Part 14 (2/2)
After that an hour pa.s.sed without anything unusual happening. Twice they pa.s.sed river steamboats, one of them sweeping quite close to the houseboat.
”Why don't you put out more lights--want to be run down?” came the cry.
”Haven't any more lights,” answered Tom, and then the two boats swept apart, so no more could be said.
A mile more was pa.s.sed when Fred set up a cry:
”I see a light ahead, flas.h.i.+ng from side to side,” he said, and pointed it out.
”It is the acetylene gas lamp,” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Harold Bird, ”and it must be aboard of the launch!”
CHAPTER XI
WHAT THE ROCKETS REVEALED
All of those on board of the houseboat watched the flas.h.i.+ng light with keen interest. That it came from the gasoline launch none of them doubted.
”If we can only catch up to them,” said Tom. ”And do it on the sly!”
”We want to be on guard--they may be ready to do some shooting,”
returned Sam.
”Does you d.i.n.k da vill shoot?” inquired Hans, anxiously.
”I don't think they will kill more than three or four of us,” answered Tom, by way of a joke.
”Vat?” screamed Hans. ”Not me, by chiminatics! I ton't vos vant to been shot dree oder seven dimes alretty!”
”I doubt if they'll do any shooting,” answered Harold Bird.
”I can't believe that,” said d.i.c.k, with a shake of his head. ”That Sack Todd is a bad one, and Baxter can be very wicked at times. We certainly want to be on guard against any underhanded work.”
The launch had been running somewhat across the river, but was now headed straight down the Mississippi.
”We don't seem to be gaining,” said Fred, after a silence of several minutes. ”It appears to be just as far ahead as when we first saw it.”
”We are certainly not gaining much,” answered the young Southerner.
”But I think we are gaining a little.”
Harold Bird was right, they were gaining probably one rod in twenty.
Thus, in a little over half an hour, they saw that the launch was almost within hailing distance. The acetylene gas light was thrown ahead and to the right and left, and lit up the surface of the river for a considerable distance. Against the rays of the lamp they could make out four persons in the launch.
”They must be the four we are after,” said d.i.c.k. ”I wish they would turn into sh.o.r.e, at some town. Then we'd have an easier time of it, rounding them up.”
”I have an idea!” cried Sam. ”Why not follow them until they do land somewhere and go to sleep? We'll have a better chance to capture all of them than in a fight out here. Here, if we get into a row, somebody may fall overboard and be drowned.”
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