Chapter VI: Alex Gets a Square Meal

"And you think I turned the trick?" asked Rube.

"I don't think anything about it," was the answer, in an unpleasant tone of voice. "I just asked you to step aside for a minute so I could find out. If you get gay, I'll have to put the irons on you--just for luck."

"See here, stranger, if you ever get irons on me, you'll have to put up a fight for it," Rube remarked with a scowl. "And," he continued, "I may as well tell you right now that I'm not here to answer any fool questions."

Both men drew revolvers at the same instant, and would have used them had Clay not stepped in between them.

"There goes my beefsteak," Alex whispered to Jule. "Our good thing will be in the village lockup in about half a second."

"Just our luck!" declared Case.

"Gentlemen," began Clay, but he was stopped by a man who came pushing his way through the crowd impetuously.

"None of that, gentlemen," he drawled. "If I want any shooting done, I'll do it myself. What seems to be the trouble?"

"I don't see where you get cards in this game," sneered a bystander.

"I can tell you where this man was last night," put in Alex, who was resolved not to lose his steak. "He was up the river about thirty miles helping four boys load a wounded boy on a motor boat."

"What of that?" demanded the spokesman of the party. "Last night wasn't Monday night."

"That's so," said Alex, looking very much ashamed, "it was Tuesday night. Pardon me."

"Where's the wounded boy and the motor boat?" inquired a man who stood in the crowd.

"Yes, where be they?" asked another. "I fail to see any motor boat, or boat of any kind, with them. In fact, I know that they came swimming up to the landing like a lot of dock rats. I'm in favor of locking the whole bunch up."

"Do it, Mr. Officer," urged several men in the crowd.

The constable stepped forward as if to make the arrest, but the man who had spoken against any shooting, offering to do it himself, if any was done, stepped in front of him.

He was an alert looking fellow, with a businesslike air which seemed to proclaim that he would be as good as his word.

"You heard what I said about doing the shooting myself if any was started," he said, with a drawl. "I'm from Missouri and you've got to show me."

"What kind of a bluff is this, anyway?" demanded the constable, but he put up his weapon, as if he had decided not to call the bluff at that time.

"I'm looking for that steak," suggested Alex, wrinkling his nose. "When does it come?"

"I'm Buck Eldred," announced the man with a businesslike air, "and I know this man," pointing to the giant of a man, with a smile on a clean-cut face, "just as well as if I had helped wheel the dirt to make him. Anybody in the crowd that knows Buck Eldred?"

No one seemed to know Buck Eldred, and the chances for a battle seemed very good. At that moment, however, an interruption took place which put an entirely different face on the incident.

A posse of officers came in from the East with the man who had robbed the bank in custody.

Instantly there was a friendly sentiment, and the men who had denounced the boys in savage terms could not do enough for them.

To all such offers, however, the boys turned deaf ears.

"We might have had a load of beefsteak by now," said Alex, "that a dog couldn't bite through. Just wait until I get to the table and watch my motions."

"You'll be there directly," said Rube, with a chuckle. "I feel as if I could enjoy a snack myself."

The tavern sought by the men seemed to be the best in the town, but that was not saying much. However, it was neat and clean, and the steaks were soon sizzling over the coals.

"Will you tell me how you got down the river so soon?" Clay asked as soon as the first edge was off the appetites. "We leave the Point, get here in time to have our boat stolen, and then we run across you. How did you make it? We haven't been here over two hours, and you show up like a Christmas present--all the more welcome because unexpected."

"Now, son, just remember this: It ain't all the questions that are asked that are answered. What you don't find out you can't repeat. And there you are."

"I didn't mean to be inquisitive," answered Clay, with a flush of vexation. "It is none of my business how you got here, so long as you are here."

"Now don't misunderstand me," continued Rube, in an apologetic tone, which seemed to be something new for him. "There's reasons for keeping my mouth closed tighter'n a drum. Enough that I got here in time to help you out with a little cash, which you may return at any time most convenient."

"Thank you for the loan," replied Clay. "I hope to return it almost immediately--just as soon, in fact, as we hear from Chicago."

No more was said on the subject at that time. The boys were busy plying their knives and forks, and, the meal over, there was the visit to the telegraph office and then the search for the _Rambler_ was begun.

To tell the truth, the fate of Paul Stegman troubled the lads not a little. They had no idea what disposition the robbers would make of him. They might toss him overboard, and they might leave him to die of his wounds. It would be just as the mood seized them.

