“What shall we do?” asked Clay, facing the others. “If they are on the square we can’t leave them here. They would starve!”
“They may be pirates!” suggested Jule.
“I don’t believe it,” Case declared. “They don’t look the part. Besides, if they had designs on the boat, they could have picked us off in the darkness, and we’d never have known where the bullets came from. They’re all right!”
“One of you come aboard,” Clay instructed, “and we’ll see what you look like.”
In plain view of the boys the man who had done the talking handed his gun to a companion and struck out for the boat, walking on logs part of the way, wading part of the way, and swimming when he could do neither. In a moment he was on deck.
“The three of us,” he explained, “were out of work at Chicago. We had a little cash, and decided to come down here and spend the winter where we wouldn’t have room-rent or restaurant bills to pay. We thought we could cut and market enough fish-poles out of the brake swamps to pay our way back in the spring.”
“That wasn’t a bad idea!” Jule declared.
“We were getting along all right,” the other went on, “until the river thieves began troubling us. They stole our food, and at last began stealing our poles. We were getting ready to go out when the flood smashed our shanty boat into smithereens. Now we are up against it, unless you take us with you. And,” he added, with a quick glance around, “you’d better take us on board, for the thieves are back there in the swamp, with their envious eyes fixed on this boat. They are mostly negroes, and escaped convicts.”
“You ought to know that we’ve got to be careful,” Clay said, as the man was about to leave the boat. “We don’t know anything about you, except what you have told us, but we’re going to take a chance on you. Tell your friends to come on board.”
In five minutes the three were in the cabin, trying on some of Clay’s clothes, for their own were not only wet but they oozed black muck. When they were dressed again they passed their revolvers over to Clay, with the statement that they wouldn’t need them unless the river pirates took a hand in the game that night.