Chapter XIII: A River Robber in a New Role

With half a dozen stones of splendid value rolling over the palm of his hand, Clay regarded the boy accusingly.

"Where did you get the diamonds?" he asked.

The boy did not answer. Clay had expected confusion and shame. Instead he met with anger and reproach. Chester ("Chet" from that day forward) shot forward like an arrow and tried to wrest the bag from his hands. Clay put him back tolerantly.

"Give them back to me!" Chet shouted so loudly that the boys out on the deck entered the cabin and stood in an astonished group about the two.

Clay, grasping the bag and the lose gems, held his hands high above his head.

"Where did you get them?" he persisted.

"Give them back to me!" yelled Chet. "You've been following me for this, have you? You're all as bad as the river thieves I've met up with! Give them to me!"

"What do you think of the little one for a diamond dip?" asked Alex., pointing at the flushed face of the agitated boy. "He's some clever!"

"I reckon he belongs with Red, the Robber, all right!" Jule put in.

"He seems to be pretty well fixed!" laughed Case. "Those gems are worth more than a hundred thousand dollars! Did you swipe them from the men who robbed the Rock Island warehouse, kid?" he added.

Chet turned a flaming face toward this new accuser.

"Don't you dare call me a thief!" he shouted. "The diamonds are mine! I never stole them. Give them back to me, you--you--river pirates!"

"That's good, coming from him!" grinned Alex. "Come on, little one, and tell us who these stones belong to."

"I tell you they are mine!" Chet again insisted. "I never stole them! You give them back to me! If I had the strength I'd tear your heart out!"

"Of course!" laughed Clay. "Of course you'd do something desperate if you had the strength! But don't trouble yourself about the diamonds! If they belong to you, you shall have them. But we don't want to harbor a thief, you know!"

"I don't believe you'll ever give them back to me!" sobbed the boy. "I've brought them down the river, all this way, to be robbed of them at last!"

In a spasm of grief the lad threw himself on the cabin floor and burst into an uncontrollable fit of weeping. The boys stood around for a moment, looking rather sheepishly at each other, and then all left the cabin but Clay.

"Come kid," the latter said, lifting Chet from the floor and holding him in his arms like a baby, "don't act like you'd lost your last friend! If you're honest, you've found friends instead of losing them. You shall have the diamonds back, if you can show that they belong to you. Brace up, now, and go on to bed!"

Chet regarded Clay through wet eyes for a moment and then slipped away to the bunk which had been set aside for him. The frank inspection seemed to have in a measure restored his equanimity. Clay sat down by the side of the bunk, the diamonds in his hands.

"Why don't you tell me all about it?" he asked of the boy. "Why not settle the whole matter right here, and so have done with it? Where did you get them?"

"I've promised not to tell," was the reply.

"You are not making a very good beginning," Clay admonished.

Chet made no reply whatever, but turned his face away. Clay went on, patiently:

"Where is your home?"

"I haven't got any home," was the reply. "I never had one."

"But you must belong somewhere," Clay insisted. "Where did you live last?"

"I'm not going to tell you anything at all," Chet replied, "until I see the man that made me promise to keep silent, and until he gives me leave to talk with you."

"Is the man you mention Red, the riverman?" asked Clay.

"Didn't I just tell you that I wasn't going to talk?" demanded the boy.

"All right," Clay responded. "Take all the time you want! In the meantime, I'll keep the diamonds. Will you promise to remain on the boat?"

"If I had the diamonds, I'd quit you right now!" said the boy, savagely. "I may as well tell you the truth. If you keep the diamonds, I'll stay until I get them, but I'll find them and take them with me if I can. You just mind that!"

"You're a frank little chap, anyway!" laughed Clay.

"I wasn't brought up to tell lies!" was the astonishing reply.

"Who brought you up?" asked Clay. "You just said you never had any home!"

"Never did!" was the reply. "Say, you won't blame me if I find where you put the diamonds and run off with them, will you?" he added, quite gravely.

"I don't see how I can blame you, after such fair warning," laughed Clay.

"And you won't help any one to find me?" persisted the little fellow.

"No," answered Clay, "if you are sharp enough to get the diamonds away from me, I'll never let on that I ever saw or heard of you. Is that satisfactory to you?"

"Will you shake hands on that?" asked Chet, sitting up on the bunk.

"Gladly! Now, go to sleep and wake up in a more communicative mood to-morrow."

"I'll stick to what I said!" Chet answered, and Clay left him alone in the cabin. When he reached the deck he was at once surrounded by the boys, all eager to know the outcome of the conference. Clay told them of what had taken place.

"He's a nervy little chap!" Clay concluded, "and I like him very much already."

