The boys on shore saw the Rambler speeding away with many expressions of disgust. Jule even started on a run down the bank, but soon gave over the attempt to catch the swiftly disappearing boat.
The men on the tow, observing the boys on the bank, greeted them with insulting epithets and amused themselves by heaving chunks of coal toward them. Case replied with a pistol shot but did not succeed in wounding any of the men. The coal came thicker after that for a time, but the barges were soon too far down the river to make such an attack effective.
“Now, we’re in a nice box!” Jule cried, as the steamer in charge of the tow disappeared around a bend in the river. “How do you suppose that little monkey will ever get that boat back to us?”
“Aw, that’s easy enough!” Case answered. “River boats pass those coal tows every day in the week, and I guess Alex can get the Rambler upstream again. In fact,” he added, “I don’t think he needed to run down so far. He might have ducked over to the other shore and let the barges go by. Anyway,” the boy added with a smile, “he’ll lose his fish. And serve him good and right at that!”
“And we lose our fish breakfast!” Clay returned. “And that won’t serve us good and right!”
“That’s a fact!” shouted Jule. “We haven’t got a thing to eat on this bank!”
“We probably won’t have to wait long for the boy to come back,” Clay assured the others. “He may be afraid the bargemen will make trouble for him, and may run down until he comes to the mouth of a creek or deep cove in which he can hold the Rambler until the tow passes by. In that case, he may be away an hour or so, but I reckon we won’t starve to death in that time.”
“I’ve a good notion to go and hunt out some farm house and buy something to eat!” Jule declared. “We’re most out of eggs, anyway.”
“It seems to me,” Clay laughed, turning to Case, “that Alex and Jule have been having most of the adventures lately. Now what I propose is that you two boys stay here and wait for the Rambler to return while I cut back into the country and see what I can buy in the way of provisions.”
“That will be all right,” Case replied. “And while you are gone, Jule and I will flop into a thicket and go to sleep. I’ve had to prop my eyelids open with my fingers for the last hour. The bulldog can keep watch while we get our forty winks.”