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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The River Motor Boat Boys on the St.
+Lawrence, by Harry Gordon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The River Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence
+       The Lost Channel
+
+Author: Harry Gordon
+
+Release Date: December 31, 2011 [EBook #38450]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIVER MOTOR BOAT BOYS ON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from images made available by the HathiTrust
+Digital Library.)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: The wave caught the _Rambler_ broadside, and
+in an instant she was beached high and dry on the bar.]
+
+
+
+
+THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOAT
+BOYS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+
+OR
+
+THE LOST CHANNEL
+
+By HARRY GORDON
+
+Author of
+
+  "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Mississippi"
+  "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Colorado"
+  "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 ST. LAWRENCE
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  I--A Mysterious Visitor
+  II--A Treacherous Guest
+  III--Arrested for Piracy
+  IV--Concerning a Lost Channel
+  V--Teddy Gives an Exhibition
+  VI--Captain Joe Takes a Prisoner
+  VII--Case Has His Doubts
+  VIII--The Discovery of Max
+  IX--A Busy Night in Quebec
+  X--The Menagerie in Action
+  XI--The Crew Takes a Tumble
+  XII--Rivermen With a Thirst
+  XIII--A Meeting at Montreal
+  XIV--An Old Friend Appears
+  XV--Through the Famous Rapids
+  XVI--A Call from Wreckers
+  XVII--Captain Joe's Night Visit
+  XVIII--It Is Now Clay's Turn
+  XIX--A Splash of Water
+  XX--Lifting a Sunken Launch
+  XXI--Down in the Whirlpool
+  XXII--What the Eddy Brought Up
+  XXIII--The Lost Charter Is Found
+
+
+
+
+THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOYS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
+
+
+It was dark on the St. Lawrence River at nine o'clock that August
+night. There would be a moon later, but the clouds drifting in from
+the bay might or might not hold the landscape in darkness until
+morning. The tide was running in, and with it came a faint fog from
+the distant coast of Newfoundland.
+
+Only one light showed on the dark surface of the river in the vicinity
+of St. Luce, and this came from the deck of a motor boat, anchored
+well out from the landing on the south side of the stream, fifty miles
+or more from Point des Montes, which is where the St. Lawrence widens
+out to the north to form the upper part of the bay of the same name.
+
+The light on the motor boat came from an electric lamp set at the
+prow, six feet above the deck. It showed as trim and powerful a craft
+as ever pushed her nose into those waters.
+
+Those who have followed the adventures of the Six River Motor Boat
+Boys will not need to be told here of the strength, speed and perfect
+equipment of the _Rambler_. The motors were suitable for a sea-going
+tug, and the boat had all the conveniences known to modern
+shipbuilders. She had carried her present crew in safety up the Amazon
+to its source, down the Columbia from its headwaters, through the
+Colorado to the Grand Canyon, and down the Mississippi from its source
+to the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+All these trips had been crowded with adventure, but both the boys and
+the boat had proved equal to every emergency. At the conclusion of the
+Mississippi journey, the boys of the Six River Motor Boat Club had
+decided to explore the St. Lawrence river from the Gulf to Lake
+Ontario.
+
+The _Rambler_ had been shipped by rail to a point on the coast of New
+Brunswick, and the remainder of the journey to St. Luce had been made
+by water along the treacherous coasts of New Brunswick and Quebec. A
+fresh supply of gasoline had been taken on just before night fell, and
+on the approach of daylight the boys would be on their way up the
+stream.
+
+Although it was early August, the night was decidedly cold, and
+Clayton Emmett, Alex Smithwick, Julian Shafer, and Cornelius Witters,
+the four boys who had embarked on the trip, were sitting snugly around
+a coal fire in the cabin. They were sturdy, healthy, merry-hearted
+lads of about sixteen, all from Chicago, and all without family ties
+of any kind so far as they knew. They had been reared in the streets
+of the big city, and had become possessed of the _Rambler_ by a series
+of adventures which the readers of the previous volumes of this series
+will readily recall.
+
+The night grew darker as it grew older, and a strong wind came up from
+the bay, bobbing the _Rambler_ about drunkenly. Clayton Emmett--always
+just "Clay" to his chums--arose from his chair after a particularly
+fierce blast from the wind and approached the cabin door.
+
+"Don't open that door!" shouted Alex Smithwick. "We'll be sent
+smashing through the back wall if you do. This night makes me think of
+a smiling summer day in Chicago harbor,--it's so different!"
+
+"Company!" Clay answered, excitedly, "We're going to have company.
+Listen!"
+
+"Yes," laughed Jule Shafer, "I've got a flashlight of any one rowing
+out to us to-night. The river is too rough for a rowboat."
+
+"Now you look here, Captain Joe," Clay went on, "don't you go start
+anything!"
+
+This last remark was made to a white bulldog of sinister aspect which
+had arisen from a rug in a corner of the cabin and now stood at Clay's
+side, growling threateningly. Joe wagged a stumpy tail in
+acknowledgment of the advice, but dashed out, snarling, as Clay opened
+the door and gained the deck.
+
+"All right; go to it!" Alex laughed, as the door closed behind the
+two. "Stick out on deck a spell and the wind will do the rest."
+
+Case Witters--he was never anything but "Case" to his friends--went to
+the door and looked out through the blurred glass, wiping the inside
+of the panel with his sleeve in order to get a clearer view.
+
+"What's coming off?" demanded Jule.
+
+"I hope we'll be able to get away on one trip without some one butting
+in," suggested Case.
+
+"Say, now, look at Teddy," cried Jule, springing to his feet.
+
+"Teddy" was a quarter-grown grizzly bear. He had been captured on the
+Columbia river, and had been a great pet of the boys ever since. He
+now rose from the rug which he had occupied in company with Captain
+Joe, the white bulldog, and shambled over to the door, against which
+he lifted a pair of capable paws in an effort to get a view of the
+deck.
+
+"Rubberneck!" called Alex, digging the cub in the ribs.
+
+"You know what you'll come to if you talk slang!" Jule grinned.
+"You'll have to wash dishes for a week. We all agreed to that, you
+know," he added as Alex wrinkled a freckled nose and pointed to the
+bear cub still trying to look out.
+
+"Why don't you let him out?" he asked. "If the wind blows his hide
+off, we'll make a rug of it. What is Clay doing?"
+
+Case did not reply to the question. Instead, he opened the door,
+swinging it back with a bang, and both boy and bear ran out on deck.
+The first thing Teddy did was to sit up on his hind legs and box at
+the wind, which rumpled his fur and brought moisture to his little
+round eyes. Boxing was one of the accomplishments taught him by the
+boys, and he took great pride in it.
+
+Alex closed the door and, with Jule at his side, stood looking out on
+deck. Clay, Case and the two pets stood at the prow, gazing down on
+the river.
+
+Directly the top of a worn fur cap made its appearance above the
+gunwale of the boat, followed almost immediately by the head and
+shoulders of a man. Then Alex and Jule both rushed out of the cabin.
+
+"He must be a peach, whoever he is, to come off to us in a canoe over
+that rough water to-night!" Alex cried. "I want to see that boat of
+his."
+
+The boat in which the stranger had put off was rocking viciously in
+the stream, and it was some seconds before he could secure a footing
+which promised a successful leap for the deck. When at last he came
+over the rail, the boys saw a heavily-built man with thin whiskers
+growing out of a dark face. His eyes were keen and black, and the hair
+hanging low down on his wide shoulders, was black, too, and straight.
+
+Holding his boat line in one hand, in order that the craft might not
+drift away, he searched with the other hand in the interior pockets of
+a rough Jersey jacket for a second, and then brought forth a sealed
+package which he handed to Clay. As the boy took the package, the man
+who had delivered it sprang, without speaking a word, to the railing,
+hung for a moment with his feet in the air above the bobbing canoe,
+dropped, and was almost instantly lost in the darkness.
+
+Leaning over the railing of the boat, wide-eyed and amazed, the four
+boys stood for a moment trying to pierce the line of darkness beyond
+the round circle of the prow light. Nothing was to be seen. The boat
+had come and gone in the darkness. The packet in Clay's hands was the
+only evidence that it had ever existed. Alex was the first to speak.
+
+"What do you know about that?" he shouted.
+
+"They must have fine mail facilities on the St. Lawrence!" commented
+Case.
+
+"That was only a ghost!" Jule asserted, with a wink at Alex. "That
+letter will go sailing up in the air in a minute."
+
+Clay opened the packet so strangely delivered and unfolded a crude map
+of a country enclosed between two rivers. These rivers, after running
+close together for a long distance, spread apart, like the two arms of
+a pair of tongs, at their mouths, making an egg-shaped peninsula which
+extended far into the main river. Back from the river shore, on this
+rude drawing, a narrow creek cut through the territory between the two
+rivers, making the peninsula an island.
+
+Below this rude drawing of the rivers and the peninsula was another of
+an old-fashioned safe resting high up in a niche in a rocky wall. The
+face of the wall was cross-hatched, to show that it was in the
+shadows.
+
+Below the drawing of the safe, were these words:
+
+"At last! Follow instructions. Success is certain. Map enclosed. Point
+straight to the north."
+
+The boys gathered closely around Clay, standing under the brilliant
+prow light, and examined the paper, passing it from one to another
+with questioning glances.
+
+"I guess," Alex said, "that we are drawing somebody else's cards."
+
+"Well," Case suggested, "that's a queer kind of a hand to come out of
+the night."
+
+"Perhaps," Jule observed, "they present travelers on the St. Lawrence
+with these little souvenirs just to excite interest."
+
+"Point straight to the north," repeated Clay. "I wonder what that
+means."
+
+"I'd like to know what any of it means," Alex asserted. "It looks to
+me like some one was butting in."
+
+"Well," Case remarked, "we have started out on every trip with a
+mystery to unravel, and here we go again, loaded up with another."
+
+"You bet we have!" laughed Alex. "We harvested gold on the Amazon,
+caught murderers on the Columbia, found a secret treasure in the Grand
+Canyon, and chased pirates on the Mississippi, but this is the only
+real Captain Kidd mystery we have struck yet."
+
+"What shall we do with it?" asked Clay, rattling the paper.
+
+"Throw it in the river and be on our way," proposed Case.
+
+"Suppose," Alex grinned, "there should be a barrel of money in that
+safe they've made a drawing of. If there is, we want to get it."
+
+"I think we'd better be going on, just the same," Case said. "I'm for
+dumping this map thing into the river and forgetting all about it."
+
+"Aw," Alex cut in, "that would be throwing away all the fun. I want to
+go to this 'North,' wherever it is. There may be something funny doing
+there."
+
+Captain Joe, who had been sitting at the prow, watching the boys with
+an intelligent interest, now passed back to the cabin, leaped upon the
+low roof, and bounded to the after deck. The boys heard him growling
+threateningly for a moment, and then he came back.
+
+Teddy, the cub, arose from the place where he had been lying, sniffed
+at the gunwale of the boat for an instant, and walked into the cabin.
+
+"What's the matter with our menagerie to-night," demanded Alex. "There
+seems to be something in the air."
+
+"What do you see, Captain Joe?" asked Clay. "If it's a man, and he's
+got a letter, you go get it. Some other fellow may be wanting us to go
+South, or East, or West."
+
+As Clay ceased speaking, the splash of a paddle came faintly from the
+darkness to the West.
+
+"Here comes R. F. D. postman number two," shouted Alex.
+
+As the boys listened, the splashings of the paddle came louder for a
+moment, then ceased entirely.
+
+"Hello, the boat!" Alex cried. "Have you got a letter for us?"
+
+No answer came back. There was now a break in the clouds, and the moon
+shone sharply down upon the swirling river, but only for an instant.
+
+"There he comes!" cried Jule.
+
+But the moonlight was gone, and the sound of the paddle was gone, and
+just at the edge of the circle of light which came from the prow, an
+Indian canoe glided, phantom-like, down the stream and disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A TREACHEROUS GUEST
+
+
+"Do you suppose that is the fellow Captain Joe caught prowling around
+the stem of the boat?" asked Jule as the canoe disappeared down the
+river.
+
+Captain Joe answered the question by trotting up to the prow and
+snarling at the disappearing canoe.
+
+"Now, what do you think he wanted here, anyway?" asked Alex.
+
+"Possibly he just dropped down to see if we were ready to start
+north," Case observed with a yawn.
+
+"It looks to me," Alex said, "that we have struck a storm center of
+some kind, and I'm going to bed and think it over.
+
+"I'm glad you're going to bed," Clay laughed, "for you get lost
+whenever we leave you on watch."
+
+"But I always find myself!" answered Alex, with a provoking grin.
+
+It was finally arranged that Case should stand guard that night, and
+the others prepared for sleep. The bunks were let down in the cabin,
+the prow light was switched off, and directly all was dark, save when
+the moon broke out from a bank of wandering clouds.
+
+Sitting well wrapped at the door of the cabin, shortly before
+midnight, Clay once more heard the sweep of a paddle or an oar. He
+arose and went to the prow.
+
+Off to the right, on a point of land below St. Luce, a column of flame
+was beckoning in the gale from the gulf. Only the flame was to be
+seen. There was neither habitation nor human figure in sight under its
+light. While the boy watched, a signal shot came from the east.
+
+Then an answering light came from the north, and a ship's boat,
+four-oared and sturdy, passed for an instant under the light of the
+moon and was lost in the darkness.
+
+The rowboat had passed so close to the _Rambler_ that the watching boy
+could have seen the faces of the occupants if they had not been turned
+away. For a moment he had feared that it was the intention of the
+rowers to board the _Rambler_, but they had passed on apparently
+without noticing the boat at all.
+
+After following the boat with his eyes for an instant, he switched on
+the prow light and turned to the cabin to awaken his chums. Here was a
+new feature of the night which must be considered.
+
+As he turned toward the cabin, a white package lying upon the deck
+caught his eye. It had not been there a moment before, so the boy
+naturally concluded that it had been thrown from the row boat. He
+lifted it and, going back under the prow light, opened the envelope
+and read.
+
+"Don't interfere with what doesn't concern you. Go on about your
+business, if you have any. Life is sweet to the young. Do you
+understand? Be warned. Others have tried and lost."
+
+The puzzled boy dashed into the cabin with the paper in his hand.
+
+"Look here, fellows!" he shouted, pulling away at the first sleeping
+figure he came upon, "R. F. D. postman number two has arrived. Here's
+the letter he brought."
+
+He read the message aloud to the three wondering boys, sitting
+wide-eyed on their bunks, and handed the paper to Clay.
+
+"What about it?" he asked.
+
+"I reckon," Alex observed with a grin, "that we're going to be
+arrested for opening some one else's mail."
+
+"Don't you ever think this letter wasn't intended for us," Jule
+declared.
+
+"And now," Case said, "I suppose we'll have to give up following the
+orders given in the first letter. We're ordered off the premises.
+See?"
+
+"Not for mine," Alex cried. "You can't win me on any sawed-off
+mystery! I want to know what this means."
+
+After a time the boys switched off the prow light, turned on the small
+lamp in the cabin, and sat down to consider seriously the events of
+the night. While they talked, the clouds drifted away, and the whole
+surface of the river was flooded with moonlight. The flame on the
+south bank was seen no more. It had evidently been built as a beacon
+for the men in the ship's boat.
+
+After a time, Captain Joe, who had been sitting in the middle of the
+deliberative circle in the cabin, raced out to the deck. The boys
+heard him growling, heard a conciliatory human voice, and then a quick
+fall.
+
+When the boys switched on the prow light and gained the deck, they
+found Captain Joe standing guard over a slender youth who had
+evidently fallen to the deck to escape being tumbled down by the dog.
+They gathered about waiting for him to speak--waiting for some
+explanation of his sudden appearance on the motor boat. Captain Joe
+seemed proud of his capture, and remained with threatening teeth
+within an inch of the boy's throat.
+
+"Say, you!" shouted Alex. "Did you come by parcel post? We've been
+getting letters all right, but no such packages as this."
+
+"Looks to me like he must have come in a parachute," Jule suggested.
+"Where's your boat, kid?" he added.
+
+The visitor smiled brightly and sprang alertly to his feet. He looked
+from face to face for a moment, smiling at each in turn, and then
+pointed to a light canoe bumping against the hull of the _Rambler_.
+
+He was a lad of, perhaps, eighteen, slender, lithe, dark. His clothing
+was rough and not too clean. His manner was intended to be
+ingratiating, but was only insincere.
+
+"What about you?" demanded Alex. "Do you think this is a passenger
+boat?"
+
+"A long time ago," replied the visitor, speaking excellent English, "I
+read of the _Rambler_ and her boy crew in the Quebec newspapers. When
+I saw the boat here to-night, I ran away from my employer and came out
+to you. I want to go with you wherever you are going."
+
+"You've got your nerve!" Alex cried.
+
+"Oh, let him alone," Case interposed. "We've had a stranger with us on
+every trip, so why not take him along?"
+
+Alex took the speaker by the arm and walked with him back to the
+cabin.
+
+"Say," he said then, "this fellow may be all right, but I don't like
+the looks of his map."
+
+"You'll wash dishes a week for that," Case announced. "You're getting
+so you talk too much slang. Anyway, you shouldn't say 'map'--that's
+common. Say you don't like his dial."
+
+"Oh, I guess I'll have plenty of help washing dishes," Alex grunted.
+"But what are we going to do with this boy?" he added.
+
+Clay now joined the two boys in the cabin and asked the same question.
+
+"It is my idea," he said, "that the appearance of this lad is in some
+way connected with the other events of the night."
+
+"What did you find out about him?" asked Clay.
+
+"He says his name is Max Michel, and that he lives at St. Luce," was
+the reply.
+
+"Well," Clay decided, "we can't send him away to-night, so we'll give
+him a bunk and settle the matter to-morrow."
+
+"I just believe," Alex interposed, "that this boy Max could tell us
+something about those two boats if he wanted to."
+
+"I notice," Case put in, "that he's paying a good deal of attention to
+what is going on in the cabin just now. He may be all right, but he
+doesn't look good to me."
+
+Clay beckoned to Jule, and the two boys entered the cabin together,
+closely followed by Captain Joe, who seemed determined to keep close
+watch on the strange visitor.
+
+"How long ago did you leave St. Luce?" asked Clay of the boy.
+
+"An hour ago," was the answer. "I rowed up the river near the shore
+where the current is not so strong and then drifted down to the motor
+boat. I called out to you before I landed, but I guess you did not
+hear."
+
+Alex, standing at the boy's back and looking over his head, wrinkled a
+freckled nose at Clay and said by his expression that he did not
+believe what the boy was saying.
+
+"Did you see a light on the point below St. Luce not long ago?"
+continued Clay.
+
+The boy shook his head.
+
+"There are often lights there at night," he said. "Wreckers and
+fishermen build them for signals. But I saw none there to-night."
+
+"What about the four-oared boat that left St. Luce not long ago?" Clay
+asked. "Do you know the men who were in it?"
+
+"I didn't see any such boat," was the reply.
+
+"Well, crawl into a bunk here," Clay finally said, "and we'll tell you
+in the morning what we are going to do."
+
+The boy did as instructed, and was, apparently, soon sound asleep.
+Then the boys went out to the deck again and sat in the brilliant
+moonlight watching the settlement on the right bank.
+
+There is a railway station at St. Luce, and while they watched and
+talked, the shrill challenge of a locomotive came to their ears,
+followed by the low rumbling of a heavy train.
+
+The prow light was out, and the cabin light was out, and the cabin was
+dark now, because when the boys had sought their bunks, a heavy
+curtain had been drawn across the glass panel of the door. From where
+the boys sat, therefore, they could see nothing of the interior of the
+cabin.
+
+Five minutes after the door closed on the stranger, he left his bunk
+and moved toward the rear of the cabin. Against the back wall, stood a
+square wooden table, and upon this table stood an electric coil used
+for cooking. Above the table, was a small window opening on the after
+deck.
+
+The catch which held the sash in place was on the inside and was
+easily released. The boy opened it, drew the swinging sash in, passed
+through the opening, and sprang down to the deck.
+
+Reaching the deck, the visitor, as though familiar with the situation,
+ran his hand carefully about his feet feeling for a closed hatch. He
+found it at last and, lifting it, peered into the space set aside for
+the electric batteries and the extra gasoline tanks.
+
+Reaching far under the planking, he found what he sought--the wire
+connecting the electric batteries with the motors. Listening for a
+moment to make sure that his motions were not being observed, he drew
+a pair of wire clippers from a pocket and cut the supply wire. Only
+for the fact that the lights on the boat were all out, this villainous
+act would at once have been discovered. As it was, the boys remained
+at the prow believing the visitor was still asleep in his bunk.
+
+This act of vandalism accomplished, the boy dropped softly over the
+stern into his canoe, still trailing in the rear of the motor boat.
+Once in the canoe, he laid the paddle within easy reach and propelled
+the boat along the hull of the _Rambler_, toward the prow with his
+hands. Once or twice discovery seemed to the boy to be certain, for
+Captain Joe came to the gunwale of the boat and sniffed suspiciously
+over the rail.
+
+Once, Clay left his place at the prow and looked over into the stream,
+but the moon was in the south and a heavy shadow lay over the water on
+the north side, so the dark object slipping like a snake to do an act
+of mischief reached the prow unseen.
+
+At that moment the boys left the prow and moved toward the cabin door.
+In another instant they would have entered and noted the absence of
+their guest, but Alex paused and pointed to lights moving in the
+village of St. Luce.
+
+"There's something going on over there," he said "and I believe it has
+something to do with what we've been bumping against. There's the
+letter from the canoe, and the warning from the boat, and the boy
+dropping out of the darkness on deck, and the signal lights, and now
+the stir in the village. Some one who wishes us ill is running the
+scenes to-night, all right."
+
+While the boys stood watching the lights of St. Luce, Max caught the
+manila cable which held the motor boat and drew his canoe up to it.
+Cutting the cable, strand by strand, so as to cause no jar or sudden
+lurching of the boat, he left it slashed nearly through and, leaving
+the strain of the current to do the rest, worked back through the
+shadow and struck out up stream.
+
+Standing in the door of the cabin, the boys felt the boat sway
+violently under their feet, then they knew from the shifting lights in
+the village that they were drifting swiftly down with the current.
+Clay sprang to the motors, but they refused to turn.
+
+Case hastened to the prow and lifted the end of the cable. There was
+no doubt that it had been cut. Clay made a quick examination of the
+motors and saw that the electrical connection had been broken. Then
+Jule called out in alarm that they were drifting directly upon a rocky
+island.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ARRESTED FOR PIRACY
+
+
+The _Rambler_, drifting broadside to the current, threatened to strike
+full upon a rocky promontory projecting from the island which lay in
+the course of the boat. In vain Case tugged at the tiller ropes. There
+was no steerage way, and the boat was beyond control.
+
+"It looks like the last of the _Rambler_!" Case cried as the boat
+drifted down. "The rock ahead will cut her in two if we strike it."
+
+But there was a current crossing the rocky point from north to south,
+and the boat, catching it, was drawn away, so that in time, she came,
+stern first, to the curve of a little channel into which the waters
+drew. For a moment, the prow swung out, and the possibility of a
+continuation of the vagrant journey was imminent.
+
+However, before the sweep of water turned the prow fairly around, Alex
+was over the gunwale, clinging with all his might to the broken cable.
+Clay and Jule were at his side in a moment and, half swimming, half
+stumbling, quite up to their chins in the cold water, they held the
+boat until the current swept it farther over on the sandy beach that
+bordered the cove.
+
+"There you are!" shouted Alex, wading, dripping, from the river. "The
+next time I take a trip on the _Rambler_, I'm going to wear a diving
+suit. I'm dead tired of getting wet."
