Part 33 (2/2)

Standing high on the levee, with the lights of the city growing below them, the lads watched the _Rambler_ for a moment and then started on a run up the stream toward a small landing that was not far from the camp-fire.

”If Alex. wasn't on board,” Case reasoned, ”Captain Joe wouldn't be there. If Alex. is running the boat up to that landing, it is safe for us to go there.”

The _Rambler_ did tie up at the landing, and then the boys saw that the rowboat they had missed was tied to her stern. The willow mattresses were also still hanging on to the cords to which they had been tied. The men at the fire started up toward the landing as the boys reached it, but, much to the surprise of the lads, they did not attempt to go on board. In a moment Clay, Alex. and Mose showed their faces on deck.

”Come aboard!” shouted Alex. ”I've arranged a surprise party for you here.”

”What is Chet doing on there?” demanded Case. ”I thought we left him with his new friends, the thieves, in that old house in the city.”

”This is no time for story-telling!” said another voice on board, and the man who had been known as Red, the Robber, came out of the cabin and sat down, calmly, on the gunwale. The boys on sh.o.r.e were, by this time, prepared for almost anything. When they reached the deck, Red waved a farewell to the men on the levee and the boat whirled down toward the Gulf of Mexico.

”You see,” Alex. grinned, ”we don't know where we are going, but we are on our way.”

”I know!” Clay insisted, ”we are going to complete our trip to the Gulf of Mexico. We've had all the mystery we need on this voyage, and the next one that starts anything in that line will be banished to one of the mattresses!”

”All right,” Alex. retorted. ”We don't care about knowing what this all means! I reckon it is too commonplace to refer to again.”

He grinned at Red and Chet as he spoke, and they both laughed back at him.

”We have with us to-night,” Alex. went on, in a very good imitation of the after-dinner orator, ”Red, the Robber! His specialty is taking boats away from boys and sneaking off down the river with them--until some one gets the drop on him!

”We also have with us,” he continued, ”Chester Vinton, the waif who was rescued from a barren island in the Mississippi with a hundred thousand dollars' worth of diamonds in his possession! He will soon do his stunt of telling how he found them in a piece of pie at a Rock Island restaurant.

”This wonderful Chet is also the last word in friends.h.i.+p. When he sees boys who have befriended him, it is his habit to turn them over to thieves, who lock them up--not in anger, but to protect them from other naughty boys!”

Instead of showing anger at this blunt talk, Red and Chet sat down on the gunwale and laughed until the river echoed back their voices. Clay also seemed much amused.

”What's the answer?” demanded Case, turning to Chet.

”Now you boys just wait a short time,” Red observed, ”and you'll know all about it. I would tell you right now, only I see how hungry you all are. And, seeing that I have a monster beefsteak in the cabin, with ducks ready to roast, and eggs ready to fry, why, it seems like we ought to eat before we mix with any long yarns!”

So Case and Alex. took to the cabin, and the odors of steak and coffee and roasting duck soon filled the boat. While the good things were cooking the _Rambler_ dropped down to a wharf where a tank wagon of gasoline awaited them, and there, also, loads of provisions of all kinds were put on board.

And the strangest part of it all was that there was nothing to pay!

Red appeared to have temporary charge of the boat, and the bills seemed to have all been paid in advance. They were headed down stream when breakfast was eaten.

”We ought to reach the Gulf in three or four weeks, if we hurry!” Red observed, as he carved the ducks. ”That is, if we hurry in the right way!”

”I thought it would take until spring,” Chet broke in. ”I hoped so!”

Alex. regarded the two with a whimsical smile on his freckled face.

”How long will it be before you'll both disappear?” he asked.

”Never again!” laughed Chet. ”Say, boys, I did make a quick get-away a couple of times? What? I hated to go, but I just had to.”

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