These seemed to be too much astonished at their sudden immersion to seize the boat or the oars, and so detain the boys, although those in the rear shouted to them to do so, and Clay pushed out into the current. While members of the mob sprang for nearby boats, Frank set the motors going and picked up the boys halfway to the dock.
Then the Rambler, for the second time during that trip, glided away, leaving an angry, vindictive mob howling at her crew from the shore. Once on the boat, and the boat showing clear water between herself and the dock, Alex and Jule dropped down on deck and set up a succession of mad shouts which echoed over the stream. Captain Joe put his paws on the railing at the screen door and deliberately winked first one eye and then the other at the defeated runners! Alex declares to this day that he did it just to provoke his former antagonists!
“Now, what is it all about?” asked Clay, as the Rambler shot up the Amazon at full speed. “Can’t you boys go on shore without bringing a mob of uninvited guests back with you?”
“That is our escort!” grinned Jule, waving an arm in the direction of the gesticulating crowd on the dock.
“How did you happen to stir up such a hornet’s nest?” asked Case.
“It was this way,” Alex began, whistling to the dog and taking his head into his lap as he sat on the deck, “when we got up there into the town we saw—. Guess?”
“Lewiso,” suggested Clay.
“Give it up!” cried Case. “Go on!”
“Well, we saw, not the man we went to look up, but the two Englishmen we had the skirmish with in the bush down on Ruination creek!”
“Then they must have passed us on a steamer,” Frank interrupted. “How were they dressed?”