over to the officers of the law, for the outlaws were in no position to make charges against others. He stepped into the cabin as requested and closed the door after him.
“Now, Teddy Bear,” he said, “you and I have got to jump away from this darling old boat, and we’ve got to do it right soon.”
Teddy, awakened from a sound sleep, scratched his nose with a soft paw and replied in the most polite of bear talk that he would do whatever Alex thought best.
The men who belonged on the houseboat were by this time off the deck of the Rambler. The outlaws, however, were watching the boy very closely. They laughed when they saw him talking with the bear.
“That’s a cute pet you have there!” one of the men exclaimed, speaking through the broken panel of the door.
“It is indeed,” Alex answered cheerfully. “Teddy Bear is a pretty good friend. We’ve had him a long time.”
“What’re you going to do with him?” asked the outlaw.
“Take him back to Chicago with us.”
The outlaws laughed and regarded the boy and the bear with humorous faces. Alex sat down and watched them curiously.
“I don’t see you getting back to Chicago right away,” one of them finally said. “That is, not to-day nor to-morrow.”
“Oh, we’re going down to Cairo first!” Alex grinned.
The two outlaws turned away with a laugh, and as soon as their backs were in view Alex opened the swinging sash of the rear window and motioned for Teddy to leap out.
The bear cub followed instructions, and landed lightly on the after deck. In an instant Alex was through the window and the two sprang into the water and made for the shore.
The outlaws would doubtless have remained unconscious of the escape until the boy and his companion had reached the thicket only that the men on the houseboat shouted and pointed at the bear.
“Look at the menagerie!” one of them cried.
This brought the outlaws to the shore-side of the boat, and directly several harmless bullets whizzed close to the two swimmers.
“Go it, boy! Go it, bear!” was shouted from the houseboat.
The three men already disgruntled by the manner in which they had been treated by the outlaws, were now inclined to support Alex and the bear in their efforts to escape.
While the men on the Rambler sent badly aimed bullets after the two in the water, the men on the houseboat hurled billets of wood and whatever else they could lay their hands on at the outlaws.
This action on their part, while doing no physical harm whatever, had the effect of directing the attention of the outlaws from the boy and the bear to the three men. When Alex and Teddy disappeared in the thicket on the east side of the little creek, immediately in the rear of the houseboat, the outlaws were still firing, and the others were still pitching wood and pieces of coal over the deck of the motor boat.
After a very long run upstream, out, perhaps fifty yards from the water’s edge, the boy and the bear threw themselves down on the moss beneath a forest tree and panted out congratulations to each other on their escape.
“Teddy,” almost whimpered Alex. “We’ve gone and lost the Rambler!”
The bear looked very grave indeed.
“We’ve gone and lost the Rambler!” Alex went on, “and have nothing to show for it at all! I set out to catch a fish, and lost the boat!”
Teddy rubbed his soft muzzle against Alex’s, cheek and looked sympathetic. He seemed to understand every word said.
“And now, bear,” the boy went on, “we’ve got to walk five or ten miles up this bank of the river and swim across. I guess the boys must be pretty near a dozen miles away.”
Teddy, while looking sympathetic, thrust his muzzle into Alex’s, pocket looking for crackers.
“Je—rusalem!” exclaimed Alex. “I wish I had some, Teddy. I never was so empty in my life!”
After a short rest, the boy arose and the two proceeded on their difficult journey. Now and then they came to weedy fields where corn had been grown and where great shocks of stalks still stood, but for the most part their way lay through a narrow slice of forest which fringed the river. Alex took occasion, after a time, to investigate some of the corn shocks but found no ears.
“Pretty soon,” the boy mused, “I’ll be hungry enough to eat the stalks. And the boys must be hungry, too,” he went on, “but all the provisions we had are on board the Rambler. I don’t know what they’ll say to me when I go back and explain what happened.”
After a long, long walk, during which it seemed to the boy that he had covered at least a score of miles, he discerned on the opposite bank of the river the little cove in which the Rambler had been moored that morning. Although he strained his eyes hoping to see the familiar figures of his chums, he could see no motion whatever.
“I guess they’ve got starved out and gone away,” the boy complained. “I suppose when I get over there, there’ll be only a burned-out camp-fire and nothing to eat. The next time I go out fishing for catfish, I won’t go. It always brings bad luck.”
Realizing that he might have to swim across the whole width of the river, the boy kept on upstream knowing that it would be better to have the current in his favor when he entered the water.
