“Where-abouts, Josh?”
“Why, look beyond the white boat, and you’ll see something low down on the water, Jack. Yes, and there’s a dark spot in the middle of it, too, just like a cheese box on a raft. Can that be another island, d’ye reckon; and are they meanin’ to go ashore there, and hold us off?”
“Oh! I guess not,” remarked Jack, after taking a good look, “what you see, Josh, is what you’d call a raft of logs floating down the river. We’ve seen such pass up our way many a time. And generally the two men aboard will have a little cabin, where they take turns sleeping, when voyaging at night, which they don’t often do, I reckon. Yes, I believe I can see signs of a couple of lighted lanterns. They’re to tell steamboats to sheer off; and they always do, because a collision with all those big logs would go hard with any boat.”
“Guess you’re right, Jack,” admitted the other, yielding readily to the argument which he realized was convincing. “But say, d’ye think our men see that same old raft? Could they be making for it, now, meanin’ to board the same, and keep us off?”
That idea had flashed into Jack’s mind, but as yet he could not say; for he was unable to see just what advantage such a course would be to the fugitives. True, the pursuers had been overhauling them so fast of late that it began to appear as though they were having trouble with the engine Jenks had fixed. If that proved to be the case, then they might have been seized with a fear that they were going to be overhauled; and as it was too late now to reach land, the next best thing would be to make a floating battery of the raft, and keep their persistent enemies off, until they could steer the clumsy float nearer the shore.
“What’s the programme, Jack?” called George, who was doubtless fairly quivering with excitement, and eager for hostilities to begin.
“You come up on the left, while we take the right,” replied the other, just as though he had figured all this out, as he undoubtedly had.
“Do we board the pirate boat?” George went on.
“We’ll have to, if we expect to retake it for Algernon,” Jack answered.
“They’ll put up a stiff fight, Jack, don’t forget that,” the skipper of the Wireless went on to say.