+
+"You're lucky not to be at the bottom of the river!" Clay announced.
+
+The rowboat, which lay upon the roof of the cabin, was now brought
+down, a cable was taken out of the store room, and the _Rambler_
+firmly secured to a great rock which towered above the slope of the
+cove.
+
+The boys stood for a moment looking over the surface of the river,
+still bathed in moonlight, then Alex rushed into the cabin and brought
+out a field glass.
+
+"What I want to know just now, is who cut that cable," he said.
+
+"That's easy," Jule replied. "It was the innocent little boy who had
+read all about the _Rambler_ in the Quebec newspaper."
+
+Alex swept the river with the glass for a time and then passed it to
+Clay.
+
+"There he goes," he said, "away up the river, heading for St. Luce!
+That's the boy who disconnected the electricity and cut the cable.
+That's the boy who we will even up with when we catch him, too."
+
+"And you're the boy who'll wash dishes for a week for talking slang!"
+Jule taunted.
+
+"I'd wash dishes for a month if I could get hold of that rat,"
+answered Alex, angrily. "He came near wrecking the _Rambler_!"
+
+"Well," Clay said, "we may as well be getting the motors into shape.
+We can't stay on this island long."
+
+"If we do, there's no knowing what will happen," Jule suggested.
+"We've had two letters and a runaway to-night and the next thing is
+likely to be a stick of dynamite."
+
+"Say, suppose we repair the electric apparatus and get away from this
+vicinity right now," suggested Case, "I don't like the looks of
+things."
+
+"Now, look here," Alex cut in, "I'm ready to get out of this section,
+but do you mind what the first letter said about going north? Now that
+means something. If the first letter hadn't told us to go north, and
+the men who threw the second letter hadn't believed that we were
+obeying instructions, we wouldn't have been interfered with. Now,
+there's a friendly force here, and a hostile force. The friendly
+people may be mistaken in our identity, but that doesn't alter the
+fact that the hostile element is out to do us a mischief.
+
+"I'd like to find out what it is the friendly force expects us to do.
+If we can learn that, we'll know why the hostile force is opposing us.
+And so, it looks to me that instead of running away, we would better
+find out what is wanted of us. How does that strike you, fellows?
+Isn't that deduction worthy of Sherlock Holmes?"
+
+"All right," Clay declared, "I'm willing to investigate, but we
+mustn't spend all our time looking into one mystery, for if we have
+the same luck we had on other trips, we are likely to come across
+several more before we go back to Chicago."
+
+"I'd like to know," Case said, as they brought up an extra anchor and
+a new cable, "why we were dumped on this island."
+
+"To get us out of the way, probably," Jule commented. "They
+undoubtedly expected to steal or wreck the _Rambler_."
+
+"But the _Rambler_," Alex laughed, "has the luck of the Irish, so
+she's still able to travel."
+
+The island upon which the boat had been cast, lay only a short
+distance from the south shore of the river. In fact, at low water,
+when the tide was out, it might have been possible to pass to the
+mainland on dry ground.
+
+Its location was not more than two miles below the little landing at
+St. Luce. In fact, as the boys afterwards decided, it must have been
+from this island that the signal flame had burned early in the
+evening.
+
+Working busily on the repairs, the boys did not notice the arrival
+upon the island of two roughly dressed fellows, who landed from a
+small boat and who took great pains to keep rocky elevations between
+themselves and the cove where the boat lay.
+
+"I wonder," Jule asked, sitting down on the prow after a struggle with
+the new cable, "whether the stories I have read about wreckers along
+the St. Lawrence are true."
+
+While the boys discussed the possibility of wreckers working along the
+stream, one of the two men clambered to an elevation which was in turn
+hidden from the cove by a higher one and waved a red and blue
+handkerchief toward the shore.
+
+The tide was now running out, and the channel between the island and
+the mainland swirled like a mill-race. This, however, did not prevent
+the launching of a boat from the shore, the same being manned by four
+men. They edged along the shore and then, passing boldly into the
+current, landed on the island at a point east of the cove. There they
+secreted their boat and moved on toward the place where the boys, all
+unconscious of their presence, were repairing the damages wrought by
+their treacherous guest.
+
+It was Captain Joe who gave the first intimation of the presence of
+others on the island. He sprang from the boat, paddled through the
+shallow water between the hull and the shore, and set out for the
+elevation where the man who had signaled had been standing.
+
+The boys heard a cry of pain, a shout of anger and a pistol shot, and
+then Captain Joe came running back to where the _Rambler_ lay.
+
+"What was it you said about wreckers?" Case asked with a startled
+look. "No beast or bird fired that shot!"
+
+"I was only wondering," Jule answered, "whether there are really
+wreckers at work along the river. That's the answer!"
+
+"Well," Clay said, "we'll get on the boat to talk it over! In the
+meantime, we'll be putting space between the _Rambler_ and this
+island. If ever a wrecker's beacon told where to lure a boat to be
+plundered, that flame we saw on the island told our sneaking guest
+when to cut the _Rambler_ loose!"
+
+The boys hastened on board and Clay ran to the motors. At that
+instant, four men made their appearance on the ledge above the cove,
+beckoning with their hands and calling out to the boys that they had
+something of importance to say to them.
+
+"They look to me like triple-plated thieves," Alex commented, "and I
+wouldn't be caught on an island with them for a farm."
+
+Captain Joe seemed to approve of this decision, for he stood with his
+feet braced, growling furiously at the beckoning men.
+
+"Boat ahoy!" one of the men cried. "We have a message for you."
+
+"All right," Case answered, "you may send it by wireless."
+
+"But it is important!" came from the man.
+
+During this brief conversation, the motors were slowly drawing the
+_Rambler_ out of the sandy cove, the electric connection having been
+made, and the men were rapidly approaching the shore. The boat moved
+slowly, for the keel was dragging slightly in the sand, and the
+wreckers, if such they were, stood at the water's edge before the
+craft was more than a dozen yards away.
+
+Directly, all appearance of friendship ceased, and the men stood
+threatening the boys with automatic guns.
+
+"Run back!" one of the men cried, "or we'll pick you off like
+pigeons!"
+
+The boys had already taken their automatic revolvers from the cabin,
+and now, instead of obeying the command of the outlaws, they dropped
+down behind the gunwale and sent forth a volley not intended to
+injure, but only to frighten.
+
+Apparently undismayed by the shots, the outlaws passed boldly down the
+shore line seeking to keep pace with the motor boat as she drew out of
+the cove. Every moment the motors were gaining speed. In another
+minute, the _Rambler_ would be entirely beyond the reach of the
+outlaws.
+
+Apparently hopeless of coercing the boys into a return, the outlaws
+now began shooting. Bullets pinged against the gunwale and imbedded
+themselves in the walls of the cabin but did no damage.
+
+A tinge of color was now showing in the east. Birds were astir in the
+moving currents of the air, and lights flashed dimly forth from the
+distant houses of St. Luce. Against the ruddy glow of the sky, a river
+steamer lifted its column of smoke. Observing the approach of the
+vessel, the outlaws redoubled their efforts to frighten the boys into
+instant submission.
+
+However, the _Rambler_ was gaining speed, and the incident would have
+been closed in a moment if the connection made between the batteries
+and the motors had not become disarranged. In the haste of making the
+repairs, the work had not been properly done.
+
+The propeller ceased its revolutions and the boat dropped back toward
+the cove. Evidently guessing what had taken place on board, the
+outlaws gathered at the point where it seemed certain that she would
+become beached.
+
+Understanding what would take place if the motor boat dropped back,
+the boys fired volley after volley in order to attract the attention
+of those on the steamer. There came a jangling of bells from the
+advancing craft, and she slowed down and headed for the point. The
+outlaws fired a parting volley and disappeared among the rocks.
+
+The steamer continued on her course toward the little island, but
+paused a few yards away and the boys saw a rowboat dropped to the
+river. The _Rambler_ continued to drift toward the beach she had so
+recently left and the rowboat headed for that point.
+
+Fearful that the boat would again come within reach of the outlaws,
+Clay and Case now rushed to the prow, and threw the supply anchor over
+just in time to prevent a collision between a nest of rocks and the
+stern of the boat.
+
+The outlaws were now out of sight, and the boys felt secure in the
+protection of the steamer, but directly the situation was changed, for
+a show of arms was seen on board the rowboat, and the boys were
+suddenly ordered to throw up their hands.
+
+"You fellows are nicely rigged out--fine motor boat, and all that,"
+one of the men in the boat shouted, "but the days of river pirates on
+the St. Lawrence are over. You are all under arrest."
+
+"Gee whiz!" shouted Alex. "Is this what you call a pinch?"
+
+"It is what we call a clean-up," replied one of the men in the boat,
+rowing up to the _Rambler_. "We've been watching for you fellows, and
+now we've got you."
+
+"And what are you going to do with us?" asked Clay restraining his
+anger and indignation with difficulty.
+
+"We're going to take you up to Quebec and put you on trial for
+piracy!"
+
+"That'll be fine!" Jule commented.
+
+The boys tried to smile and make light of the situation as the four
+men from the steamer boarded the _Rambler_, but they all understood
+that it was a very serious proposition that they were facing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+CONCERNING A LOST CHANNEL
+
+
+The men from the steamer took possession of the _Rambler_ impudently,
+acting like ignorant men clothed with small authority. The boys were
+ordered to the cabin and the door locked.
+
+"We left our manacles on board the Sybil," one of the men announced,
+"or we'd rig you out with some of the King's jewelry."
+
+"We'll overlook the slight for the present," Case flared back, "but
+you be sure and bring the jewels at the first opportunity."
+
+"You'll get them quick enough," snarled one of the men. "Three days
+ago we received notice that you were coming, and we've been watching
+for you ever since. You came along just in time to be nicely trapped."
+
+"Do you mean that you were watching for the _Rambler_?" asked Clay,
+lifting his voice in order that he might be heard through the glass
+panel of the door. "I'd like to have you tell me about that."
+
+"No one knew the shape you would come in," was the gruff reply. "We
+only knew that a band of pirates and wreckers who had been luring
+vessels on the rocks along the bay was preparing to visit the St.
+Lawrence. Perhaps you will tell me where you stole this fine boat?"
+
+"They must have a big foolish house in this province," Alex taunted,
+"if all the King's officers are as crazy in the cupola as you are."
+
+"Let them alone," urged Clay. "No use in talking to men of their
+stripe. Wait until we get to the captain of the steamer."
+
+The sailors continued to question the boys, resorting now and then to
+insulting epithets, but the lads sat dumbly in the cabin until the
+arrival of Captain Morgan, in charge of the steamer Sybil. To express
+it mildly, they were all very much elated at the appearance of Captain
+Morgan, who unlocked the cabin door, called them out on deck and
+greeted them pleasantly. They all wanted to shake hands with him.
+
+"It seems," Clay said to the captain, as the latter motioned to the
+sailors to move up to the prow, "that your men have captured a band of
+bold, bad men. It was a daring thing for them to do!"
+
+The captain laughed until his sides shook, and the men, gathered on
+the forward part of the deck, scowled fiercely, to which the captain
+paid no attention at all.
+
+"Perhaps there is an excuse for the men," Captain Morgan finally said,
+suppressing his laughter. "We heard firing as we came up the river,
+and wreckers are known to be about."
+
+"If you have any doubt as to the presence of wreckers," Clay
+explained, "just send your ruffians over on the island. The men who
+did most of the shooting are there. They may also be able to find the
+ashes of the signal fire the outlaws lighted."
+
+"That will be good exercise for them," Jule cut in, "and perhaps they
+won't be so brave when they find they haven't boys to deal with."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me that the wreckers are now on the island?"
+asked the captain. "If they are, we may yet be able to make a
+capture."
+
+"They were on the island just before you came up," Clay answered, "and
+I presume they are there yet. We'll help you take them."
+
+The captain laughed and looked critically at the slender, well-dressed
+youngsters, then his eyes turned to the white bulldog and the bear,
+now sniffing suspiciously at his legs.
+
+"It seems to me," he said, "that I have heard of this outfit before!
+When I came aboard I thought I recognized the name of the _Rambler_.
+This menagerie of yours settles the point. You brought Captain Joe,
+the dog, from Para, on the Amazon and Teddy, the cub, from British
+Columbia."
+
+"You've got it," Alex cried, "but how did you come to know so much
+about us? We rather expected to get away from our damaged reputations
+up here," he added with a wink and a grin.
+
+"You have long been famous in these parts," the captain answered,
+"Ever since the _Rambler_ came riding up to the Newfoundland coast on
+a flat car. It is a wonder that my men did not recognize you."
+
+"I don't believe they can read," laughed Alex. "Suppose you send them
+over on the island to see if they can recognize some of the outlaws."
+
+One of the sailors approached Captain Morgan, saluted, and pointed to
+the narrow channel between the island and the mainland. The sun was
+now shining brightly in the sky, and the whole landscape lay bright
+under its strong and rosy light. Half way across the channel, its rays
+glinted on splashing oars, and from the shore came hoarse commands.
+
+"There are men leaving the island, sir," the sailor said. "Perhaps we
+did get hold of the wrong fellows."
+
+"I should think you did," laughed the captain, "but there may be time
+to correct the error. Signal to the steamer for more men, and drift
+down in your boats. You may be able to capture some of those outlaws,
+and," he added with a smile as the sailor turned away, "don't forget
+that there is a reward offered for every one of them."
+
+"Perhaps we'd better go with the men," suggested Case. "We aren't
+anxious to get where there's shooting going on, but we need the
+money."
+
+"I prefer," the captain replied, "that you come on board the Sybil
+with me. I'll have the cook get up a fine breakfast, and you boys can
+tell me all about your river trips. I have always been interested in
+such journeys and have long planned to take one myself."
+
+The boys readily agreed to this arrangement, Alex declaring that it
+would save the washing of at least one mess of dishes, and all were
+soon seated in the captain's cosy room.
+
+"I'll wait here an hour," Captain Morgan said, "to give my men a
+chance to gather in some of the rewards, but after that I must be on
+my way. We shall be late now, on account of this delay."
+
+The boys briefly described their river trips on the Amazon, the
+Columbia, the Colorado and the Mississippi, and were rewarded with a
+breakfast which Alex admitted was almost as good as he could cook
+himself.
+
+"And now," Clay said, as they all stood on the deck, watching the
+sailors returning empty-handed from their quest of the outlaws, "I
+wish you would tell me what all this rural free delivery business
+we've encountered means. We've been puzzling over it all night."
+
+As he spoke he handed the first letter--the one delivered by the
+mysterious canoeist--to the captain, who smiled as he looked at it.
+
+"I'll tell you about that," he said. "There is a man over in Quebec
+who claims that he owns about half of the province under a grant of
+land made to Jacques Cartier in 1541 by Francis I. of France. This
+grant, or charter, he claims, was confirmed to his family, the
+Fontenelles, in 1603 by Samuel de Champlain, who was sent to Canada by
+de Chaste, upon whom King Louis XIII. had generously bestowed about
+half of the new world.
+
+"Fontenelle claims that all the kings and presidents of France from
+1541 down to the present time have confirmed this grant so far as
+certain mineral and timber properties are concerned. For years
+Fontenelle has been trying to gain possession of the original charter
+brought to this country by Cartier, but has never succeeded."
+
+"Would he secure a large amount of property if he found it?" asked
+Alex. "How did it ever become lost?"
+
+"It disappeared from Cartier's hands," was the reply. "It is believed
+that the recovery of the original charter would make the Fontenelles
+very wealthy, especially as the family jewels, worth millions of
+francs, are said to have been lost with the important document."
+
+"I think they had their nerve to send family jewels to America in
+1541," Case cut in. "Might have known they would be lost."
+
+"You must remember," Captain Morgan replied, "that for years during
+and following the reign of Francis I. the protestant persecutions kept
+France in a turmoil. It was hinted that the Fontenelles did not favor
+these persecutions and that the jewels were shipped to the new world
+for greater safety. What I am telling you now, remember, is only
+tradition, and not history. To be frank with you, I will say that I
+don't believe it myself. It is too misty."
+
+"It is interesting, anyway," Clay declared, "and I'd like to hear more
+about it, but tell me this--why should the Fontenelles, or their
+agents, send this letter to us? And why should they send it, if at
+all, in so mysterious a manner?"
+
+"I have heard," Captain Morgan replied, "that an expedition for the
+recovery of this original charter was being fitted out at Quebec. Your
+boat may have been mistaken for the one carrying the searchers."
+
+"Searching in this wild country?" questioned Alex. "Where do they
+think this blooming charter is, I'd like to know?"
+
+Captain Morgan took the crude map into his hands and pointed to an
+egg-shaped peninsula reaching out into the St. Lawrence between the
+mouths of two rivers.
+
+"There is said to be a lost channel somewhere in that vicinity," he
+said, "and tradition has it that the papers and the jewels were hidden
+on its shore. The searchers, for years, have been in the hope of
+finding this lost channel. They have never succeeded."
+
+"Then we're almost on the ground," cried Jule. "Where do we go to
+reach this peninsula? We might be lucky enough to find this channel."
+
+"It doesn't exist," smiled Captain Morgan. "Every inch of that country
+has been gone over with a microscope, almost, and there is no lost
+channel there. At least, it can't be found."
+
+"There is one on the map, anyway," Alex observed.
+
+"Well," Clay laughed, "we have been mixed up with some one else's
+affairs on every one of our river trips, and we may as well keep up
+the record, so I propose that we spend a few days looking for this
+lost charter and these family jewels."
+
+The boys all agreed to the proposition, and even Captain Morgan seemed
+to gain enthusiasm as they talked over their plans.
+
+"I wouldn't mind being with you," the captain said, "but of course, I
+can't go. However, if you keep on across the river, straight to the
+north, you'll come to the egg-shaped peninsula. Keep to the right of
+it, and you'll enter a broad river. This map shows you where the lost
+channel is claimed to have existed. Go to it, kids, and good luck go
+with you!"
+
+"Now then that point is settled," Clay smiled, taking the second
+letter from his pocket, "tell us what this means."
+
+Captain Morgan looked over the paper carefully before making any
+reply. His face clouded and an expression of anger came to his eyes.
+
+"The fact of the matter is," he said, "that for two hundred years the
+Fontenelles have met with opposition in their search for the lost
+channel. Some of the land claimed under the charter is now held by
+innocent purchasers who believe their title to be perfect.
+
+"There is no doubt that such might come to a fair understanding with
+the Fontenelles if the charter should ever be found, but it is alleged
+that an association has been formed by the wealthier persons who are
+interested to defeat any attempt made to discover the charter. They
+claim, of course, that with the charter in their possession the
+Fontenelles would be able to make their own exorbitant terms."
+
+"I knew it!" Alex cried. "We are in between two hostile interests
+again! It always happens that way. But we like it!"
+
+"I have been thinking," Captain Morgan went on, "that the men who
+attempted to wreck the _Rambler_ are not river pirates at all, but men
+sent here to obstruct, as far as possible, those in search of the lost
+channel. It certainly looks that way."
+
+"Well," Clay remarked, "they haven't got any motor boat, and we've got
+one that can almost beat the sun around the earth, so we'll just run
+away from them. In an hour after you leave here, we'll be in the east
+river looking for the channel which is said to have connected it in
+past years with the one paralleling it on the west."
+
+The sailors who had been searching now reported to the captain that no
+strangers had been seen by them on the island, and it was agreed that
+the outlaws, whether wreckers or men employed to obstruct the search
+for the lost channel, had taken to the south shore. Captain Morgan
+shook the boys warmly by the hand as they parted.
+
+"If you say any more about your plans," he said, "I'll be going with
+you. Already I can sense the smoke of your campfire, and smell the
+odor of the summer woods. There are fine fish up in those rivers,
+boys, great shiny, gamy things that fight like the dickens in the
+stream and melt like butter in the mouth."
+
+"We'll send you out some," promised Clay, and the steamer's boat
+carried the boys back to the _Rambler_.
+
+The needed repairs were soon accomplished, and when night fell the
+motor boat lay under a roof of leaves in a deep cove on one of the
+rivers behind the egg-shaped peninsula. Just above the anchorage the
+water tumbled, from a high ledge. The boys had no idea of remaining on
+board that night, so they built a roaring campfire on shore and
+stretched hammocks from the trees.
+
+"Right here," Clay said as the moon rose, "right about where we are
+sitting, there may be a lost channel!"
+
+"That's all right," grinned Alex, "but I don't see myself getting very
+wet sitting on it."
+
+"I don't blame any old channel for getting lost in this wild country,"
+Case contributed. "We'll be lucky if we don't get lost ourselves. Hear
+the owls laughing at us!"
+
+"I've been listening to the owls," Clay said, "and I have concluded
+that they are fake owls. If you'll listen, you will hear signals."
+
+The boys listened for a long time, and then above the rush of the
+river and the murmur of the leaves in the wind, came a long, low call
+which seemed to them to be a very bad imitation of owl talk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+TEDDY GIVES AN EXHIBITION
+
+
+"There is one sure thing," Clay said, as the boys listened, "and that
+is that we have got to watch the _Rambler_ to-night. I propose that we
+take down the hammocks and go back to our bunks."
+
+"It's a shame to sleep in that little cabin," Alex protested, "when
+we've got the whole wide world to snore in. Suppose you boys remain
+here on shore, and let me stand guard on the boat."
+
+"That will be nice!" Jule laughed. "Alex always gets his soundest
+sleep when he's on guard."
+
+"Don't you worry about me," Alex said, "I'll keep awake, all right.
+Besides, I want to hear the owls talk."
+
+"I think we would better all go back to the _Rambler_," Clay advised.
+"We can anchor her farther out in the stream, leave one on guard, and
+so pass a quiet night. It looks risky to leave the boat where she is."
+
+"Perhaps that's what we ought to do," Alex agreed, giving Jule a nudge
+in the ribs with his elbow. "Who's going to stand watch?"
+
+"I will," Case offered. "I'll sit up until daylight, and then you boys
+can get up and catch fish for breakfast."
+
+"I want a fish for breakfast two feet long," Alex declared. "I'll
+catch it and cook it in Indian style. That will be fine!"
+
+"How do you cook fish a la Indian?" asked Case.
+
+"Aw, you know," Alex replied. "First, you get your fish; then you dig
+a deep hole in the ground and fill it full of stones. Then you build a
+roaring fire on the stones. Then you wrap your fish up in leaves and
+put it on the hot stones and cover it up. Then, if you want it to cook
+quick, you must build a fire on top. They sell fish cooked in that way
+at two dollars an order in Chicago."
+
+"Cook it any way you want to," Clay said, "only don't muff it the way
+Case does when he tries to make biscuits. We'll be hungry."
+
+Taking down the hammocks, the boys moved back to the _Rambler_. Clay,
+Alex, and Jule, after listening in vain for a time for more signals
+from the woods, finally went to their bunks, leaving Case sitting on
+the deck, across which a great tree on the east bank threw a long blur
+of shade.
+
+Clay and Jule were soon sound asleep, but Alex lay awake listening.
+There was a notion at the back of his brain that the signals heard had
+been treated too lightly. He knew that Clay, always active and ready
+for any emergency, considered the party secure in midstream, but he
+was by no means satisfied that the best steps for the protection of
+the boat had been taken.
+
+After a time he arose, dressed himself, and softly slipped out on
+deck, leaving the rest sleeping in the cabin.
+
+"It isn't morning yet," Case said, speaking out of the shadow. "Why
+don't you go back to bed? You'll be sleepy to-morrow."
+
+"Have you heard any more owl talk?" asked Alex.
+
+"Not a line," replied Case. "Go on back to bed."
+
+Alex did go back to bed, but could not sleep. Presently the
+long-expected owl-call came from the north, and then Teddy rubbed his
+soft nose against the boy's hand.
