Accordingly they finished supper in a hurry and went down to get the barge off. The current would float it down, very slowly indeed, but certainly, and it would only have to be roped to the steamer’s side. Bob remained at the cabin, to pack up the supplies. The chances were that the boat would be able to take bees and everything.
“I know these river boats,” Joe said confidently. “She’s sure not to have much freight this trip, and she’ll wait all night while we bring the bees down. I’d bet she’d wait most of to-morrow too for that much cargo.”
It would not take long to cover the hive-entrances with wire-gauze and take them down to the river on the flatboat, and during the absence of the others Bob busied himself with preparing the wire, tacks, and all necessary apparatus for an instant move. Alice had gone with the rest to see the rosin shipped, and soon after the barge had disappeared down the dark bayou Bob heard the roar of the whistle much louder and nearer, and saw the unmistakable flash of the light, playing on the sky over the forest like summer lightning.
It was two hours, however, before the steamer finally blew her whistle deafeningly off the bayou. By the reflection of the lights Bob could see that she had stopped. She stayed there for perhaps half an hour; then, to his dismay, she roared a long blast and started again, her white light playing on the sky as she went down and around the River Island on her way to Mobile.
It was another half hour before he heard the sound of oars coming up the bayou. He went down to the shore cautiously. The boat pulled in, and Sam and Joe came ashore out of the darkness.
“Wouldn’t she wait for the bees?” exclaimed Bob anxiously. “Where’s Carl and Alice?”
“No, she wouldn’t wait,” replied Joe, in a strange voice. “She was loaded down with freight; she couldn’t have carried a single beehive. That’s nothing. But she isn’t coming back, Bob. This is her last trip.”
“What?” cried Bob, incredulously.
“She’s to be laid up for a couple of months anyway. She hasn’t been paying lately, and there’s some labor trouble with the freight-handlers at the Mobile dock. The captain only got the word at Selma two days ago. No more boats on the river for the rest of this spring. I shipped the rosin down to Harper’s camp. Carl goes with it, and I made Alice go too. For we’re stranded here, don’t you see, Bob? We can’t get away, not with the bees; and those pirates are going to be back directly.”
Bob was silent, completely stunned with this catastrophe. Sam made the boat fast, and the three of them began to walk despondently up the slope to the cabin in the dark.