Chapter XVI: What Dropped on Deck

"I guess my turning on that light started something!" the boy mused, as he darkened the small electric globe in the cabin and sat down to await developments. He kept just inside the cabin door at first, for the wind was cold and searching.

For a few moments he could hear the working of oars and the push of the current on an advancing boat, and then all was silent save the sighing of the wind and the wash of the river, still burdened at times with floating wreckage. It seemed to him that the boat which had slipped away from the steamer had anchored somewhere near the _Rambler_.

"I fully believe," Case grunted, as he finally left the cabin and looked out upon the dim river from the deck, "that if we should fly through the air on a cloud there would be some scamp watching us from another cloud! It's rotten, the way we are chased about!"

The boy did not know that his complaint had found words until he heard a chuckle close to his side and turned about to faintly distinguish the freckled face of Alex., who stood looking over the river to the south.

"You've got no kick coming!" Alex. declared. "You wouldn't go on these river trips if we found nothing more than scenery, any more than I would! It seems like living to be chased about, as you call it! If it wasn't for the mystery and adventure in the jaunts I'd be at home in little old Chicago--and that's where you'd be, too!"

"Well," Case returned, "I'd like to get one night off occasionally!"

"What is it now?" asked Alex. "I heard the steamer pass, but that didn't mean anything to me. What's going wrong now? Tell your old uncle Alex. all about it!"

"Uncle nothing!" laughed Case, restored to better humor by the optimism of the other. "If you want to know what's on the string, go and get a glass and try to find a rowboat in this mess of river and black sky. A safety razor that won't cut air will be given to the first one that discovers the boat!"

"Oh!" cried Alex. "There's a boat watching us! All right! Now I feel better! I was beginning to wonder when we'd have something to stir us up!"

"The boat dropped off when the steamer went up," Case explained. "I saw it under the lights, but of course it vanished in the darkness as soon as the big boat passed."

"There's something going on, then!" Alex. declared. "Of course they wouldn't know on board the steamer in the dark, that we were here, and so the thing which is going to happen is set to come off on shore. I'm going to stay awake and see what it is."

"You see," Case stated, hesitatingly, "I heard a bump on the hull of the _Rambler_, just as the steamer was churning into sight, around that bend, and turned on the prow light to see about it! That's why the rowboat dropped off here, I take it."

Alex. gave vent to a long, low whistle.

"Then we've got into the spot-light again!" he said. "It won't be any trouble for me to keep awake now! Shall we tell Clay the glad news, or let him sleep?"

"Oh, let him sleep! We can run this watch, all right!"

While the boys whispered and listened, the long, bellowing roar of a locomotive whistle came to their ears from the east. Then came the distant rumble of a train.

"What do you make of that?" asked Case. "I thought we were in the heart of a wild river country, and here come a train of cars--palace cars, I'll go you, at that!"

"About three or four miles from the river, in the state of Mississippi," laughed Alex., "runs the old Yazoo & Mississippi railroad. There are little towns all along its line. Perhaps the boat dropped off the steamer to make one of the country bergs! We never thought of that, did we?"

Case pulled the other by the arm and both drew away from the gunwale.

"There's a boat out there now," he declared, in a whisper. "I heard the tunk of an oar then! I'll bet they are trying to get on board!"

"Got your gun?" asked Alex.

"Sure thing I have," was the reply.

"And your searchlight?"

"You know it!"

"So have I," Alex. went on. "Now, if they try to board the _Rambler_, we'll lie low until they begin to climb over the rail. Then we'll turn on our electrics. If they are strangers, and look like river pirates, we'll shoot them up! What?"

"But why not turn on the prow light?" asked Case.

"Because we can handle the electric flashlights quicker. If we have to show the light and shoot, be quick to change your position after the light is switched off. Then, if they shoot back, they won't hit you."

There was a boat approaching. There was no doubt about that. And the people on board of her were doing their best to keep their movements from being known by those of the _Rambler_. Case and Alex. could hear the dash of oars, and now and then a rough command. The two boys sat in silence and waited.

Then, as Case and Alex. afterward complained, something happened which "spoilt all the fun!" Captain Joe came out of the cabin and gave forth a series of threatening growls, and Teddy added to the warning by saying things in bear talk!

The mysterious boat came on no longer. There were still sounds of the working of a heavy craft in a strong current, but these gradually died out.

"I'd like to throw you both into the river after them!" Alex. scolded at the animals, as they came around him, asking to be congratulated on their success in driving off the visitors! "Now we'll be haunted by those fellows for a week, while if you had kept quiet we'd have settled with them right here!"