+
+"What do you want, old man?" whispered Alex. "Does that hooting warn
+you of danger, too?"
+
+The cub put his paws upon the edge of the bunk and tried to answer in
+bear talk that it did.
+
+"All right," Alex said, "I'll just go out and see about it."
+
+When he reached the deck for the second time, Case stood at the
+gunwale listening. The call came again from the woods.
+
+"Now you hear it, don't you?" asked Alex, scornfully. "I reckon you
+fellows would sit around here and let those wops carry off the boat."
+
+"Well, haven't they got to show up before we can do anything to them?"
+asked Case reproachfully. "I guess they have."
+
+"I'd like to know what they are doing," Alex wondered, "and I just
+believe I could sneak out and learn something about it. It makes me
+nervous, waiting here for them to get in the first blow."
+
+"If I had a house and lot for every time you've been lost on our river
+trips," Case grinned, "I'd own the biggest city in the world. You go
+back to bed, or I'll get Clay out here to tie you up."
+
+Teddy now came sniffing where the two boys stood, and, lifting his
+paws to the gunwale, looked over in the forest.
+
+"See that!" Alex exclaimed. "Even the bear knows there is something
+wrong on! If you'll keep that twirler of yours still for a little
+while, I'll go and see what it is."
+
+"You're the wise little sleuth!" Case declared. "Go on back to bed and
+dream that you're Nick of the Woods."
+
+"Tell you what," Alex said, "we'll tie a line to the rowboat, and I'll
+row ashore, then you pull the boat back, and I'll creep out in the
+thicket and see what I can discover. I believe those outlaws will
+gather around the campfire. Anyway, they're foolish if they don't."
+
+"If you take my advice," Case said, "you won't go, but if you insist
+on it, I'll draw the boat back, for our own protection."
+
+Very reluctantly, then, Case assisted in getting the boat into the
+river, found a long line to attach to the prow, and helped the boy
+away on his journey. He felt guilty for aiding in the adventure.
+
+Alex landed in a thicket almost straight west of the _Rambler_, and at
+once secreted himself. No signals had been heard for some moments, and
+the boy believed that he had reached the shore without attracting
+attention. Case drew the boat back and sat waiting.
+
+Alex remained perfectly still in his hiding-place for some moments.
+There was only the noises of river and forest. To the west, the embers
+of the campfire made a faint red glow in the moonlight.
+
+Just as the boy was about to move out of the thicket, he heard a heavy
+splash in the river, followed by words of command and entreaty from
+Case. The splashing continued, and presently the bushes at the edge of
+the stream were moved by an entering body.
+
+"That's Captain Joe!" thought Alex. "He's always ready for a run in
+the woods. I suppose I ought to send him back."
+
+But it was not Captain Joe that thrust a wet nose into Alex's hand. It
+was Teddy, the bear cub, and his greeting was so friendly and sincere
+that all thoughts of sending him back to the boat vanished from the
+boy's mind. Teddy shook the water from his coat like a great dog, and
+cuddled up to the boy as if thanking him.
+
+"You're a runaway bear," Alex whispered to the cub, "and I ought to
+send you back, but I'll just see if you know how to behave in the kind
+of society I am going to mix with. Will you be good?"
+
+Teddy declared in his best bear talk that he would be good, and the
+boy and the cub lay in the thicket, still listening, for a long time
+before moving. Then Alex crept toward the campfire.
+
+When he came to a considerable rise in the center of the ground
+between the two streams, he found that the ground was broken and
+rocky. It seemed to him that a great crag had formerly risen where he
+stood, and that some distant convulsion of nature had shattered it.
+
+To the south, between the rivers and at no great distance from the
+egg-shaped peninsula, ran a long, rocky ridge. Making his way to this,
+he secreted himself in the shadow of a boulder and settled down to
+watch and listen.
+
+After a time Teddy grew impatient at the inactivity thus forced upon
+him, and began moving restlessly about.
+
+"Bear!" warned Alex, "if you make any more racket here, I'll send you
+back to the boat. We're supposed to be sleuthing!"
+
+Teddy evidently did not like the idea of being sent back to the boat,
+or of keeping still either, so he almost immediately disappeared,
+notwithstanding Alex's efforts to detain him by main force. The boy
+called to him in vain.
+
+"Now," thought Alex, "the cub has gone and done it! He'll thrash
+around in the woods and scare my outlaws away. I wish I had tied him
+up on the boat. I might have known he would make trouble."
+
+The boy waited a long time, but the cub did not return. Now and then
+he could hear him moving about in the thicket.
+
+"He's just laughing in his sleeve at me!" complained the boy. "I wish
+I had hold of him!"
+
+Directly a sound other than that made by the bear came to the ears of
+the listening boy. Some one was creeping towards his shelter. He could
+see no one, for the shadows were thick at the point from which the
+sounds proceeded, but presently, he heard a voice.
+
+"They went back to the boat," some one said gruffly.
+
+"That's all the better for us," another spoke.
+
+"I don't know about that," the first speaker said.
+
+"Why, we'll just cut her out and take boys and boat and all."
+
+"That's easier said than done," was the reply. "Those boys are no
+spring chickens. They have guns and they know how to use them."
+
+"Well," the other chided, "it isn't my fault that they went back to
+the boat. If you hadn't been giving your confounded signals, they
+would have slept by the fire and everything would have been easy."
+
+Alex listened with his heart beating anxiously. There was no longer
+any doubt that the right construction had been placed on the signals
+which had been heard. The outlaws who had attacked them in the cove
+were now on the peninsula, ready to make trouble.
+
+While the boy listened for further conversation, a rustling in the
+thicket at the base of the cliff told him that Teddy, the cub, was
+still in that vicinity. He chuckled at the thought which came to him.
+
+"I wish I had the little rascal here," he mused. "I think he might be
+able to do something in the line of giving those fellows exercise! I
+wish I could get over to him."
+
+The boy started in the direction of the sound, but paused when he
+heard one of the men saying:
+
+"Where are the others?"
+
+"Down on the river shore," was the reply.
+
+"Then what is all that noise?" demanded the other.
+
+"I don't hear any noise," was the surly reply.
+
+"There is some one moving in the bushes."
+
+"Then it must be one of the boys," Alex heard, "and I think we had
+better investigate. It would be luck to catch one of them."
+
+"It wouldn't be any luck for me to be caught," thought Alex, "and so
+I'll just make a sneak back to the boat. I've learned all I wanted to
+know, anyway."
+
+He started away, but almost at his first motion a stone became
+detached from the ledge at his side and went thundering down toward
+the spot from which the voices had proceeded.
+
+"There!" one of the men cried, "I told you there was some one here."
+
+Together the men immediately rushed to the spot where Alex lay hidden.
+They rustled through the bushes without any attempt at concealment,
+scrambling up the acclivity with the use of both hands and feet.
+
+As they advanced another rustling came from the left, and Alex saw
+Teddy on the way back to his side. The moon, creeping farther to the
+south, found an opening in the dense foliage above the ledge, and
+threw a long shaft of light upon the exact spot where Alex lay,
+revolver in hand, waiting for the expected attack.
+
+He moved out of this natural limelight hastily, but as he did so
+another figure entered it. Advancing swiftly, the men who had
+discovered the location of the boy, saw him disappear and saw the new
+figure which came upon the scene. They stopped instantly.
+
+To their excited imaginations Teddy, standing somewhat above their
+heads, seemed to be at least nine feet high! Evidently trying to
+propitiate Alex for running away from him, the cub set about
+practicing all the stunts the boys had been teaching him for months.
+
+Standing upon his hind legs, he extended his paws in a boxing attitude
+and pranced about, as he had been taught to do, in all the attitudes
+of the prize ring. The hair on his neck and back seemed to bristle
+with anger. His little round eyes, bright in the moonlight, twinkled
+viciously!
+
+The men who were watching this trained exhibition, held their breaths
+in terror. They expected to be attacked by the animal immediately.
+Directly, they began backing slowly away. Then Teddy broke into his
+pet amusement, a whirling half-dance and they turned and ran,
+stumbling down the declivity, brushing through the briars and clinging
+vines of the thicket, and finally disappearing in the shadows farther
+upstream!
+
+It did not take Alex long to find his way to the cub.
+
+"You certainly are enough to scare the life out of a stranger," he
+said, addressing the bear. "If you don't mind, now, we'll go back to
+the boat. We've got news for the boys, at any rate."
+
+But Teddy was not inclined to go back to the close cabin. He wanted a
+longer run in the woods. Before Alex could seize the collar which had
+been placed about his neck, he was away again. Alex pursued him for
+some distance, and then turned back toward the boat.
+
+When he reached the shore and called softly to Case to row the boat
+over to him, there was no answer from the craft, as the rush of the
+river drowned his voice, but a most unexpected one came from the shore
+back of him. He turned quickly to see the barrel of a gun shining in
+the moonlight. He reached for his own weapon, but a hand caught his
+wrist and held it, as if in a grasp of iron.
+
+"All right, kid," a harsh voice said, "if they don't want you on your
+boat, we'll give you a home on ours. We've got the snuggest little
+craft upstream you ever saw. You're welcome to it, only it may be
+dangerous for you to try to get away or make any noise!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CAPTAIN JOE TAKES A PRISONER
+
+
+Case waited patiently a long time for the return of his chum. When it
+came near midnight he decided to awaken Clay and inform him of the
+situation. The latter was out of his bed instantly.
+
+"He shouldn't have gone," the boy said, anxiously. "There is no doubt
+that he is in trouble of some kind. I'm sorry for this!"
+
+"Well, he would go," Case urged, "and he promised to go only to the
+shore and look around. Just after he left, Teddy splashed off the boat
+and ran into the thicket. I presume the two are together."
+
+"Of course they're together," said Clay, "That is, if Teddy hasn't
+been discovered and shot. That is likely to happen."
+
+"What shall we do?" asked Case anxiously.
+
+"It isn't much use to go into the thicket after him," Clay decided.
+"There is plenty of moonlight here, it is true, but the foliage must
+make it very dark in the forest. It would be like looking for a
+special pebble on the beach to try to find him now. We'll have to
+wait."
+
+"Perhaps Teddy will come and bring us news," suggested Case. "I have
+known him to do such things. He's a wise little bear."
+
+There was no more sleep on board the _Rambler_ that night. With the
+first flush of dawn Clay and Jule were abroad in the forest, leaving
+Case on watch. Although they searched patiently for a long time, no
+trace of the missing boy could be discovered.
+
+Here and there were tracks which must have been made by Teddy, but it
+was not certain that the two had been together. After a time the boys
+returned to the bank of the river just above the location of the
+_Rambler_. There they found where a boat had been drawn up to the
+bank.
+
+"I don't see how they ever got a boat by us," Clay argued, "but they
+certainly did, for they couldn't have got here first. They must have
+sneaked up the east shore in the shadows and landed above the
+_Rambler_. Are you sure that no boat passed down after Alex left?" he
+asked of Case. "One might have drifted down without making much
+noise."
+
+"I was awake every minute of the time," Case insisted, "and no boat
+passed down. When the moon swung around to the south, the whole river
+was illuminated. I would have seen any craft that passed."
+
+"Then it is certain that the intruders are still up river, perhaps
+above the falls, and I am afraid that Alex is where they are. That
+little rascal is always getting lost! He should have remained on
+board."
+
+"Yes, he gets lost," admitted Case, loyally, "but he always comes out
+on top in the end. There wouldn't be any fun if Alex and Teddy were
+not always getting into trouble. It sort of keeps things moving!"
+
+"Well," Clay concluded, "the place to look for the boy is, as I said
+before, upstream. Now, the question is, shall we take the _Rambler_
+up?"
+
+"I am afraid the motors would declare our presence," Case observed,
+speaking from the deck of the boat, "and, besides, we couldn't go very
+far on account of the falls, so, perhaps, we would better go up as far
+as we can in the rowboat, making as little noise as possible."
+
+"And what's the matter with putting Captain Joe on shore?" asked Jule.
+"He may be able to point out the spot where the men left the river.
+Anyhow, it won't do any harm to try."
+
+"That's a good idea," declared Clay, "and I'll go along with him."
+
+"I'm afraid you'll find it pretty rough walking along that bank," Case
+suggested, "for the country is rocky and leads up to the plateau above
+the falls, and small streams may run in from the peninsula. You might
+have to swim when you wasn't climbing hills."
+
+"I'll try it a short distance, anyway," Clay answered, "and you, Case,
+remain on board and let Jule row up in the boat."
+
+This arrangement was carried out, and in a short time, the little boat
+was moving upstream, with Jule pulling cautiously at the oars. Clay
+found the bank a difficult one to ascend. He was obliged to wade
+through small creeks and climb rocky heights, but he kept steadily on
+his way, with Captain Joe at his heels.
+
+At last, they came to a creek which ran into the river at the foot of
+the falls. On the south side of this creek, for some distance in, was
+a level, grassy plateau, and here Captain Joe picked up the scent they
+were looking for. The south bank showed that a boat had recently been
+drawn up there.
+
+Disregarding, for the time being, all commands from the boy, the dog
+raced up the small stream, and finally disappeared in a thicket.
+
+Clay hesitated, undecided as to whether he ought to follow the dog at
+once or return to notify Jule of his discovery and secure his
+assistance.
+
+He had already lost sight of the dog, so he concluded that he might as
+well return to Jule. This he did, and in a short time, the boat was
+anchored at the mouth of the creek, and the boys were pressing on into
+the thicket. Captain Joe was nowhere in sight.
+
+"They certainly are on this side of the creek," Clay reasoned, "for
+they couldn't very well make progress on the other side unless they
+traveled in an aeroplane."
+
+There were no tracks to follow, no indications of any one having
+passed that way recently, but the boys kept pluckily on, listening now
+and then for some sign from the dog.
+
+"If he finds Alex," Jule declared, "he'll make a note of it, and we'll
+hear a racket fit to wake the dead."
+
+"And that will warn the outlaws of our approach," said Clay in a
+discouraged tone of voice. "Perhaps we did wrong to bring the dog."
+
+"You may be sure Captain Joe will give a good account of himself,"
+Jule said confidently. "He may make a racket, but it's dollars to
+apples that they won't catch him."
+
+In a short time the clamor the boys had been expecting came from the
+forest beyond. Captain Joe was barking and growling and, judging from
+the commotion in the copse, was evidently threshing about.
+
+"That's a scrap," Jule declared. "Perhaps he has caught one of the
+men. If he has, I hope he's got him by the throat."
+
+Pressing into the interior of the forest, the level grassy plateau
+having long since disappeared, the boys finally came to a small
+cleared glade and discovered the cause of Captain Joe's enthusiasm.
+
+Teddy, the cub, was standing with his back to the hole of a giant tree
+inviting the dog to a boxing match. Captain Joe's clamor indicated
+only delight at the meeting with his friend.
+
+Before showing themselves in the glade, the boys looked in every
+direction for some indication of the outlaws, but there was no sign of
+human life anywhere near them. No noise, save the cries of the
+creatures of the air and the jungle.
+
+"You're a fine old scout, Captain Joe," whispered Clay as he finally
+advanced into the glade. "You notify everybody within a mile of us as
+to our location, but you don't do a thing to help us find Alex."
+
+At mention of the lost boy's name, Teddy dropped down from his
+antagonistic attitude, and, thrusting a soft muzzle against Clay's
+hand, moved away to the west.
+
+"The cub has more sense than the dog," Jule exclaimed. "Captain Joe
+makes a noise, and Teddy does the piloting. Do you suppose he knows
+where Alex is?" he added.
+
+"It seems to me that he is trying to tell us something," Clay replied.
+"Anyway, we may as well follow him."
+
+Teddy, who was an especial favorite of Alex's, and never lost an
+opportunity of following him about, appeared to know exactly where he
+was going, for he maintained a steady pace for half an hour or more,
+keeping to the south shore of the creek for a time and then crossing
+on a fallen tree to the opposite bank.
+
+"Now," said Clay, "we ought not to follow close behind the cub. He
+makes as much noise as a freight train going up a steep grade, and
+we'll be sure to be seen if the outlaws are anywhere about."
+
+"Perhaps he will go on alone," Jule suggested.
+
+"In that case, we can skirt his track and remain hidden. That ought
+not to be very difficult in this broken country."
+
+Teddy turned about with an inquiring glance as the boys left his side,
+but soon proceeded on his course. Fearful that Captain Joe would
+indulge in another demonstration of some kind, the boys kept him with
+them, Jule keeping a close hold on his collar.
+
+"This doesn't seem much like a river trip to me," Jule grinned as they
+passed over rocks, sneaked through miniature canyons and threaded
+thickets alive with briers and clinging vines. "Seems more like an
+overland expedition to the north star."
+
+"There is one compensation," Clay added humorously. "Alex will get
+good and hungry--and serve him right at that."
+
+"Huh!" Jule declared, "Alex is always hungry anyway."
+
+Teddy now quickened his pace so that the boys had great difficulty in
+following him. He ran with his nose to the rough ground, his short
+ears tipped forward, for all the world like a hound on a scent.
+
+"Look at the beast!" Jule laughed. "Acts like he was a hound after
+foxes. That's some bear, Clay."
+
+"So far as I know," Clay answered, "he's the only cub that ever did a
+stunt like that. Still, he's only exhibiting the advantages of an
+early education, for he has long been trained to follow us."
+
+After a short time the boys, advancing up a ledge and then into a
+little gully, came upon Teddy lying flat on the ground, his nose
+pointing straight ahead. When they came to him Captain Joe pulled
+fiercely to get away, his nose pointing straight to the north.
+
+"I guess," Jule panted, holding to the dog with all his strength,
+"that they have located Alex. If you'll take charge of this
+obstreperous animal for a while, I'll sneak ahead and have a look."
+
+Clay finally succeeded in quieting the dog, and Jule pushed on up the
+gully. At the very end, where the depression terminated in a wall of
+rock, he saw a faint column of smoke. A closer approach revealed a
+small fire of dry sticks with something cooking in a tin pail over the
+coals.
+
+Jule stopped and considered the situation seriously.
+
+"Now, I wonder," he thought, "why Teddy didn't make a fool of himself
+by rushing right up to Alex. I don't believe he's scared of the men,
+and, to tell the truth, I don't see any men to be frightened at. Alex
+seems to be there alone. Wonder why he doesn't run."
+
+The reason why Alex didn't run was disclosed in a moment. The boy's
+hands were tightly bound across his breast and a strong rope encircled
+his ankles. For a moment there was no one in sight save the boy, then
+a roughly dressed man came into view carrying an armful of dry wood
+for the fire. Jule heard both the dog and the cub protesting at being
+kept away from the fellow, and saw the man turn sharply about.
+
+Then there came another revelation. With bound arms swinging out, and
+bound feet kicking violently, Alex was ordering the two animals away.
+Well trained as they were, they protested while they obeyed.
+
+"Is that that bear of yours, again?" Jule heard the man asking. "If I
+wasn't afraid of attracting attention, I'd put a bullet into him. Call
+him up here and keep him quiet while I gather more dry wood. The boys
+will be here in an hour or so and will want breakfast."
+
+"That settles it," whispered Jule. "If the boys are so far away that
+they won't be back in an hour or more, they won't find any cook when
+they return. If I have my way, the cook will be tied up."
+
+"All right," Alex said in reply to the fellow's order, "I'll call him
+up and keep him quiet after you go away. He's been used to polite
+society and doesn't like you!"
+
+The man snarled out some surly reply and disappeared. Jule was at his
+chum's side in a moment. The ropes were cut, and the two boys were
+speeding back to where Clay had been left.
+
+There was a little scene of congratulation, and then Captain Joe,
+growling fiercely, leaped forward. The man who had gone in search of
+wood must have heard the noisy greetings of the boys, for he came
+running back to the fire. The boys saw him throw a hand back for a
+weapon, heard an exclamation of anger, and knew that the dog was
+springing at his throat.
+
+The struggle was a short one, for the man who had been attacked had
+not succeeded in reaching his revolver. When the boys reached the
+scene the man was black in the face and the dog was shaking him
+viciously by the neck.
+
+"Captain Joe seems to know who his friends are!" Alex shouted.
+
+"If we don't break his hold in a minute, the man will be dead," Jule
+exclaimed, dancing excitedly about, "and we're not out to commit
+murder."
+
+When the clutch of the dog was finally released, the man lay back,
+panting, on the ground. An examination of his injury showed that it
+was not serious, his throat having been compressed rather than torn.
+
+In a moment the man sat up and glared about with murder in his
+protruding eyes. Seeing the dog still watching him, he gave him a
+vicious kick and came near inviting a repetition of the attack.
+
+"I'll kill that dog!" he shouted.
+
+"No, you won't!" laughed Alex. "We're going to take that dog out of
+this blooming country. We're going to tie you up so you won't
+over-exert yourself while in your present weakened condition, and
+streak it for the motor boat. We've had enough of this blooming
+election precinct."
+
+This program was carried out so far as moving back toward the motor
+boat was concerned, but when, after a long, hard journey, they came to
+the place in the river where the _Rambler_ had been left, it was
+nowhere to be seen. Satisfied that Case had not proceeded up the
+river--the falls would have prevented a long run up--they all entered
+the rowboat and passed on down toward the St. Lawrence.
+
+"Talk about getting lost!" grinned Alex. "Case has gone and lost the
+boat!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CASE HAS HIS DOUBTS
+
+
+As may well be imagined, Case was waiting impatiently on board the
+_Rambler_ while the events described in the last chapter were taking
+place in the forest. It is one thing to face a desperate situation in
+the company of helpful friends. It is quite another to consider a
+grave peril alone, especially when chums are in danger.
+
+Several hours passed, and Case heard nothing from the wanderers in the
+forest. Then an unexpected visitor arrived. The boy saw an Indian
+canoe paddled swiftly up the river.
+
+He had not had a good chance to observe the visitor who had cut the
+cable, thus bring about the meeting with the steamer people, but it
+was his opinion that the canoeist was none other than the boy who had
+given his name as Max Michel. He anxiously awaited the arrival of the
+craft.
+
+"If that is Max," he thought, "he certainly has a well-developed nerve
+to come back to the _Rambler_ after doing what he did."
+
+In a short time the canoe, coming steadily upstream, touched the hull
+of the motor boat, and its occupant clambered alertly to the deck.
+Case stood for a moment regarding him with disapproval, no welcome at
+all in his face. The boy approached with a confident smile.
+
+"What are you doing here?" demanded Case.
+
+"I came," was the quick reply, "because I have news which may interest
+you. I know you have good reason to doubt my friendship, but I hope
+you will listen to me. It will be in your interest to do so."
+
+"News of my friends?" asked Case quickly, forgetting in the impulse of
+the moment that the boy's information was more than likely to be
+misleading. "Have you seen any of the boys to-day?"
+
+"No," was the slow reply, "but I have heard from them. They crossed
+the peninsula early this morning, were lured into a boat passing down
+a parallel stream, and must now be somewhere on or near the St.
+Lawrence."
+
+"How do you know all this?" demanded Case half-angrily.
+
+"Ever since the night I cut your cable," Max began, "I have been more
+than ashamed of myself. I was ordered to do the work, and believed
+that there was nothing else for me to do except to obey. I was not far
+from St. Luce yesterday when you boys went aboard the _Sybil_. The
+steamer touched at St. Luce and I afterwards heard the captain telling
+a friend of meeting you. Then I decided to return to you, if you were
+still in this vicinity."
+
+"And so you come here and tell me a fairy tale about my chums?" Case
+exclaimed. "You don't expect me to believe a word you say, do you?"
