Chapter XIV: Alex. Breaks Furniture

"Unless Red, the Robber, has a twin who is an exact duplicate of himself," Clay whispered, "that is just who it is!"

"When I passed here," Alex. explained, "the three were just sitting down to dinner, and I knew that I could get you back here in time to see Red, the Robber, before he could finish the big steak he had just tackled. There he is! Now what?"

"It doesn't seem possible that that finely-dressed, well-groomed man is really the one who talked with us out on the river at Cairo, and who afterwards captured the _Rambler_ by holding a gun about the size of a cannon on me," Clay declared.

"And the man who bespoke kind treatment for Chet, the waif," Alex. went on. "I guess we're both seeing things not present to the senses! There ain't no such man!"

"It can't be!" Clay tried to convince himself. "It can't be the same man!"

Yet he knew deep down in his heart that it was the same man! If there had been any doubt of the complete identification at the start, there was none when the man spoke to the cashier in the full, deep voice which Clay knew that he had heard while he was tied up in the cabin of the _Rambler_!

"I have heard that river thieves sometimes make up to look like bankers and high-up politicians," Alex. whispered.

"And I have heard that bankers and high-up politicians occasionally assume the disguises of river characters for some purpose of their own," Clay returned.

"Do they mix with murderers and steal motor boats when they do that?" asked Alex., with a provoking snicker. "'Cause if they do, this may be one of the high-ups!"

"He must recognize us," Clay went on. "Watch and see if you catch in him any signs of joy at the meeting!"

"He hasn't yet shown that he knows we are in the room," Alex. replied.

"There's one way to find out who he is," Clay suggested. "When he leaves here, you follow him until he enters some house or office and ask questions about him after he goes on. I'll do the same here--that is, I'll see what the cashier knows about him."

Alex., glad of an opportunity of showing what he could accomplish as a detective, readily agreed to this arrangement, and, the man leaving the restaurant at the moment, Alex. darted away after him, leaving Clay to question the cashier.

The big man, still in the company of his two companions, walked briskly toward the river front, after leaving the restaurant, and finally came to a stop at a pier some distance down the stream from that at which the motor boat lay. Alex. watched the three men shake hands gravely and part, the one he believed to be Red going on board a small steamer which lay close by with smoke pouring from her stacks.

"Now," thought the boy, "shall I give it up, or shall I sneak on board the boat and see what I can learn of this man who poses as a river pirate one day and as a gentleman of great respectability the next?"

Alex.'s horse sense told him to wait about the pier until some one came off the boat and engage that person in conversation in an effort to learn the identity of the man he was following, but his natural love of adventure told him to make his way on board and learn there what he could, not only of the man, but of the steamer and its destination and cargo.

The spirit of adventure won, and Alex., waiting until there was no one in sight on the freight deck, ventured on board. There was still no one in sight when he reached the staircase leading to the cabin, and he proceeded to climb up, listening between steps for indications of human life.

He found the indications he sought with a vengeance at the head of the stairs. As he stepped up a husky negro seized him by the collar and dragged him toward the prow. Alex. kicked and struggled to no purpose. The negro was too strong for him. All the time he was carrying him along, almost as he would have carried a kitten, the negro kept up a running fire of comment.

The boy gathered from this comment that he was regarded as a sneak thief, and tried more than once to explain, but the negro kept on talking to himself and paid no attention to the words of his prisoner. Alex. administered a sturdy kick and gave it up.

Presently a door was opened at the very front end of the cabin and the boy was thrust into a small stateroom. The force of his entrance sent him against a berth and he crawled up and lay down to think things over. He heard the door behind him locked.

"This is a pretty kettle of fish!" grunted the boy, as he looked about the room.

It was just an ordinary stateroom, with one bunk, a dresser, and a chair. The window looking out on deck was covered by green slat-blinds, and ornamental metal-work covered the glass panel of the door opening into the cabin.

After taking in the room in all its details, Alex. arose and tried to open the green blinds so as to get a look outside. To his surprise he found that they would not open. They were of steel, and were there to protect the window! The room was as stoutly guarded as a prison cell!

"Red, the Robber, seems to have use for a cell," the boy thought, "that is, if this is his boat! I wonder what he thinks he's going to do with me?"

Alex. had now no doubt that Red had recognized Clay and himself at the restaurant. He wondered if Clay, too, had been trapped! He could not make up his mind as to whether the man was a robber or a gentleman of business standing, but he knew that he was in a most undesirable situation.

