With a word of warning to Clay, not unkindly spoken, Red switched off the cabin lights, and then went to assist Sam in getting the Rambler out into the stream. Clay heard them saying that the raft was, after all, empty of life except for the dog.
“The boat lodged against it seems to be broken,” Red said, and Clay’s heart went into his throat again. He feared that the boys had been caught in wreckage and drowned. The presence of the dog showed that they had been with the broken boat, he thought.
Then, while the two men worked frantically in front, Clay heard the window leading to the cabin from the stern deck cautiously pushed aside, and then the faces of Alex. and Case appeared at the opening!
[CHAPTER IX—RED DECLINES TO TALK]
In a moment the ray of moonlight slanting through the west window of the cabin was cut off by a floating cloud, and the faces of the two boys passed out of view. Their voices, however, came to Clay, enquiringly.
“Are you all right?” Alex. asked.
“Have you got any dry guns in there?” was Case’s question.
Clay answered both questions in a whispered affirmative and moved softly toward the window. It was necessary that some definite plan of action should be agreed upon, for the lads’ presence there might be discovered at any time.
“Is Jule there?” whispered Clay.
“We’re all in this neighborhood!” snickered Alex., “including Mose, Teddy and Captain Joe! We came down the river in a busted boat and on a poor raft! We should have passed the Rambler only for the flash of lights in the cabin. What next?”