Frightened beyond all measure, rendered more desperate still by the onrush of the boys from the cabin, the outlaws finally succeeded in breaking away and springing to the pier. As they did so, they nearly fell over Alex and Case who were making all haste to ascertain the cause of the excitement on the Rambler.
In a moment, however, they were up and away, clattering like race-horses up the pier.
[CHAPTER XI—THE CREW TAKES A TUMBLE]
When Alex and Case reached the deck of the Rambler, they found Clay and Jule leaning against the gunwale laughing hard enough to split their sides. A searchlight in the latter’s hand revealed Captain Joe and Teddy standing by the cabin door, looking around as if inquiring what it all meant.
“Well,” Alex said, producing his own searchlight, “if there’s anything funny going on here, you’d better be passing it round.”
“Where have you been?” demanded Clay the next moment.
“Been?” repeated Alex. “We’ve been up in the air!”
“That’s no fairy tale, either,” Case cut in. “We’ve been arrested, and released, and attacked, and pommeled, and now we strike some kind of a minstrel show. What’s been going on?”
“You’ve been arrested, have you?” laughed Jule, paying no attention to the question. “Any old time you go away from this boat and don’t get into trouble, I’ll wire the news back to Chicago. What did you get pinched for, and how did you get away?”
“We got pinched because of Max,” replied Alex, “and we got out of it because we came upon a white policeman. We escaped from Max’s cronies because Captain Joe butted in and chewed up a few. That’s some dog, that is.”