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[Illustration: On the top of the ridge-boards, the lads saw a
half-dressed <DW64> boy.]




THE RIVER MOTOR BOAT BOYS
ON THE MISSISSIPPI

OR

On the Trail to the Gulf

By HARRY GORDON

Author of

  "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Colorado,"
  "The River Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence,"
  "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Amazon,"
  "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Columbia,"
  "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Ohio."

A. L. BURT COMPANY

NEW YORK




Copyright, 1913

By A. L. Burt Company

THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI




Contents

  I--A Rambler Reception Day
  II--Alex. Goes Fishing
  III--A Waif from the River
  IV--Two Boys Get a Tumble
  V--A New Captain on Board
  VI--Captain Joe Makes a Hit
  VII--Searching for the _Rambler_
  VIII--Faces at the Window
  IX--Red Declines to Talk
  X--More River Outlaws
  XI--Fire-Faces on the Island
  XII--Half Full of Diamonds
  XIII--A River Robber in a New Role
  XIV--Alex. Breaks Furniture
  XV--The Leather Bag Missing
  XVI--What Dropped on Deck
  XVII--Getting out of the Mud
  XVIII--Swept Into a Swamp
  XIX--Pilgrims from Old Chicago
  XX--The Darkey up the Tree
  XXI--Dodging a Police Boat
  XXII--The Sheriff Knows a Lot
  XXIII--A Night in New Orleans
  XXIV--Something Doing All the Time
  XXV--Commonplace, After All




THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI




CHAPTER I

A RAMBLER RECEPTION DAY


A white bulldog of ferocious aspect lay sound asleep under a small
table. Lying across the dog's neck, with his soft muzzle hidden
between capable paws, was a quarter-grown grizzly bear. Now and then
Captain Joe, as the dog was named, stirred uneasily in his sleep, as
if in remonstrance at the liberties which Teddy, the cub, was taking
with his person. The bulldog and the cub snored in unison!

The table under which the animals slept stood in the middle of the
small cabin of the motor boat _Rambler_, and the _Rambler_ was pulling
at her anchor chain in the muddy water of the Mississippi
river--pulling and jerking for all the world like a fat pig with a
ring in his nose trying to get rid of the line which held him in
captivity.

Although early in November, there were wandering flakes of snow in the
air, and a chill wind from the northwest was sweeping over the
Mississippi valley. There had been several days of continuous rain,
and, at Cairo, where the motor boat lay, both the Mississippi and the
Ohio rivers were out of their banks.

In spite of the wind and snow, however, the cabin of the _Rambler_ was
cozy and warm. In front of the table where the bulldog and the young
bear lay stood a coal stove, on the top of which two boys of sixteen,
Clayton Emmett and Alexander Smithwick, were cooking ham and eggs, the
appetizing flavor of which filled the little room. A dish of sliced
potatoes stood not far away, and over the cherry-red coils of an
electric stove at the rear of the cabin a great pot of coffee was
sizzling and adding its fragrance to rich contributions of the frying
pan.

While the boys, growing hungrier every second, stirred the fire and
laid the table, footsteps were heard on the forward deck of the motor
boat, and then, without even announcing his presence by a knock, a
roughly-dressed man of perhaps forty years stepped into the cabin and
stood for a moment staring at the bulldog and the bear, stood with a
hand on the knob of the door, as if ready for retreat, his lips open,
as if the view of the interior had checked words half spoken. Alex.
Smithwick regarded the man for a moment with a flash of anger in his
eyes, then he caught the humor of the situation and resolved to punish
the intruder for his impudence in walking into the cabin without a bit
of ceremony.

"Look out for the bulldog and the bear!" he warned. "They consumed two
river-men last week! The bulldog tears 'em down, an' the bear eats
'em!"

"What kind of a menagerie is this?" began the visitor, but Alex. gave
the bulldog a touch with his foot, and the dog and the bear were in
the middle of the space between the table and the stove, snarling
fiercely, before the startled intruder could open the door. "Call the
brutes off!" he added as Teddy began boxing the empty air.

"Don't stand in the doorway!" Alex. warned, while Clay Emmett turned
his face away so as not to betray his enjoyment of the situation. "It
makes 'em mad to keep the door open! What do you want?"

The visitor stepped outside and beckoned to the boys through the glass
panel. Alex. went out on the deck and stood waiting. The visitor was
evidently a riverman, tall, muscular, heavy of hand and sullen of
face. He wore rough clothing, neither clean nor whole, and his face
was well covered by a bushy beard, light in color except around the
mouth, where it was stained with tobacco. Alex. noted that he looked
away whenever their eyes met for an instant.

