Chapter 10 THE MENAGERIE IN ACTION

After the departure of Alex and Case from the Rambler, Clay and Jule drew out the two mysterious messages they had received and studied them over carefully.

"What do you think about this lost channel proposition?" asked Jule.

"If a channel ever went through the neck of land as shown by the map, that section must have been visited by an earthquake," Clay laughed. "There isn't a sign of a channel there. Instead, there's a great high ledge of rock crossing the peninsula, just where the line shows the channel ought to be. It is my private opinion that no water ever crossed that peninsula. There must be some mistake in location."

"The men who made the map might have drawn the line indicating the channel in the wrong place," Jule suggested.

"Well," Clay concluded, "we'll have a look at it when we go back, but what I can't understand is why the map should have been given to the wrong party. If a man had such a map in any way accurate, he would have presented it to Fontenelle in person and demanded a stiff price for it."

"It looks that way to me!" Jule agreed.

There was a volume in the cabin of the Rambler descriptive of the St. Lawrence river from the gulf to Lake Ontario. This the boys brought out and studied diligently until a late hour.

At last Clay arose, yawned, and looked at his watch.

"I wonder why Alex and Case don't return!" he asked. "It can't be possible that that little scamp has gone and lost himself again, can it?"

"Just like him!" snickered Jule. "If I had a dollar for every time he's been lost I'd have all the money I will ever need."

"That's pretty near the truth!" Clay agreed. "However, we've got Captain Joe and Teddy left with us to help look him up."

He leaned back in his chair and whistled to the dog, but no Captain Joe made his appearance. Teddy came shambling into the cabin and held out a paw, suggesting sugar. Clay glanced up at Jule with puzzled eyes.

"Isn't the dog out on deck?" he asked.

The boy hastened out and returned in a moment with the information that the bulldog was nowhere in sight.

"Have you seen him since Alex and Case left?" Clay asked.

"He was here quite a spell after they went away, but he didn't seem contented. All the time I was on deck he was walking back and forth looking longingly over into the city."

"Then he's followed the boys," Clay agreed. "We won't see him again until they return. The only wonder is that Teddy didn't go with him."

"We'll have to get steel cages made for our menagerie," Jule proposed. "We can't keep a single member of our happy family on the boat when Alex is away. No one else seems to count with them."

The boys were not inclined to sleep, so they sat watchfully in the cabin with the electricity off. Spears of light came from warehouse offices on the pier, and far up the street a great arc light made the thoroughfare almost plain to the eye as day. The roar of night traffic in the city and the wash of the river drowned all individual sounds, and the boys sat in what amounted to silence so far as any noises directly on the boat were concerned.

Somewhere along toward midnight, when they had about given up hope of the immediate return of the boys, there came a quick jar, and the boat swayed as if under the foot of a person mounting the deck.

"There they are, I reckon!" Jule shouted, passing to the cabin door which was open to admit the cool breeze of the night.

Clay stepped forward, too, but paused in a moment and drew Alex back. A crouching figure was now discernible on the prow, and Clay reached for the switch which controlled the lamp there.

With his hand almost to the switch Clay stopped and turned back to where Jule stood, searching his bunk for an automatic which had been placed there. Then the boat swayed again, and there were three figures on the deck instead of one. The light from the street showed only bare outlines. The whole scene was uncanny.

"I don't know what to make of this," Clay whispered. "Shall we turn on the light, or shall we begin shooting right now?"

"If we turn on the light," Jule whispered back, "they'll see us. At present, they undoubtedly believe the boat to be deserted."

"I think they'll run if we turn on the lights," Clay suggested, softly. "They're probably river thieves looking for plunder."

The men on the deck now grouped together, evidently whispering, and trying to decide upon some course of action. In the faint light, they seemed to be hulking, heavily-built men, and the boys were not anxious to come into close contact with them.

"It may be just as well," Clay finally decided, "to remain quiet for a short time and see what they intend to do."

"That's easy," Jule whispered, "they intend to steal the boat."

"A good many other people have tried to steal this boat," Clay responded, "but we still seem to be in possession of it!"

After standing for a minute or two near the prow, the intruders moved stealthily toward the cabin. The door was open, but all was dark inside. As they slouched forward, their footsteps made no sound upon the deck.

"Shall we shoot to kill?" whispered Jule. "I'm tired of having the scum of the earth always attempting to rob us."

"I'd never get over it if I should kill some one," Clay replied. "We'd better frighten them away and see that no more get on board to-night."

As he spoke, the boy reached for the switch and turned it. Greatly to his amazement, the prow lamp remained dark. In some strange manner the intruders had disconnected the wires or broken the globe. The click of the switch seemed to have reached their ears, informing them that some one was on board.

