“And this,” Jule suggested, “seems to be more like real life. Things are livening up. They’ll be going good by the time we get to St. Luce.”
“They may be going too fast!” warned the old captain.
[CHAPTER XVII—CAPTAIN JOE’S NIGHT VISIT]
“I really would like to know,” Case observed, “whether those fellows are real wreckers, or whether they have been waiting there for the Rambler to come back down the river. You know the story was printed that we were coming back to look up the lost channel.”
“I don’t know of any way of finding out unless we go to shore,” Alex suggested, looking very much as if he would like to pay a visit to the blaze. “We might learn something of importance,” he added rather coaxingly. “Suppose we do go and see.”
“If you try to leave this boat to-night,” Clay declared, “I’ll tie you up with one of the anchor cables. We haven’t got any time to waste hunting for you. So you stay on board the boat.”
Alex did not exactly like the idea of going quietly to bed, but he was finally induced to do so.
“Now,” said Captain Joe, as he stood alone on deck with Clay, “suppose we shove over to the other shore. Those fellows are wreckers, there is no doubt of that, and there is no sense in our mixing with them. If we stay here, they’ll prowl around the Rambler all night, and the bulldog will bark and the bear will growl, and it will be like sleeping in a boiler shop. What do you say to that?”
“That suits me exactly,” Clay answered.
“Then I’ll tell you what we’ll do. From the point where we tie to-night, we’ll pass down the river on the north side. That will bring us in behind Cartier island, and we can push up the west river instead of the east one, which seemed to be the center of activity when you were there.”