Chapter XII: "lucky Jack!"

"Go!" cried Jack.

And Jimmie went.

Jack had seen the two men spring upon the blanket-covered dummies, and knew the cheat would be instantly discovered. A delay of three seconds just then would mean trouble all around.

Had that unfortunate break on Jimmie's part come about earlier, it must have played havoc with all Jack's cleverly arranged plans. But the men were even in the act of jumping and could not stop to investigate just then.

Before one of them, who was wrestling with the blanket and trying to sprawl all over the unresisting form beneath it, could grasp the situation, bang! came a heavy body down between his shoulders, with a force that made him grunt and flatten out like a pancake.

"Hands up! You are under arrest!" shouted Jack, as he brought his shotgun on a level with the head of the second man, just as the other tried to scramble to his knees after learning of the cheat under the blanket he had assaulted.

Jack was taking a leaf from the police book, and applying it to advantage. He knew just how thrilling those words had sounded in the ears of himself and Jimmie and believed in passing them along.

Jimmie, by the way, was engaged in rapping the back of his captive's head with the stout little cudgel he had picked up. At the same time he kept threatening to add to the force of the taps if the other showed any inclination to resist.

"Do you surrender?" demanded the boy who held the gun.

"I guess we do. There don't seem to be anything else for us, the worse luck!" growled the fellow who crouched there on his knees and stared into the twin tubes of the threatening Marlin double barrel.

"Then lie down on your face, quick now!" commanded Jack, who had been thinking over what ought to be done in case they safely reached this point; and had made up his mind.

The desperate young bank robber hesitated. No doubt he was considering whether he might not take Jack off his guard by a sudden shout and a quick movement. And Jack guessed exactly what was passing through his mind.

"It wouldn't be safe for you to try it, let me tell you," he remarked, assuming as much fierceness as he could. "I've got my finger on both triggers, and this gun goes off mighty easy. You know what would happen to you then. Roll over on your face, and don't stop to think twice about it, either!"

As usual Jack had his way. There was something convincing about his method of argument that even this young desperado could not combat. And so with muttered angry words the fellow dropped flat on his face.

"Now, stay that way, if you know what's good for you," Jack went on. "Jimmie!"

"Yep! Sure I'm here, roight side up wid care, Jack, darlint," chirped the other, temporarily ceasing his tattoo upon the head of his alarmed victim.

"Get out your cord," continued the leader, steadily. "Make him cross his wrists behind his back. Then tie them hard together. If he tries any funny business you know what to do; and do it so that he'll understand what hits him, too."

"Indade I will that. D'ye hear the captain, mister? Give us your other paw, and do ye moind, I've me club handy to clip yees acrost the cranium if so be ye show anny disrespict till the law. Now, aisy loike, and the job's done. There ye are, and riddy for the nixt prisoner!"

Jack meanwhile kept the second fellow under his eye. Whenever the rascal made the least movement, as though tempted to rebel against the hard fate that had come upon him, a stern word from his captor was enough to make him cringe again.

So presently Jimmie mounted his back and treated him exactly as he had done the first victim. When Jack saw the job completed he drew a long breath of relief. The beads of perspiration stood out on his brow, such had been the terrible strain under which he had labored while all this action was taking place.

"Thank goodness, it's done with!" he exclaimed, as he allowed the gun to drop, and his muscles to relax.

"And now what are we to do wid these beauties, Jack?" asked Jimmie, as he also arose and stretched himself; for his long vigil among the branches of that tree had, as he declared, "tied him all up in a knot."

"Take them along with us and hand them over to the authorities at Memphis, if we get no chance nearer. Suppose you stay here with them just now, Jimmie."

"While you drop over to the other cove and see what they do be havin' in that motor boat of theirs," observed the Irish boy, cheerfully. "Just as ye say, Jack. Ye know bist, and I'm riddy to folly orders. But don't be too long, if ye plaise. It moight be lonely for me, I'm thinkin'."

Jack came back inside of fifteen minutes, during which time Jimmie had sat there by the resurrected fire, holding the precious Martin, and keeping a close watch over the two bound robbers.

"Ye found it, all roight, I say, Jack?" announced the guardian of the camp, as he noticed that his chum was "toting" a fair-sized satchel.

"Yes," the other answered, "this holds the stuff they carried off, and which Mr. Gregory, the president of that Waverly bank, will be mightily glad to get hold of again. But I know now just why they were so anxious to capture us."

"They did be thinkin' we was sint afther thim, so I belaved," Jimmie observed.

"That may be so," said Jack; "but there was another reason. They had need of our boat."

"But, by the powers, they had wan jist as good; how could they use both, Jack?"

"Theirs has got a big hole punched in the bow, and must have hit a rock just when they started to come into the cove. They had tried to mend it, but I guess that's a job for a practical boatbuilder and not for amateurs. We'll have to let it stay here, and take our prisoners along in the _Tramp_."

"So, that's the way the land lies, do it?" remarked Jimmie. "And whin they saw us come in this same night, to be sure they made up their moinds it was the finest bit of luck iver happened, changin' ould lamps for new."