+
+"And yet it is the truth," Max insisted. "I was up this morning early,
+paddling across the St. Lawrence, for I knew from the Captain's
+conversation that you were over here. Not long ago I came upon a boat
+leaving the river to the west. From the man who was rowing, I learned
+that your friends had been attacked and captured."
+
+Case still doubted. He did not like the look in the eyes of the boy.
+He remembered the treacherous act which had sent the disabled
+_Rambler_ drifting down the St. Lawrence. He thought fast for a moment
+and then asked abruptly:
+
+"Will you tell me what your interest is in this matter?"
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Why did you cut our cable?"
+
+The boy hesitated a moment, glanced casually over the west bank of the
+stream and then lowered his eyes to the deck.
+
+"I was ordered to do so," he said in a moment.
+
+"Ordered to disable our motors and cut our cable?" demanded Case
+indignantly. "Don't you know that you might have been the cause of our
+death? Is everything you have told me to-day just as true as the fairy
+tales you told us that night? You may as well be frank."
+
+Again the boy hesitated. To Case it seemed that he was listening for
+some sound or signal from the shore.
+
+"Will you tell me," continued Case, "who it was that ordered you to
+cut our cable and disable our motors?"
+
+The boy shook his head. His manner was now anxious and uneasy, and
+Case turned his own eyes toward the shore which was being watched so
+closely.
+
+"I can't give you the name of my employers," the boy finally said.
+
+"Then tell me this," insisted Case. "Why did the men who ordered you
+to do the work want it done?"
+
+"I don't know," was the brief reply.
+
+"I presume," Case went on, "that you would have destroyed the
+_Rambler_ with a stick of dynamite if you had been told to do so."
+
+"I wouldn't have committed murder," was the quick reply.
+
+"Now let us get back to your story of to-day," Case said. "Who was it
+that told you of the capture of my chums?"
+
+"I can't tell you that."
+
+"Was it one of your employers?"
+
+"It was not."
+
+"Was it a man with whom you are acquainted?" asked Case.
+
+"I never saw him until to-day," he replied.
+
+"How did he come to speak to you of the boys at all?"
+
+"He mentioned that he had seen three boys evidently under a restraint
+in a boat with three men farther up the stream."
+
+"So the boat held three men and three boys? Anyone else?"
+
+"He did not mention any one else."
+
+"And the six people were the sole occupants of the boat, were they?"
+
+"That is what the man told me."
+
+"Before you concocted this story," Case declared scornfully, "you
+ought to have jogged your memory a trifle. You saw Captain Joe and
+Teddy on board the _Rambler_ the night you cut our cable. Why didn't
+you add to your story and say that the dog and the bear were with the
+three boys?"
+
+"The man I saw said nothing to me about the dog and the bear," Max
+insisted stubbornly. "I had only a moment's talk with him."
+
+"And then you came directly to the _Rambler_ to tell me of the
+incident?"
+
+"I came directly to the spot where I believed the _Rambler_ would be,"
+was the answer. "Of course, I didn't know exactly where you were, but
+Captain Morgan said that when you left him it was your intention to
+ascend this stream. I was lucky in finding you."
+
+"And now," Case asked, with a scornful smile on his lips, "what do you
+expect me to do under the circumstances? What would you advise?"
+
+"I thought," replied Max, "that you would go down the river, and make
+your way to the mouth of the other stream."
+
+"Why do your employers want me to leave my present location?" asked
+Case. "Do they want the boys to come out of the forest and find the
+_Rambler_ gone? Is that what you were sent here for?"
+
+"Oh, well," Max exclaimed, "if you don't believe what I say, and won't
+take advantage of the honest information I have given you, I may as
+well be on my way."
+
+He moved toward the gunwale of the boat, as he spoke and began untying
+the line which held his canoe to the _Rambler_. Case stepped forward
+and laid a detaining hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Just a moment," the boy said. "You are not going to leave the
+_Rambler_ until my chums return, and perhaps not then."
+
+"Do you mean that you intend to keep me prisoner?" flashed Max.
+
+"That is just exactly what I mean to do," Case responded. "I don't
+know what your object in coming here really is, for I believe that as
+a prevaricator, you have Ananias backed off the board. I dislike to
+use the shorter and uglier word, Max, but you certainly are the
+greatest liar I ever came across. You'll stay here until we know more
+about you."
+
+"You'd better do a little thinking before you keep me here," Max
+threatened. "You are making a lot of trouble for yourself."
+
+"I'll have to risk that," Case replied. "Have you got any weapons
+about your person? If you have, give them up."
+
+Max shook his head angrily.
+
+"If I had had a weapon," he declared, "you would have known all about
+it the minute you laid a hand on my shoulder."
+
+"Will you promise to remain on the boat without attempting to escape
+if I leave you your liberty?" Case asked.
+
+"I will promise nothing!" was the ugly reply.
+
+"All right," Case said.
+
+There was a rush and a little struggle, but in the end, Max was
+overcome and stowed away bound hand and foot in the cabin.
+
+Leaving his prisoner there, foaming with rage and searching a limited
+vocabulary for words to express his feelings, Case went out to the
+prow of the _Rambler_ and sat down to think over the situation.
+
+"That boy," he mused, "was sent here to induce me to take the
+_Rambler_ out of this place. Why?"
+
+The boy considered the problem for a long time. He was hoping that
+some of his chums would make their appearance. He disliked very much
+to take the _Rambler_ away from the place where they had left it, and
+still there might be a grain of truth in what Max had said.
+
+The day was bright and still. The deep green foliage of the forest
+shone and shimmered in the sun. There were birds in the air, and here
+and there timid creatures of the jungle came out to the stream to
+drink and peer with questioning eyes at the stranger who had invaded
+their leafy retreat. There were no signs of human life anywhere except
+on board the _Rambler_. The continued absence of the boys seemed
+unaccountable.
+
+"Well," the boy decided, presently, "I'll take a chance on a visit to
+the St. Lawrence. It won't take long to run down, swing up to the
+other end of the peninsula and investigate the west stream. If the
+boys come back while I am gone, they'll probably hear the motors
+clamoring and know that I am not far away. Still, I don't think
+they'll come."
+
+Case was slowly reaching the uncomfortable conclusion that the boys
+had, indeed, been overcome by the outlaws. In that case, his first act
+ought to be to secure help. If he returned to the St. Lawrence, he
+might meet a friendly captain who would be willing to assist him in
+the rescue.
+
+So, with this idea in his mind, the boy drew up the anchor, started
+the motors to popping and headed the _Rambler_ down stream. The boat
+proceeded at full speed, and soon the arm of the bay which closed in
+behind the peninsula came in view.
+
+Anchored there, in a sheltered cove on the north shore of the river,
+was a trim little launch. Case could see four men moving about in the
+cockpit at the rear of the little trunk cabin. He immediately directed
+the _Rambler_ toward the craft and hailed across the water. He was
+answered promptly.
+
+"Is that the _Rambler_?" was asked.
+
+"The _Rambler_ it is," answered Case. "Are you looking for her?"
+
+"Not especially," was the reply. "We were told that you were here by
+Captain Morgan, whom we saw up the river."
+
+"Come aboard," invited Case, and in a few moments two bright-looking
+young men ascended from a small boat to the deck of the _Rambler_.
+
+"I am Joseph Fontenelle," one of the young men said, "and this is my
+friend, Sam Howard. We were just going up the river when we saw you
+coming down. Are you alone on board?"
+
+"My friends are somewhere back in the forest," Case explained, certain
+that it was safe to trust the visitors. "I seem to have lost them."
+
+"Then we have probably arrived just in time," Fontenelle went on. "As
+you probably know from my name, we are here on the old search for the
+charter. Captain Morgan, I am told, related the story to you. For
+myself, I have little faith in the quest, but father insists that I
+make a try to solve the mystery every summer. This is my third visit
+to what we call Cartier island. I expect to make them annually as long
+as father lives."
+
+"You have no faith in the story of the lost charter and the missing
+family jewels?" asked Case.
+
+"Oh, they were lost, without doubt, and possibly in this country, but
+there is no clew whatever to their whereabouts."
+
+Case was wondering if the Fontenelles had a copy of the crude map
+which had been so mysteriously brought to the _Rambler_. He was
+wondering, too, if it would be safe for him to tell this youthful
+representative of the French family all that he knew of the two
+communications and the attacks which had been made on the _Rambler_.
+The question was virtually settled by Fontenelle himself.
+
+"I am told," the young man said, "that you boys were placed in peril
+by being mistaken for us."
+
+"We had a scrap with river pirates, if that is what you mean," Case
+replied, "and Captain Morgan helped us to get away from them."
+
+"I'm afraid," Fontenelle went on, "that the men you term 'river
+pirates' are pirates only for the purpose of this occasion. We have
+always been opposed in our quest for what father calls the lost
+channel."
+
+"Opposed everywhere in your searches?" Case asked, "or opposed only
+when you come to this section?"
+
+"Opposed only in this vicinity," answered Fontenelle, gazing keenly at
+the boy. "I see what you mean," he added. "At least, your inference is
+that those who are opposing us really know more about the location of
+the charter and the jewels than we know ourselves, and that they
+believe them to be here."
+
+"That is the way it seems to me," Case answered, "still if they think
+they know that the property sought for is in this vicinity, their
+knowledge fails when they try to put their hand upon it. They can only
+hope for success in case of your failure, and so they oppose your
+every effort."
+
+"That is the way in which we look at it," Fontenelle replied. "In
+fact, father is positive that the search for the charter goes steadily
+on in this vicinity throughout most of the year.
+
+"Last year, we had quite a merry picnic with a scout sent up to
+obstruct our search, and one of our men was seriously wounded. Our
+enemies are certainly becoming desperate, and if, as you say, your
+chums appear to be lost in the forest, we ought to be getting up there
+to look after them. They may be sorely in need of help."
+
+"I thank you for your offer of assistance," Case replied, "and it is
+my opinion that we can't get back there too quickly. Come over here
+and look through the cabin window," he continued, "pointing through
+the glass panel to where he had left Max lying bound on the bunk."
+
+Then the look of amusement vanished from the boy's face, and he opened
+the door and passed quickly into the cabin. Max was nowhere to be
+seen. He had disappeared as completely as if the hull of the _Rambler_
+had opened and dropped him into the stream. The ropes with which he
+had been tied lay on the floor, but the boy was gone.
+
+The open window at the rear of the motor boat, told the story. In
+answer to Fontenelle's looks of inquiry, Case briefly told the story
+of Max's visit and capture. The young man pondered a moment and then
+said:
+
+"I don't believe the boys have been captured at all. The chances are
+that they are still in the forest, probably looking for the boy who
+disappeared last night.
+
+"This boy Max, if your description tallies with my recollection, has
+appeared in the game before to-day. He is a wharf rat at Quebec, and
+is being used by these outlaws to further their treacherous ends. I
+wish we had found him here."
+
+As the boys passed out on deck, the barking of a dog came from up the
+river. There was no mistaking the voice. It was Captain Joe, and he
+was deploring the absence of his floating home. Case smiled happily at
+the sound, and then his face grew serious, for gunshots followed the
+echo of the dog's voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF MAX
+
+
+Case hastened to put the _Rambler_ under motion, and, with Fontenelle
+and Howard still on board, headed her into the current. At a signal
+from Fontenelle, the launch _Cartier_ drew up her anchor and followed.
+
+To Captain Joe's vicious barking was now added the surly voice of the
+bear cub, so the boys knew that the animals were not far away. In
+fact, as they paused to investigate the ugly nose of the bulldog was
+pushed through the curtain of shrubbery at the edge of the stream, and
+Teddy leaped snarling into the water.
+
+Fontenelle greeted the approach of the animals to the boat with shouts
+of laughter. Even in their haste to reach the boat, the animals could
+not avoid snapping and striking at each other, playfully. No more
+shots were heard, but presently a great tramping in the undergrowth
+came at the point where Joe and Teddy had made their appearance,
+indicating human presence there. All on board the _Rambler_ anxiously
+awaited the appearance of those who were struggling in the jungle.
+
+"Would the menagerie run away and leave the boys in captivity?" asked
+Fontenelle, as the bulldog and the bear cub were assisted, streaming,
+to the deck. "They seem to have had a long run."
+
+"Indeed, they would not," replied Case. "If Clay and the others were
+tied up in the woods, Captain Joe and Teddy would be there with them.
+No, it is my opinion that it is Alex making all that racket in the
+brush. He's a noisy little chap, and particularly troublesome when
+hungry."
+
+The next moment proved Case's reasoning to be correct, for the
+undergrowth parted again and the three boys appeared on the bank.
+
+"Ship ahoy!" Alex shouted, wrinkling his freckled nose. "Do you want
+to take on passengers?"
+
+"I hope," Case called back, "that you fellows haven't gone and lost
+the rowboat. And where is the two-foot fish you were going to bring
+for breakfast? I don't see it anywhere."
+
+"Well," Jule called out, as the _Rambler_ edged toward the bank, "if
+we have lost a boat, you seem to have found one."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Case.
+
+Jule pointed, and Case went to the gunwale of the _Rambler_ and looked
+down upon the fragile canoe in which Max had paddled up the river.
+
+"I didn't know that we were towing it," he said, "but its presence
+here accounts for Max getting away without being seen or heard. He
+never stopped to get his boat, and may be swimming under water yet,
+for all I know. I hope he's clear down at the bottom."
+
+"No danger of one of those wharf rats getting drowned," Fontenelle
+laughed. "I have seen them remain under water for what seemed to me to
+be five minutes, and Max is some riverside boy."
+
+"Shoot the canoe over," cried Clay, "and we'll come aboard."
+
+"Where's your boat?" demanded Case.
+
+"Well, you see," explained Clay, "when we missed the _Rambler_, we
+started for the St. Lawrence by the water route, but when ruffians on
+the bank began shooting, we tied up the boat and took to the thicket."
+
+Case released the line and sent the light canoe spinning over the
+surface of the river. Clay caught the rope deftly and one by one the
+boys paddled over to the motor boat. Alex threw himself down on the
+deck and gazed imploringly up at Case.
+
+"I expected," he said whimsically, "that you'd welcome me on the bank
+of the river with a pie!"
+
+"The next time you get us into trouble," Case laughed, "I'll meet you
+on the bank of the river with a club."
+
+The three boys were presented to Fontenelle and Howard and then
+preparations for breakfast were begun.
+
+"Alex got taken prisoner up in the woods," Jule grinned. "We cut him
+loose and tied up the cook. We were thinking of getting breakfast
+there, but we preferred fish and pancakes to lead and gunpowder, so we
+made a run for the boat."
+
+"Is the cook tied up yet?" asked Case.
+
+"I reckon they cut him loose in about ten minutes," Alex replied, "for
+they seemed to be about three steps behind us all the way to the
+river, but they didn't catch us."
+
+"Do you think we would better go back after the rowboat?" Case asked,
+as the boys sat down to a breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, beans
+and hot coffee. "We ought not to loose it."
+
+"Look here," Jule said. "We've been sowing rowboats over the world for
+a year or two. We lost two on the Amazon, one on the Columbia, two on
+the Colorado and had three smashed on the Mississippi. Now, I think
+we'd better go back and get this boat."
+
+"All right," Alex grinned. "You go on back and get it."
+
+"Well, don't you ever think I can't," Jule replied. "I can sneak up
+there and swipe that boat from under their noses. But you needn't
+think I'm going to set out as long as there is anything here to eat."
+
+While the boys took breakfast, the situation as explained to Case by
+Fontenelle was described to them, and after a time Case beckoned Clay
+away to a corner of the cabin and asked him a question over which he
+had been puzzling ever since the arrival of Fontenelle.
+
+"Now you understand the situation," Case said, "and I want you to
+answer this question right off the handle. I've decided it half a
+dozen ways, but I have been fortunate enough so far to keep my mouth
+shut."
+
+"What is the question?" asked Clay.
+
+"Wait," Case said. "I'll make a little explanation first. These
+Fontenelle people have only the legend of the lost channel and the
+loss of the charter and the family jewels in this section. They
+haven't a single clew which tells them to look in any special spot
+first.
+
+"So far as I can make out, young Fontenelle and his friends come down
+here every summer, in answer to the demands of the elder Fontenelle,
+for a sort of a vacation. So far as I can make out, they have never
+honestly searched for the lost channel. In fact, the young man has
+doubts of its existence. Now, what I want to know is this."
+
+"Why didn't you say so before?" asked Clay with a smile. "I know what
+your question is. You want to know if we ought to show Fontenelle the
+map which was brought to the _Rambler_ so mysteriously."
+
+"Aw, of course, you could guess it after I had stated the case fully,"
+Case declared. "But you haven't told me what you think about it. Ought
+we to give Fontenelle the map?"
+
+"Well," Clay answered, cautiously, "the map doesn't belong to us. It
+wasn't intended for us. It was handed to us by a man who evidently
+believed that he was turning it over to Fontenelle."
+
+"Yes," Case said, "it does look as if the map belongs to Fontenelle,
+but look here! He doesn't believe in this search. It is my idea that
+he doesn't even care whether he secures the lost property or not. He
+won't consider the matter seriously if we give it to him. He'll just
+laugh and poke it away among a lot of old papers and that will be the
+end of it."
+
+"You are undoubtedly right," Clay answered.
+
+"Now," Case went on, "we've had enough trouble with these outlaws to
+arouse my fighting blood. Besides, I'd like to have a look at that
+lost channel. Lost channels appeal to me, you know! I'd give a lot to
+find it. Why not keep the map and go on with the search?"
+
+"But the other fellows would be searching, too, and the whole event
+would deteriorate into a big summer outing," Clay insisted.
+
+"All right, then," Case suggested. "Suppose we go on up the river to
+Quebec, and Montreal, and the Thousand Islands, and then come back
+after these fellows have gone home, and find that channel."
+
+"That listens pretty good to me," Clay answered. "I am willing to go
+on at once if it is a sure thing that we come back, but I don't want
+to sneak away from these fellows after they have started the fight."
+
+"That shows courage, all right enough," Case added, "but I'd rather
+hunt for this lost channel with these toughs on the wharf at Quebec,
+and," he added, more seriously, "that's where I think they'll be by
+the time we get back here. They won't stay here long after Fontenelle
+goes away."
+
+"Very well," Clay replied, "if Jule and Alex are willing, we'll be on
+our way this afternoon."
+
+This understanding having been reached, the two boys went back to
+their guests, while Jule went ashore in the canoe.
+
+"Now, watch the little rat," Alex laughed. "He'll tie that boat up and
+blunder through the briers, when he might paddle up the stream close
+to the bank without taking any chances."
+
+But Jule did nothing of the kind. He kept on up the stream in the
+canoe. Presently he rounded a bend and disappeared from sight.
+
+In a short time Fontenelle and his friend left the _Rambler_ with the
+understanding that the two crews were to meet in the evening if the
+boys did not sail away in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, as the
+reader already knows, the boys had decided to leave before the parting
+took place, but they did not care to be urged to remain and join in
+the summer vacation picnic which was sure to follow.
+
+They had started out for a trip covering the whole length of the St.
+Lawrence river from the Gulf to Lake Ontario, and were determined to
+cover the course before shipping their boat back to Chicago.
+
+In less than an hour Jule was back with the rowboat, having seen
+nothing of the outlaws.
+
+"They probably thought the whole Canadian navy was coming after them,"
+Alex said, pointing from the _Rambler_ to the _Cartier_ and back
+again. "Looks like we were coming out in force."
+
+In the middle of the afternoon the boys notified Fontenelle of their
+intention to proceed on their journey, and the _Rambler_ passed on up
+the St. Lawrence.
+
+It was a golden day in summer, the waters sparkled and danced in the
+sunlight, and the shipping passing to and fro on the river made a
+pleasant picture of marine life. The boys enjoyed the situation
+thoroughly.
+
+"I have always had a longing to visit Quebec," Clay said as the boat
+headed for a little cove to avoid the wash of a giant steamer, "and I
+propose that we spend two or three days there looking over things."
+
+"That suits me," Alex cut in. "When we get there, I'll go down on the
+docks and find that boy Max. And when I find him, there'll be one
+wharf rat less on the docks."
+
+"You better keep away from the docks," warned Case. "You'd get lost on
+South Clark street between any two blocks you could name."
+
+"Well, I always find myself again," Alex declared.
+
+"Yes, you do," Case jeered. "The last time you got lost, it took two
+boys and a bear and a bulldog to find you. And I don't think you are
+worth the trouble at that!"
+
+The boys immediately had a friendly struggle on the deck, in which
+Teddy and Captain Joe promptly mixed.
+
+That night the boys arranged for another campfire on the north bank of
+the St. Lawrence. They put up their hammocks, anchored the boat close
+inshore, and prepared for a long sleep.
+
+"If there isn't any lost channels or charters from French kings or
+strayed family jewels hiding about here," Jule commented, "we'll
+certainly enjoy ourselves in this camp."
+
+Nothing came to disturb them during the night. They watched the
+procession of craft of all descriptions on the river until nine
+o'clock, then went to sleep with a danger signal swinging from the
+prow of the _Rambler_. They were early astir in the morning and on
+their way upstream.
+
+There was no need of haste, yet the boys seemed to enjoy themselves
+most when the boat was in motion, so they plowed slowly up the river
+until night, enjoying the wild scenery and stopping now and then at a
+little settlement. That was the first of many days of uninterrupted
+pleasure on the most extensive water system of the North American
+continent.
+
+On the second night, they made another camp with only Captain Joe and
+Teddy standing guard. Alex was out after fish early in the morning,
+and at six o'clock he served one of his long-wished for fish a la
+Indian breakfasts.
+
+Just before nightfall, they came within sight of Quebec and moored at
+a pier a short distance down the river.
+
+"Now," laughed Case, "if any treasure seekers or outlaws or river
+pirates appear to us during the night, we'll call the police. We've
+had trouble enough for one trip."
+
+"I'm going to sleep ten hours every night until we get to the Thousand
+Islands," declared Jule. "I'm hungry and sleepy most of the time."
+
+"And we'll come back down the rapids, won't we?" asked Alex.
+
+"You bet we will," replied Clay. "We'll come down like a shot."
+
+"We'll need to," Jule suggested, "because we'll lose time in the canal
+going up."
+
+There was no open campfire or swinging hammocks for the boys that
+night. The city of Quebec twinkled its myriad lights from plateau and
+cliff, and the boys were not sure of whom they might meet during the
+dark hours. They cooked their supper early in order to make an evening
+trip in the lower part of the city.
+
+"I wonder," Case said, as, leaving Jule and Clay on board, he started
+away with Alex, "what the man who delivered the map to us is thinking
+about concerning his mistake now. He might have been paid to deliver
+that document to Fontenelle, and the error may make him trouble."
+
+"And I was just thinking," Alex put in, "what the fellows who
+delivered the warning to us are thinking concerning themselves. They
+wasted a lot of ammunition and lost a good many hours' sleep on our
+account."
+
+"Perhaps we'll find out all about it when we go back to find the lost
+channel," Case suggested. "Do you know," he added, "I'm looking
+forward to that lost channel stunt with a good deal of enthusiasm."
+
+"Do you really think there's a lost channel there?" asked Alex.
+
+"There is something in it," Case asserted. "Men don't draw maps
+entirely on imagination."
+
+"Then why don't the men who drew the map go and tell Fontenelle all
+about it?"
+
+"He tried to tell him all about it when he delivered the map to us,
+but as you know, the map reached the wrong hands."
+
+The boys walked the streets, comparing them unfavorably with those of
+Chicago, until nearly ten o'clock and then turned to go to the boat.
+When they came to the river front again, Alex stopped suddenly and
+caught Case by the arm.
+
+"Look there," he whispered, "What do you know about that?"
+
+"About what?" asked Case, puzzled.
