CHAPTER XXIV.—THE LIGHTS HELP SOME.
I’d give a good deal to know just how many people there are around that boat!” Clay whispered.
“If you’ll just push this old scow up a little closer, I’ll sneak over there and find out,” said Alex.
“If he tries to get away, tie him up with a rope!” whispered Jule. “Every time that boy gets out of sight, he lands in trouble up to his long ears!”
“There were only two when I left the Rambler,” Alex exclaimed, making a sly face at Jule. “They shot a dozen bullets at me while I was getting away, and never turned a hair!”
The boat was worked slowly through another hundred yards of the cut-off, and then the boys could see the bulk of the Rambler outlined against a cloudy sky. There were no lights on board and no sounds were heard.
The boat lay in a sort of a bight carved out by the river as it bent away to the north just before it made the western turn. Behind it was a tangle of swamp.
In front swept the heavy current of the river. The rowboat halted within perhaps a hundred yards of the place where the stolen Rambler lay.
“If they had had the good sense to anchor on the other side of the river,” Case whispered to Alex, “they might have made us a lot more trouble. I’m glad they stopped where they did.”
“I’m afraid there are a whole lot of outlaws on board,” Clay whispered, as the boys sat in the rowboat, watching the dim bulk of the Rambler.
“Then the two thieves who stole the boat have picked them up out of the river,” Alex insisted. “There were only two when I left the deck, and they came off from a coal tow which was going downstream.”
“If there were only two, we ought to go and blow the tops of their heads off, and take the boat away from them, just to show that we can,” said Jule. “We ought to do something to show them that they’re not the only apples on the tree. Don’t you think so, boys?”
“You’re the bloodthirsty little pirate now!” laughed Clay. “I’ll be satisfied if we can dump them in the river and get on board the good old Rambler again.”
The boys sat still in the boat for a long time, hardly knowing what course to pursue. The sky was clearing of clouds, and the glow of the stars shone dimly down on the Rambler. Although no lights showed on board the motor boat, suspicious noises in the cabin and on the deck informed the lads that people were moving about there.
“They’re awake and watching us, all right!” Alex whispered, after a time. “We’ve got to do something to place them off their guard!”
While the boys were listening and waiting, Captain Joe sprang out of the boat and waded and swam over to the hard ground on the south of the cut-off. The boys saw only a white flash as the bulldog left the water and disappeared in the darkness of the jungle. Teddy, the bear, seemed inclined to follow him, but the boys held him back by main force.
“Now I wonder,” whispered Jule, “if the pirates are over there, too! If they’ve got us surrounded, we’re likely to open a barrel of trouble in about a minute.”
The noise made by Captain Joe and also by the struggle with the bear apparently attracted the attention of those on board the Rambler, for a faint light blazed up in the cabin of the motor boat for an instant and was then extinguished.
“They’re getting their guns ready, I guess,” Clay whispered. “Suppose we pull the boat under the shadow of the bank and take to the shore. We might be safer there.”
“I’ll tell you what I think,” Case observed. “When those fellows turned on the light they were getting ready to set the motors going. If we don’t watch out, they’ll have the Rambler whizzing downstream at the rate of twenty miles an hour.”
“Well,” Jule declared, “if we go ashore we may get into trouble there, so I propose that we land on the north side of the cut-off and try to make a sneak on board.”
“Whatever we do,” Clay advised, “we ought to keep the boat within reach so that, if they do go on downstream, we can follow them as fast as the current will carry us.”
The boys argued in whispers for some time over Clay’s proposition and then Alex broke out:
“If you fellows will push over to the south shore for a minute, I’ll get out and see what is going on there. I don’t like the idea of having a gang of pirates come up behind us after we land and advance to the Rambler. That wouldn’t look well.”
“Don’t you never let him go!” Case advised. “If you do, he’ll get mired in a swamp or bring a company of night-riders on top of us.”