"You bet he's all right, that kid!" Alex. said. "If he wasn't, he wouldn't have told you that he would get the gems the first time he got a chance. Besides, see how he is keeping the promise made to some other fellow! Where are you going to keep the diamonds, Clay?" the boy continued. "Don't you ever think the kid won't try hard to find them! I hope he won't feel called upon to cut all our throats in order to obtain possession of them! I believe he would do it if he thought it necessary!"

"Well," Clay answered, speaking in a low tone and looking in through the glass panel of the cabin door to see that Chet was still in his bunk, "I think I'll go ashore at Memphis, for supplies, you know, and put the gems in a deposit box at one of the banks."

"That's a fine idea!" cried Case. "He'll never get them there!"

"But you want to look out that you're not pinched in the bank," Alex. advised. "That warehouse robbery is making some noise, and if a boy from a river boat is seen to have diamonds, it is the jail house for yours!"

"If you put them in a bank deposit box," Jule observed, "you'd better do them up so as to look like a package of papers--bonds, or stocks, or something like that."

"That is a good idea, too!" Clay exclaimed. "I'll do it!"

"I'd give a lot to know more about the boy and the diamonds," Clay mused, as the boys began getting breakfast.

They had talked so long, after reaching the boat, that they had not before realized that it was most morning, and now there was a flush in the east which told of sunrise.

When Clay went back into the cabin to see about the fire, he found Chet crouching on the floor just back of the door. He yawned as Clay entered the apartment.

"What are you doing here?" asked Clay, in amazement.

"Guess I'm trying to find my way to the door!" was the half-smiling reply. "I didn't seem to know where I was when I woke up!"

Clay accepted the excuse, and went on with his preparation of breakfast. However, he doubted what the boy had said. Notwithstanding the previous good impression he had formed of the waif, he wondered if the lad had not crept out of bed and stationed himself by the door in order to hear what was said about the disposition of the gems.

"I'll have to be more careful," Clay thought. "That boy is a clever one!"

After breakfast the waif was rigged out with a suit of Alex.'s clothes. In the new attire he seemed to be a different boy from the one taken from the camp.

The boys did not accept as the truth all he said about himself, though that was not much. When he declared that he had never had any home, they commented on the fact that his speech and manners were those of a boy who had been given a fair education.

Chet at once took to the pets of the boat, Mose, Captain Joe, and Teddy, the bear cub, and they immediately recognized him as a member of the family.

While he was playing with the cub on the prow, Clay made an oblong package of the diamonds, scattering them in between sheets of paper, and marked them "Bonds." The bag in which they had been found was half filled with burrs, and small bits of a broken dish and tied tight. It resembled the bag as it had stood before any change had been made when Clay had finished with it.

This bag Clay resolved to keep in his pocket until he could place it under the eyes of the boy who claimed it, the idea being to see if he really would snatch the supposed prize and take to the river again. Clay hoped that he would not, for all liked the little fellow. That afternoon they ran down to a Memphis pier and Clay went ashore with the gems.

He was in time to secure a deposit box at a bank and stow the diamonds away. The cashier with whom he did business asked questions regarding his age and permanent residence, and seemed satisfied with his answers. He was, indeed, especially interested in Clay's description of the _Rambler_ and the voyages the boys had made in her, and asked permission to visit the party that evening if he found time.

Clay gladly gave the required permission, ordered supplies sent to the pier, and then started out for a look at the beautiful city. Almost at the entrance to the bank he met Alex., who had the flushed appearance of a boy who had been walking pretty fast.

The two walked together for a block without speaking, save for the initial greeting, and then Alex. proposed that they go to a restaurant and have a "steak about as big as a parlor rug," as he expressed it. Clay agreed, but laughed at the notion.

"Why not take it on board?" he asked. "We can cook it much better than any city chef," he added.

"Well," Alex. replied, "I saw a neat little restaurant back here, not far from the river front, and I thought I'd like to go there and have a feed."

So the two turned into the restaurant, when they came to it, and took a small table at a rear corner of the room. It being late for dinner and early for supper, there were few in the place.

One party, at the front of the room, at once attracted Clay's attention. There were three men in the party, one young, smiling and flashily dressed; one old, grizzled and clad in a well-worn business suit; and another dressed expensively and with great care. This man had a surprising growth of red hair which showed evidences of great care. His face was smooth-shaven, and had the appearance of having recently been divested of a beard, the flesh showing soft and white, as if not long exposed to the weather.

When this man arose to pay the check and laid a hand on the back of a chair, Clay noticed that the hand was very large and finely kept. The man was something over six feet in height! Clay gave Alex. a kick under the table and directed his gaze to the large man, then passing over to the cashier's window.

"Take a good look at that man," he whispered. "Ever see him before?"

"I saw him when I passed," was the reply, "and brought you here. That's Red, the Robber."