They rushed toward the cabin and came solidly against the door which was quickly shut, almost in their faces. The lock rattled sharply under the assault of a muscular hand, and the whole front of the cabin quivered and creaked under the weight of a burly body.

"Open up here!" shouted a gruff voice. "Open up, or we'll break the door down. We knew you were here all the time!"

"This begins to look serious," whispered Clay. "We may have to shoot."

"Say the word," Jule suggested, "and I'll make the front of the cabin look like a sieve, and every bullet will count, too."

"I'd like to aid in the capture of a couple of those fellows," Clay said, "and I wonder if one of us couldn't get out of the rear window, jump over on the pier, and call the police. Such ruffians ought not to be at liberty."

"All right," Jule whispered. "You go, and I'll stay here and talk to them until you get out. I can keep them amused all right."

While this short conversation had been in progress the pounding at the door had continued, and now something heavy, like a timber or a very heavy foot, came banging against the panels.

"Just a minute more," one of the midnight prowlers shouted, "and we'll break this door down and get you boys good!"

Clay moved to the rear of the cabin, drew in the swinging sash, and stepped lightly out on the after deck. The lights along the river front were fewer now, and the windows of the warehouses, illuminated an hour before, were dark. A roaring wind was blowing up the river, and the wash of the waves was rocking the Rambler unpleasantly.

In all the long street in sight from the pier there was no sign of a uniformed officer. Clay did not know how far he would have to run to find one, so he decided to remain where he was for a time and, if necessary, perhaps attack the intruders from the rear.

Crouching low on the after deck, he could hear Jule talking to the outlaws, and smiled as he listened to the boy's attempts to interest them.

"If you break down that door," he heard Jule say, "you'll have to pay for it! That door cost money."

A volley of oaths and river billingsgate followed the remark, and blows which fairly shook the cabin came upon the sturdy panels.

While Clay sat listening, half resolved to make his way over to the pier and fire a few shots over the heads of the ruffians, a figure dropped lightly on the deck at his side and Teddy's soft muzzle was pressed against his face. He stroked the bear gently.

"I don't blame you for getting out of there, Teddy," he said. "They'll wreck the boat if we don't do something pretty soon. What would you advise, old chap?" he added whimsically.

Teddy sniffed the air in the direction of the pier and clambered clumsily up to the top of the cabin.

"I wouldn't go up there if I were you," Clay advised.

Teddy continued his way over the roof and finally came to the forward edge. Clay raised his head to the level of the roof and watched him. As he did so a round circle of light sprang up at the head of the pier, flashed toward the river for a moment, and died out. The next moment a sound of some one stumbling over a bale of goods reached his ears. Then the light flashed out again, and the pounding on the cabin door ceased.

"Now I wonder," Clay pondered, "if that isn't Alex and Case! They usually have their searchlights with them, and Case is always stumbling over something. It would be fine to have them appear now!"

Directly a finger of light shot down the pier, and under it a white body swung toward the boat. Clay crawled back through the window and approached the door, where Jule was still standing with his automatic in his hand.

The pounding had now ceased entirely, the men evidently having been warned by the light. It seemed to Clay that the unwelcome visitors were now crouching in the darkness ready to attack any one who might attempt to come on board.

"Just wait a minute," whispered Clay in Jule's ear. "Just you wait a minute, and there'll be something pulled off here! If I'm not mistaken, this drama is going to shift to a comedy in about one minute."

"I don't understand what you mean by that," Jule declared. "What new deviltry are those fellows planning?" he added.

"In just about a second you'll see," Clay repeated. "The only wonder is that Captain Joe hasn't pulled off his stunt before this."

"Captain Joe isn't here," replied Jule doubtfully.

Then the boat swayed frightfully, tipping toward the pier. There was a heavy thud on deck, and cries of fright and pain, followed by another thud.

"Captain Joe isn't here, eh?" shouted Clay unlocking and opening the door. "Just look at that mess out there."

The white bulldog was mixing freely with the intruders, who seemed to be devoting their best energy to getting off the boat. There was a struggling, cursing, growling mass in the middle of the deck, and then from the roof of the cabin leaped another combatant!

Seeing the dog mixing with the pirates, and evidently believing that some new game was in progress, the cub leaped fairly into the midst of the struggling mass! If the men had been frightened before, they were now wild with terror. It seemed to them as if the bear had dropped from the clouds. They felt his teeth and claws, and the rough hair of him appeared to bristle like the quills of a porcupine.

Frightened beyond all measure, rendered more desperate still by the onrush of the boys from the cabin, the outlaws finally succeeded in breaking away and springing to the pier. As they did so, they nearly fell over Alex and Case who were making all haste to ascertain the cause of the excitement on the Rambler.

In a moment, however, they were up and away, clattering like race-horses up the pier.