“Of course we’ve got to do that.” Alex agreed, “but don’t you go to mixing with any one else!
Bring Clay aboard and we’ll fly up the river like little birds! I don’t want to see any one else for a month! The river and the mountains and the canyons will do for mine!”
“That’s just the way I feel about it,” Case replied. “I’m tired of mixing in affairs that don’t concern me. I want to get up the river and be let alone. I hope Don will find his money, but I’m not going to bother my head any more about it.”
“That’s me!” Alex agreed. “You go ashore and get Clay. He’s not far off. Take Captain Joe with you. He will follow the boy’s track from the place where he landed. And when you get Clay, make a run for the Rambler! Don’t stop, even to pick up money, until you get on board, then we’ll shoot up stream like a shark after a pig! No more of this for me.”
So, after further talk, Case went ashore with the boatman, and Alex got out his automatic and sat watching the river bank. Teddy stood up on his hind legs and invited the boy to a boxing match, but he was too blue and too anxious to play with the cub.
“I wonder if Don did get that money?” he thought, over and over again as he sat watching the shore. “If he did, why didn’t he let me know that he was taking it?”
He could find no answers to his questions, so he studied the shore of the river where the town loomed up and wished from the bottom of his heart that his friends were on board, and that the Rambler was a hundred miles away from King, Don, and all the rest! Then he heard a hail from the river and ran to the prow.
A small boat lay rocking in the current, and out of it looked the grinning face of Don Durand! Alex almost dropped over the side in his amazement. Now that the boy was before his eyes, however, he was unaffectedly glad to see him.
He tossed down a rope end so Don could secure his boat to the rail of the Rambler and, later, gave him a helping hand. When Don gained the deck he received a cordial greeting.
“Can you get me out of sight, quickly?” the boy asked. “King is in Yuma, ‘and he’s goin’ to get me if I don’t watch out!’”