“We did,” Jule answered, “and got our trouble for our pains! There’s been a warehouse robbery up the river somewhere, but I don’t see why that should make such a stir down here at Cairo. The merchant I ordered the gasoline of said that $100,000 in diamonds and furs had been taken, and that a watchman who resisted had been seriously wounded.”
“Perhaps they think we’re the thieves!” suggested Clay.
“I shouldn’t wonder if they did,” Case grinned. “Anyway, the men I talked with seemed to have loose shingles—they acted that way, all right!”
“Loose shingles!” cried Alex. “You’ll wash dishes for a week for that! Loose shingles is slang, and we’re not to talk slang. If you wanted to indicate a slant in the belfry, why didn’t you say——”
“Slant in the belfry!” roared Case. “Guess that isn’t slang! I’ll have plenty of help washing dishes, all right. S-a-a-y, listen to that, will you!”
As the boy spoke he lifted a hand for silence, and the four sat at the table silent and motionless. It was growing dusk now, and the deck of the motor boat showed dim under the gathering shadows of the night. While the lads sat there, listening, Captain Joe, the bulldog, ran to the closed door and sniffed suspiciously.
“There’s some one out on deck!” Case exclaimed, then. “I wonder if that fellow has had the nerve to come back here? I’ll go and see who it is, anyway.”
“Why don’t you wait and see what he will do?” asked Clay. “If he thinks we’re the robbers, he’ll show himself directly. If it is only a sneak thief, he’ll take a jump in the river the minute he knows we are aware of his presence on the deck. Give him a chance!”
Then three words came in a whisper from the outside of the door. They were spoken in a trembling voice, accompanied by a soft knock on the lower panel.
“Let me in!” the voice said. It seemed like the voice of a child, too.