CHAPTER XXII

WHAT THE EDDY BROUGHT UP

When Case and Jule gained the deck of the _Rambler_, crying that Alex was back in the forest pursued by the outlaws, Captain Joe laid out a choice assortment of automatic revolvers along the deck behind the starboard gunwale. The dripping boys crouched down and waited.

"He wasn't very far behind us," Case said directly.

"Yes," Jule put in. "He ought to be here before long."

Captain Joe, watching the boys whimsically, pushed the revolvers around so they would be within easy reach. The deck looked like an armory.

"You outrun him, did you, lads?" the old captain asked.

"We wanted to stay back and come in with him," Case explained, "but he wouldn't have it. He said that if we separated and ran in different directions, one party would be pretty sure to get in, while we might all be captured if we stuck together. He was right, of course, but we hated to leave him. He ought to be here in a minute or two."

"Did he say where Clay was?" asked Captain Joe.

"We didn't have much chance to talk with him," Case answered. "The outlaws were swarming over the peninsula, and kept us ducking and dodging most of the time. There must be a dozen or more toughs in there."

There was no more firing from the shore for a time, and those on board the _Rambler_ hoped that Alex had succeeded in eluding his pursuers.

Presently the bushes at the margin of the stream parted and a face looked out--a heavy bearded face with fierce eyes.

"Good evening, pard!" Jule called out. "Come aboard!"

The fellow disappeared without making any reply.

"That settles it!" Case exclaimed. "We won't see Alex right away. The outlaws haven't caught him, and so they are watching along the shore in the hopes of picking him up when he leaves the thicket. I'd like to throw a stick of dynamite in there and blow up the whole outfit."

The supposition that Alex would not be seen at that time proved to be incorrect, however, for a shout was now heard from the launch, and Alex was seen waving a cap from the cockpit.

The cap soon disappeared from sight, however, for bullets began dropping down from the shore. On the _Rambler_, the boys were behind the heavy gunwales, and Alex was hidden by the cockpit walls so, beyond splintering the railings and making havoc in the finely-decorated cabin of the launch, the bullets did no damage.

"Now, how do you think that little customer got out to the launch without getting perforated?" asked Case.

"He swam out, of course," replied Jule, "--he just ducked under and swam out. I wish we could get him on board the _Rambler_."

"Now, that tow-line," Case said, "is too long. The boy can't swim under water all that distance. Can't we pull the launch up?"

"Nothing in the world to prevent it," said Captain Joe. "If we can get the end of the line into the cabin, the launch will come up like a duck. Then Alex can come aboard without much danger."

This plan was adopted. The _Cartier_ was easily drawn up to the stern of the _Rambler_ and Alex stepped aboard.

In a moment he was lying behind the gunwale with the others.

"Where did you say Clay was?" asked Captain Joe.

"I haven't seen him for a long time," was the reply. "We saw that wharf rat, Max, in the forest and I started away to follow him. At that time Clay was coming toward the boat. I thought he might be here."

"And so Max has shown up again, has he?" cried Case. "We'll have to land that boy where he won't be so active."

While the boys were discussing the situation a grating, flopping sound was heard in the cabin, and Jule rushed in just in time to see the cable which had held the _Cartier_ to the _Rambler_ drawing through the open window. In the excitement of getting Alex on board, the boys had neglected to secure the line and the launch was now dropping down stream.

Jule sprang for the end of the line, but did not reach it. It dropped down to the after deck and was drawn into the water.

"That's a nice thing!" shouted the boy, rushing to the motors. "Now we've got to go down and catch that boat!"

It was some moments before the anchor could be lifted and the _Rambler_ turned and sent down stream, so the _Cartier_ was halfway to the little bay running in behind the Peninsula before the boys caught up with her.

"She won't get away again," Captain Joe declared shortening up the line and making it fast to the after deck cleats of the motor boat. "We haven't got any time to go chasing runaway launches!"

As the old captain spoke, Case laid a hand on his arm and pointed to the projection on the peninsula behind which Captain Joe had listened on the night he had left the _Rambler_ during his watch.

"There's a blaze over there," the boy said. "They must have a lot of men here to keep a force over there and another one between the two rivers."

"Young man," Captain Joe replied, "the man who is responsible for this whole mix-up is over there on the point, with a band of cutthroats."

"Why don't they go up and help the others?" asked Jule.

"It's just this way," Captain Joe replied, "we disappointed them very much when we got the _Cartier_ out of the water. That rascal on the point wanted to have the pleasure of raising the boat himself."

"Then why didn't he do it?" asked Alex. "He had time enough before we got here."

"I don't know why he didn't," answered the captain, "but he didn't, and now he's sore because we got to it first. It seems to me that he might have ordered his wrecking apparatus here and got the boat out before we arrived."

"What do you think he wants of the launch?" Case asked. "According to all accounts, he's rich enough to buy a dozen."

"I can tell you about that," Captain Joe replied with a grin. "You remember when I stood watch one night, and you all said I looked sleepy the next day. Well, that night, I paddled over to the point and heard what those people were talking about. There is something on board the _Cartier_ they want. I couldn't understand exactly what they said about it, but it is something in some way connected with a safe."

"The safe on the wall in the lost channel!" laughed Alex. "They think Fontenelle knows how to get to the safe if he can only get to the lost channel first."

"Well, we got to the launch first, anyway," Jule suggested. "And it strikes me that we'd better go aboard and look her over. Did you see anything remarkable when you were there, Alex?" he added.