+
+"Don't you see him down there at the head of the pier?" asked Alex,
+nodding his head in that direction.
+
+"I guess you're the boy that's got loose packing in his head
+to-night," laughed Case. "What do you see?"
+
+"What do I see?" repeated Alex. "That's Max, the wharf rat, the cable
+cutter, the motor destroyer. Shall we go and get him?"
+
+"Go and get him?" repeated Case. "He'd have a flock of wharf rats
+around us in about two minutes."
+
+"Well," Alex insisted, "we'd better stay here and see where he goes,
+anyway. If we can locate the fellow now, we can go after him any
+time."
+
+"Then I guess we can go after him any time," Case chuckled, "because
+he's heading for that eating house with the tin fish sign in front of
+it."
+
+"Then here we go for the tin fish," Alex declared, and in five
+minutes, they were seated at a little table in an alcove separated
+only by a heavy cloth curtain from the main room of a third-rate
+French restaurant.
+
+When a waiter appeared they gave their orders and sat watching the
+main room through the folds of the curtain.
+
+"There!" Alex finally said in a whisper. "He's coming in."
+
+"Yes," grunted Case, "and he's got a dozen wharf rats with him. I
+guess they've got us in as neat a trap as one boy ever set for
+another!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A BUSY NIGHT IN QUEBEC
+
+
+"I don't understand," Alex said, peering through the curtain, "why he
+should want to do anything to us. Perhaps he won't notice us at all."
+
+"Don't you ever think he won't," grinned Case. "Didn't I truss him up
+like a hen in the cabin and threaten to arrest him, and didn't he
+declare that he would shoot me if he ever got a chance? Don't you
+believe he'll let us get out of here without trouble!"
+
+"Oh, well," Alex replied, "if he starts anything we'll get out all
+right in spite of him, and in spite of his wharf rats."
+
+"I've got an idea," Case said, watching the collection of
+roughly-dressed boys sitting about a table in the other room, "that
+that kid has been waiting in Quebec for us."
+
+"What shall we do, then," Alex asked still in a whisper. "Shall we
+make a break and get out right now?"
+
+"We may as well wait and see what takes place," Case answered. "This
+is a pretty tough joint, I guess, and some one may start something. In
+that case, we can get out while they are beating each other up."
+
+The lunches ordered were now brought by the waiter, and the boys fell
+to, although, as may well be imagined, without much appetite. Max sat
+with his face turned toward the curtain, evidently trying to discover
+whether his enemies were using the alcove. He had seen the boys enter
+the restaurant, but was not quite certain as to which room they had
+seated themselves in. His face was watchful and vicious.
+
+Half an hour passed and the situation did not change, then Alex
+plucked Case by the sleeve, motioning toward the outer door.
+
+"We may as well move," he said. "It is getting late, and the streets
+are now growing more unsafe every minute because of such night
+prowlers as you see out there. It we've got to fight, we may as well
+begin."
+
+But it was not necessary for them to start the engagement, as Max came
+to the alcove directly and drew the curtain roughly aside. The boys
+remained in their seats, grinning up at him, but their hands under the
+cover of the table grasped their automatics.
+
+"Hello!" Alex said presently. "We never expected to meet you here."
+
+"Oh, I had an idea you'd be along," Max said with an ugly frown.
+
+"Come on in and set down," Case urged with a chuckle. "I'd like to
+have you tell me why you disappeared so suddenly."
+
+"That's a nice question to ask!" Max snarled. "You tie me up like a
+pig in the cabin and then wonder why I get out of your clutches!"
+
+"You had a little swim for it, didn't you?" asked Case.
+
+"Yes," was the reply, "and I'll make you sweat for every drop of water
+I swallowed during that long dive. I'll show you a thing or two!"
+
+"What was there in that job for you, anyway?" asked Alex. "We've got a
+new manila cable charged up to you."
+
+"Mark the bill down on ice," snorted Max, "and lay the ice on the
+stove. You did me dirt there and I'm going to get even!"
+
+"Go as far as you like," said Case. "We are here to answer all
+questions."
+
+Max, who had been standing in the entrance to the alcove, with the
+curtain half over his shoulder, now turned and beckoned to the
+rough-looking boys gathered about the table he had just left.
+
+"Friends of yours?" asked Alex as the others gathered about the
+alcove. "They look as if they might be."
+
+The boys outside now began jostling each other roughly, as if
+preparing to start a fake fight among themselves. That, as Alex and
+Case well knew, is an old, old trick in the underworld. Whenever an
+enemy is to be attacked, it is common practice for the assailants to
+start a fight among themselves, being certain that their enemies are
+dealt most of the blows. Many an apparently innocent bystander has
+been murdered in that way.
+
+The proprietor of the place came rushing out of an inner room as the
+toughs hustled each other back and forth and timidly remonstrated with
+them. It was evident that he stood in fear of the gang. The boys saw
+that no help might be expected from him.
+
+At last one of the toughs received a blow which, apparently, forced
+him inside the alcove, then the whole crowd rushed in, swarming over
+Alex and Case like the wharf rats they were. The boys drew their
+revolvers, but did not fire. Instead they sprang to the top of the
+table and used the handles of their weapons to good purpose.
+
+In the meantime the proprietor was running back and forth from the
+alcove to the door and from the door to the alcove, urging the boys to
+act "like little gentlemen," and at the same time shouting for the
+police. But no officers made their appearance.
+
+The weight of humanity on the table upon which the boys were standing
+now brought it down with a crash to the floor. The situation was
+becoming serious, and the boys were preparing to use their guns when
+an unexpected event occurred.
+
+The night being warm, the street door was wide open, but a little
+crowd had gathered about it. Disturbances were frequent in that place,
+however, and none of the onlookers seemed inclined to interfere.
+
+As they stood looking, a heavy body catapulted against their
+shoulders, and the next moment the heavy body of a white bulldog
+leaped over their heads into the room.
+
+The toughs in the alcove, who had just settled down to a steady
+pommeling of the boys with their bare fists, turned for an instant as
+sharp claws clattered over the floor, and some of them stepped aside.
+Then Captain Joe leaped atop of the struggling mass and began a
+vigorous exercise of his very capable teeth.
+
+In a second the whole place was in confusion. Patrons rushed out from
+other rooms, the proprietor appeared from behind the desk bearing a
+revolver. There was an inrush from the street, and then two pistol
+shots sounded. As the acrid smell of powder smoke seeped into the air,
+there was a rattle of glass and the two ceiling lights were
+extinguished.
+
+Save for the uncertain light from incandescents in the other alcoves,
+the place was now in darkness, except for the illumination which came
+in from the street.
+
+Cries, shouts and epithets of the vilest character rang through the
+place. Long before the light of the gas jets could be turned on, the
+boys and the dog were out on the pavement, making good progress toward
+a policeman in uniform, who appeared under an arc light not far away.
+The officer held up his heavy night stick as the boys approached him.
+
+The sound of running feet came out and in a moment the officer and the
+two boys were surrounded by the wharf rats who had been in the
+restaurant. The officer promptly drew a revolver.
+
+"What's doing here!" he demanded. "Who did that shooting back there?"
+
+"These two boys did it!" Max promptly explained, pointing at Alex and
+Case. "They shot out the lights and robbed the till!"
+
+The officer put up his revolver and his night stick, seized Alex and
+Case by the shoulders, and started off up the street, the toughs
+following at his heels. There was a patrol box on the next corner and
+the boys attempted no defence of their conduct until this was reached.
+As the policeman turned the key he glanced quickly from one face to
+the other.
+
+"What have you boys got to say for yourselves?" he asked.
+
+"We'll tell that to the judge," replied Alex.
+
+"Come, now, don't get gay!" the officer said. "You don't look like
+boys who would be apt to get into a scrape like that."
+
+The boys were so pleased at having escaped from the restaurant with
+whole heads that they did not much mind the arrest. In fact, just at
+that moment the officer was about the most welcome person who could
+have made his appearance, with the exception of Captain Joe, of
+course.
+
+The dog now stood close by the patrol box showing his teeth and asking
+Alex for permission to take the officer by the leg.
+
+"We haven't robbed any tills lately!" Alex said, wrinkling his
+freckled nose at the officer.
+
+"Lookout!" one of the boys shouted from the crowd. "That bulldog will
+get you, officer. He chewed up two boys back in the restaurant.
+
+"Good old Captain Joe," exclaimed Alex, patting the dog on the head.
+
+The dog did not for a moment lose sight of a spot on the officer's
+thigh, which seemed to invite attack.
+
+"Is that your dog?" asked the policeman.
+
+"Sure, that's our dog," answered Alex.
+
+"And what did you say his name was?"
+
+"Captain Joe."
+
+The officer released his hold on the boys and leaned against the
+patrol box. The police wagon was now in sight, racing down the street
+with a great jangling of bells, and the crowd around the officer began
+to thin. They had evidently seen that wagon before.
+
+"Say, Mr. Officer," Alex said, "why don't you grab a couple of those
+boys? They are going to be witnesses against us, you know."
+
+The officer made no reply, but reached down and patted Captain Joe on
+the head, an action which the dog strongly resented.
+
+"Did you say the dog ate a couple of wharf rats back there?" asked the
+officer, turning to the diminishing crowd.
+
+"You bet he did!" half a dozen voices cried in chorus. "He's a holy
+terror."
+
+"I've got a hole in my leg you could push a chair through," one of
+them shouted. "Arrest him!"
+
+The police wagon now backed up to the curb and the boys stepped inside
+followed by Captain Joe.
+
+"Here!" questioned the man in charge of the wagon, "are you going in
+with us, off your beat, and are you going to arrest the dog? He looks
+like a hard citizen!"
+
+"Not a bit of it!" answered the officer. "He chewed up two wharf rats
+back there, according to all accounts, and I'm going in to tell the
+sergeant, and to ask the captain to give him a medal. If he had only
+killed them, I'd try to get him on the pension list."
+
+"Say," Case remarked, "you seem to be an all-right policeman. I guess
+you know that bunch back there."
+
+"Every officer in the city knows that bunch," replied the policeman.
+"When they're not in the penitentiary, they're making trouble for the
+force. They ought to get a hundred years apiece."
+
+"What will we get for shooting out the lights?" asked Alex.
+
+"So you did shoot out the lights!"
+
+"We didn't do anything else," declared Alex.
+
+"Say, Mr. Cop, you've seen terriers go after a rat in a pit, haven't
+you?" asked Case. "Well, that's just the way that gang went after us.
+We'd be dead now if Captain Joe hadn't run away from the _Rambler_ and
+followed us."
+
+"There!" cried the officer clapping Alex on the back, "I've been
+trying to think of that name ever since I saw the dog. We've got
+pictures of this dog and the _Rambler_ and a grizzly bear called Teddy
+pasted up in the squad room. We cut them out of newspapers six months
+ago when you boys were somewhere out on the Columbia river."
+
+"On the Colorado river," corrected Case. "We found Teddy Bear in a a
+timber wreck on the Columbia, and he never had his picture taken until
+we got to San Francisco."
+
+"Is the _Rambler_ down on the river now?" asked the officer, and Case
+nodded. "Because, if it is," the policeman went on, "some one had
+better be getting down there! The wharf rats will eat it up before
+morning, plank by plank!"
+
+"How are we going to get down there if you lock us up?" asked Case.
+
+"You may not be locked up," was the reply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE CREW TAKES A TUMBLE
+
+
+When Alex and Case reached the deck of the _Rambler_, they found Clay
+and Jule leaning against the gunwale laughing hard enough to split
+their sides. A searchlight in the latter's hand revealed Captain Joe
+and Teddy standing by the cabin door, looking around as if inquiring
+what it all meant.
+
+"Well," Alex said, producing his own searchlight, "if there's anything
+funny going on here, you'd better be passing it round."
+
+"Where have you been?" demanded Clay the next moment.
+
+"Been?" repeated Alex. "We've been up in the air!"
+
+"That's no fairy tale, either," Case cut in. "We've been arrested, and
+released, and attacked, and pommeled, and now we strike some kind of a
+minstrel show. What's been going on?"
+
+"You've been arrested, have you?" laughed Jule, paying no attention to
+the question. "Any old time you go away from this boat and don't get
+into trouble, I'll wire the news back to Chicago. What did you get
+pinched for, and how did you get away?"
+
+"We got pinched because of Max," replied Alex, "and we got out of it
+because we came upon a white policeman. We escaped from Max's cronies
+because Captain Joe butted in and chewed up a few. That's some dog,
+that is."
+
+"And he came back here and helped you out, too, it seems," Case said.
+"I should think he was some dog!"
+
+"And Teddy helped, too," Clay laughed. "We had a show here for a
+little while that was worth the price of admission."
+
+"It didn't look funny to me," Jule protested. "I was scared stiff most
+of the time."
+
+After Alex and Case had replaced a broken globe on the prow light,
+told the story of their adventures, and explained that the chief of
+police had requested the privilege of looking over the boat in the
+morning, the boys moved the _Rambler_ to a slip farther down the river
+and went to bed, Jule remaining on watch for the remainder of the
+night. The day had been a busy one and they were all tired.
+
+Alex was out first in the morning, poking along the water front in the
+canoe which Max had deserted. After a time Clay came out of the cabin
+of the _Rambler_ and called to him.
+
+"Got a fish, Alex?"
+
+Alex shook his head.
+
+"The fish won't bite my hook this morning!" he shouted back.
+
+"Well," Clay returned, "there's a gudgeon up on shore that evidently
+wants to get hold of your hook, and you with it."
+
+Alex turned quickly and looked up the slip at the foot of which the
+canoe lay. He was just in time to see Max and another boy about his
+size disappearing behind a collection of goods' boxes.
+
+"Why didn't you shoot him?" Alex called out to Clay. "You saw him
+first. He ought to be shot for what he did last night."
+
+Captain Joe now came out on the deck, yawning and stretching, and
+elevated his fore feet to the gunwale of the boat. Clay patted him on
+the head and pointed to the goods' boxes behind which Max had
+disappeared.
+
+"Do you think, Captain Joe," he said to the dog, "that you could go
+and get a wharf rat this morning? I think there's one behind that pile
+of boxes. You better go and see, anyway."
+
+Of course the dog did not understand all that was said to
+him--although the boys sometimes insisted that he did--but he did know
+what the pointing finger meant. He was over the gunwale in an instant,
+tearing up the side of the slip, barking and growling as he went.
+
+"You'll get that dog killed yet," Alex called out to Clay. "That wharf
+rat of a Max is just like a snake. You don't want to get near him
+unless you step squarely on his head."
+
+Both boys whistled return orders to the dog, but he would not come
+back. He seemed to remember that an old enemy was near at hand and
+turned the corner of the heap of boxes with a vicious snarl.
+
+The next moment, Max appeared at the top of the heap, fending off the
+dog with a board he had ripped from a box.
+
+"Call off your dog!" he shouted. "I want to get my canoe. You get out
+of it, kid, and leave it tied to the slip."
+
+"If you live long enough to see me give you this canoe," Alex laughed,
+"you'll be older than Noah before you die, and have whiskers forty
+feet long."
+
+"I'll set the police on you!" threatened Max.
+
+"You tried that last night," grinned Alex.
+
+"Come on down here," urged Clay. "I'd like to know what kind of a
+penitentiary you received your early education in."
+
+"You'd like to have me come down there, wouldn't you?" sneered Max.
+"You think you've got the police on your side, don't you? But I know a
+couple of detectives that will fix you, all right. You needn't think
+I'm going to let you run away with my canoe."
+
+"How'd you get up the river so quickly?" asked Clay. "Did you dive in
+east of the peninsula and swim under water to Quebec?"
+
+"Oh, I got up on a steamer, all right," was the reply, "and I've been
+here waiting for you ever since."
+
+"Do you happen to have a sore head this morning?" taunted Alex. "You
+must have got a bump or two last night."
+
+"You'll get two for every one I got," Max shouted, angrily. "Are you
+going to give me that canoe? I'm going to have it, you know."
+
+Alex deliberately paddled the canoe over to the _Rambler_, secured it
+with a light line, climbed to the deck, and set the motors in motion.
+Max yelled out a few threatening sentences and disappeared.
+
+"We may as well be going up to the old pier," he said, "for this dandy
+chief of police I discovered last night will be down to see us before
+long. He's a right good fellow, that chief is."
+
+"You better hold up a minute," Jule announced,
+
+"Captain Joe is still behind those boxes. If Max could capture him,
+he'd have him in all the dog fights in Quebec."
+
+But Max was at this time taking to his heels up the street which ran
+down to the slip; and Captain Joe soon made his appearance, looking
+very much discouraged. He was taken on board, dripping with water, and
+Teddy received quite a bath by approaching him too suddenly. The
+bulldog enjoyed that.
+
+The chief of police made his appearance soon after the boys had
+partaken of breakfast, and sat down to talk over the events of the
+preceding night.
+
+"This boy, Max," he explained, "is one of the queerest customers we
+have anything to do with. He lives in the streets, apparently without
+money or friends, and yet he frequently appears at a swell hotel
+handsomely dressed and with plenty of money in his pockets. He seems
+to have been well educated, as you have probably noticed from his
+conversation."
+
+"He talks like a graduate," admitted Clay.
+
+"Yes, and he's one of the sharpest little chaps in the city. We are
+certain that he has had a hand in several bold robberies, yet it has
+up to this time been impossible to convict him. He is usually defended
+by first-class criminal lawyers, and his wharf rat companions seem to
+be very desirable witnesses for him."
+
+"Isn't it possible," asked Clay, "that the boy lives along the river
+front for some well defined, perhaps criminal, purpose of his own?"
+
+"I've often thought of that," answered the chief, "for he always takes
+great pains to make friends of the creatures of the underworld. Now
+and then he disappears from the city for a few days, or weeks, but
+always comes back to his old haunts."
+
+"Of course," Clay said, "you are familiar with the Fontenelle land
+claim and the story of the lost charter and the missing family
+jewels?"
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the chief, smiling tolerantly, "every man, woman
+and child in Quebec knows all about the Fontenelle case. Old man
+Fontenelle is almost a monomaniac on the subject of the lost charter.
+He has spent thousands of dollars searching for it and claims that he
+would have discovered it long ago only for the active and criminal
+opposition of men who might lose heavily if it came again into his
+possession."
+
+"And the story of the lost channel?" asked Clay.
+
+"There is a queer story of a lost channel," the chief laughed, "but
+I'm afraid that it will always be a lost channel."
+
+"But Fontenelle is continually trying to locate it," suggested Clay.
+
+"Yes, but he has no more idea where to look for it than a child in a
+cradle. There is a place down the river where he thinks it might once
+have existed, but he has no clews of any kind."
+
+"Hasn't even a map?" asked Clay, resolved to know exactly, as far as
+possible, what knowledge the Fontenelles had of the lost channel.
+
+"No, not even a map," answered the chief. "I tell you that the family
+has absolutely nothing to go by. Young Fontenelle, who is making most
+of the searches now, only goes out to please his father and to give
+his friends a pleasant summer vacation."
+
+And so the crude map which had been so mysteriously delivered to the
+boys was an entirely new element in the case! Who had drawn it, who
+had connived at its delivery, who had supplied the information buried
+in the legends of more than three hundred years!
+
+Clay puzzled over the matter while the chief chatted with the other
+boys, but could reach no conclusion. Again he was tempted to reveal to
+an outsider the existence of the map, and again he forced himself to
+silence when the words were almost on his lips.
+
+"I shall be laughed at if I say anything about the map," he mused.
+"The chief will tell me that many a joke has been played on the
+Fontenelles, and that this was intended to be another. He will tell me
+that the _Rambler_ was mistaken for the _Cartier_, and that there is
+no mystery, but only fraud, connected with either one of the messages
+we received that night."
+
+"You spoke of the Fontenelle claim in connection with the strange
+conduct of this boy Max," the chief finally said to Clay. "Why did you
+do that? Can you see any possible connection between the two?"
+
+Then Clay told of the boy's appearance on the _Rambler_, referring
+also to the fact that he had been accompanied, apparently, by men who
+sought to seize the _Rambler_ after it had been beached.
+
+"And Fontenelle claims that these men were not river pirates at all,"
+Clay went on, "but says they are ruffians sent out to prevent his
+making a thorough search of the district where his father believes the
+lost channel to have been. In that case, this boy Max might in some
+way be connected with the enemies of the Fontenelles."
+
+"That is very true," answered the chief, "and I'll keep my eye on him
+after this, although I don't take much stock in this lost charter
+business, at all."
+
+After a pleasant hour the chief shook hands with the boys and
+departed. Then the _Rambler_ was headed upstream again. The boys had
+had enough of Quebec during that one night.
+
+Thirty miles or more up the St. Lawrence from Quebec, the Jacques
+Cartier river enters the St. Lawrence from the north. The boys sighted
+the mouth of the stream just before twelve o'clock. At the same moment
+they saw a river steamer coming down toward them. The steamer was
+large for one plying above Quebec, and, fearing that the wash from her
+propeller would make trouble for the _Rambler_, they edged over to the
+mouth of the entering stream, in front of which lay a great, partly
+submerged sand bar.
+
+The steamer came down, whistling and ringing, and the boys signaled
+for her to pass off to the right. Apparently scornful of so small a
+craft, the pilot kept her headed directly down stream in a course
+which would have brought about a collision with the motor boat.
+
+The boys swung away toward the sand bar, trusting to good luck to keep
+them clear of it.
+
+Just as she came opposite the bar, the helmsman of the steamer did
+what he should have done before, turned the prow sharply to the south.
+A wall of water from the stern of the boat came sweeping down upon the
+_Rambler_.
+
+It caught her broadside, and in an instant she was beached high and
+dry on the bar, lying with her keel exposed and the furniture and
+fixtures in the cabin and store rooms rattling about like hailstones
+in a blizzard.
+
+Tumbling heels over head, catching at the gunwale, scrambling away so
+as to be beyond reach of the boat if she should go over farther, the
+four boys, the bulldog and the bear brought up on the hot, dry sand.
+
+Alex sat up, brushed the sand from his eyes, felt tenderly of a peeled
+nose, and shook his fist at the departing steamer.
+
+"You might come back here and pull us off," he shouted.
+
+The people on the steamer gathered at the rail for a moment to laugh
+and joke at the plight in which they had left the boys, and then
+evidently forgot all about it.
+
+"Now, what do you think of that?" cried Jule. "We're thrown out of
+water for the first time in the history of the _Rambler_. Do you
+suppose she's busted up much, Clay?"
+
+"Aw, you couldn't bust her up with a cannon," shouted Alex. "We've
+probably lost some provisions, but this river will feed us all right."
+
+As for Teddy and Captain Joe, they turned astonished eyes at the boat
+which they had never seen in exactly that position before and started
+to clamber back on board. Teddy shambled clumsily up on deck, but
+Captain Joe, evidently changing his mind, returned to the hot sand and
+lay down.
+
+In a moment a great crash came from on board the motor boat. Then
+Teddy came rolling down the incline of the deck hugging close to his
+breast with two capable paws, and taking many a bump in order that he
+might save his burden, a two quart can of strained honey.
+
+"That stream," Alex said, "will be just about large enough to clean up
+the bear after he has finished with that stolen honey."
+
+"That ain't no stream," said Jule, "That's the lost channel."
+
+Teddy ran away to a distant part of the bar to eat his honey in peace,
+and the boys ruefully watched the river in hope of rescue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+RIVERMEN WITH A THIRST
+
+
+"A lost channel and a lost boat! Still if we didn't have adventures
+just like this, we'd be contented to remain on the South Branch in
+Chicago," said Case. "It wouldn't have been any fun if we had passed
+up the St. Lawrence without getting dumped on the sand."