"I'm Gid Brent, the riverman," he said, in a moment, "and I've come to
warn you boys against starting out alone, on the river in this boat."

"That's kind of you," Alex. replied. "What's the matter with the
boat?"

"It is the river there's something the matter with," replied the
other. "The water is high, and is pouring into all the old channels
and ditches from Cairo to the Gulf. If you start out without a pilot,
you'll run into some bayou and end in a swamp, a couple of hundred
miles from the main channel."

"You're a pilot, eh?" asked Alex., with a provoking grin.

"Yes; and I'm called the best on the river," was the boasting reply.

"And you're looking for a job?" Alex. continued, insinuatingly.

"I might accept the right kind of a job," Brent replied, "but I
shouldn't want any menagerie on board with me. Where are you boys
going?"

"Oh, well," Alex. said, gravely, though there was fun in his eyes, "if
you object to our pets, that settles it! We brought Captain Joe, the
bulldog, from the Amazon, and Teddy Bear, the cub, from British
Columbia."

"Oh, if they're tame!" the other exclaimed. "I might----"

"I'll call 'em out an' see what they say to you!" Alex. replied,
mischief in his eyes, opening the cabin door and inviting the bulldog
and the bear out to the deck!

Captain Joe snarled at the man's feet and Teddy Bear stood up and
squared off in front of him in a boxing attitude! Brent swung toward
the little pier against which the motor boat lay, and the animals,
thus encouraged, sprang at him.

In a minute the pilot was on the pier, racing toward the shore as if
for his life! Clay came out on deck and both boys stood laughing at
the retreating figure. Presently Brent came to an old warehouse, where
security might be found in an open doorway. Here he stopped and turned
back, shaking a fist at the grinning lads.

"I'll be even with you for that!" he shouted. "I'll teach you to set
your dog on me, you miserable little bum-boat tramps! I'll show you!"

"Get him, Captain Joe!" cried Alex., angry at the impertinent language
used, but Clay caught the bulldog by the collar and held him back.

"All right!" smiled Alex. "Let the tramp go, if you want to! Anyway,
I'm about half starved! Funny, Case and Jule don't get back! They've
been gone three hours!"

"They'll get cold beans for supper if they don't show up pretty soon!"
Clay said, turning back to the cabin. "The ham and eggs and potatoes
are just done!"

Even as Alex. closed the cabin door behind himself, running footsteps
were heard, and the next moment two boys of about his own age,
Cornelius Witters and Julian Shafer, made their appearance, racing off
the pier and on to the deck of the motor boat like young colts. They
dashed into the cabin and dropped down into seats at the table.

"What's the matter with the fellow at the head of the pier?" Case
Witters asked. "He called to us not to come down here! Said there was
a crazy boy, a mad dog and a grizzly loose in the boat! Guess you got
him peeved, didn't you?"

"He's too fresh!" Alex. responded. "He came on board as if he owned
the boat, and then had the nerve to tell us that we'd get lost if we
went down the river without a pilot! He wanted a pilot's job! We
should have given Captain Joe a bite out of him!"

"Did he say he was a pilot?" asked Jule Shafer, with a wink at Case.

"Sure thing he did!" answered Alex. "Said he was the best on the
river!"

"Well," Case began, "if he is a pilot he is out of practice! I heard
him asking a man about the passage from Hickman to Reelfoot lake. When
we went up-town that same man who spoke to us on the pier stood on the
levee with a bunch of toughs. Their heads were together, as if they
were planning mischief. I thought they looked at Jule and I in a
strange way, too!"

"I don't believe he ever came on board to get a job!" Jule broke in.
"He's a spy! That's just what he is, and I wish Captain Joe had eaten
him up!"

"But why should he come spying here?" asked Clay. "We're not river
thieves!"

"Well, there's something odd going on at Cairo!" Case asserted. "There
are crowds on the streets, and the policemen seem to be on their
metal! I guess we would have been locked up as suspects if we hadn't
had on pretty good clothes!"

"Why didn't you ask some one to tell you about it?" demanded Alex.

"We did," Jule answered, "and got our trouble for our pains! There's
been a warehouse robbery up the river somewhere, but I don't see why
that should make such a stir down here at Cairo. The merchant I
ordered the gasoline of said that $100,000 in diamonds and furs had
been taken