So excellent were the arrangements that within four days Mr. Blunt and Dudley found themselves embarked on a river boat, and standing up the stream for the port where they were to pick up wood for the forts. On board, besides rifles and tools, they had seven men, whom they had engaged to undertake the building operations, and these individuals were engaged at that moment in sprawling on the deck forward and smoking vigorously.
"Not a very taking lot of fellows," said Mr. Blunt in low tones, as he and Dudley emerged from the small cabin which had been given up to them, and stepped on the deck. "They are, I expect, the men who are always open to casual labor, and who lounge about the docks looking for odd jobs. However, we shall see little of them, and Pietro and his gauchos will keep them in order. Now, all we want is a smart breeze to take us swiftly up the river."
Fortune seemed to smile upon them in this expedition, for they held a brisk and favoring breeze all that day and the next, and when the second night came they were anchored off the port where they were to take in the wood. A couple of cables were passed out from the bow and stern, and made fast to the wharf, while a plank was thrown across to the latter, enabling all to land at their pleasure, a privilege of which the hands who had been engaged at once took advantage. Mr. Blunt and Dudley ate their evening meal, and having strolled ashore for a time returned to their cabin.
"I would far rather we had not put in so close to the shore," said the former, "for it has given those men of ours a chance to get into the town, which seems to consist mostly of saloons. They are rough fellows, and the chances are they will hardly be fit for work early in the morning. Those must be our logs piled on the wharf, and I reckon four hours work will see them all aboard. That should allow us to reach the cattle station where they are to be unloaded in about twenty-four hours, so that we shall be back at the rancho within the time we mentioned."
They sat chatting for a little while, and presently, finding the fumes of his employer's cigar just a little strong in the confined space of the cabin, Dudley went out on deck and strolled up and down.
"Pitch dark," he said to himself, looking up at the sky, and then at the dim oil lamps on shore. "I think Mr. Blunt must be right about the men, for there is a great commotion going on over there. It sounds as if they were fighting in one of the saloons. And what's that?"
The creak of a block and the thud of a rope on the deck of a boat a little distance away attracted his attention, and for some few minutes he stood quite still, listening to the commotion from the saloons on shore and to the sounds from the river.
"Evidently another boat has put in for the night," he said. "There goes her anchor, and I suppose we shall see her in the morning. It is so dark that one cannot see a foot in front of one's face."
As he stood on the deck of the river boat he distinctly heard the splash of an anchor falling into the water, and the low call of men pulling at the cable. It did not strike him then that the noise they made was subdued, as if they were afraid of attracting the attention of the people on the quay or those aboard the other boat moored close to it. He listened for a while, and then went into the cabin, where he found Mr. Blunt still smoking.
"How's the night?" asked Mr. Blunt. "Dark? Then I am glad we are at rest, for there are rocks and sand-banks up in these reaches of the river, and it is not nice to be stranded on them. That is why the majority of boats tie up at night. What of the men?"