Alex. gave vent to a long, low whistle.
“Then we’ve got into the spot-light again!” he said. “It won’t be any trouble for me to keep awake now! Shall we tell Clay the glad news, or let him sleep?”
“Oh, let him sleep! We can run this watch, all right!”
While the boys whispered and listened, the long, bellowing roar of a locomotive whistle came to their ears from the east. Then came the distant rumble of a train.
“What do you make of that?” asked Case. “I thought we were in the heart of a wild river country, and here come a train of cars—palace cars, I’ll go you, at that!”
“About three or four miles from the river, in the state of Mississippi,” laughed Alex., “runs the old Yazoo & Mississippi railroad. There are little towns all along its line. Perhaps the boat dropped off the steamer to make one of the country bergs! We never thought of that, did we?”
Case pulled the other by the arm and both drew away from the gunwale.
“There’s a boat out there now,” he declared, in a whisper. “I heard the tunk of an oar then! I’ll bet they are trying to get on board!”
“Got your gun?” asked Alex.
“Sure thing I have,” was the reply.