Part 20 (2/2)

”So have I,” Alex. went on. ”Now, if they try to board the _Rambler_, we'll lie low until they begin to climb over the rail. Then we'll turn on our electrics. If they are strangers, and look like river pirates, we'll shoot them up! What?”

”But why not turn on the prow light?” asked Case.

”Because we can handle the electric flashlights quicker. If we have to show the light and shoot, be quick to change your position after the light is switched off. Then, if they shoot back, they won't hit you.”

There was a boat approaching. There was no doubt about that. And the people on board of her were doing their best to keep their movements from being known by those of the _Rambler_. Case and Alex. could hear the dash of oars, and now and then a rough command. The two boys sat in silence and waited.

Then, as Case and Alex. afterward complained, something happened which ”spoilt all the fun!” Captain Joe came out of the cabin and gave forth a series of threatening growls, and Teddy added to the warning by saying things in bear talk!

The mysterious boat came on no longer. There were still sounds of the working of a heavy craft in a strong current, but these gradually died out.

”I'd like to throw you both into the river after them!” Alex. scolded at the animals, as they came around him, asking to be congratulated on their success in driving off the visitors! ”Now we'll be haunted by those fellows for a week, while if you had kept quiet we'd have settled with them right here!”

”Suppose we turn on the power and chase 'em up?” asked Case.

”And give them a chance to do all the shooting!” replied Alex.

scornfully. ”I'm not looking for a watery grave in the Mississippi.”

”Well,” Case continued, ”if you don't want to follow them up, just to see what they look like, perhaps we'd better drop down a short distance. If we can't fight them, we don't want to feel that they're right under our noses, waiting for a chance to get us into a hole! I'd rather face a hundred men in the open than know that one was skulking about me in the darkness!”

”This is a fierce old stream for strangers to travel on in the dark!”

Alex. said.

”I know it, but----”

Before the boy could finish the sentence a faint jar came, as if some person had caught hold of the anchor chain and given it a pull, or hung his weight on it.

”There's our friend!” Case whispered. ”Now, get ready with your gun!”

In a second, while the boys listened, they heard a hard substance fall on the deck. Alex.'s light flashed around the gunwale, but there was no one in sight.

In the middle of the deck, however, still dripping from the river, lay the leather bag which had held the diamonds, and which had held only burrs and broken crockery when last seen on board the _Rambler_! Alex.

picked it up, found that it was still half full of some hard substances, and shut off the light.

”You saw it?” he asked of Case, as he cuddled down by the boy's side.

”Of course! The leather bag!”

”What do you think of it?” demanded Alex.

”I don't think!” admitted Case. ”I've lost the power of thought!”

”But what did they throw it back here for?” insisted Alex.

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