Chapter XV: Just a Minute Too Late

“Gee whiz!” exclaimed Buster, presently, and the others heard more or less of a loud crashing, which would seem to indicate that the fat boy, who was always rather clumsy in his movements, had stumbled and fallen amidst the impediments that sprinkled their course.

“Hurt, Buster?” questioned Herb, who was close behind.

“Naw, only knocked a little skin off my knees, I guess. Better luck next time,” was the cheerful reply, as the unfortunate one scrambled to his feet, and again resumed his forward progress.

When Jack and his five mates started off, the man Jenks, and his employer, Algernon Lorrimer, apparently did not mean to be left entirely in the lurch. They were in the group now pushing through the wooded part of the island, and trying to surmount the many difficulties that beset their course.

Algernon had about as much trouble as Buster to navigate safely; now it was some unnoticed log that threatened to trip him up, and again a hanging vine tried to choke him outright. Jenks hovered near by, ready to come to the rescue of his employer should the latter succeed in getting into a severe pinch. As Josh afterward said in commenting on this solicitude on the part of the machinist, perhaps Jenks had not been paid his week’s wages as yet, and wanted to make sure he would have an employer to whom he could look for the expected cash.

One thing proved of considerable assistance, and this was the moon. Battered though it might be, and with one side partly gone, still the faithful old sky lantern was able to give out a considerable amount of silvery light.

“Lucky we’ve got that moon, let me tell you,” grunted Buster, as he continued to boom along, making enough noise, so Josh declared, to warn the whole neighborhood of their coming.

“Some people’d need three moons to get along half way decent,” was what Josh declared from some point close by.

“Hush!” Jack remarked, and at that they all fell quiet again.

Indeed, it was no child’s play making their way through the dense growth that covered the main part of the island. Even in the daytime they would have had more or less trouble in accomplishing such a task; and when attempting it with only the deceptive moonlight as a source of illumination, the task became doubly difficult.

Once Jack called a brief halt.

It was his idea to try and ascertain whether there were any sounds ahead, such as might indicate the presence of busy workers, getting their belongings from the boat that was about to be abandoned to the one that had just fallen into their possession, through a stroke of luck, backed up by daring.

It might be in the shape of voices, a cough, or any sort of sound that would betray the presence of human beings; why, even a sneeze, such as that famous one of Buster, would do the business.

But somehow nothing of the sort seemed to come to their strained hearing; at any rate most of them failed to catch such a welcome sound. Yet when Jack bade them start on again, lowering his voice to a thrilling whisper almost, it seemed as if he felt a new confidence, showing that he believed he had heard something or other.

Instead of getting better the nearer they drew to the other side of the little island that had such a bad name, it seemed as though conditions steadily became worse.

Buster and Algernon simply could not hold up to the pace set by such agile chaps as Jack, George, Andy and Josh, so that they were gradually but surely falling back, and being put out of the race.

Herb was not much better, for it was never a habit of the easy-going skipper of the solid old Comfort to hurry more than he could reasonably help.

But then probably it would not matter so much after all. There were still five in the front rank, for Jenks had now forged alongside the others, thinking he might best serve his master by trying to recover the boat, rather than standing by to pick him up in case he fell. And more than that, there was Jack handling that reliable Marlin of his in a fashion that seemed to speak volumes for his intentions, once he sighted the enemy.

When excitement rules the camp it is wonderful how many things can be crowded into a small space of time. People seem to pass through a lifetime in a few minutes, providing events come tumbling over one another, helter-skelter like.

Now, when they came to figure upon it later on, the motor boat chums were of the opinion that even under such adverse conditions they could not have been more than six or seven minutes in passing through the wooded center of the island. It was only a small affair at best, and by daylight could have been crossed in much less time. And yet there was Buster, for instance, who must have been laboring under the impression that fully half an hour had already passed since they first started to break into the thick growth, and butt up against all these crazy obstacles--the logs that would get under a fellow’s feet, the encircling loops of dangling wild grape-vines; the trees that bobbed up most unexpectedly, and tried to knock one’s brains out, and a lot of other things along the same line “too numerous to mention.”