+
+"Say, kid," Jule said, pointing to Alex, "do you think you can swim
+over to the shore?"
+
+"Swim over yourself!" advised Alex. "What do you want me to swim over
+for?"
+
+"To get timber to block up this boat so you can cook dinner," laughed
+Jule. "We can't live on the sand which is here--that's a pun, eh?"
+
+"What have we got for dinner?" Clay asked, ignoring the pun. "Perhaps
+I'd better go aboard and look over our larder."
+
+"If you want to know where I'm going to get my dinner," Alex observed,
+"just look down into the river. Those fish look pretty good to me, and
+I'm hungry enough to eat a whale."
+
+"If the time ever comes when you're not hungry," Case cut in, "the sun
+will rise in the west. You're empty to your heels."
+
+"And I'm glad of it, too," Alex shouted back. "But what I want to
+know," he continued, "is how we're ever going to get off this bar."
+
+"If we stay right here," Case advised, "some boat will come along and
+pull us off. You don't have to do anything unless you want to."
+
+But at that moment there were no boats in sight. Instead, a great raft
+of hewn timbers with a rough shanty in the middle of it came drifting
+down. Half a dozen river men ran to the edge of the float and eyed the
+_Rambler_ keenly. They seemed amused at what had happened.
+
+"Ship ahoy!" one of them called.
+
+"Give us a rope," Jule shouted.
+
+"Got anything on board?" the man called back.
+
+"What do you mean by anything?" Jule asked.
+
+"Oh, anything under a cork!" answered the other.
+
+"Row over here with a couple of cases and we'll pay you for them,"
+said another voice.
+
+"What do you take this for, a floating saloon?" asked Alex.
+
+"That's what!" came back over the water. "If you don't send over
+something, we'll come and get it."
+
+"Now that's a nice proposition," Case said to Clay. "Here we get
+turned almost bottom-side up on a sand bar, and a lot of wops think
+we're bartenders and have whiskey to sell."
+
+"We ought not to let them on the bar at all," Alex advised. "If they
+get here and can't find what they want, they're liable to take
+anything they can get their hands on. I'm for pulling out the guns and
+spattering a little lead over the water."
+
+"Are you going to send it over?" called the man from the raft.
+
+"Go take a drink out of the river!" advised Jule.
+
+"I'll show you whether we will or not!"
+
+All this time the raft had been drifting down stream, and the
+_Rambler_ had, of course, remained stationary. As the man uttered this
+implied threat, he cast off the line of a boat, motioned to two men
+who stood near, and the three entered and began rowing toward the sand
+bar.
+
+"We'll overtake you in a half an hour," the man who had done most of
+the talking from the raft called out to his companions, "and we'll
+bring back something cheering if it is to be had on that boat."
+
+"About the only thing you'll get on this boat," Case shouted, "will be
+bullets. If you don't sheer away, you'll get a volley right now."
+
+The men stopped rowing and backed water as the boys drew their
+automatics and stood in a row at the edge of the bar.
+
+"Aw, come on kids, give us a couple of cases and we'll go on our way.
+We're going to get it anyhow."
+
+"There isn't a drop of intoxicating liquor on board," Clay assured the
+man. "This is not a bumboat. We're just boys out on a pleasure trip."
+
+"That's what they all say!" roared a husky brute from the fast
+disappearing raft. "Go on, Steve, and get the goods."
+
+"You bet I will!" answered the raftsman, and again the men bent to
+their oars. Clay fired a warning shot and the boat paused again for a
+moment.
+
+"Will you send us a case?" shouted the leader of the boat party.
+
+"Send you a case of cartridges!" laughed Alex.
+
+Two of the men now turned to the oars in order to keep the boat from
+drifting farther down, while the leader sat close to their seat,
+saying something to them in a low tone. The two oarsmen were shaking
+their heads, but the other was beating one hand against the other
+vigorously.
+
+"I know," the boys heard him say, raising his voice as he became
+excited "that that is the same boat, and that these are the same boys.
+You remember what I told you when I came up the river on a fast boat
+and hired out on the raft!"
+
+The boys could not hear the reply, but presently the leader's voice
+sounded again above the wash of the river. He was evidently under
+great excitement, and was speaking rapidly and vehemently.
+
+"There is more value in that motor boat," he said, "than there is in
+the whole raft. What does it matter if the timber does float down
+without us? We've got a boat and can put up any old yarn that comes to
+mind."
+
+The rowers still seemed to object to the plan the leader seemed to be
+urging, and finally the boat was allowed to drift down with the
+current.
+
+"This old world is a pretty small place after all," Clay remarked as
+the stern of the rowboat disappeared around a little bend. "If you
+don't believe it, just consider the events of this trip. We meet Max
+on the river and he laps over on us at Quebec. We meet outlaws on a
+rocky island three hundred miles away, and they show themselves at the
+mouth of the Jacques Cartier river."
+
+"And we're likely to meet them again, unless I'm very much mistaken,"
+Case warned. "I don't believe they went down after the raft at all."
+
+"What was that you said about swimming over to the shore?" asked Alex.
+
+"To get a fish for dinner," Jule cried.
+
+Alex dashed into the cabin, tumbled about in the wreckage for a short
+time, and came out clad only in a bathing suit.
+
+"I'm going to swim to shore all right," he said, "but I'm not going
+over there to get a fish for dinner."
+
+"If you see one, catch him by the tail," Case shouted as the boy
+entered the water.
+
+Alex wrinkled a bruised nose in the direction of the sand bar and
+dived under, to reappear on the shore line a couple of seconds later.
+
+"Now, what do you think that little monkey is after?" asked Jule.
+
+Captain Joe and Teddy seemed to be asking themselves the same
+question. At any rate, they decided to go and see, and both were soon
+in the water. The boys saw Alex race up a sandy bluff and disappear in
+a thicket.
+
+Here and there on the other side of the river were scattered houses,
+but he seemed to pay no attention to these. The animals trotted after
+him and soon all were out of sight. The boy was gone only a short time
+and when he returned on board and dressed his face looked anxious.
+
+"Do you know," he said, "those fellows never went down the river at
+all. They dropped down under the bend and landed. If we don't get off
+this sand bar this afternoon, we'll have to sit up all night waiting
+for trouble."
+
+"Then we'll get off this afternoon," Case observed. "I'm so
+constituted that I have to have my sleep regularly."
+
+"Keep me awake nights if you want to," laughed Alex, "but don't let me
+go hungry! I was reared a pet and can't stand it."
+
+There were now various crafts in sight on the river, but none came
+near the bar. Signals made by the boys met with no response.
+
+"They are a suspicious lot of fellows," Clay decided.
+
+After several vessels had passed without paying any attention to the
+shouts and signals of the boys, they gave up trying to secure
+immediate assistance and devoted themselves to the preparation of
+dinner--to the great joy of Captain and the eminent disgust of Teddy,
+the cub, who had certainly eaten too much honey.
+
+The cabin was indeed in bad shape, standing at an angle of about
+thirty degrees. Many of the dishes were broken, and some of the food
+which had been cooked in the morning lay in a messy heap on the floor.
+
+However, the boys managed to boil coffee and cook eggs, and so, with
+bread and butter and canned food, they made a very good meal.
+
+"Now, what are we going to do?" asked Jule. "We can never get this
+boat off alone, and the vessels on the river won't help us."
+
+"I wonder if the tide doesn't come up here?" asked Clay.
+
+"If it does, it was not far from high tide when we struck the sand
+bar," Jule replied, "and the situation will grow worse instead of
+better."
+
+"Let's get out our shovels and dig a canal to the river," Case
+suggested. "We can't play any Robinson Crusoe stunt here very long."
+
+"And the bold, bad men from the raft will be down on us to-night if we
+stay," Alex added, "so I'm for doing anything to get off the bar."
+
+The boys were actually preparing to dig a trench across the bar when a
+steamer to which they called more as a matter of form than with any
+expectation of receiving assistance, turned toward their side of the
+river and slowed down.
+
+"Hello, there, boys," came a voice from the bridge. "You must have
+been having a head-on collision with a sand bar."
+
+"Why," Clay exclaimed, "that's Captain Morgan! What was it I was
+saying about this being a pretty small world?"
+
+"Right you are, Captain," called Case. "We're up against it all right.
+Can you send us a line?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the captain. "I'll have you out of that in no
+time."
+
+And he did! The line was sent in a rowboat, attached to the prow of
+the _Rambler_ and slowly, steadily, so as not to strain the timbers or
+produce cracks in the hull, the motor boat was drawn from her
+uncomfortable position, practically uninjured. Clay was soon grasping
+the captain by the hand. The other boys shouted their greetings and
+remained on board to tidy up the _Rambler_.
+
+"Young man," Captain Morgan said, "if I had a hundred boys, and the
+whole mess of them, combined and individual, got into as many scrapes
+as you four kids do, I'd keep them under lock and key!"
+
+"You'd miss a lot of fun if you did," said Clay.
+
+"When you get a hold of a nice, choice mess of boys, like the
+_Rambler_ crew, you want to give them plenty of room and fresh air.
+They'll come out all right!"
+
+"You do, at any rate," admitted the captain. "Let's see," he added,
+"what was it you were going to find when I left you? A lost channel or
+something like that? You didn't find it, did you?"
+
+"We found a scrap, and a lot of ruffians, and a friend," Clay replied,
+"and that's all we did find, but we haven't given it up."
+
+"And that's all you ever will find," declared the captain. "There may
+be a lost channel somewhere in the world. In fact, there is one on the
+New York side up near the big lake, but I'm afraid you are wasting
+your time. Why don't you come on down the river with me?"
+
+"That would never do," Clay replied. "When we left the delta of the
+Mississippi, we promised ourselves that we would look over every inch
+of the St. Lawrence, and we're going to do it. We're going to Lake
+Ontario and then back to find the lost channel. And after that, we're
+going to return to Ogdensburg and ship the _Rambler_ to little old
+Chicago. That is, unless we decide to sail up the lakes."
+
+"Well, good luck to you," said Captain Morgan, as Clay passed down the
+side of the _Sybil_. "If I get tangled up with a lost channel
+anywhere, I'll send it to you by parcel post. Why, you boys can make a
+lost channel easier than you can find one."
+
+"But it wouldn't be half so much fun," Clay said, stepping into the
+rowboat. "We're having lots of sport on the St. Lawrence all the
+same!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A MEETING AT MONTREAL
+
+
+As Clay was being rowed back to the _Rambler_, one of the sailors
+called his attention to three men standing on the shore of the river
+not far away from the intersecting stream. They stood looking down at
+the _Rambler_ for a short time, and then disappeared around the angle
+of a bluff.
+
+"Perhaps those men want to be taken off," suggested the sailor.
+
+"They need their heads taken off," Clay observed. "I am certain from
+what I overheard that one of the men was with the outlaws down the
+stream. They left a timber raft here, as I believe, for the sole
+purpose of attacking us in the night and trying to get our motor boat
+away from us."
+
+"I should imagine from the build of the boat," the other observed,
+"that they would have to do some pretty fast traveling if they caught
+the _Rambler_ now that she is free. She must be a speedy boat."
+
+"She certainly is," Clay replied. "She's built like an ocean-going
+tug."
+
+After Clay landed on deck the boys held what they called a council of
+war. They were not exactly looking for trouble, still they did not
+like the idea of sailing off upstream and leaving the outlaws
+unpunished.
+
+"They bunted into us," Alex insisted, "and we ought to do something to
+them. If they take their boat and row down after the timber raft, I'd
+like to follow them in the _Rambler_ and tip them over."
+
+The others felt in about the same way, but it was finally decided to
+go on up the river to Montreal, remain there for a couple of days, and
+so pass on to the great lakes.
+
+"If we can keep Alex in the boat at Montreal, we'll be doing a good
+job," Jule said. "He's been lost in about every city we've come to,
+and I think he ought to be locked in the cabin just as soon as we
+touch the pier. It isn't safe to turn him loose at night."
+
+"All right," Alex agreed, "you may lock me up any old night when I
+want to sleep. That will keep me from standing guard."
+
+The boys anchored in a cove that night, well out of the wash of
+passing steamers, and in the middle of the following afternoon, saw
+the spires of Montreal. They gazed at the great mountainous bluff
+which lies above and beyond the city with wondering eyes. There
+battles had been lost and won. The flags of France and Great Britain
+had in turn floated over the city from the heights they saw.
+
+The boys decided that night to spend the whole of the following day in
+the historic city. They came to anchor in a slip some distance from
+the town itself, and, for a wonder, passed an undisturbed night.
+
+Early the following morning Clay and Jule set out to view the sights,
+it being understood that Alex and Case were to have their freedom in
+the afternoon. At first the two boys kept to the river front,
+examining the vessels they saw, and wondering if their fate would ever
+lead them to all the countries the craft represented.
+
+As they turned away from the water front, Jule lifted his face and
+sniffed the air enjoyably.
+
+"Do you know," he said, "this is the first place I've struck for
+several days where the scent of the lost channel hasn't been in my
+nostrils."
+
+"You've got so you can smell the lost channel now, have you?" grinned
+Clay. "That may be a good thing for our future use."
+
+"I can't smell the channel," Jule replied, "but I can scent the danger
+of it. Say, boy," he added, "We're going to have trouble when we go
+back to dig up the Fontenelle charter."
+
+"We came out for adventure, didn't we?" asked Clay.
+
+"Oh, I'm not kicking," Jule exclaimed. "If I get mine, you'll get
+yours, too. The only way to have any fun in this world is to go where
+the fun is. You can't meet with adventures by staying in bed at home."
+
+As the boys proceeded up the street, an officer in uniform standing on
+the corner beckoned to them.
+
+"Say, boys," he said, "do you know those two men just behind you?"
+
+The boys turned and looked back.
+
+There were many moving figures and faces in the street, but none which
+attracted the especial attention of the lads. They looked inquiringly
+at the policeman, who stood with a puzzled expression on his face.
+
+"Which two men?" asked Jule.
+
+"Why," replied the officer, "the two men who have followed you for the
+last four blocks, stopping when you stopped and going on when you
+advanced. I came up the street on the other side just behind you, and
+couldn't help observing what was going on."
+
+"Now," said Clay, turning to Jule, "what do you think about having
+lost the scent of the lost channel?"
+
+"I begin to smell it in the air right now," was the reply.
+
+The policeman looked at the two boys inquiringly.
+
+"What do you know about the lost channel?" he asked.
+
+"Not a thing!" replied Jule. "There isn't any lost channel."
+
+"Then I've been hearing a lot about nothing lately," smiled the
+officer. "Somehow, the newspapers have been full of it lately."
+
+"Did they say anything about that scrap we had on an island below
+Quebec?" asked Case. "We haven't seen a paper lately."
+
+"They said something about four boys being attacked, down the river,
+and a great deal about a quest for a lost channel," replied the
+policeman.
+
+"And about a scrap in Quebec?" asked Jule.
+
+"Sure," said the officer. "That made half a column. Are you boys from
+the _Rambler_? If so, where is the boat?"
+
+"We're from the _Rambler_ all right," Clay replied, "and it looks as
+if some of our friends from down stream are still after us. Can you
+describe the men you saw following us? What do they look like?"
+
+"Just tough riverside characters," answered the officer. "That is how
+I came to notice them closely. Such people are rarely seen as far up
+in the city as this. They prefer the lower dives."
+
+"We had trouble with some men from a raft back here a little ways,"
+Jule explained, "and these may be the fellows. Anyway, we're going to
+look out for ourselves and thank you very much for having called our
+attention to the incident. We'll be careful."
+
+The policeman went down the street, swinging his club, and the boys
+turned and faced each other with questions in their eyes.
+
+"What's coming off here?" Jule asked.
+
+"Seems to me like a game of tag," Clay replied. "From the moment we
+left the deck of the _Sybil_, across the river from the egg-shaped
+peninsula near St. Luce, we have been It. Some one has been after us
+night and day. Now, what are we going to do about it?"
+
+"I could tell you better if we knew whether the men referred to by the
+officers are the enemies of the Fontenelles or just plain river
+pirates seeking to seize the _Rambler_. What do you think?"
+
+"So far as that is concerned," Clay replied, "it makes but little
+difference. They all give us trouble, and I propose for once that we
+run away from them. I'm more in love with the river than the men we're
+likely to meet on it, so we'll get to the quiet spots."
+
+"Do you mean that we ought to go back to the _Rambler_ right now and
+cut Montreal off our visiting list?" asked Jule.
+
+"In my judgment, that is what we ought to do."
+
+Jule faced about instantly and started toward the river.
+
+"Come on then!" he said. "I'm game for it!"
+
+The boy had turned under the impulse of the moment without sensing
+that he was on a crowded pavement in the heart of a big city. As he
+swung about, he almost bumped noses with a pedestrian who, in company
+with another, had been walking only a couple of yards behind him.
+
+The man was clothed in the garb of a waterside character, but it was
+very plain to the boy that the costume had been assumed for the
+purpose of disguise. His complexion was smooth and clear, his eyes
+keen and penetrating, and his whole manner and attitude proclaimed
+education and native refinement. For an instant Jule and the man stood
+looking each other squarely in the eyes.
+
+"Step aside, lad, step aside," said the disguised man, in a voice far
+from unpleasant. "Don't be blocking the way."
+
+"Is this your street?" demanded Jule willing to continue the
+conversation in order that he might have a more prolonged view of the
+man opposite him. "If it is, you better take it with you when you go
+on."
+
+The man Jule was watching so closely seemed to understand that he was
+under suspicion, and, seizing his companion by the arm, the two passed
+on together, turning their heads now and then to watch the progress of
+the boys down the street.
+
+"Did you see that?" asked Jule as the boys stepped along.
+
+"Did I see what?" asked Clay. "I heard a voice, that's all!"
+
+"That was Sherlock Holmes in disguise. Did you catch on?"
+
+"Not than I am aware of!" laughed Clay. "What about it?"
+
+Jule explained what he had observed in the man against whom the
+pressure of the crowd had brought him, and Clay agreed that the man he
+had heard speak in a remarkably pleasant tone had not been following
+them by accident.
+
+"Those two men," he said, "are the fellows the policeman referred to."
+
+"But why should men like those be following us?" asked Jule. "Why, he
+looked like a banker, or a lawyer, or a preacher. And what did he have
+that kind of a rig on for? It's mighty funny."
+
+"You may search me," Clay answered. "The incident only confirms the
+opinion expressed not long ago that we ought to get out of this city
+immediately. Alex and Case can take their outing in some other town."
+
+The boys walked swiftly down the street for a couple of blocks, turned
+into a side thoroughfare, called a taxi, and were driven swiftly back
+along a parallel street for two blocks.
+
+There they dismissed the cab, at the corner of the main street, and
+walked along looking for the two men they suspected of hostile
+intentions.
+
+In the middle of the first block they came upon them, walking slowly,
+and peering to right and left, as if anxiously searching for some one.
+
+"That settles it!" Clay said. "We'll go back to the _Rambler_ and
+disappear. Once we get started, there isn't a boat on the river that
+can catch us. We'll fool these fellows for once."
+
+When the story of the morning had been told to Alex and Case, they
+rather wanted to remain in the city, just "to get a line on the
+fellows," as Alex explained, but they finally consented to an
+immediate departure.
+
+That night the _Rambler_ lay at anchor at the mouth of a small creek
+on the south side of the St. Lawrence river. Just above them lay a
+wooded island, occupied at this time by a colony of vacationists.
+
+The _Rambler_ had fought her way through the canal, and now lay only a
+short distance below the border of Lake St. Frances.
+
+The boys built a roaring fire on shore and cooked supper there, but
+made no arrangements for sleeping out of doors. The blaze brought
+several people from a little settlement not far away, and the boys
+rather enjoyed their company. After a time Clay whispered to Jule:
+
+"Stick your nose up in the air, kid, and see if you can get a scent of
+the lost channel in this crowd!"
+
+"Nothing doing!" Jule answered with a grin.
+
+"Now we'll see whether there is or not," Clay said.
+
+He turned to an elderly gentleman who sat by his side and asked:
+
+"I have heard that there is a lost channel on the American side just
+this side of Lake Ontario. Is that true?"
+
+"Yes," said the man with a smile, "and I have heard that there is a
+lost channel down below Quebec, too. And I read in the newspaper that
+you boys were in search of it. Is that so?"
+
+Clay faced Jule with a smile on his face.
+
+"Whatever we do," he said, "we can't escape the lost channel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AN OLD FRIEND APPEARS
+
+
+"How did this channel get lost?" Alex asked with a whimsical smile.
+
+"Well," replied the other, "I don't believe there is a lost channel.
+You may go down the St. Lawrence river, up one side and down the
+other--and I've been over every inch of it--and you can't find any
+place for a lost channel, unless you locate it at a headland which was
+once an island. In that case, there might be a lost channel. But the
+charts of the river for two hundred years show no such change in
+conformation."
+
+"That seems to be conclusive," Clay suggested.
+
+"Conclusive? Of course it is, but you can't make this man Fontenelle
+believe it. Now, look here, stranger," he went on, "I've read what the
+newspapers say about you, and I know that you intend to go back there
+and look for that lost channel. Is that right?"
+
+"It seems to me that the newspapers are advertising us pretty
+thoroughly," Clay observed. "Every one seems to know all about us."
+
+"Of course!" assented the older man. "You boys and your boat are about
+as well known on this river, by reputation at least, as Lawyer Martin,
+and he's been doing a heap of traveling up and down lately. Why,
+Lawyer Martin was right here the very day the Quebec newspapers
+printed the story that you boys were going to find the lost channel.
+He read the story and jumped.
+
+"Yes, sir! He jumped like a man going to locate an oil claim. I rowed
+him out to the first steamer that came along, and heard him offer the
+captain a big wad of money if he would gain time on the trip to
+Quebec."
+
+"Do you think the story about the lost channel had anything to do with
+his sudden departure?" asked Clay.
+
+"Yes, sir. Yes, sir," was the reply. "He didn't tell me what he
+suspected or feared, but he hurried away to find out what was going on
+just the same. And he hurried away right soon."
+
+"Is he in any way interested in the Fontenelle charter?" asked Clay.
+
+"Interested?" repeated the other. "I should say he was! Why, he's the
+lawyer for all of us fellows who will be turned off our farms if the
+charter should be found and sustained."
+
+"I see," said Clay, "I see!"
+
+"Now," whispered Jule, giving Clay a nudge in the side, "we'll find
+out who the disguised man was. It might have been this Lawyer Martin."
+
+"What kind of a looking man is Mr. Martin?" asked Clay.
+
+"Mighty nice looking fellow," was the reply. "Shows breeding and
+culture all the way through, just like a thoroughbred horse shows what
+he's got in him. His face is as white as a woman's and his eyes are as
+clear as a girl's!
+
+"He neither drinks nor smokes, and he is about the best play actor you
+ever saw on the stage. Put a river man's rig on him and he looks like
+a river man.
+
+"Dress him up like a preacher, and you'd think he had the bible by
+heart. He's been in our schoolhouse many a time on his trips here,
+showing the boys and girls how to conduct a commencement exhibition.
+Oh, he's mighty popular all along the river!"
+
+Another nudge and whisper from Jule.
+
+"Blonde or black?" the boy suggested.
+
+"I think I know the man," Clay went on, following the lead again. "He
+has very black eyes, hasn't he? And a nose with a little hump on it,
+and a wide, straight mouth and thin lips."
+
+"No, sir. No, sir," was the reply. "He's got light hair and blue eyes,
+and a straight nose, and a mouth that isn't wide nor straight. Mighty
+handsome man, is Lawyer Martin. We all like him up here!"
+
+"And you will lose your farm if this charter is found and sustained?"
+asked Clay. "You and many of your neighbors?"
