“Oh, that old captain lied himself clear, all right,” Mike answered. “Don’t you see that the Hawk lies there with her lights all going and the Government steamer is going on up the river?”
Gid turned to Jule with something like a smile on his sullen face.
Jule was standing by the closed cabin door with the bear fully instructed and trained, brushing against the inside of it.
“Well, boy,” Gid said, “you did remarkably well during the visit of the officers, so we’re going to let you get us something to eat. While we fix the motors, you cook up some supper and we’ll soon be sailing down the river as happy and contented as three peas in a pod. I presume you’ve got plenty of provisions on board.”
“You bet we have!” answered Jule happily. “I’ll get you a supper that’ll make your mouth water.”
The boy knew that while preparing the meal he would be tolerably free from the surveillance of the two men. This would give him an opportunity to bring a couple of revolvers from the cupboard where they were kept, and also to confer with Teddy as to the course to be pursued.
“Now, Teddy,” the boy said, as he went into the cabin and shut the door, “I don’t know what to do to these men. Sometimes I think I’ll drug their coffee, and sometimes I think I’ll give them a scare that will make their heads look like the top of a snow-capped mountain.”
The bear turned his head thoughtfully to one side and expressed the rather selfish opinion that he thought a boxing match would be about the best thing under the circumstances. The bear had had boxing matches with river pirates before that night, and he knew pretty well what to do when the boys set him going on strangers.
“If I drug their coffee,” Jule went on, “they’ll go to sleep and we’ll have them on our hands. If I give them a scare, they’ll jump into the river and that’ll be the last of them.”
Looking out of the window the boy now saw the Government steamer disappearing rapidly upstream. He also saw the Hawk turning her prow in the direction of the Rambler. Mike and Gid stood by the port gunwale talking earnestly in low tones.