“Did you catch him? I know you did!” called the chief as the Rocket warped into the shore.
“I’ll say we caught him—out of the water!” cried Lanky from the bow. “He smashed into a barge and tore his boat all to pieces!”
The chief had to hear the entire story before he brought his charges on board, which was done very shortly.
The two strangers and Jed Marmette were led aboard, their arms pinioned and locked with handcuffs.
“Here is the jewel box!” said Frank, when they were ready to leave the shore. He reached down into a locker and brought out the black iron box, no longer mat-surfaced with soot, but shining brightly from the new japanning on it.
The chief took it, raised the cover and peered within. Then he gasped with surprise. Here, surely, was a fortune which these fellows had almost made away with. He carefully closed the box and tied it with a piece of the rope which his sharp knife clipped off from the arms of Marmette.
The trip down the river was without event. The chief asked many questions of the two boys, and the boys, in turn, asked how things had gone after they had left so hurriedly.
“What’s all the crowd about? Some one hurt?” asked Chief Berry, pointing to the throng that had gathered at the river in Columbia.
They had not long to wait for the answer. As glasses in the hands of some of the people told them the approaching boat was the Rocket, a series of wild cheers went up, hats were thrown into the air, and as rapidly as cheers died away someone started them over again.
“What’s it all about?” asked Frank.