Chapter X: A Bit of Dynamite

"That's Tommy!" whispered Jule.

"But the light? Who turned that on?" Alex whispered in reply to the suggestion.

"It doesn't seem to be the thing to do--showing a light just at this time," Clay commented.

"Well, what's the next move?" asked Case. "Shall we board the boat? Or shall we wait for the next move of the robbers?"

"Give him some Peter Pratt," suggested Clay. Rube and Buck, who had remained silent during this conversation, nearly jumped out of the motor boat when Jule opened up with:

"What are you doing in my boat? Get out, and get out quick, or I'll knock your block off!"

"Who was that talking?" asked Rube.

The boys snickered.

"Sounds like he meant business, whoever it is!" suggested Buck. "Say, but he gave me a start!"

"You've got a heap of nerve, taking my boat without my consent! I think you've got a trimming coming!"

"Who's doing all this talking?" demanded Rube. "It ain't his boat, nohow."

Before anyone could reply, a figure, strongly outlined against the light of the _Rambler_, rushed to the deck and crouched down behind the railing, from which position only his head could be seen, his body being concealed by the framework of the railing.

"What's coming off here?" Jule's voice went on. "If you don't get away from that railing, I'll shoot, and shoot to kill!"

Whoever the man was who had sought shelter behind the railing, he was game. He never moved, only the watchers could see the gleaming barrel of an automatic.

"Now if Tommy would only lip in," Clay suggested, "we would have quite a menagerie. I wonder if that fellow we see is the only man aboard the _Rambler_?"

There was a fringe of bushes along the shore, and, clearly outlined against the light of the prow lamp, a figure could now be seen making his way through the shrubbery in the direction of the boat.

The watchers being in the shadows were not visible from the position occupied by the prowler.

"He'll be aboard the boat in a minute if something ain't done to stop him," remarked Rube, "and then there'll be a mix-up that will be worth the price of admission."

The two men had evidently been completely deceived by the talk put up by Jule. They really believed that another claimant for the _Rambler_ had put in his appearance.

"That talk you heard was made by Jule," explained Case. "He thinks nothing of being two or three people at a time!"

"Not that talk in which the intruder was ordered off the boat, under penalty of having his block knocked off?" Buck answered.

Jule laughed softly.

"That's the size of it," he explained. "Made the fellow get a move on, eh?" he added.

"How do you do it?" asked Rube.

The question was never answered, for Tommy called for the attention of the entire company.

"Get off the boat!" he croaked. "Eat 'em alive! He eats 'em alive! Out of the way!"

"What's that?" demanded Buck. "Sounds like the devil has come to town!"

The watchers could hear the man on the deck swearing under his breath, and could see the man prowling in the bushes advancing toward the _Rambler_.

"Now's the time to get the _Rambler_ back," whispered Case. "I am positive there is only the person in sight on board."

"But where have the others gone?" asked Buck. "There were six on board."

"There is a man in the shrubbery," said Rube. "Well," Case said, getting to his feet, "who's going to make the first break?"

"Look here," Alex put in, "what's the matter with the rear deck? I can get to that in a jiffy."

"Seems to me that you have all the fun," Jule expostulated. "Why don't you give someone else a chance?"

But Captain Joe settled the matter of priority in his own way. He had been roaming about the deck of the _Esmeralda_ like a lost spirit ever since the conversation had opened.

He evidently knew that he belonged on board the _Rambler_, and was peeved at the idea of being kept out of his rights. At any rate he sprang into the river and struck out for the shore.

In a moment all was confusion on board the _Esmeralda_. Knowing that the dog would be recognized as the canine which had made the attack on the robber at the bank of the river higher up, the boys all sprang to their feet and started pellmell for the railing of the boat. It was Rube who stopped them.

"Now see here, boys," he expostulated, "you'll only get cold lead in your systems if you make the attempt to board the _Rambler_ now. The robber will see the dog coming and, doubtless, shoot at him. The dog will give him about one shot, then there'll be a mix-up.

"The chances are about even the way I've got it figured out, but I'm betting on the dog. He has the speed and----"

Rube got no farther. The dog had by this time reached the boat and mounted to the deck, clearing the railing at one leap, aided by driftwood which gave him footing.

The attack was so sudden that the robber fired only one shot and that one an ineffectual one, and then the dog was upon him.

"Come on, boys!" shouted Alex.

"And the grit," continued Rube, picking up the sentence, "and I'm bettin' on the dog!"

There was no time to reach the _Rambler_ by boat, so the boys plunged into the river and started to swim. But the man in the bushes had to be reckoned with.

No sooner were the boys in the river than he opened fire. In a moment, however, he turned his attention to the _Esmeralda_, which had been left unguarded.

Before the boys in the water saw what he was up to, he was climbing over the prow of the boat. Then it was too late, and, leaving his chum to his fate, the man in the boat started the motor and was soon around a bend in the river.

Buck gave a regretful look at the _Esmeralda_ as she disappeared from sight, but kept on toward the _Rambler_. His regret was that someone had not been left on the boat, but that was now a past issue. The _Esmeralda_ was gone, and would undoubtedly be annexed by the pirates who had captured the _Rambler_.

