Clay almost held his breath for a moment, until he saw that the cold water had revived the dog, and that he was swimming. Then his attention was attracted to the outlaws, who were, with pole and oar, edging the Rambler out into the river.
He believed that the boat would be wrecked the moment it, helpless, struck the mass of floodwood sweeping down. Presently he felt the push of the current, and the boat went whirling down stream, tipping from side to side as she spun around, helpless in the current.
Then a great tree struck the stern and half capsized her. The end seemed at hand.
[CHAPTER VI—CAPTAIN JOE MAKES A HIT]
While the Rambler, in charge of reckless river pirates, was swinging down with the current, threatening to capsize every instant, Alex. and Jule sat flat on a rotten, yielding floor somewhere in the interior of the deserted house, feeling tenderly over their limbs to see if they had received severe injuries during the fall from the room where they had been so inhospitably welcomed by the aged man.
The boys had not fallen far. In fact, it seemed to them that they had only slid down a gentle incline to the story below. A hatch in the floor in front of the hearth had been dropped back, and their chairs had slid into a chute which seemed, from its smoothness, to be in frequent use.
For a minute the boys were alarmed, excited, angry, then the humor of their sudden removal from the apartment above appealed to them. Alex. was first to speak.
“Vot iss?” he exclaimed. “This must be a page of a comic section in one of the Chicago newspapers. How many legs and arms have you broken?”
“Not a one!” answered Jule. “What kind of hospital treatment do you require?”
“If I felt any better,” laughed Alex., “I wouldn’t know what to take for it.”