After taking in the room in all its details, Alex. arose and tried to open the green blinds so as to get a look outside. To his surprise he found that they would not open. They were of steel, and were there to protect the window! The room was as stoutly guarded as a prison cell!
“Red, the Robber, seems to have use for a cell,” the boy thought, “that is, if this is his boat! I wonder what he thinks he’s going to do with me?”
Alex. had now no doubt that Red had recognized Clay and himself at the restaurant. He wondered if Clay, too, had been trapped! He could not make up his mind as to whether the man was a robber or a gentleman of business standing, but he knew that he was in a most undesirable situation.
Then he began to wonder if Red knew that he was on board! The man had given no intimation that he had knowledge of being followed. He, Alex., had sneaked on board, like a veritable wharf rat, and the husky negro had been fully justified in taking him into custody! Still, the negro should have listened to his explanations and given him a chance to prove his innocence.
This last view of the case was much more to the liking of the boy than the previous one, for Red had shown a friendly spirit while on board the Rambler, and might now set him free as soon as informed of his capture. Clay had permitted Red his freedom under much more trying conditions!
“If he’s a river thief,” Alex. concluded, “he’ll keep me here until he is sure I can’t injure him by telling of his raid on the motor boat, but if he is on the level—if he was, for some purpose of his own, masquerading while in company with Sam—he will release me as soon as he knows I am here—for Clay’s sake, if not for my own!”
This was a rather comforting conclusion, so the boy began beating with all his might on the panels of the door. He pounded away for some moments without hearing the least response, and then sat down to rest.
While he sat there on the berth, panting from his unnoticed exertions, the boat quivered in all its timbers, the noise of escaping steam reached his ears, and then he knew that the steamer was under way. This was the worst thing that could happen to the boy, and he knew it.
The steamer might go to Cuba, or to the upper reaches of the Missouri or the Mississippi, separating him from his chums for weeks. If Red really was a robber, he would not take the chance of releasing him, for that would give him an opportunity to warn those on board the Rambler, as well as to report to the police the illegal seizure of the motor boat!
“I’m going to find out about this!” Alex. declared, springing off the berth. “I’m going to do an English suffragette stunt and smash windows!”