Three of the boys greeted this remark with roars of laughter, but Case was not to be coaxed out of his pessimistic mood.
“It’s all right for you boys to think you’ll get the Rambler back again, but I just know you won’t!” he contended. “We’ll be lucky if we catch a ride back to Chicago. Anybody in the crowd got any money? I thought not,” he added as the boys all shook their heads. “Then how’re you going to get any clothes or anything?”
“Say,” cried Alex, in a moment, “do you know that we never got Paul Stegman off the boat?”
“I wonder if the new proprietors will get his leg set?” Case suggested. “You bet they won’t! Pirates don’t go around doing Red Cross stunts. Not much they don’t.”
“If I had your disposition,” ventured Jule, with a grin to take the sting out of the remark, “I’d take it down to the river and drown it. It’s a wonder it doesn’t keep you awake nights.”
“Come, boys, we’ve got to get a move on if we ever get anywhere,” suggested Clay. “I move that we begin operations with a morning bath. Bathing suits are barred.”
The Rambler was now out of sight around a bend in the river, and there was no sense in longer delaying the moment of departure, so Alex plunged into the stream and was soon making his way to the other side. He was closely followed by the dog, who seemed to regret his share in the incident which had cost the boys the Rambler.
The boys were soon assembled on the opposite shore, and it became necessary to decide upon some course of action. It was now broad daylight, and the people of the town were already astir.
“It amounts to just this,” Clay declared. “There isn’t a cent in the crowd, and we are all hungry and in need of wearing apparel. There isn’t even a watch or a piece of jewelry in sight. Now what’s the answer? Shall we spend the time loafing about Hayes until our money gets here, or shall we make a touch and get into action at once?”
“For Heaven’s sake,” insisted Alex, “let’s do something that will bring us something to eat. My internal machinery is about run down.”