Then he began to wonder if Red knew that he was on board! The man had given no intimation that he had knowledge of being followed. He, Alex., had sneaked on board, like a veritable wharf rat, and the husky negro had been fully justified in taking him into custody! Still, the negro should have listened to his explanations and given him a chance to prove his innocence.

This last view of the case was much more to the liking of the boy than the previous one, for Red had shown a friendly spirit while on board the _Rambler_, and might now set him free as soon as informed of his capture. Clay had permitted Red his freedom under much more trying conditions!

"If he's a river thief," Alex. concluded, "he'll keep me here until he is sure I can't injure him by telling of his raid on the motor boat, but if he is on the level--if he was, for some purpose of his own, masquerading while in company with Sam--he will release me as soon as he knows I am here--for Clay's sake, if not for my own!"

This was a rather comforting conclusion, so the boy began beating with all his might on the panels of the door. He pounded away for some moments without hearing the least response, and then sat down to rest.

While he sat there on the berth, panting from his unnoticed exertions, the boat quivered in all its timbers, the noise of escaping steam reached his ears, and then he knew that the steamer was under way. This was the worst thing that could happen to the boy, and he knew it.

The steamer might go to Cuba, or to the upper reaches of the Missouri or the Mississippi, separating him from his chums for weeks. If Red really was a robber, he would not take the chance of releasing him, for that would give him an opportunity to warn those on board the _Rambler_, as well as to report to the police the illegal seizure of the motor boat!

"I'm going to find out about this!" Alex. declared, springing off the berth. "I'm going to do an English suffragette stunt and smash windows!"

As his whole mind was set on making a noise so as to attract the attention of the man he had followed on board, the boy was by no means conservative in his next move.

First he took the light-framed chair which stood by the berth and smashed it against the fancy metal work which protected the glass panel. The chair went to pieces without touching the glass, so Alex. took up a slender leg and, poking it through in between the metal work, punched out the pane.

It fell back into the cabin with a rattle, and then Alex., putting his face close to the opening, let out a yell which would have done credit to an Apache Indian on the warpath! In the meantime the steamer was backing out into the current.

"I guess that will let 'em know they have a cabin passenger!" Alex. grunted, as he began tossing the fragments of the chair out on the cabin floor.

The boy was just considering the firing of his automatic, which had not been taken from him by the negro, when a heavy voice near at hand broke into a hearty laugh, and the face of the red-headed man appeared before the opening, half-shielded by an arm, for the boy was still looking for things to throw through.

"What seems to be the difficulty?" the man asked, and Alex. thought he saw a twinkle of humor in the blue eyes fixed upon him.

"No difficulty at all," Alex. answered, with a touch of irony in his tone. "I'm just doing this for exercise, and to make business for boat builders!"

"Of course," laughed the man, "you wouldn't come out if I should unlock the door?"

"Oh, I don't know," Alex. replied. "I've got a good deal of work to do in here yet, and I might bring back an axe to help out."

"You'll find that the berth is of steel," the red-headed man said. "You can't chop that up. How long will it take you to finish the dresser? I might come back and let you out as soon as you have got through with that!"

"All right!" grinned the boy, "anything to oblige," and he went at the dresser with the leg of a chair!

The giant unlocked the door, stepped inside, and, taking Alex. by the ear, marched him out of the wrecked room. Once in the cabin he let go of the ear and walked toward the stern with a hand on the boy's arm.

"You wasn't so giddy the last time I saw you!" declared the boy.

The man laughed, opened the door of a large stateroom toward the stern, pushed the boy inside, and stepped in after him. This was a handsome room, elaborately furnished. Alex. dropped into a chair and looked about.

The steamer now seemed to be making fast time down the river, and Alex. looked out of a window in the hope of seeing the location of the _Rambler_.

"Say," he finally asked, wrinkling his freckled nose at the man, "what is the answer to this? I give it up!"

"What was it you boys put in the deposit box at the bank?" asked the man.

"I didn't put anything in; I didn't go to any bank."

"But your chum did. You met him at the bank entrance, and brought him back to look at me! You know what he put in the vault box. What was it?"

"It was a long package marked bonds," was the boy's reply.

"But did the package contain bonds?"

"I don't know; I never saw the inside of it," answered Alex., wondering if this man had followed all their movements since being allowed to leave the _Rambler_.

"Perhaps the lad you call Clay will tell," smiled the giant. "Or the boys on the _Rambler_ may give the information I seek--when you both fail to return to-night."

"So you've got Clay, too, have you?" shouted Alex., and he make a rush for the door!