There was no news of the _Rambler_ at first. The boys were becoming discouraged when a telegram from a point thirty miles down the river gave them courage.

A boat answering the description of the _Rambler_ was anchored off the mouth of a small creek which ran into the Rio Grande just below the Mexican line.

"Of course it's the _Rambler_!" shouted Case. "No other boat looks like the _Rambler_. Wonder what's been going on since we left the boat? Seems like a week."

"How are we going to get to her?" inquired Jule. "Thirty miles is a long distance--when you have to swim."

"And the robbers may be up and away long before we are anywhere near them," Alex cut in. "Is there a boat of any kind that we might borrow, beg or steal in the town?"

"There ought to be," Clay contributed hopefully. "This is a river town, and there ought to be plenty of boats in sight."

"Can we get one that will speed up?" asked Case.

"That's to be found out," said Clay.

"I hope we find Paul Stegman all right," Case said, rather dubiously. "It would be just like the robbers to pitch him overboard. Their time of reckoning will come."

A search of the town revealed nothing available in the boat line. There were rowboats and skiffs in plenty, but not a thing in the line of a motor boat.

"We've just got to get down to the Mexican line, and get there in jig time," declared Alex. "The baby bear needs my care."

"That's poetry," Jule announced. "Baby bear needs my care. It scans, too. First thing you know, Alex, you'll be selling your verses at the rate of a dollar a yard."

Alex grinned, but made no reply.

"I wonder where Rube and Buck Eldred took themselves off to?" asked Case in a moment. "They seem to have mysteriously disappeared."

"Here they come now!" cried Jule.

The two men came from the direction of the river, only higher up than the boys had penetrated. They now approached the lads with their faces wreathed in smiles.

"Got a boat, boys?" Buck asked.

"Not so you could notice it," Alex answered.

"See here, kids," Buck went on, "Rube here has been telling me something of your story, and we've decided to make common cause against the pirates. How will that suit you?"

"Fine!" cried Alex.

The other boys were equally frank in their pleasure at the announcement, and Buck went on.

"Now, we've got a little motor boat down the river which----"

The man got no farther than that.

The boys set up such a hubbub that it was impossible to hear a thing. They ended by giving three cheers and a tiger for Rube and Buck.

"This is great!" exclaimed Clay.

"Great is no name for it!" Alex declared. "Say, fellows, in order to celebrate this event properly, we ought to have another beefsteak. This good news makes me hungry."

"I'd like to see something that wouldn't make you want to eat. You certainly have a whale of an appetite," was Clay's comment.

"I know what I'd like right now," Alex went on, regardless of the laughter of Buck and Rube, "and that is a 'possum pie. I can see myself on board the _Rambler_, feasting on one right now."

"That's all right, but you're not on board the _Rambler_ yet," Case complained. "We're a long ways from it, worse luck!"

"That reminds me that I haven't had anything to eat in about two hours," said Rube, with a grin, "and that it is about time we met at the festive board."

"But how are you going to get a meal cooked in the middle of the forenoon?" asked Buck. "It strikes me that the cooks will be busy at this time. Better wait until noon."

"Not much," laughed Alex, with a prodigious wrinkling of his nose. "Not when I've got a man back of me that stands six feet and a half in his stocking feet!"

"Go to it," said Clay, with a grin. "If this thing keeps on you'll swell up and burst."

"I guess I'll take a chance on bursting myself," announced Jule. "Two bust-ups won't make any more noise than one, and no more mess, either." The three started away toward the tavern, while the others set out to walk to the motor boat, which was some distance away.

"Tell you what I think," Buck observed, as they passed a clothing store where about everything was sold from handkerchiefs to threshing machines, "you boys have been walking the street undressed about long enough. I'll buy you good suits if you'll come inside. You won't make any hit with the natives by going around in that rig."

Clay looked down at his scanty apparel and laughed. The suit did look inappropriate for use on the street.

"All right," said the boy. "If you want to take chances on losing your investment, go ahead."

"How do you know that you'll ever get the money back?" asked Case. "Perhaps we only borrowed the _Rambler_ and turned it over to the owners here."

"You didn't borrow the faces you have, did you?" answered Buck, with a smile. "If you ever set out to be robbers, you've got to get new faces."

"You may be mistaken in regard to the faces," replied Clay. "You can never tell by the looks of a porcupine how far he can throw his quills. What is that man looking at?"

He certainly was as evil-faced a fellow as one could come upon in a day's walk.