Presently the dog moved over to the aft deck and stretched out with his nose on his paws. Alex, worn out with the activities of the day, slept on for an hour or more. When he awoke Captain Joe was pulling at his sleeve and Teddy, the mischievous bear cub, was romping about the small deck with one end of the oiled silk in his mouth—the strip of oiled silk which had held the fifty thousand dollars in gold notes!
CHAPTER VII.—THAT HAUNTED STERN DECK!
Alex’s first thought was of the money, the fifty thousand dollars in gold notes which he had been handling just before he had dropped off into the sound sleep from which Captain Joe had awakened him. The oiled silk the bear cub was playing with had enclosed the money! That had not disappeared, but where were the precious notes—the money upon which so much depended? The boy was dazed for an instant.
Then the thought that one of his chums might be playing a practical joke on him came to his mind. Of course that was it! The motor boat was anchored nearly in the middle of the Colorado river, not far from the Gulf of California, at least a mile from either shore, so no one could have stolen the money!
The position of the sun told the boy that he had not been asleep more than an hour, and there were no signs of a boat on the river. If some thief had boarded the boat Captain Joe would have attacked him. Then he remembered that the dog had not attacked Don, and was not so certain of that point. Still, he was hopeful that Case or Clay had taken the money while he slept, in return for his secrecy in hiding the fact of its possession from them. Yes; that certainly was it.
The thought cheered him, and, rising to his feet, he looked through the open window which gave on the interior of the cabin, expecting to see the boys chuckling over his distress. But the boys were still asleep.
This was a facer! The next impression that came to the boy was that Teddy had shaken the notes out of the silk covering and that they had fallen into the river. This was not a pleasant conclusion, and Alex tried to dodge it, but still it forced itself upon him.
And the original papers? They had gone with the money! Alex felt like dropping into the river and sinking to the bottom. He had copies of the papers, but he just could not lose that money! It did not belong to him! It did not belong to the boy who had entrusted it to him. He would be accused of stealing it!
He looked in every crevice of the aft deck, even lifting the trap covering and looking down on the gasoline tanks. He crawled quietly back over the cabin roof and searched every part of the deck. There was no trace of the money or the papers. It was maddening!
“I guess the notes are drifting down stream,” the boy finally said, with tears of vexation in his eyes. “Captain Joe,” he added, turning to the dog, who had followed him over the cabin to the forward deck, “why didn’t you wake me before? Why did you let Teddy get the package?”