Part 5 (1/2)

CHAPTER V

A NEW CAPTAIN ON BOARD

Clay continued his work on the motors for a long time after the departure of Alex. and Jule. It was impossible to make them work with safety without the repairs Case had gone after, but the boy decided that the present would be a fine time to clean them.

While he worked, polis.h.i.+ng and oiling, Mose and Teddy came out of the cabin arm-in-arm! At least the little negro boy had one arm around the cub's neck!

”You've got over your scare, eh?” Clay laughed, as the two came to his side.

”Ah sure tu'n white las' night!” Mose declared, rolling his eyes until they looked like white billiard b.a.l.l.s. ”Ah's so scared!”

”You are black enough this morning,” Clay suggested. ”Where did you come from?”

”Ah done come f'm San Louee,” was the reply. ”Ah lib on de levee.”

”Did you run away from St. Louis?” asked Clay. ”Did you come all the way from the levee on the roof Alex. fished you off from?”

Mose, still playing with the cub, explained that he had sneaked on board a steamer at St. Louis, but had been put ash.o.r.e at a landing above Cairo by the mate. Then, so great had been his desire to get farther south for the winter, he had taken a drifting boat and pushed out into the swollen stream.

The boat had been crushed in a ma.s.s of wreckage, but the boy had managed to crawl up on the floating roof where he had been found. The mammy he had spoken of as having been so liberal with him in the bestowal of names was an old colored lady who had given him a place to sleep on cold nights and occasionally fed him when he was hungry. He knew nothing of his parents or any relatives. He was just a levee waif.

After a time Clay went to the cabin and lay on his bunk, which let down from the ceiling, being usually drawn up during the daytime. The motors were still under process of cleaning, and various parts lay scattered about.

Presently the boy heard a great racket on deck. Captain Joe's deep voice came in threatening growls, and Mose and Teddy scampered into the cabin. Clay sprang to his feet and made for the deck, not doubting that Alex. and Jule had returned and were up to some mischief. Before he reached the door he heard the sound of a heavy blow.

He could see no one through the doorway, which Mose had left open, although most of the deck was in sight, yet the blow he had heard warned him that something out of the ordinary was taking place. He stepped back to a shelf for his revolver.

He knew that during floods bands of outlaws frequented the river in quest of plunder, and it was his first impression that one of these had discovered the motor boat and was trying to board her. He wondered at the silence of the dog.

As the boy reached for his weapon, a gruff voice from the cabin doorway commanded him to face about and hold up his hands.

”And hold 'em up empty, too!” the gruff voice said.

There was nothing for Clay to do but to obey. It was with an effort, however, that he kept his arms extended. The leering eyes of the man with the face of a fox who stood before him with a revolver pushed almost into his face caused such hot surges of rage to fill the boy's brain that he came near facing the peril and springing upon the outlaw.

Mose, levee bred and wise to the unlawful purpose of the intruder, moved stealthily toward the shelf where Clay's revolver lay, in plain sight. In another second it would have been in the little fellow's hand, with what result Clay could not imagine, but the outlaw saw the movement and edged forward, still keeping the revolver leveled at Clay, much to the latter's disgust.

”Here, you c.o.o.n!” the man shouted, ”get over in that corner and stay there! Move, or I'll give you a lift!”

The brute gave Mose a savage kick in the side as he spoke. It was one thing for Clay to be placed in a humiliating position, to be threatened with a gun, but it was quite another for him to stand inactive and see a boy brutally treated! Disregarding all his thoughts of the uselessness of the move, the boy sprang at the outlaw.

Although only a boy, Clay was muscular and in training. The man he had attacked was stronger and heavier than the lad, but he was slower of movement, and the result of the conflict might have been a victory for Clay if the two had been permitted to continue the struggle unmolested.

While the meager furniture of the little cabin was being broken and tossed hither and yon by the combatants, while Teddy was jumping about, eager to get hold of one of the fighters--as he had been taught to do when the boys were wrestling--and while Mose was doing his best to get over to the shelf where the revolver lay, there came a quick jar on deck, a jar caused by the bunting of a boat against the hull of the _Rambler_, and then hurrying footsteps on the forward deck.

Clay fought all the harder when the sounds reached his ears, for he was sure that Alex. and Jule had returned, and that short work would now be made of the intruder. He was gradually securing a hold on his enemy which would have ended the battle when he was seized and lifted--by a giant, it seemed to him--clear of the cabin deck and held there while the outlaw slowly regained his feet and picked up his weapon.

Clay saw that it was the other side that had received the reinforcements, and motioned to Mose to remain quiet and keep out of sight. He feared that further activity on the part of the negro boy would add to his punishment.

After catching his breath, the outlaw with whom Clay had been struggling lifted a pair of bloodshot eyes to Clay's face and sprang at him, his huge fists clenched until the knuckles showed hard and white.