“Well, to relieve their minds, and give them the first decent night’s sleep they’ve had up to now since the bank was broken open,” continued Jack, “I want to take Josh here, and run down river a ways to that town we noticed the light of when we were shooting past in the night.”
“Oh! I see,” remarked Buster, with what was a wonderfully quick perception, for him, “mebbe now you mean to wire on about it all, Jack.”
“I expect to send a dispatch, telling them that the plunder has been recovered, and is coming back by express as fast as we can get it there; the full particulars will have to keep until the Motor Boat Boys get back from their little cruise down the Mississippi.”
“And of course the news will float over to our little borough, in the natural course of events,” suggested George, proudly.
“I c’n just see the good people waitin’ to receive us with the brass band, and all the town run wild over the doings of the wonderful heroes of the old Mississippi!” cried Buster, waving his fork above his head excitedly, as he pictured the stirring scene in his mind’s eye.
“Well, hardly that,” said Jack, quietly, for he disliked all such exhibitions exceedingly; “because we won’t let anybody know just when we expect to strike town again. In fact, if I can fix it up that way we’ll be apt to arrive after sunset.”
“You mean sneak in like a dog with his tail between his legs?” complained George. “That’s too bad, Jack. If we’d done anything we ought to be ashamed of it might go; but when a bunch of valiant lads carry on like we have, and not only chases the bank thieves to a successful finish, but manages to recover the stolen stuff, seems to me we’d only be getting our due if we let our admiring fellow townsmen make a little ado over us. You’re too modest, Jack, and that’s a fact.”
“Well, we can settle all that later on,” laughed the other, as he arose; “if you’ve had all you want to eat, Josh, suppose we get ready to take our little run.”
“Weather looks O. K. out there, for one thing,” observed Buster, as he scanned the serene surface of the mighty river, which of course was not to be compared with what the boys had seen hundreds of miles further down on their trip to New Orleans, though wide enough even at that.