Jack was not satisfied until he had examined the bonds of the two men and made them additionally secure. He also tied their ankles together, avoiding hurting them all he could, yet taking no chances, for he knew he was dealing with desperate characters.

The fellow whom Jimmie had flattened out like a pancake had nothing to say, and seemed a gloomy customer. On the other hand, the second prisoner made out to be a nervy, reckless, happy-go-lucky sort of a fellow. He joked with the Irish lad, and pretended to be utterly indifferent as to his fate.

Still Jack distrusted him and meant to keep an eye on him pretty much all the time, until an opportunity came to hand them over to the authorities.

It was now about midnight. Both boys were tired, but too excited to think of doing much in the way of sleeping. So Jack laid out the balance of the night in watches, and during the six hours remaining he and Jimmie managed to pick up a little rest; though when morning came both of them were feeling, as Josh Purdue would have said, "pretty punk."

They managed to get breakfast, and both of the men were fed after a fashion, although the cautious Jack would take few chances of allowing them to have their hands free.

At eight o'clock the little _Tramp_ put out of the cove, and once more breasted the brawling Mississippi flood that moved ceaselessly southward.

Jack kept near the Tennessee shore for many reasons. He wished to get rid of the two prisoners as soon as he could, and meant to go ashore when he came to the first good-sized town, where he had reason to believe the captured robbers would be properly taken care of, and the recovered valuables placed safely, awaiting the claim of the bank authorities.

On the afternoon of the preceding day they had heard many faint reports as of guns. Jack had looked the matter up, and was inclined to believe that these must be caused by duck hunters in the sloughs around Reelfoot Lake. Occasionally they saw flocks of water fowl on the sand bars; and Jimmie was wild for a chance to secure one for a meal.

"All in good time," laughed Jack, as the other kept asking why he did not try to pot some of the game. "We've got our hands full, as it is, Jimmie. Just wait until we lighten our load, and then you'll find me ready for sport."

Truth to tell, Jack had too great a load on his mind to think of pleasure. Until he had handed the prisoners and the plunder over to the authorities he felt in no humor for fun. Nor might it be a wise thing to have an empty gun along, even for a brief period of time. The ugly way one of the men looked at him every little while kept Jack constantly on the anxious seat; and he feared lest there might be some unpleasant surprise sprung on himself and Jimmie.

But noon came without their having made up their minds what to do.

"We're getting close to Covington," Jack remarked, after a bit, when Jimmie proposed that they have a cold snack. "And perhaps we can lighten ship there. Anyhow, I've about made up my mind to land and find out."

"And perhaps we may be saved all the trouble, Jack, darlint," remarked Jimmie, with one of his quizzical chuckles.

This, of course, caused the skipper to lift his head and look down the river.

"Oh! you mean that that launch is heading for us; is that it, Jimmie?" he asked.

"Here, take the glasses, and ye'll see the glint of brass buttons aboard the same," remarked the crew of the motor boat, holding out the magnifiers as he spoke.

Jack whistled, and then laughed.

"Well," he said, "that's good news you are telling me, Jimmie,--for us, I mean. Nothing could please me better than to be met half way by a posse of police just now. We've got a little surprise in store for them, I guess. But I'll have to go ashore after all, for I don't mean to let that bag go out of my possession without getting a receipt in full for all it holds."

The launch was coming full-tilt for them. Soon it was so close that they could see the several police officers who manned it, although they were apparently trying to keep under cover as much as possible.

Jack kept straight on for the other boat. He even tooted his whistle several times as though in greeting. And presently the larger launch came alongside.

"Looks like the boat all right, boys," observed the man who was in the bow, handling the wheel.

"Yes, and the description hits these two young scamps to a dot!" echoed another, as he laid hold of the _Tramp_ and started to clamber over the side; when he suddenly paused, and stared at something he had discovered in the bottom of the boat. "Hi! what d'ye think?" he cried. "They've got a couple of fellers tied up here, neck and crop. Pirates, all right, you better believe. And here's a bag that's got the loot in it, I wager. Keep 'em covered, will you, till I slip the bracelets on."

"Hold on, if you please, officer!" called a voice, as a gentleman in civilian dress suddenly appeared at the side of the police boat. "I'm afraid there's a little mistake here, after all. We've had a false clew. I know these boys, and they're not the ones we're after."

Jack stared, as well he might.

"Why, hello! Mr. Gregory!" he cried, perhaps with hardly the reverence he ought to show toward a bank president; but the astonishment of seeing the gentleman away down here, so many hundred miles from home, rather disconcerted him.

"Yes, it's no other, Jack," replied the other, smiling. "They wired me that perhaps if I hurried down I might be able to recognize the valuable bonds that were stolen from our bank, in case they turned up. We were told that a boat answering the description of the mysterious one in which the robbers took flight had been sighted on the river; and for two days now we've been watching. But it must have been your little boat they meant."

"Perhaps not, sir," said Jack, quietly. "There was another just like mine, and we have run across it several times. In fact, the two fellows who operated it are lying here right now; and that satchel contains all the stuff they stole from your bank, Mr. Gregory."