In the meantime, Captain Joe was having the time of his life with the robber, who happened to be the identical fellow the dog had sampled up the river. It being necessary to leave someone on board the boat, the fellow's mates had chosen him as the one to remain, he being still suffering from the wounds made by the dog.

Alex was the first one to mount the deck of the _Rambler_, and the sight he saw sent him off in peals of laughter, in which he was soon joined by the other members of the party.

Tommy, the parrot, having been long parted from the dog, was standing erect on his back, talking all the words he knew, which were not a few. Teddy, the baby bear, was curled up a few feet away, sound asleep.

Alex's first act on gaining the deck was to lift the robber's revolver from the place where it had been thrown in the struggle and place it in a secure position on the prow.

Next he gave his attention to the robber, who by this time was hurling all kinds of oaths and imprecations at Captain Joe, who, by the way, paid not the slightest attention to what was being said.

The dog had taken the robber by the back of the neck, so his throat was in good working order, and he filled the atmosphere of the rainy night with such a collection of oaths as one seldom hears.

"Swear away if it makes you feel any better!" laughed Alex. "You certainly are a peach at it."

"Call the dog off!" roared the prostrate man. "Wait till I get hold of him!"

"All right!" replied Alex. "I'll wait as long as you like, but in the meantime you'll be eaten up!"

"For the love of Mike, call him off!" cried the prostrate man. "He's killing me!"

"That's just the fate you deserve!" commented Buck. "One of your chums stole my boat."

"And the whole crew will be on top of us if we don't get a move on!" declared Case. "Let the man up, and let's get out of this."

The fallen man was assisted to his feet, and Alex rushed to the cabin to see what had become of Paul Stegman. Much to his surprise he found him there, alive and thriving.

"Hello, Paul!" the boy shouted. "You don't appear to be much the worse for your association with the robbers!"

"Do you know what one of them did for me?" asked Paul. "Bet you never can guess!"

Alex gave a number of guesses and then gave it up.

"He set my leg!"

"What's that?"

"Sure thing!"

Alex sat weakly down. This was too much to believe.

"Yes, sir! He set my broken leg!"

"He must have been a surgeon, wanting practice!" Alex said, with a wrinkling of the nose. "I've heard of such people before now."

"No, sir," insisted Paul, with a shrug of the shoulders, "he wasn't any such thing. He was a regular surgeon, duly qualified, and all that. Yes, sir, he was a regular practitioner."

"This thing is too good to keep!" exclaimed Alex, ducking out of the cabin door. "I'll have to spread the glad tidings!"

When the boy got to the deck he found it in confusion. Captain Joe was occupying the center of the stage, with Tommy a close second. The parrot was talking and the dog was barking.

In the distance the _Esmeralda_ was shoving her nose through the rain. The thieves, it seemed, were not satisfied to let the _Rambler_ go in that way.

Her cabin lights were ablaze, and her deck was crowded with people. Her appearance at that point effectually blocked the entrance to the creek.

Tommy was doing his best to scold the intruder away, while Captain Joe was exerting himself to get away from Clay, who had him by the scruff of the neck.

"Giving a party?" asked Alex.

"Yes," Buck replied, "and it's likely to be a necktie party before it's over. The _Esmeralda_ looks right pert with all those people on board! I suppose we'll have to wade in blood to get out of this hole they've got us into!"

"The _Esmeralda_ is stopping," said Case. "I wonder what's next on their program?"

A hail now came from the boat.

"Hello!" the voice said.

"Hello yourself!" came the reply.

"What you doing with that boat?"

The answer was a baying of the dog and another scream from the parrot. The hailing party consulted together for a second and then called out:

"Guess you'll have to submit to capture, boys."

"You don't see anything green, do you?" was Alex's answer. "If you want us why don't you come and take us?"

"We can do that, too, but we thought we'd give you a chance for your lives."

"Never mind the chance," Jule called back. "If you have nothing more to offer, perhaps you'll get out of the way. We're going to want the space you occupy in about a minute. We've got business down the river."

"All right!" the robber answered. "Have it your own way, but you must not expect any favors from us if you keep up your impudent talk. We've had about enough of that already."

"Go as far as you like," was Jule's reply.

"It beats the Old Scratch that we have to get into the clutches of river pirates wherever we go," said Case. "One would suppose that some one of the rivers visited would be free of them."

"Now," said Clay, "suppose we give them a little fireworks. It will be just the thing for their systems, don't you think?"

"Sure!" exclaimed Alex.

The boy ran into the cabin and returned almost immediately with several sticks of dynamite in his arms.

Buck and Rube did not wait for the stuff to be placed on the deck. They began climbing over the railing.

"Just you wait a second," Rube began, "until I get out of this boat! I'm not ready, yet, to lead a procession to the cemetery! I prefer to live a spell longer."

Again a hail came from the _Esmeralda_.

"We'll give you five minutes to decide!"

"That's about four minutes too much!" shouted Clay. "If you object to being blown to Kingdom Come, just lie still when we are passing through the opening."

"Make 'em give up the _Esmeralda_!" said Buck.