“The boy says he is running away,” objected Clay, bending still lower over the deck railing. “We are not going to aid in any such a game,” he added.
“Shucks!” came the answer, still from the water. “He ain’t got nobody nor nothin’ to run away from, that kid ain’t! Hide him until you get out of Cairo, an’ then I may be able to do something for him.”
“What’s the answer?” Alex. cut in. “Why should he want to be hidden? Perhaps you’re the man that robbed the warehouse at Rock Island! He just told us that he knew who did it! Come on deck, and we’ll talk it over.”
“If you want to get away from Cairo without sampling all the jails in the county,” the unseen man continued, “you’ll slip anchor an’ get down the river right soon! The men who are watchin’ you are comin’ down the pier now. I reckon they saw me talking from the bosom of the river. Before I duck under an’ head for Missouri, I’ll tell you that the kid you’ve got there is O. K. Take him along with you!”
Then, much to the amazement of the boys on the motor boat, a shot came out of the darkness in the direction of the pier, and a bullet cut the water close to where the man lay, near the prow, half afloat and half clinging to the hull of the Rambler.
“You see!” the unseen man said. “Drop down until this excitement is over!”
“That’s a cheerful kind of a merman,” Alex. declared. “He heard the shot and took his own advice to disappear, anyway! What do you think of him? Heading a lot of gunmen in this direction an’ then advising us to run away!”
For a moment nothing was heard save the sighing of the wind and the wash of the river. Lights were showing in the city, which was not far from the pier, and one large street lamp disclosed the figures of a dozen men running toward the motor boat! The man who had done the shooting stood near the foot of the pier, a revolver in his hand. Clay sprang for the switch which controlled the prow light.
“That’s more like it!” came a voice from the shore, as the light flared out on the cluttered pier and the swirling waters of the river. “Why didn’t you do that before?”
“Quit your shooting and come on board!” Clay advised. “We understand the use of firearms ourselves! Come aboard and tell us what all this is about.”