“Can that be Alex. moving the Rambler?” asked Case, as the motors sputtered out their insistent clamor. “I don’t believe he has had time to get on board yet.”
“Well, Captain Joe has, anyway!” Jule declared, as a sharp bark came from the craft, which now seemed to be turning around. “That’s the Captain’s voice, all right.”
Standing high on the levee, with the lights of the city growing below them, the lads watched the Rambler for a moment and then started on a run up the stream toward a small landing that was not far from the camp-fire.
“If Alex. wasn’t on board,” Case reasoned, “Captain Joe wouldn’t be there. If Alex. is running the boat up to that landing, it is safe for us to go there.”
The Rambler did tie up at the landing, and then the boys saw that the rowboat they had missed was tied to her stern. The willow mattresses were also still hanging on to the cords to which they had been tied. The men at the fire started up toward the landing as the boys reached it, but, much to the surprise of the lads, they did not attempt to go on board. In a moment Clay, Alex. and Mose showed their faces on deck.
“Come aboard!” shouted Alex. “I’ve arranged a surprise party for you here.”
“What is Chet doing on there?” demanded Case. “I thought we left him with his new friends, the thieves, in that old house in the city.”
“This is no time for story-telling!” said another voice on board, and the man who had been known as Red, the Robber, came out of the cabin and sat down, calmly, on the gunwale. The boys on shore were, by this time, prepared for almost anything. When they reached the deck, Red waved a farewell to the men on the levee and the boat whirled down toward the Gulf of Mexico.
“You see,” Alex. grinned, “we don’t know where we are going, but we are on our way.”
“I know!” Clay insisted, “we are going to complete our trip to the Gulf of Mexico. We’ve had all the mystery we need on this voyage, and the next one that starts anything in that line will be banished to one of the mattresses!”