+
+"That's what they say," replied the other, "though, of course, it will
+depend upon what young Fontenelle says about it."
+
+"The courts might not sustain the charter," suggested Clay.
+
+"Oh well, we're not worrying about it," was the reply. "We're leaving
+the whole case to Lawyer Martin."
+
+As the night advanced the residents left the campfire and returned to
+their homes, while the boys sought their bunks on board the _Rambler_.
+
+"What was it some one said about a small world?" asked Clay. "Who was
+it that said that a face once seen was sure to cross our paths in
+future years? Was it the same man who said that a note of music once
+struck revolves around the earth for countless millions of years,
+never ceasing, never reaching mortal ears, but making its way through
+space forever?"
+
+"Hold on!" Alex cried. "Come down from the stars if you want to talk
+to us."
+
+"Well," Clay went on, "every person we have met at our stopping-places
+has been seen or heard of at the next stopping-place. We meet a
+disguised man on the street at Montreal. We come to a campfire by the
+riverside, miles above the city, to learn why he was disguised, and
+why he was following us. As we have said several times lately, this is
+a pretty small world. The man you meet to-day may walk in your path
+forever!"
+
+The boys were astir early in the morning. They cooked breakfast on the
+shore, watched by inquisitive boys and girls, and then proceeded
+upstream. They passed beautiful Lake St. Frances long before noon, and
+just as night fell tied up at a lower pier at Ogdensburg. As soon as
+supper had been eaten, Alex and Captain Joe started away together.
+
+"Here, where are you boys going?" asked Clay. "I say boys because
+Captain Joe has more sense than Alex," he added, turning to the
+others. "At least Captain Joe doesn't get lost very often."
+
+"Right over here on the river front," Alex replied, "is where the
+Rutland Transit Company boats dock. Those boats are fresh from
+Chicago, and I'm going over to see if I can get a drink of Lake
+Michigan water!"
+
+"If you go over there with that dog," Case declared, "the sailors will
+steal him. That dog is about as well known in Chicago as Carter H.
+Harrison. He's had his picture in every one of the Chicago
+newspapers."
+
+"All right," replied Alex. "If they catch him and take him back to
+Chicago, they'll have to take me with him."
+
+The boy took his departure, accompanied by the dog, and the others sat
+down to a quiet evening in the cabin. They had had several pleasant
+days and many thrilling adventures on the St. Lawrence river.
+
+There remained now only about a hundred miles of travel, Lake Ontario
+being only that distance away. But included in that hundred miles were
+all the beautiful islands, great and small, which have made the St.
+Lawrence river famous.
+
+The pleasantest part of their trip was yet to come.
+
+While the boys lay in the cabin, with the lights all out as usual, a
+heavy step sounded on the deck, and there came a sharp rap at the
+cabin door. The boys sprang out of their bunks instantly.
+
+"What's coming off now?" whispered Jule. "Anyway, this fellow has more
+manners than our other night visitors."
+
+Clay stepped to the door, searchlight in hand, and turned a circle of
+flame on the face of the newcomer. Then he dropped the electric and
+sprang forward. The boys were getting ready with their automatics when
+they heard his voice speaking in great excitement.
+
+"Captain Joe!" he cried. "Captain Joe! Where the dickens did you come
+from? What are you doing at Ogdensburg?"
+
+"I might ask the same question of you," replied the hearty old
+ex-captain. "To tell you the truth, lad," he went on, "I've been so
+lonesome ever since you boys left the South Branch that I've done
+quite a lot of traveling, for an old man. Several times I've been
+almost up with you but you always got away."
+
+"You never came all the way up here to visit us?" asked Case.
+
+"To be honest about it, boys," the ex-captain replied, "I just did
+that very thing. I've got a friend who is captain of the Rutland boat
+which arrived this evening, and I came on with him. Mighty fine trip
+we had, too. And how are you all, and where is Alex and my namesake?"
+
+"You wouldn't know Captain Joe," laughed Clay. "He's got to be the
+biggest, fiercest, wisest, pluckiest bulldog in the world."
+
+"And Teddy bear! You remember him of course," Jule put in. "He ate up
+two pirates down the river, body and bones, and is so fat that we have
+to help him out of bed. Great bear, that!"
+
+"Boys, boys," warned Captain Joe. "Don't exaggerate. I've always told
+you not to exaggerate. Do you think Captain Joe will know me?"
+
+"Of course he will," said Case. "Captain Joe never forgets a friend."
+
+"And now that you are here," Clay put in, "you are going to remain
+with us while we go back down the St. Lawrence to St. Luce and return
+here. Then we'll either ship the boat to Chicago or take her slowly up
+the lakes. Won't that be a fine old trip?"
+
+"It listens pretty good to me," Captain Joe answered. "To be honest
+with you, boys," he continued, "I've been wanting a trip on the
+_Rambler_, but I never felt like getting away until now."
+
+"You sailed on the St. Lawrence once a good many years ago, didn't
+you, Captain Joe?" asked Jule.
+
+"Did I?" asked Captain Joe extending his stubby forefinger by way of
+emphasis. "Did I sail on the St. Lawrence river? Boys, I know every
+inch of it, up one side and down the other and through the middle."
+
+"Then you'll be a great help to us," Clay suggested.
+
+"Oh, you boys don't need any help navigating a boat on any river,"
+Captain Joe asserted. "You boys are all right! But I was going to tell
+you about the St. Lawrence river."
+
+"A few years ago, there wasn't an eddy, nor a swirl, nor an island,
+nor a channel, on the whole stream from Wolfe island to the waters of
+the Atlantic that I didn't know all about. I've sailed her night and
+day and I could take a ship down the rapids now. Only the government
+won't give me a license because I can read and write," he added in a
+sarcastic tone.
+
+"Well, Captain Joe, you're just the identical man we've been looking
+for," cried Clay. "Several hundred years ago an old Frenchman by the
+name of Cartier mislaid a channel down the river. Now we want you to
+help us find that channel!"
+
+"Oh, you want to find a channel, do you?" laughed Captain Joe. "Well,
+now, I'll tell you, boys, if that channel has been open at any time
+within the past hundred years, I can find it. Of course I wasn't on
+the river as long ago as that, but my old dad was, and he taught me to
+read the St. Lawrence like a boy reads the stories of Captain Kidd."
+
+"That is fine!" the boys exclaimed in a breath.
+
+Then Clay laughed and nudged his companions and said:
+
+"Captain Joe, did you ever hear anybody say that this is a mighty
+small world? If so, do you think it's true?"
+
+"It is bigger than I have ever been able to get over," replied Captain
+Joe, not understanding. "I've seen quite a lot of it, but not all."
+
+Then Clay told the captain of their adventures on the St. Lawrence,
+showing him the two mysterious communications, with the understanding
+that he was never to mention their existence to any one.
+
+"And so there really is a lost channel?" asked Captain Joe.
+
+"You bet there is! There is more than one lost channel. Go bite him
+doggie!"
+
+The voice came from the doorway, and the next moment, Alex and Captain
+Joe, the bulldog, came tumbling into the room.
+
+"Say, my namesake is getting to be some dog," shouted the Captain,
+after the greetings were over. "He's big enough to find a lost channel
+anywhere. And he looks fierce enough, too."
+
+"He's always perfectly willing to do his share of the looking," Alex
+grinned. "And we're perfectly willing to give him a chance to help."
+
+"Then I'll take him into partnership," Captain Joe, the man, said,
+"and we'll go out hunting for what you seek. If there is a lost
+channel anywhere it will go hard if we don't find it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THROUGH THE FAMOUS RAPIDS
+
+
+A special bunk, the softest and springiest that could be made, was
+fitted up for Captain Joe in the cabin that night. The old fellow so
+enjoyed visiting with the boys that it was late before they went to
+sleep, and so the sun was well up when they left their beds in the
+morning.
+
+"Now," Clay said, after all had indulged in a short swim in the river,
+"we're going to celebrate the arrival of Captain Joe by one of Alex's
+beefsteak breakfasts at a restaurant. Captain Joe has traveled so far
+to see us that we're not going to take any chances on having him
+poisoned by Case's cooking."
+
+"Now look here, boys," Captain Joe remonstrated, "I've had a good many
+restaurant meals along the South Branch since you boys deserted me,
+and a chef has been cooking for me on the Rutland boat, so I propose
+that we get breakfast right here, on the _Rambler_. It will be a
+novelty for me, anyway."
+
+"What would you like, Captain?" asked Alex.
+
+"Well," said Captain Joe almost smacking his lips, "you know the kind
+of pancakes they serve at the Bismark, Chicago? They're half an inch
+thick, you know, and as large as the bottom of a milk pan. Cost a
+quarter apiece, and a fellow doesn't want anything more to eat all
+day! Now, you go ahead and make pancakes like we used to get at the
+Bismark."
+
+"And eggs, and ham, and beans, and coffee, and fried potatoes, and
+canned peaches?" asked Case. "We're sure going to celebrate, Captain
+Joe."
+
+"Well boys," said the old captain, "if you want to go and make
+provision tanks of yourselves, you can do it, but for my part, I'm
+going to be careful in my eating, as I'm getting old! Just rig me up a
+simple little meal consisting of eight or ten of those twenty-five
+cent pancakes and half a dozen eggs and three or four cups of coffee,
+and I'll try to worry through the day."
+
+"I don't see how you can get along with anything less than a dozen
+pancakes and a gallon of coffee," laughed Clay, "and I'll go on shore
+and buy a box of the finest cigars to be had in Ogdensburg."
+
+Captain Joe held up a warning finger.
+
+"Now look here, boys," he said, "you know how I used to pull away at
+that dirty old pipe on the South Branch. I used to be ashamed of
+myself, smoking up your quarters, so after you left I quit the weed
+entirely. I haven't smoked a pipe or cigar for a long time," he added,
+proudly.
+
+And so the breakfast was prepared as Captain Joe directed. The boys
+set out what little honey Teddy hadn't succeeded in getting hold of,
+and the pancakes were greatly enjoyed. But the Captain didn't finish
+his stunt.
+
+"You boys are mighty good to an old man like me," he said.
+
+"Mighty good!" repeated Clay. "Don't you remember when some sneak
+stole all the money we had been saving for a year to take us on the
+Amazon trip? Don't you remember how we hustled and got a little more
+together, and how you were afraid we wouldn't have enough, and might
+go broke in the Andes, and you took two hundred dollars and put it in
+a packet and told us to open it when we got into trouble? There is
+nothing on this boat you can't have, Captain Joe."
+
+"Well," said the old man, "I didn't need the money, and, besides, I
+got it back. It didn't cost me anything to lend it."
+
+"We needed it, though," grinned Alex, "and we might have been back
+there yet if we hadn't had it. You're the luckiest man I know of or it
+would never have been returned. And we were lucky, too."
+
+"And now, if you don't mind," said Captain Joe, "we'll cut all this
+talk out. I'm going to stay with you boys just as long as you'll let
+me, and I don't want to hear any more talk about that consarned two
+hundred dollars. I've heard too much already."
+
+"We think of it every time we see the white bulldog," laughed Case.
+
+"By the way," said the Captain, "I've got that two hundred dollars in
+my jeans this minute, and if you should happen to want any of it just
+let me know. I really don't know what to do with it."
+
+"Pigs will be flying when we use any more of your money, Captain Joe,"
+Alex smiled. "We've got plenty of our own."
+
+After breakfast, with Captain Joe at the helm, the boat was turned
+toward the Great Lakes. It was seven o'clock when they left Ogdensburg
+and at ten they were at Alexandria Bay.
+
+"Suppose we keep on the Canadian side going up," Captain Joe
+suggested, "and then, when we come back, we can take the American
+side."
+
+"Can you take the boat up and back without knocking off any of these
+headlands?" asked Alex with a wink at the Captain.
+
+"Look here, young man," replied the Captain not at all offended, "I
+was dipping the water into this river before you were born. I can take
+this boat within an inch of every island and crag and headland between
+here and Lake Ontario and never scrape off an ounce of paint. I've
+sailed on the ocean, too, and all up and down the Great Lakes. This
+St. Lawrence river was always like a little pet kitten to me."
+
+According to this suggestion, the captain left Alexandria Bay to the
+south and proceeded over to the Canadian side. The boat was now just
+starting in on its run through the famous Thousand Islands.
+
+Many times it seemed to the boys as if Captain Joe intended to run the
+craft directly through some of the magnificent cottages located high
+above the river, but always the boat turned just in time to keep in
+foot-clear water. The boys stood leaning on the gunwale for hours
+watching the splendid panorama of the river.
+
+There were islands rich with verdure; there were islets brown and
+rocky, there were great level places hemmed in by the river where
+magnificent summer residences showed against the beauty of the
+landscape.
+
+Now and then summer tourists hailed the _Rambler_ from the river, and
+occasionally girls and boys ran down the island piers to greet her
+with the waving of flags. It was a glorious trip.
+
+Captain Joe explained many features of the stream as they passed up,
+and as long as the boys lived they remembered the shimmer of the sun
+on the island foliage, the white-fringed waves rumpled by the light
+wind, and the voice of the kind old man telling them the experiences
+of a life time.
+
+Just before sundown, after one of the pleasantest days they ever
+experienced, the boys reached Kingston. Captain Joe seemed disinclined
+to leave the boat that night, and so the boys spent three hours
+wandering up and down the streets of the historic old city. Off to the
+west lay the famous Bay of Quinte. Farther south was Sackett's Harbor,
+while between the two lay Wolfe island, stuck into the mouth of the
+St. Lawrence river like a great plug. The boys enjoyed the night
+ramble immensely.
+
+"Now, Captain Joe," Clay said in the morning, "suppose we circle Wolfe
+island, inspect the light house at Cape Vincent, and spend part of a
+day at Sackett's Harbor? I don't know of any better way to spend the
+next twelve hours than in making a trip like that."
+
+"Sackett's Harbor was a military point during the last war with Great
+Britain," Jule said, "and I'd like to look over the town."
+
+"Nothing much doing there now in the way of guns and soldiers,"
+Captain Joe said, "but, as you say, it would pay you well to spend a
+day on the waters in this vicinity. You may never have the chance
+again."
+
+So the _Rambler_ headed for Cape Vincent, where they stopped long
+enough to inspect the big light, first taking a view of Sackett's
+Harbor. About noon, they came to Clayton, where they paused long
+enough to inspect several groups of islands on the American side.
+
+Then, with Captain Joe still at the helm, the boat passed down to
+Alexandria Bay where they tied up for the night.
+
+"To-morrow," Captain Joe said, as the boys made great inroads on the
+Bismark pancakes stacked up on the table, "I'll take you through the
+Lachine rapids. You'll find we'll have to go some."
+
+"You haven't got any government license!" laughed Alex.
+
+"No," said the old Captain, "I'm not an ignorant Indian. I can read
+and write, and so I can't get a government license, but I'll tell you
+what I can do. I can take this boat down the Lachine without getting a
+drop of water on the deck."
+
+The Captain was a little bit inclined to tell what he had done and
+what he could do, but his stories were all truthful and interesting,
+so the boys rather enjoyed them, and the captain enjoyed talking.
+
+"You needn't think we're going to fly through the air on this trip,"
+Jule said winking at the Captain. "We're going to take about two days
+to get down to the Lachine. We'll loaf along the river to-morrow,
+making about one hundred miles, tie up for the night, and reach
+Lachine in the afternoon of the day after. What do you think of that
+for a program, boys?" he added, turning to Clay.
+
+"That's the way I figured it out," Clay answered. "There is no use in
+being in a hurry. We've got all the time there is."
+
+Every person on the boat, except perhaps the dog and the bear, slept
+soundly that night. There was no wind, and the little bay they were in
+protected them from the wash of the steamers. When they awoke in the
+morning the sun was rising round and red out of the river.
+
+That day was another one long to be remembered by every member of the
+_Rambler_ party. They drifted, using the motors just enough to give
+headway, fished in the clear water, and told stories of old days on
+the South Branch--days long to be remembered by them all.
+
+That night partook of the character of the last one so far as sleep
+and rest were concerned. The boat lay at a little pier not far from a
+rural settlement. Early in the evening villagers came down attracted
+by the clamor of the motors but soon returned to their homes.
+
+It was on that evening that Alex made his famous attempt to cook a
+river fish a la Indian. There was something the matter with the fish,
+or with the hot stones, or with the soil! At any rate, the white
+bulldog and the bear cub got the supper the boy had sweated over for
+an hour or more.
+
+Shortly after noon on the following day, the _Rambler_ came to the
+head of the Lachine rapids, six miles above Montreal.
+
+Although the boys had every confidence in Captain Joe as a pilot, some
+of them were inclined to think that his memory of the rapids might not
+be as good as his skill. Many a time during that passage the grand and
+lofty tumbling of the waters as they broke upon projecting rocks
+seemed about to engulf the frail craft.
+
+Many a time the nose of the _Rambler_ seemed pointing directly at a
+hidden rock which sent the river spouting into the air like the "blow"
+of a great whale. Many a time the wayward current caught the prow and
+twisted it about until it seemed as if the boat would never respond to
+her rudder again.
+
+But the eyes of the captain were true, the arms of the old sailing man
+were strong, and so the boat always came back to the course he had
+mapped out for her. When at last the rapids were passed, the boys were
+greatly relieved.
+
+During the excitement of the trip, little fear had been felt after the
+first plunge, but now that it was over, they realized that they had
+been in absolute peril. Almost with the momentum which had carried the
+_Rambler_ down the Lachine, the boat came to a pier on the river front
+at Montreal. Looking about, the boys saw that they were almost in the
+location where they had tied up before.
+
+Clay sprang ashore, hastened to a telephone, talked eagerly for a few
+moments and then returned to the _Rambler_. Captain Joe sat out on the
+prow and the boy took a deck stool beside him.
+
+"Captain Joe," the boy asked, "what would have taken place if we had
+run out of gasoline while navigating the rapids?"
+
+The captain eyed the boy with surprise showing on his weather-beaten
+face. He poked Clay in the ribs before answering.
+
+"Why do you ask an old captain a foolish question like that?" he said.
+
+"I'm asking for information," was the reply. "Tell me what would have
+happened. I really want to know."
+
+"Well," Captain Joe replied, scratching his chin meditatively, "if the
+gasoline had given out in the rapids, just about this time there would
+be a lot of boards bumping against the rocks, and a motor rusting in
+the bottom of the river, and five human beings, a bulldog and a bear
+floating out toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence."
+
+"That's just what I thought," Clay exclaimed. "That's just why I was
+scared stiff when I found out that we were just about out of gasoline
+as we struck the head of the rapids."
+
+"And you never said a word about it," asked the captain, "to any of
+the boys? You kept it all to yourself?"
+
+"Huh," replied Clay, "where was the use in scaring the fellows out of
+a year's growth. Didn't you notice my cap walking straight up into the
+air? That was because my hair lifted it."
+
+"Boy, boy," expostulated Captain Joe, "don't lie to the old man. I
+don't believe you were scared at all."
+
+"Well, anyway," replied Clay, "the tanks are empty, and there will be
+a wagon down here pretty quick to fill them up. Now mind you, I'm not
+going to say a word to the other boys about this. If I do, they'll
+never get over roasting me. We should have taken on gasoline at
+Kingston, but I forgot all about it."
+
+"Do you remember what you told me about this Lawyer Martin?" asked
+Captain Joe. "He seems to be the lawyer leading the band of ruffians
+who are trying to keep the lost channel lost forever!"
+
+"Yes," replied Clay, "and I was just going to speak about that. It was
+in Montreal that we met him, disguised as a riverside character, and I
+was wondering if it might not be well to go ashore and look him up."
+
+"Don't you ever think of doing that," Captain Joe replied. "You get
+your gasoline and lay in additional pancake material and we'll go on
+down the river to Cartier island. That's what they call that
+peninsula, isn't it? Let me tell you this," the old man added, "if you
+have anything more to do with this man Martin, you let him be the one
+to do the looking up."
+
+"That's good sense, too," agreed Clay. "He might discover that we were
+on our way back if we went up into the city. So we'll remain quiet
+to-night and set out for Cartier island and the lost channel early
+to-morrow morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A CALL FROM WRECKERS
+
+
+Nothing occurred to disturb the slumbers of the _Rambler's_ crew that
+night. The cool wind made the cabin of the boat comfortable, and the
+street lights of Montreal winked down upon the craft with friendly
+eyes. The afternoon of the following day found them at Quebec.
+
+"I've been thinking," Clay said as the boat tied up at the pier they
+had occupied on the occasion of their former visit, "that we ought not
+to keep this stolen canoe. Of course Max stole it."
+
+"Perhaps he'll come down here and claim it again," suggested Jule.
+
+"If he does," Alex exclaimed, "I'm going on shore to find him and get
+even with him. He'd no business to bring that gang of wharf rats onto
+us. I hope he's under arrest somewhere."
+
+"There's an idea!" suggested Case. "Suppose we telephone to the chief
+of police and find out. We can leave the canoe in the care of the
+chief, too, if we want to. He might be able to find the owner."
+
+"It seems to me," Captain Joe interrupted, "that you boys may as well
+keep that canoe until we return to Quebec, on our way to the Great
+Lakes. It will come in mighty handy when we're prowling around those
+two rivers you've been talking about. The owner won't miss it for a
+few days."
+
+"That's another good notion," Clay agreed. "We'll use the canoe and
+return it when we get back. And now I'll go and telephone to the chief
+of police and see if he has discovered anything additional about Max."
+
+Clay was gone only a short time. When he returned, he looked a trifle
+anxious. When he spoke, it was in an excited tone.
+
+"Look here, boys," he said, "the chief of police advises to us to give
+up that hunt for the lost channel. He says that Fontenelle has just
+returned from Cartier island leaving a wrecked launch and a lot of
+perfectly good stores stacked on the bottom of the river."
+
+"I had an idea," Captain Joe suggested, "that things would be moving
+about the time we got down here. Why, do you know, boys," he went on,
+"that this lost channel matter is creating about as much excitement in
+Quebec province as the coronation of a new king ought to?"
+
+"The procession seemed to start about the time we struck the river,"
+Alex grinned, "and there's been music ever since we left St. Luce."
+
+"Yes," Clay went on, "and the newspapers have been printing feature
+stories and describing the family jewels, and the lost channel, and
+telling how many land-holders would be made homeless if the charter
+should ever be found and sustained. The newspapers are always meddling
+with our affairs."
+
+"You let the newspapers alone," advised Captain Joe. "They have
+advertised you boys, and the _Rambler_, and the bulldog, and the bear,
+from one end of this river to the other."
+
+"Well, what do you think about this advice given by the chief?" asked
+Clay. "We ought to reach some conclusion immediately."
+
+"You came down here to find that lost channel, didn't you?" asked
+Uncle Joe with a twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"We came down here to look for it," answered the boy.
+
+"Well, then," continued Captain Joe, "we'll go and look for it."
+
+"That's what I thought!" cried Case.
+
+"I wouldn't turn back now for a million!" yelled Alex.
+
+"Boys," smiled Captain Joe, "I never knew any one to get rich by
+changing plans every time some fool friend advanced a contrary
+opinion. When you make up your mind to do a thing, you go right on and
+do it. Did you ever notice the bulldog when he gets into a scrap?"
+
+"I've seen him in several scraps," answered Clay.
+
+"Well," went on the captain, "when the bulldog gets into a fight, the
+harder they chew him the tighter he hangs on, and that's about the way
+all the money and reputations have been made in this combative world."
+
+"Oh, we hadn't any idea of turning back," Clay hastened to say. "I
+only wanted to know what the others thought about it."