"Suppose we turn on the power and chase 'em up?" asked Case.

"And give them a chance to do all the shooting!" replied Alex. scornfully. "I'm not looking for a watery grave in the Mississippi."

"Well," Case continued, "if you don't want to follow them up, just to see what they look like, perhaps we'd better drop down a short distance. If we can't fight them, we don't want to feel that they're right under our noses, waiting for a chance to get us into a hole! I'd rather face a hundred men in the open than know that one was skulking about me in the darkness!"

"This is a fierce old stream for strangers to travel on in the dark!" Alex. said.

"I know it, but----"

Before the boy could finish the sentence a faint jar came, as if some person had caught hold of the anchor chain and given it a pull, or hung his weight on it.

"There's our friend!" Case whispered. "Now, get ready with your gun!"

In a second, while the boys listened, they heard a hard substance fall on the deck. Alex.'s light flashed around the gunwale, but there was no one in sight.

In the middle of the deck, however, still dripping from the river, lay the leather bag which had held the diamonds, and which had held only burrs and broken crockery when last seen on board the _Rambler_! Alex. picked it up, found that it was still half full of some hard substances, and shut off the light.

"You saw it?" he asked of Case, as he cuddled down by the boy's side.

"Of course! The leather bag!"

"What do you think of it?" demanded Alex.

"I don't think!" admitted Case. "I've lost the power of thought!"

"But what did they throw it back here for?" insisted Alex.

"Why did who throw it back here?" chuckled Case.

"Now, look here, Smarty," Alex. continued. "There are only four persons who could have taken that bag from the boat, the cashier and his two friends, and Chet."

"Unless the dog ate it, or Teddy threw it overboard."

"Oh, quit your foolishness! Now, which one of the four is out there in the river? Whoever it is has a sense of humor, for the tossing of the bag back shows that the situation is appreciated."

"You notice the steamer came UP the river?" asked Case.

"Yes; what of it?" demanded Alex. "I don't see anything in that."

"Well, that shows that whoever threw the bag on deck came from down stream! It shows, too, that we have been watched every minute, for reasons which we don't know anything about!"

"Yes, in order to keep track of us they might have taken the railroad down the river bank and then taken a steamer up, so as to meet us on the way down! I see something in it now. But who is it?"

"It may be Chet!" suggested Case. "He may have returned the bag just to show us that he knows about the removal of the diamonds."

"I just believe Chet is out there somewhere, and that he would come on board if he knew we wouldn't raise a row about the way he left us!" declared Alex.

"I give it all up!" Case returned. "It's your watch now, and I'm going to bed! If there's anything good to eat thrown on deck out of the darkness, just wake me up, otherwise let me alone. I'll hunt up my dream book to-morrow and find what it says about leather bags dropping out of the sky!"

Alex. sat alone in the dim night, watching the river and the dark bottom lands of the island for a long time before anything attracted his attention. Then a light, like that made by a camp-fire, sprang up on the Mississippi side of the river.

He could see figures moving about in front of the blaze, but of course could not distinguish faces. Presently the low, weird chant of a plantation song came over the waters. It was evident that a gang of negroes, possibly railroad repair men, was passing the night in camp on the shore.

As Alex. listened to the plaintive songs he heard a splash in the water at the side of the boat, and shot his light in that direction. A stick was floating away, and the boy concluded that it was that which had made the noise he had heard.

He heard the negroes come to the bank of the river to gather driftwood for the fire, and heard their drawling voices saying something of the river going down fast, but could not catch the full import of their words.

The companionship of the fire and the voices was something to the boy, and he sat until daylight began to show in perfect contentment. Then he went into the cabin to get a line, it being his idea to surprise the boys with a fish breakfast.

He looked at the sleeping faces for a moment and started when he came to a rug in the corner where Mose usually slept! Captain Joe was there, his nose in his paws, but Mose was not there! Alex. searched the boat. The negro boy was gone! The amazed boy half pulled Clay out of his bunk and began the story of the night.

"We're not yet out of the enchanted land," he said. "We are still seeing things! The leather bag comes back out of the sky, and Mose goes up in the air. I'm for getting down to the Gulf right soon."

"Have you looked in the bag for any solution of the puzzle?" asked Clay. "There may be a note of some kind there: a note of explanation. See?"

"Yes," declared Alex., pointing over the side, and not answering the question about the bag, "I see that we are stuck in the mud, and not likely to get out until another flood, a year, or perhaps two years, off."