“I don’t wonder the robbers wanted to get hold of Chet,” laughed Alex. “They must have been red-headed when they found that the diamonds had been stolen from them!”
“Yes, they were,” replied Chet, “but they didn’t suspect me, at first. The man Brent, who came on board the Rambler at Cairo, would have killed me had he found me there. I was afraid he would, so I took to the river.”
“And you took to the river again the night you threw the bag back on deck, too.”
“Yes, I got pretty cold, too. I knew where the bag was, in the cabin, all the time, and I thought the diamonds were in it. Believing it would be safe, I did not take it and run away, as I had threatened to do, but when the cashier and another came on the boat I did take it and skip. When I found that the diamonds were not there I threw the bag back just to let you know I was wise to the game,” he added.
“It is a commonplace story, after all, when you come to get it all told,” said Mr. Redmond. “If it has spoiled your river trip I’m sorry for it!”
“We wouldn’t have had any fun only for that!” cried Alex.
“Well,” Clay cut in, “now we’ll go down the river and have fun! We’ll spend two months or more on the way to the Gulf, and then we’ll put the motor boat on board a ship and sail her around to some point where we can get into the St. Lawrence river. The St. Lawrence comes next, you know.”
“Why not put her on a gondola car again and take her as near to the headwaters of the St. Lawrence as we can?” asked Case. “I’d rather float down than sail up, any day.”
“We will decide that when we get done here,” Clay answered.
Those were two golden months for the boys, and Mr. Redmond seemed to enjoy the outing fully as much as any of them. They fished and hunted and loafed in the numerous passages of the delta of the Mississippi, and built roaring fires on the knolls, when they found them, and lived the care-free lives boys enjoy so much.