“If Mad Rowell knows how to operate a motor boat,” said Buck, “the chances are against us. That boat can go some!”
The party advanced up the stream half a mile or more without seeing anything in the shape of a motor boat.
“Hopeless case, I reckon,” suggested Rube. “It strikes me that we are only wasting time. We should have gone directly to the village and used the wire.
The man had hardly ceased speaking when an exclamation from Jule attracted the attention of all in the party.
“There she is!”
It was indeed true. The Esmeralda lay rocking in the river some distance farther upstream. Mad Rowell was nowhere in view from where the party stood. The boat was, however, on the opposite bank of the river.
Buck appeared lost in a brown study for a moment, and then he said, speaking in his usual drawl:
“This may be an ambush.”
“If they ever got one of us into the river, they could fill him so full of lead that he’d sink of his own weight,” Clay went on. “The thing to do now is for all to take to the water at once. They can’t kill all of us!”
“They might do even that,” put in Rube, “but it seems that we have to risk it. I wish I had my two hands on the man who is responsible for this!”