Of course none of them gave much heed to what their conduct would be when they managed to overtake the enemy.

That would have to be left pretty much to accident. Perhaps some of the boys, under the belief that they must present quite a hostile appearance, with all sorts of clubs and cudgels in evidence, not to speak of that gun Jack carried, fancied that the two burglars would take to flight at sight of the advancing legion. But Jack, and perhaps Herb also, did not delude themselves with this expectation; for they could remember just how that fellow aboard the stolen boat had warned Jenks off, and even wounded him in the arm when he refused to stop short.

They set him down as a dangerous character, which he undoubtedly must have been, to have carried out the bold programme connected with the looting of the up-river bank.

At any rate, they must be getting close to the other side of the island now, for there was a perceptible slope downward, and this must mean the crest had been left behind.

Yes, and sure enough, the trees were getting less dense, though the brush might be as thick as ever. Jack hoped for one thing that luck would favor them, and allow of their breaking out upon the little beach at just the exact spot where the two men were working.

At the same time he did not feel any too sanguine of success, for which there were numerous reasons. Surely the two thieves must be aware of the fact that the pack was pushing toward them, for there was plenty of noise accompanying their forward progress.

And knowing this, would it not be the easiest thing for them to gauge their time of flitting by the closeness of the coming host? Jack thought so, even while still exerting himself to the uttermost in order to get to the shore as speedily as possible.

Ah! now he could see more light ahead, which told in so many words that they must be close to the river again. Their troubles were behind them now; that is, insofar as they concerned navigating the dense jungle that covered the island of the bad name.

Those still ahead would be of an entirely different nature, and might consist of running up against the desperate thieves.

Just then Jack heard a voice, a very gruff voice, which he recognized as belonging to the man who had run off with the white boat.

“That all, Jim?”

The speaking of that name thrilled Jack, for only too well did he remember that it was mentioned in the newspaper article describing the robbery; and if he had had the slightest doubt before as to the identity of the precious pair, it was now a thing of the past.

If the man addressed made any sort of reply Jack failed to catch it. He hoped, however, that it would be of a negative character--that they might still have something more to do; because Jack had located the voice, and was of the impression that it came from a little further up the narrow beach. They had come fairly close to the spot where the transfer of belongings was being made, but did not hit on it exactly. And it is an old saying that a miss is as good as a mile; at any rate it would likely prove such in this case.

And so they presently burst out of the cover, and found themselves looking on the moonlit surface of the flowing Mississippi again.

Jack, Jenks, George and Josh had somehow come out in a clump, with Andy close at their heels. None of them more than cast a fleeting glance out on the dancing water, for they could see immediately that there was nothing calculated to interest them there.

Jack immediately turned up the beach, and started to sprint, for it was open here, and the absence of obstacles offered them a splendid chance to do something worth while.

There happened to be a little point setting out just above, on which grew some stunted trees and considerable brush. This helped to make a cove, perhaps something like the one which the boys had selected as their harbor, and in which the three motor boats rested snugly even then.

And as the two fugitive thieves had chanced to come down that side of the island they must have picked this out for a stopping-place, where they could hide their craft.

Rapidly did the running Jack, backed up by his allies, near this point of land. Once it was reached, and he believed he would be able to see what lay beyond; though somehow Jack did not appear to entertain any doubt as to the nature of this discovery.

He had already reached its outer edge, and in another ten seconds must have been able to push directly through, when, just as he feared, he heard sounds that announced the finish of that stage of the game.

The loud crackle of a motor’s exhaust broke the silence; and from the rapidity with which it worked he knew that the engine had been started at almost full speed.

“Oh! rats!” burst out George, who had been doing his best to get alongside Jack, and succeeded too, “they’ve got away from us!”

They kept on running, however, and speedily broke through the fringe of shrubbery that shut off their view. As they did so it was to hear a loud hoarse laugh, that came rolling in from the water, and to see a white boat rushing away over the glistening surface of the river.