"Didn't see a thing," was the reply. "I flopped out of the water into the cockpit and never even looked inside the cabin. I wish now that I had."

"Come on, then, let's you and I take a look through the cabin while Captain Joe and Case run the _Rambler_ back to her old position," Jule suggested.

The two boys sprang down into the cockpit, paused a moment to get their balance and opened the cabin door. As they did so, a scrambling noise was heard inside, and both were knocked nearly off their feet as a body launched against them, turned to the railing and shot over into the river.

From his position on the deck where he had been thrown by the impact of the collision, Alex looked up at Jule with a whimsical smile on his face.

"Did you see that?" he asked.

"I felt it," Jule replied, rubbing his head.

"What did it feel like?" asked Alex

"Like a battering ram," was the reply.

"Well," Alex said, "it might have been a battering ram, but it looked to me like Max, and it's dollars to apples that he caused the _Cartier_ to start downstream. A few pulls from the water would have started the line running out."

"That's just it!" Jule exclaimed. "That's exactly the idea!"

Captain Joe now leaned over the gunwale of the _Rambler_ and cried out:

"Which one of you boys fell overboard?"

"That was Max," Alex replied. "He's been here in the cabin of the launch for nobody knows how long, ransacking the lockers and destroying papers. He must have come aboard about as soon as it was lifted out of the water. The scamp certainly keeps busy, anyway."

Captain Joe passed over to the launch, and a long search was made through the owner's secretary and the drawers and boxes containing documents. The papers were wet, of course, and many of them were badly torn, but the purport of each was by no means doubtful. The great mass consisted of bills, newspaper clippings, personal letters and the hundred and one memoranda made by the captain and owner of a pleasure launch.

"I guess we'll have to give it up," the captain said, after a time. "There's one good thing about it, and that is that Max didn't meet with any more success than we did."

"How do you know?" asked Case.

"Because," answered the Captain, "he would have been off the boat before we ever got to it."

"Perhaps he wasn't here as long as you think he was," Alex put in. "Clay and I saw him up in the woods when we first went ashore."

The papers were spread out neatly and left to dry, and everything in the drenched cabin placed in as good shape as possible. Then the boys all returned to the _Rambler_, now nearing her old position in the west river.

Much to the surprise of all on board, there were no signs of the outlaws when the boat came to her old anchorage. Night was falling and there were no indications of hostile influences anywhere. Before darkness settled down over the scene, the boys drew the _Rambler_ a little farther up the stream and prepared to pass a watchful and anxious night.

Alex proposed that he go ashore with the bulldog and make an effort to find Clay, but the proposition was instantly vetoed by the others.

"You'll get lost yourself," Case declared, "and we'd have two boys to look up instead of one. I think we'd better all stay on the boat."

"And that's good sense, too," Captain Joe put in. "Clay knows where we are, and he'll come to us if he can get away. If he doesn't come during the night, we'll get out after him in the morning."

"He may be waiting for darkness," Case suggested. "In that case, he ought to be here soon. He must be hungry."

"He surely will, and we'll keep supper waiting for him in this cabin all night," said Alex "When the outlaws had me pinched, they didn't give me anything to eat. I'll get even for that!"

The night passed slowly, drearily, and Clay did not come. As the reader understands, all through the dark hours, the boy lay bound in a tent not far from the west shore of the east river.

Shortly after daylight, breakfast being over, the boys began planning for a visit to the shore.

The canoe and the rowboat were both on the bank still in plain sight.

"You swim over and get the boats, Jule," Case said. "You haven't had as many open air baths as we have since we started on this trip."

"Now, boys," interposed Captain Joe, "I wouldn't touch those boats if I were you. If there are any outlaws in those woods at all, they're watching those boats. The first boy that swims up to one of them will be captured."

"Then we've all got to swim," declared Case ruefully.

"We're getting used to it this time," cried Alex

"I don't believe there's any one over there," Jule said. "They wouldn't keep still so long."

"I notice that you don't get your head up above the gunwale very often," Alex laughed.

"Look here, boys," Captain Joe said, pointing out of the cabin window. "Here's a place where the river widens without any good excuse for doing so. I talked to Clay about that, and his idea was that an underground stream runs in in this vicinity. Now, your eyes are better than mine. Look upstream and see if you can observe any current which might be made by the flowing in of a subterranean river."

"You're all right, Captain Joe," Case exclaimed. "You can't forget that lost channel any more than we can."

"I don't know whether there's a lost channel or not," the captain replied, "but I do know that there's a fresh supply of water coming into this stream right about here."

Case took a field glass and looked up the stream.

"There surely is a current starting in close to that bank," he finally said. "I can see sticks and bubbles popping up from the bottom. There's a spring there, all right."

Alex took the glass and studied the river for a long time. Then he seized Captain Joe by the shoulder and pointed.

"Say," he said, "there's a nude body coming up out of that eddy Case saw. You can see it under the water, drifting down this way."

The boy dropped the glass clattering on the deck and sprang into the water.

"Here, here, boy! Come back!" cried Captain Joe.

"It's Clay!" shouted Jule. "Can't you see it's Clay!"

In a moment, Jule was in the water, too, and both boys were diving after the figure they had seen in the eddy.

They caught it in a moment, and managed to get it to the boat. Captain Joe and Case supplied ropes, and in an incredibly short space of time, Clay lay stretched out on the deck.

"He's dead!" cried Alex "I just know he's dead!"

"They stripped him of his clothes and threw him in!" wailed Jule.