While he sat looking across the stream, several river craft passed, some going up and some going down. Once he thought of calling to a small motor boat and asking the occupants to ferry him across the river. But he soon changed his mind not knowing what sort of people he would be likely to find in any of the river boats.
While the boy stood near the bank of the river looking out, Teddy, as usual, was nosing about looking for something to eat. The boy had hardly noticed the absence of the bear when a succession of long shrill squealings came from a thicket not far distant.
“There!” the boy mused, starting away on a run. “Teddy has gone and scared the life out of some one.”
“Fo’ de Lawd’s sake! Fo’ de Lawd’s sake!”
The voice died away, and was succeeded by a commotion in the bushes just ahead of the running boy.
The next moment a little short, fat, dumpy negro with a fringe of gray hair running around an otherwise bald head, came into view, trying to run very fast, but succeeding only in stumbling over every obstruction which came in his way, and landing flat on his back with his heels high up in the air. The sight was indeed a comical one.
“Fo’ de Lawd’s sake! Fo’ de Lawd’s sake!” repeated the negro, his eyes rolling in his head like great white marbles.
Teddy, evidently unconscious of the sensation he was creating, came dashing after the fallen darkey, and at once assumed a boxing attitude.
“Take him away! Take him away!” roared the negro. “Ah’s done bein’ eat up! Take de b’ar away, take him away!”
Instead of taking the bear away, Alex, hungry and tired as he was, threw himself down on the grass and roared with laughter.
“Ah’s done bein’ eat up!” shouted the negro although Teddy was at least two yards away.
“He won’t hurt you,” Alex said as soon as he could control his voice. “Teddy is a tame bear.”
“Ah never did take to bears!” the negro shouted rolling his fat body farther away. “Ah don’ see no good in b’ars.”
After some persuasion the boy induced the negro to come nearer. This he did with fear and trembling, and ever with a watchful eye on the playful cub.
“What’s your name?” asked Alex.
“Uncle Zeke,” was the reply.
“Do you live here?” was the next question.
“Ah libs way up de ribber,” was the guarded reply.
“Then you must have come down in a boat?” asked the boy.
“Ah sure did!” answered the negro.
“Well,” Alex said then, “we want to get over to the other side of the river. Will you take us across?”
The negro backed away from the bear again and seemed to be about to take to his heels. He turned back in a moment, however, as if anxious to be friendly with the boy and declared:
“Ah nebber did cotton to no b’ar!”
“Oh, he won’t hurt you,” the boy explained, “he’s just a tame cub. We’ve had him ever since he was as big as a kitten. Row us across to that little cove over there and I’ll give you a dollar.”
Uncle Zeke fingered his bald pate and entered into negotiations for the job, still with his eyes fixed suspiciously on Teddy.
“Ah’ll done row you over for a dollar,” he said.
“But the bear’s got to go,” Alex insisted.
“Dat’ll be anudder dollar,” insisted Uncle Zeke.
“All right,” Alex laughed, “where’s your boat?”
Delighted with having made so good a bargain, Uncle Zeke led the way to the river bank not far away and pointed out a fair-sized rowboat rocking in the water.
“Why!” Alex exclaimed excitedly. “Where did you get that boat?”
“Ah bought it,” replied the negro.
The boat was the one belonging to the Rambler!
It had been left, it will be remembered, on the Kentucky shore of the river some distance above Wolf Creek. The boys who had landed in search of gasoline and spark plugs had left it hidden in a thicket. During their absence, the Rambler had made her way downstream for some distance, and so the rowboat had not been recovered. It looked familiar to Alex now.
“Where did you buy it?” asked the boy.
“Niggerman sold me dat boat,” answered the other.
“All right,” Alex said. “Take us across and I’ll give you the two dollars.”
He had no intention of leaving the Rambler’s boat in the possession of the negro, but he thought it advisable not to make any claim to the boat until he had reached the other side of the river.
With Teddy sitting at the very stern of the boat as far as possible from the rower, the two were ferried across, striking the bank a few paces above the east shore of the cove.
“Now,” Alex said as he stepped ashore, “come on over to the camp and I’ll give you your money.” Uncle Zeke eyed the bear critically.
“Ah nebber did cotton to no b’ar!” he said.
“Well,” Alex went on, “you’ll have to come over to the camp or I can’t give you your money.” Very reluctantly the fat, old negro waddled over to the heap of embers which was all that remained of the fire the boys had built early that morning. Alex’s wandering attention was brought back to the negro directly by a short, sharp cry of alarm.
“Fo’ de Lawd’s sake!” he cried. “Fo’ de Lawd’s sake!”