Part 8 (2/2)

Before long the sounds of pursuit died out. The old mansion, which stood on the point of land between the river and the bayou, was now in darkness. When the moon came out again it stood silent and solitary in its neglected enclosure. It seemed to the lads that everything that had taken place there must be a dream!

”Now where?” Jule asked, as the boat pa.s.sed a bend and the house was no longer in sight. ”Do we know where we are going, any of us?”

”Where is the _Rambler_?” demanded Alex. ”We ought to have reached it long ago.”

Then, briefly, Case repeated the story told by Mose of the capture of the motor boat. There was silence for a moment, for the boys recognized the seriousness of the situation.

There was little doubt in their minds that the _Rambler_ would be wrecked. No boat could drift down that surging river, cluttered with driftwood as it was, without meeting with disaster. And Clay was on board, bound, and helpless in case the worst happened!

”So that is how Mose and Captain Joe happened to come to the rescue,”

Alex. said. ”The pirate threw them off the _Rambler_! Well, he did a good job when he did it, anyway! But how that c.o.o.n did run when we made for the window he had opened!”

Mose, nestled in the bottom of the boat, stroking Captain Joe's wet head, grinned and declared that the boys had looked like ghosts.

”It is a wonder the boy and the dog were not discovered in the grounds!” Jule remarked. ”I don't see how they came to keep out of sight!”

”I can tell you!” Case put in. ”Mose was so afraid that the pirates would come and get him that he lay in the bushes with his face in the dead leaves! Is that right, Mose?” he asked.

Mose had to admit that he was ”sho' scared white,” and Captain Joe tried to explain, in perfectly good dog talk, that he wasn't frightened a bit, but only lay by Mose to help keep his courage up!

”Well, boys,” Alex. said in a moment, ”we've got to study out some plan to get to Clay. We can't dodge the issue by talking of something else. What shall we do?”

”I'm for going on down the river,” Alex. continued. ”The pirates can't run the _Rambler_ up stream, and so we must find her if we keep on going.”

”But she has nearly ten hours the start of us,” urged Jule.

”I don't think they will go far, as it is risky drifting a boat down now. They will probably go far enough to get out of the zone of pursuit and then tie up, if the boat isn't wrecked before that,” he added, gravely.

”That's good judgment!” Case declared.

”We're lucky if we don't get wrecked ourselves,” Jule declared, swinging the boat about to avoid a ma.s.s of wreckage which lay before her. ”When we come to the bend just ahead we're likely to be pushed over to the other sh.o.r.e. See how the current sets that way? We'll have to go some to beat it!”

The current was indeed swift and treacherous. It swept toward the east sh.o.r.e with almost resistless force, and the rowboat was like an eggsh.e.l.l in its grasp.

”Look out for the log ahead!” cried Jule, as the boat swirled around.

But there was more than one log ahead. It seemed that a whole drive of logs, or timbers, had been caught by the flood and whirled down stream. The boys backed water, and Jule did all he could to keep out of the ma.s.s, but the current was remorseless.

The boat struck a great timber and the force of the shock and the cracking sound which followed told of an injury to the craft. Mose stood up in the boat, for water was now coming in!

”This seems to be our good-luck night!” Case grumbled, in a sarcastic tone, as the boat lurched against a great log and came near tipping over.

”There's a raft ahead, anyway!” shouted Jule. ”We can ride down on that!”

”Until it takes a notion to dump us into the drink!” complained Case.

The boat filled fast, and Captain Joe mounted the prow and looked longingly toward the bobbing timber raft just ahead. From the raft he looked back to the boys.

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