“I thought I left you at home, Jake Bowles!” exclaimed Julian. “How came you here?”
“I guess we’ve got as much right on this yere river as anybody, hain’t we? We come arter ye, that’s how we come here, an’ we’ve got ye, too.”
For a moment Julian was too astonished to move. The approach of his enemies had been so noiseless, and their appearance was so sudden and unexpected, that he was utterly bewildered. Not until Jack had dragged him half-way into the dug-out did he begin to comprehend the situation.
“Let go!” he exclaimed, “or I’ll capsize the boat.”
“Nary let go,” replied Jake. “I owe you a good poundin’ fur stealin’ them $100 from me, an’ fur knockin’ me into that hole last night, an’ I’m goin’ to give it to ye afore I let ye go. Come in here.”
“No, you come out here,” said Julian. “I’ll duck you sure if you don’t let go my collar.”
This was the second time the two boys had measured strength, and although our hero was fighting at great disadvantage, he tested the endurance and muscle of his antagonist most severely. He strove to the utmost to drag Jake into the water; but the latter had wrapped his legs around one of the thwarts and thrown his left arm over another, and Julian could not break his hold. Nor could he overturn the boat, for Tom watched the contest closely, and frustrated all Julian’s attempts by throwing the weight of his body on the opposite side of the dug-out.
Jake, in the meantime exerted himself to drag his prisoner out of the water; but finding that it was a task beyond his strength, he held firmly to Julian’s collar, determined to wait until the latter, exhausted by his furious struggles, should be obliged to surrender himself. But Julian’s endurance seemed to have no limit. He resolutely continued the contest, and all this while the canoe was floating down the river side by side with the flatboat, which was scarcely more than a hundred yards distant.
“We’re fightin’ fur money now, we are,” said Jake—“for the $145. It’s no use fur ye to kick about so, ’cause we’ve got ye, an’ we’re goin’ to hold fast to ye.”
“You’ll not get the money, even if you succeed in making a prisoner of me,” replied Julian, with as much spirit as ever.