Part 5 (2/2)
”You b.u.m!” he shouted, lunging at the lad, ”I'll give you some of your own medicine! What do you mean by striking me?”
The blow would have landed squarely in the boy's face, but the man who had picked him off the outlaw warded it off with a fist like a ham, and set the boy behind the great bulk of his own person. Clay was encouraged by this defense, and began hoping that he had found a friend instead of another enemy.
But this hope was soon shattered, for the newcomer produced a hard cord, which had evidently once been used as a fishline, and coolly proceeded to tie the boy's wrists. This task completed to his satisfaction, he pushed the boy over on his bunk and tossed Mose on top of him.
”There!” he cried. ”You keep quiet, or I'll turn Sam loose on you!
And, Sam, if you molest the boy again I'll settle with you for it. I take it he had a right to fight for his boat! And the little c.o.o.n! You keep your hands off him, too!”
The man called Sam flashed an ugly look out of his foxy, inflamed eyes and went out on deck. In a moment he was seen in the doorway again, dragging Captain Joe after him.
”Shall I pitch the dog overboard?” he asked, in a surly tone. ”He took a piece out of my leg and I gave him a rap on the head. He's knocked out!”
Clay sat up on the bunk and glared at the man, who was still holding the bulldog by the collar. At that moment, whatever the consequences, the fellow's life would not have been worth a farthing if the boy had had a gun!
”Don't let him kill the dog!” Clay said, appealing to the giant. ”He's a good fellow, that dog! Of course he bit that robber! He wouldn't have been a good dog if he hadn't. Take what you want on the boat, but let the dog live.”
The giant, who was at least six foot six inches in height and large in proportion, looked Captain Joe over after the manner of one acquainted with dogs while Clay awaited his decision anxiously.
”The kid is right,” he finally declared. ”This is a good dog, and we'll keep him with us. Took a piece out of your leg, did he?”
The big fellow placed his hands on his mammoth hips, threw back his head until his hairy throat rose like a st.u.r.dy column of strength, and poured forth such a torrent of laughter that Teddy came out of the cabin to see what new sport was being prepared for his amus.e.m.e.nt. Sam struck at the cub, but the other pushed him away before he had done any mischief.
”That's a good one!” roared the giant. ”Took a piece out of your leg, did he? If he ain't pizened, and lives after that, I'll keep him.
There's a heap of pizen snakes down my way that need looking after.
Took a piece out of your leg! That's too good for anything! Ho! Ho!
Ho! Took a piece out of your leg!”
”I hope he'll some day take a piece out of that throat of yours!”
roared Sam.
”No doubt, no doubt!” replied the giant. ”He may be a doin' of it when the hangman is busy puttin' a new hemp tie about that weazen of yours!
Now let the kids and the dog and bear alone, and help work the boat out into the current. We've got to be getting out of this!”
”You'll have to put the motors together before you move her,” Sam replied.
The giant looked thoughtfully at the scattered fragments, then at Clay, still in the bunk, and scratched a thatch of red hair which looked like a hayrick.
”It seems to need puttin' together,” he said, beckoning to Clay.
Then the boy saw that it was the intention of the outlaws to take possession of the _Rambler_ and s.h.i.+ft her down stream before any of the boys returned. He thought of Alex. and Jule, marooned on that desolate point of land where the old house stood, of Case, trudging back from New Madrid with the repairs to find the boat gone!
He glanced about hopelessly, searching the sh.o.r.es of the bayou on the faint chance of seeing Alex. and Jule returning. Captain Joe was now regaining consciousness in the cabin, and Teddy was trying to interest him in a boxing match! Mose sat in a corner motionless, except that his eyes rolled about in anger or panic, the boy could not determine which.
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