“Do you know,” Case went on, “I’m afraid of some of those river boats. There’s a tougher gang on some of them than you’ll find on Clark street. They drink third-rail whiskey, made up in the mountains, and are ready to do murder after a dozen doses of it.”
“Well,” Alex said, “we’ll just have to watch out, that’s all.”
“You remember that red, white and blue boat we saw yesterday?” Case went on. “That was a gambling house proper. Just looking over the gunwale into the cabin windows, I saw roulette wheels in operation and three faro layouts crowded with excited gamblers.”
“Yes,” Alex assented, “and it looked to me like they were playing stud poker out in the open. It’s a wonder the people along the river don’t put dynamite under those boats some night.”
“I reckon,” Case suggested, “that the people along the river are more afraid of the store-boats than they are of the gambling boats. These store-boat men steal everything they can get their hands on. They have been known to raid small towns, strip the shelves of the business places, and even take valuable furniture and musical instruments from the residences. When they get a boat load of this sort of plunder, they take it down to New Orleans, where it is disposed of by men who make a business of doing that sort of thing.”
Alex scratched his red head and wrinkled his freckled nose for a minute and then turned to his chum with a grin on his face.
“If they try to get the Rambler,” he said, “don’t forget that we have dynamite under the after deck near the gasoline tanks.”
“If they try to get the Rambler,” Case exclaimed, “they’ll do it while we are away on shore, or asleep. These river rats are too cowardly to put up an open fight. They do their work in the dark.”
“That’s one reason why I don’t like being away from the boat long at a time,” Alex went on. “Clay and Jule would do anything any two boys could do to protect our property, but, all the same, two boys wouldn’t cut much ice with a gang of river pirates like I’ve seen on those boats.”
As the boy ceased speaking he laid an excited hand on Case’s shoulder and turned his face in the direction from which they had come.