"We want to be on guard—they may be ready to do some shooting," returned Sam.
"Does you dink da vill shoot?" inquired Hans, anxiously.
"I don't think they will kill more than three or four of us," answered
Tom, by way of a joke.
"Vat?" screamed Hans. "Not me, by chiminatics! I ton't vos vant to been shot dree oder seven dimes alretty!"
"I doubt if they'll do any shooting," answered Harold Bird.
"I can't believe that," said Dick, with a shake of his head. "That Sack Todd is a bad one, and Baxter can be very wicked at times. We certainly want to be on guard against any underhanded work."
The launch had been running somewhat across the river, but was now headed straight down the Mississippi.
"We don't seem to be gaining," said Fred, after a silence of several minutes. "It appears to be just as far ahead as when we first saw it."
"We are certainly not gaining much," answered the young Southerner.
"But I think we are gaining a little."
Harold Bird was right, they were gaining probably one rod in twenty. Thus, in a little over half an hour, they saw that the launch was almost within hailing distance. The acetylene gas light was thrown ahead and to the right and left, and lit up the surface of the river for a considerable distance. Against the rays of the lamp they could make out four persons in the launch.