“Tip him over, Teddy! Tip him into the river!” Alex whispered.
Teddy paid no attention to the order, but continued to invite a boxing contest, much to the disappointment of the boy. While this was going on a long call from down the stream reached Alex’s ears. That was Clay or Case. They were getting tired of their enforced residence on the island and were asking how much longer it was to continue.
Teddy ruffled his ears at the sound of the familiar voices and King stood up to shout an answer back. It was a taunting answer, too, and the boy in the bunk came very near springing out and taking his chances in a hand-to-hand combat with an armed man!
The prow of the boat was up stream, as the anchor cable led from that part of the craft, so the aft deck was nearer to the island where the boys had been landed than the bow. Besides, the bulk of the cabin was between the deputy and the island. Desiring to urge upon Clay and Case the necessity of delivering the money and papers to him, King stepped up on the cabin roof and entered into conversation with them.
An hour before the deputy would not have done this, but now he was becoming a trifle disheartened. He had gone over the boat pretty well and had found no trace of what he sought. The stories told by the three boys agreed, and he began to wonder if they were not the truth. He was inclined to be friendly and, once convinced that the boys were not deceiving him, he would have treated them with every courtesy.
At last Teddy appeared to understand that it was to be a game of hide-and-seek in the water, and bounded off the bunk. King was standing on top of the cabin, making a trumpet of his hands, talking to the lads he had marooned down the river. That was an old pose. The boys had often stood erect on the roof and derided each other’s swimming efforts.
When the bear came out on the deck King looked down and yelled savagely at him. This was still a part of the game, too, for the lads often taunted the cub and then sprang away from him and plunged into the river! So, when the deputy called down at the bear, the bear sprang at the deputy, caught his sharp teeth into one trousers leg and promptly and deftly pushed and pulled him off the roof and into the river, where he rolled him under a couple of times and swam away, around to the other side of the boat.
Alex was out of his bunk the instant he heard the splash. King was spluttering out great threats when the boy ran on deck with the revolver he had taken from the cupboard.
“Taking an early bath?” shouted Alex derisively, as he showed his weapon. “Don’t come too close to the Rambler! You can’t come aboard.”
King came to the surface again and, ejecting muddy water from his mouth, shouted back.