Alex, however, did not wait for the boys to either pole the boat to the south shore, or to decide as to whether he ought to land. Before any further objections could be offered, he was up to his waist in water moving toward the shadows on the south bank.
“The little monkey!” whispered Case. “I wish I had a rope around his neck!”
“What shall we do now?” asked Jule. “We can’t go away and leave him in that patch of woods.”
“I think we’d better go on over to the north shore and see if we can retake the Rambler” Clay answered. “Alex, probably, has some notion in his head which we don’t understand, and, anyway, he is capable of taking care of himself.”
In accordance with this idea, the three boys landed and, leaving Uncle Zeke in charge of the boat and the bear, with instructions to answer Alex’s call from the south bank, they took their way to the bight in which the Rambler lay. They had only a shore distance to go, and were soon within a few feet of the motor boat, which lay within a couple of yards of the shore.
From the position they now occupied, they could see a dilapidated old houseboat lying beyond the Rambler, her nose resting lightly on the bank.
“That’s where the pirates have been living!” whispered Case. “If we could only do something to drive them back to the old hulk, we might possibly get the Rambler away.”
All remained dark and silent on board the motor boat, still the boys knew that the men on board were awake and alert. They had seen the prow light turned on when farther up the cut-off, and only a few moments before a light had shone in the cabin.
The boys waited for what seemed to them an hour or more, watching and listening, hoping for Alex’s return, and hoping, too, for some indication of the intentions of the pirates.
“We’ve just got to make a break pretty soon,” Jule said. “I believe those fellows on board the boat know that we’re in the vicinity. They’re not asleep, and they wouldn’t be sitting there in the dark unless they were suspicious.”
“If you boys will stay here,” Clay suggested, “I’ll attempt to gain the after deck of the Rambler. If I succeed, I may be able to drive the pirates out of the boat.”
“I was just thinking of that myself!” whispered Case.
“You remain here,” Clay went on, “and I’ll see what can be done.”
The words were hardly out of his mouth before the “chug, chug, chug,” of motors was heard, and the Rambler, still showing no lights, glided softly upstream!
After proceeding a few paces, however, the power was shut off, and she remained swinging in the almost stagnant waters of the bight. Her position was, perhaps, a hundred paces to the north of the cut-off, and perhaps ten paces from the shore where the boys were.
“I guess they’ve got us going now!” Case exclaimed regretfully. “They’ll shoot upstream in a minute, and that’ll be the last of the merry old Rambler! We’ll have to build another boat, boys!”
No one replied, for just at that moment the splash of oars and poles was heard, coming swiftly down the cut-off. The boys turned their eyes in that direction and almost shouted in their amazement as three blue lights, following the channel of the cut-off, proceeded to the west, to all appearances floating six or eight feet above the surface of the water! The boys stood silent for a moment.
“Now, what do you think of that?” whispered Clay. “Three times and out!”
“I know now what the three blue lights mean!” gasped Case. “They constitute a signal used by the night-riders!”
“There ain’t any tobacco warehouses to burn here!” Jule scoffed.
The three blue lights came on steadily, stopping after a time at the very mouth of the cut-off, two or three hundred feet from where the Rambler lay.
Heretofore the lights had seemed to be floating in the air. Now the boys could faintly distinguish the bulk of a boat looking weird and ghostly under the mysterious illumination.
“I wonder if that won’t scare the pirates?” asked Jule.
The answer came from the Rambler itself, for the motors were turned on and the boat whirled swiftly away toward the opposite bank of the river. Then a volley of shots rang out from the mysterious boat, and a voice called over the water:
“Obey the signal, boys! If you don’t, we’ll fill you full of lead! You know what three blue lights mean!”
Much to the amazement of the boys, the motors ceased their clatter and the Rambler lay swaying just at the edge of the current.
“Do you mind that now?” whispered Case. “The pirates on board the Rambler don’t know that the outer walls are all bullet-proof!”