+
+"Well you found out pretty quick," laughed Jule. "Why, we've had four
+or five days that we haven't had a fight, or seen a midnight prowler,
+or been dumped on a sand bar, or experienced any other pleasant little
+incident of that description. I was actually beginning to fear that
+our river trip from this time on would be one long sweet dream."
+
+The boys passed another restful night and were up with the sun. The
+first thing Alex did after bathing and dressing was to spring to the
+pier and start off into the city.
+
+"Here, here!" cried Captain Joe. "We don't allow little boys to go
+wandering off alone! If you've got to go, I'm going with you."
+
+"That's fine!" shouted Alex, capering about on his toes. "Come along,
+and we'll take the old town to pieces to see what makes it tick."
+
+"I'm going uptown," Alex explained as they mounted one of the sidling
+streets which led up from the river, "to buy a porterhouse steak that
+weighs ten pounds. This will be our last chance."
+
+"Now," said Captain Joe mildly, "don't you think a porterhouse steak
+weighing nine pounds and a half would be enough for our breakfast?"
+
+"But we ain't going to have this steak for breakfast," Alex protested.
+"I'm going to put this steak in that cute little cold air refrigerator
+of ours and when wet get down to Cartier island, I'm going to cook a
+beefsteak a la brigand. If you eat a steak cooked in that way once,
+you'll never want one cooked any other way. It's simply great!"
+
+"It's a new one on me," replied Captain Joe.
+
+"Oh, well," Alex said, "I'll show you all about cooking it when the
+time comes. When we get back to the South Branch, you can have one
+every day if you want it. We can get pretty good porterhouse in
+Chicago."
+
+The two strolled through the city for a couple of hours, buying
+vegetables, condensed milk, tinned goods, fresh fruit and meats.
+Later, when the provisions were delivered to the _Rambler_ at the foot
+of the pier, Case declared that Alex had spent money enough to take
+them all over Europe. Alex was somewhat disappointed to think that he
+had not encountered Max in the city, but did not inform his chums how
+keenly he had watched for him.
+
+"What did the chief of police say about Max?" asked the boy as they
+returned to the boat. "You forgot to say anything about that."
+
+"Sure I did," answered Clay. "Well, he said that Max had blossomed out
+in a suit that must have cost a hundred, with a big roll of money in
+his pocket. He said, too, that he had strutted around the city for a
+few days and then suddenly disappeared. It is the opinion of the chief
+that the boy, who is by no means as young as he looks, went down the
+river to Cartier island."
+
+"I really hope he has," Alex blurted out, "I'll crack that boy's crust
+if I ever come across him."
+
+"And you'll wash dishes, too," laughed Captain Joe. "Oh, I remember
+how you boys used to fight against slang up on the South Branch."
+
+That night the boys anchored the _Rambler_ in a cove of good size just
+south of Rivere du Loup. They were well away from the wash of the
+steamers, and yet not near enough to the houses of the little railway
+station to attract general attention.
+
+The night closed down cloudy and dark. The passing vessels on the
+river seemed to burn holes in the darkness for only an instant and
+then disappear.
+
+The sounds which came from the water rang loudly in the heavy
+atmosphere and sounded mysterious and uncanny. There were plenty of
+vessels on the river now, as the channel between the gulf and Quebec
+is navigable for the largest ocean steamers.
+
+While the boys lay in the cabin, sheltered from the gulf wind which
+had been so grateful the night before, the heavy rumbling of a freight
+train and sharp call of an engine whistle came to their ears.
+
+"That listens good to me," Alex cried. "Say, fellows, how would you
+like to know, just for a couple of hours, that the noise of that train
+came from the Union station in little old Chicago?"
+
+"Yes," Jule exclaimed, "I like to look into the river and think I'm
+standing on Madison street bridge! Do you remember the stories the
+newspapers used to print about the water in the Chicago river, before
+the drainage canal was put through? Pretty good fiction, eh?"
+
+Captain Joe chuckled until his shoulders shook like jelly.
+
+"Every reporter on the Chicago papers in those days," the captain
+said, "was turning out works of fiction. They used to print pieces
+about men falling off Madison street bridge and off Clark street
+bridge and dashing out their brains on the solid water below. And then
+they used to tell stories about the river being so black the typists
+used to color their ribbons in it. There's something about Chicago
+that seems to me to stir the imagination! It's a great old town!"
+
+The boys discussed their home city until something like ten o'clock.
+They were just going to bed when a call came from the shore at the end
+of the cove. All were on deck instantly.
+
+"Perhaps that's Max," suggested Jule, "or one of those river pirates."
+
+"Or it may be a detachment of ruffians looking for the lost channel,"
+Case put in.
+
+Captain Joe sat back and laughed heartily.
+
+"Boys," he said, "I believe that lost channel has turned your heads.
+You talk about it, and drink it, and sleep it, and I believe you would
+eat it if there was anything tangible about it. I'm interested in it,
+too, kids, but I don't spread it on my bread instead of butter."
+
+"Hello, the boat," came the hail from the shore.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Clay.
+
+"I want to come on board."
+
+"Beds all full," answered Alex.
+
+"But I want to talk with you," insisted the strange voice.
+
+"All right," Clay said, "proceed with your conversation."
+
+"I'm not here to confide to the whole countryside what I want to say
+to you," was the angry reply.
+
+Clay was considering a sarcastic rejoinder but Case laid a warning
+hand on his shoulder.
+
+"There may be something in this," the boy said. "Suppose two of us get
+into the boat and go over and see."
+
+"Don't you think of such a thing," Captain Joe advised. "That fellow
+may not have a boat of his own, but if he is of any account at all, he
+can get one long enough to row out to the _Rambler_. The place for him
+to talk to us is right on this deck. It may be a trap."
+
+"That's good sense, too," Clay agreed. "He can go away if he doesn't
+want to comply with our requirements. He may be only a tramp seeking a
+ride on the river. There are plenty of such characters here."
+
+"I wish he would come aboard," Clay suggested, "and I'll see if I
+can't coax him," he added, turning toward the shore and making a
+trumpet of his hands. "Perhaps he already has a boat."
+
+"Hello, the shore," he called, "we're going away directly, so if you
+want to talk with us, you'd better row out."
+
+"You always was the boy with a little prevarication on the end of your
+tongue!" suggested Alex. "We're not going away directly."
+
+"Morning is directly," laughed Clay turning toward the shore again.
+
+"Are you coming on board?" he asked.
+
+"I haven't got any boat," was the reply. "Why can't you send one
+over?"
+
+Clay's reply elicited a volley of epithets from the shore, and
+directly a great blaze sprang up not many feet distant from the water.
+
+"Wreckers!" cried Captain Joe.
+
+"Surest thing you know!" answered Clay. "The only wonder is that they
+didn't set their beacon going before."
+
+"And this," Jule suggested, "seems to be more like real life. Things
+are livening up. They'll be going good by the time we get to St.
+Luce."
+
+"They may be going too fast!" warned the old captain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CAPTAIN JOE'S NIGHT VISIT
+
+
+"I really would like to know," Case observed, "whether those fellows
+are real wreckers, or whether they have been waiting there for the
+_Rambler_ to come back down the river. You know the story was printed
+that we were coming back to look up the lost channel."
+
+"I don't know of any way of finding out unless we go to shore," Alex
+suggested, looking very much as if he would like to pay a visit to the
+blaze. "We might learn something of importance," he added rather
+coaxingly. "Suppose we do go and see."
+
+"If you try to leave this boat to-night," Clay declared, "I'll tie you
+up with one of the anchor cables. We haven't got any time to waste
+hunting for you. So you stay on board the boat."
+
+Alex did not exactly like the idea of going quietly to bed, but he was
+finally induced to do so.
+
+"Now," said Captain Joe, as he stood alone on deck with Clay, "suppose
+we shove over to the other shore. Those fellows are wreckers, there is
+no doubt of that, and there is no sense in our mixing with them. If we
+stay here, they'll prowl around the _Rambler_ all night, and the
+bulldog will bark and the bear will growl, and it will be like
+sleeping in a boiler shop. What do you say to that?"
+
+"That suits me exactly," Clay answered.
+
+"Then I'll tell you what we'll do. From the point where we tie
+to-night, we'll pass down the river on the north side. That will bring
+us in behind Cartier island, and we can push up the west river instead
+of the east one, which seemed to be the center of activity when you
+were there."
+
+"That's another good suggestion," Clay agreed.
+
+"The west river," the old captain went on, "is a small stream in
+comparison with the other. There's a funny thing about it that I never
+could understand. I was in there once, landing supplies for a
+surveying party and it seemed to me then that that stream never grew
+to any size until it came within a mile or so of the isthmus which
+connects the peninsula with the main shore."
+
+"Then there must be some tributary of good size there," said Clay.
+
+"That's just the point," the captain went on. "There isn't any
+tributary of good size there. The peninsula is very narrow and slopes
+steeply to the west. In fact, the river to the east is several feet
+higher than the one on the west. That's one reason why I think there
+never was any channel through there."
+
+"That is true," Clay answered. "You see, a channel through there,
+running at the rate the incline would naturally call for, would cut a
+hole through that neck of land about as wide as one of the main
+rivers. Why, it would drain the big river and turn all the water into
+the small stream. At least, it looks that way to me."
+
+"Oh, I don't know about that," the captain answered, "there's a lot of
+water in that east river. Still, there's no channel there and never
+was so far as I can understand. Now, what I can't understand is, how
+this west river gets so big all at once. There may be a creek running
+in at the other side, but if there is, I never found it."
+
+"You seem to understand that district pretty well," Clay laughed.
+
+"Didn't I tell you I knew the whole St. Lawrence river south, north,
+and bottom?" demanded the captain. "Why, when I took that load of
+provisions in for the surveyors, there were Indians enough along the
+shore to give a city a population as large as Chicago's. And there
+were bears, and wolves, and deer, and beaver, and all sorts of wild
+creatures in the woods--thick as berries in a swamp."
+
+During this conversation the two had been watching the shore where the
+light had sprung up. With a night glass they could see figures passing
+in front of the blaze, but the beacon, if such it was, soon died down
+to embers, and nothing more was heard from the shore.
+
+They both listened for the sound of oars in the river, but none came.
+The tide was running in and the current was running out, with the
+result that great ranks of waves lay across the wide river like
+winnows in a field of grain. The wind blew sweeping up from the gulf,
+opposing the current, and, taken altogether, it was as dangerous and
+uncertain a night on the river as one could well imagine.
+
+The _Rambler_ danced and bobbed about frightfully, drawing at her
+anchor and seeming to lunge forward in the waste of water. However,
+she was a staunch little craft, and the boys were used to her capers
+on the waves, and so paid little attention.
+
+"They wouldn't dare to venture out in a boat to-night," was Clay's
+comment. "Besides," he added, "they know now that we are suspicious
+and watchful, and, unless I am greatly in error, we will hear no more
+of them."
+
+"Shall we go across now?" asked the captain.
+
+"I'm ready if you think we can make it."
+
+The captain chuckled again and his shoulders shook.
+
+"Make it?" he repeated. "Of course we can make it."
+
+"The tide and the wind are fighting the current," Clay suggested, "and
+all we'll have to do will be to fight the waves."
+
+It was rather rough getting to the north shore, but the trip was made
+without accident, except that Jule was thrown from his bunk and
+Captain Joe, the dog, and Teddy protested against the storm in ways
+best known to bulldogs and bears. Jule merely rubbed his eyes and
+crawled back into his bunk.
+
+They found a place to anchor where the _Rambler_ would be protected
+during the night by a finger of rock running out into the river. All
+along the shore to the north was a heavy forest. The trees swayed and
+creaked in the wind, and now and then a crash from the interior told
+of the falling of some monarch of the forest which had doubtless
+withstood the storms of the St. Lawrence valley for hundreds of years.
+
+It was a wild night on the river and on the land, but the boys slept
+peacefully until morning. As for Captain Joe, he declared that it
+reminded him so much of old nights on the banks of Newfoundland that
+he wanted to sit up and refresh his recollection of those adventurous
+times.
+
+Clay rather suspected that the old captain was too apprehensive of
+evil from the wreckers, or accidents from the storm, to go to bed, but
+he let him have his way, and the hardy old fellow seemed as bright and
+active as ever in the morning. He even declined to go to the cabin for
+rest when the boys insisted that he ought to do so.
+
+"We'll get rest enough when we get down to the west river," the
+captain smiled. "I can sleep in the woods."
+
+"That's just where we won't get any rest," Jule urged.
+
+"Huh," murmured Alex. "That's where I get my rest! The natives were so
+afraid that I'd tire myself walking around that they trussed me up
+like a hen. I'd just like to get a hold of some of those outlaws.
+They're the limit--the worst I ever encountered."
+
+"What did they do to you?" asked Captain Joe.
+
+"Do to me?" repeated Alex. "Why, they had a stew, or a boiled dinner,
+or something, cooking in a tin pail over a fire, and they wouldn't
+give me a thing to eat. And that is the height of meanness!"
+
+As if repenting of the violence of the day before, and trying to make
+restitution for the many blows at the sad old world, the weather that
+morning was all that could have been desired. The air was clear and
+sweet after its bath of rain, and the leaves of the forest sparkled
+and rustled like jewels as the sun shone upon their moist surfaces.
+
+The boys made good time that day, although they did not feel inclined
+to hurry. Alex took the canoe out in the forenoon and caught half a
+dozen fish which he cleaned for dinner. The boy wanted to go ashore
+and prepare the dinner a la Indian again, but the others insisted that
+they really wanted a fish dinner, so the catch was baked in the oven
+of the coal stove. The boys claim to this day that Alex consumed half
+of the fish that he caught, but of course Alex disputes this.
+
+At sundown they anchored the _Rambler_ within four or five miles of
+the west river, in a little bay which ran into the mainland almost
+behind the westward extension of Cartier island.
+
+No lights were shown on the boat, supper having been prepared in the
+dark, and the boys sat along the deck fighting mosquitoes and
+listening to the calls of the wild creatures in the woods.
+
+The point they had selected for their anchorage was directly west of
+Point aux Outardes, and when the moon rose the boys naturally turned
+their eyes in that direction. Although the point was fully four miles
+away, a rocky promontory could be seen standing sharply out against
+the dark line of the forest.
+
+"Captain," Alex said, as they sat back of the gunwale on the prow, "I
+wish you'd take this glass and see what you can discover on that
+point."
+
+Captain Joe took the glass into his hand and held it for a long time,
+swinging it back and forth over the shore to the north, and over the
+river line of Cartier island. Then he handed it back to Alex.
+
+"I'll tell you," he said slowly, "there's a campfire over on the
+point, and there are many people around it. At least I see figures
+moving back and forth."
+
+"Perhaps that is a base of supplies for the fellows who are trying to
+find the lost channel in order to beat Fontenelle to the charter and
+the family jewels," Clay suggested.
+
+"It doesn't seem as if they would camp in so conspicuous a place."
+
+"Oh, I don't know about that," Case said, "they have nothing to fear
+from officers or wreckers. They are only hunting for a lost treasure,
+which any one may find who is lucky enough to get to it."
+
+"Let's go and call on them," suggested Alex.
+
+"I prefer to live a little longer," Case laughed.
+
+"Aw, come on, they won't hurt us," Alex argued, "I'm going."
+
+The boys laughed at the idea and Alex said no more about the proposed
+excursion, but Clay suggested to Captain Joe after the others were in
+their bunks:
+
+"We must watch that little rascal, or he'll get up in the night and
+run over there. He's always doing tricks of that kind, and some time
+he'll get into serious trouble."
+
+Captain Joe pretended to regard the situation as very serious, and
+said that he would see that Alex didn't get away from the boat that
+night. With this Clay seemed contented. The old captain insisted on
+keeping watch again that night, but if the boys had been about the
+deck they would have seen very little of him, for all that.
+
+As soon as the others were asleep, the captain untied the tow line of
+the canoe, stepped softly into it, and paddled away in the direction
+of the north shore. So far as possible he kept the bulk of the
+_Rambler_ between himself and the point where the light had been seen.
+
+Reaching the margin of the bay, he turned to the east and paddled
+straight to the mouth of the west river. After an hour of steady work,
+he reached a point a little east and directly north of Point aux
+Outardes. Nothing could be seen of the fire or the figures about it
+from the north, and the captain boldly crossed the arm of the bay
+stretching in behind Cartier island. In half an hour he was on the
+island itself, and separated only by a few rods of mingled rocks and
+bushes from the point.
+
+Advancing cautiously to the south he came within view of the blaze and
+within hearing of much of the conversation going on there.
+
+The night hours passed slowly. The moon swung to the south and off to
+the west, and the shadows lay long in the forest before the old
+captain moved from his point of observation. Then with a chuckle he
+crept back to his canoe, and long before the boys were out of their
+bunks he was fishing over the gunwale of the _Rambler_ in the most
+innocent manner imaginable. The old fellow chuckled as he dropped his
+line.
+
+"That bay stretching in behind the peninsula," he mused, "looks to me
+just as it did a good many years ago. No improvements seem to have
+been made there notwithstanding the work of the surveyors, and the
+country is just as desolate as it was then. If I had had a little more
+time I might have paddled up to the mouth of the west river and looked
+over the situation there, but daylight showed too soon."
+
+"What's that you're muttering about?" asked Alex clapping a hand on
+the old captain's arm. "You must be talking in your sleep."
+
+"Not that any one knows of," chuckled the old captain. "I was only
+saying that from here the country looks exactly as it used to."
+
+"And my stomach feels exactly as it used to," Alex declared. "You
+catch the fish, and I'll cook 'em, and we'll tumble the boys out for
+breakfast. They're sleeping too long, anyway."
+
+This program was followed to the letter, and before noon the _Rambler_
+lay up the west river about a mile from the bay creeping in behind
+Cartier island. At first no one left the boat, however.
+
+"Do you remember what the chief of police said about Fontenelle's boat
+and a lot of perfectly good provisions lying on the bottom of the
+river?" asked Clay as the boys lounged on deck.
+
+"Indeed I do," replied Case. "I've been thinking it would be a fine
+thing if we could find that boat."
+
+"I have found it!" Clay exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, you have!" Case said, doubtfully.
+
+"Sure, I have," Clay went on. "When we swung in past Point aux
+Outarde, you were all watching the point to see what had become of the
+men who camped there last night, while I was searching the bay on the
+north side looking for some signs of the wreck of the _Cartier_."
+
+"And you found it, did you?" Case cried excitedly.
+
+"Sure, I found it," Clay declared. "It lays bottom down in about
+fifteen feet of water, with the top of the cabin showing plainly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+IT IS NOW CLAY'S TURN
+
+
+"Do you think we can raise her?" asked Case.
+
+"We can if she has any bottom left," declared Clay. "If they only cut
+a few holes in her and sunk her that way, we can get her out."
+
+"Aw, what's the good of taking up time with the old wreck!" demanded
+Alex, who had listened to the conversation. "It isn't our boat,
+anyway."
+
+"But the _Cartier_ is a splendid launch, and worth a lot of money,"
+Clay suggested, "and we might pay the expenses of the trip by getting
+her out for the Fontenelles. It won't do any harm to try."
+
+"All right!" Alex cried. "Just remember I'm the champion long distance
+diver, when you get ready to go down and look her over."
+
+After breakfast the _Rambler_ was taken still farther upstream, as far
+up, in fact, as the depth of the water would permit.
+
+"There!" Captain Joe observed, pointing to a bend just above the prow
+of the boat. "This is the strange thing that I called your attention
+to. The river widens here in the most mysterious manner."
+
+"It may be just back water," Clay ventured.
+
+"No sir!" answered the captain. "There is no back water here. See how
+steadily the current runs? And there's no creek running in, either."
+
+"Then there must be a subterranean stream running--"
+
+Clay checked himself with the sentence half finished.
+
+"Suppose," he mused, "just suppose, there should be a subterranean
+stream running in from under the hills--let us say from the north.
+That would be a channel, wouldn't it? And it might be a lost channel
+at that! Why didn't I think of that before."
+
+The boy was so full of the thought, so enthusiastic over the thing it
+might mean, that he concluded to make a quiet investigation on his own
+hook, saying nothing to the others regarding the matter.
+
+"What was it you said about some underground stream?" asked Captain
+Joe. "You started in to say something about it and then stopped
+abruptly."
+
+"Oh, it just occurred to me that there might be an underground river
+somewhere around here, but I guess that's just a dream. There couldn't
+be any river, you see, for the ground is rocky, and there seems to be
+no place for an underground stream to get its supply."
+
+"No," the old captain agreed, "there can't be any underground stream
+that's a sure thing. If there are caverns they are dry."
+
+Clay chuckled to himself, and went into the cabin after Alex.
+
+"Come on, Redhead!" he cried catching the boy by the arm. "We are now
+going ashore to dig up the lost channel."
+
+"That's a nice pleasant little job, too!" Alex declared.
+
+"Well, come on," Clay insisted. "We'll go over and make a start,
+anyway. We may be able to find out if the outlaws are really here."
+
+Explaining to Captain Joe and the others that they were going only a
+short distance from the shore, the boys launched the canoe and were
+soon on the sloping shore of the peninsula. Once across they hid their
+canoe in a thicket which overhung the stream and disappeared in the
+interior.
+
+"Now, look here," Clay said as he stopped and sat deliberately down in
+the shade of a great tree, "I've got an idea."
+
+Alex stared hard in pretended wonder and amazement.
+
+"Where did you get it?" he asked.
+
+"Brain cell opened and gave it to me," Clay answered.
+
+"Well, come across with it," Alex urged.
+
+"Captain Joe wants to know where the water comes from to make the west
+river so large at its mouth," Clay went on. "I started in to tell him
+that there might be a subterranean stream somewhere hereabouts, but I
+thought he would laugh at me and so kept my mouth shut."
+
+Alex sprang to his feet and swung round and round on his heels,
+chuckling and shaking hands with himself.
+
+"That's the idea!" he cried. "That's just the idea! There is a
+subterranean stream here somewhere! Look at the way the rocks are
+piled up, and look at the long slope from the top of the ridges to the
+level of the river. There are catch basins here somewhere, and water
+pouring into the river that no one knows anything about."
+
+"Now go a little farther," Clay suggested. "Figure that at some time,
+say two or three hundred years ago, this subterranean channel lay open
+to the sun. Now what do you make of it?"
+
+"Holy smoke!" almost shouted Alex. "I make a lost channel!"
+
+"There you are!" Clay began, "and all we've got to do is to just look
+around and find it. We've got plenty of time."
+
+"That will be some cheerful job, too," Alex commented. "We've only got
+about forty thousand square miles of territory to look over."
+
+"I think," Clay said, "that we have the idea, and that is the main
+thing. The rest is only a matter of detail."
+
+As the boys sat under the tree, Alex having dropped down to the turf
+again, a rustling of bushes was heard to the east and they turned in
+that direction, scanning the thicket closely. Then Alex seized Clay by
+the arm and pointed away through the underbrush.
+
+"Did you ever see that figure before?" he asked.
+
+"Looks to me to be about the size of Max," Clay answered. "I wonder if
+he is watching us, or whether he is only looking in the direction of
+the _Rambler_. Anyway, we'd better move."
+
+The boys shifted their position some yards to the north and crouched
+down again. The bushes showed motion once more, and they saw the
+figure they had observed moving toward the bank of the west river.
+
+"He never saw us!" cried Alex. "He is sneaking down on the _Rambler_."
+
+"Yes," Clay replied, "and there are two or three just behind him."
+
+"I had an idea," Alex chuckled, "that things would begin to liven up
+as soon as we got into this country. This will please Captain Joe!"
+
+"Captain Joe," Clay replied, "seems inclined to take things rather
+seriously. The chances are that he is wondering now, night and day,
+how four rattleheaded boys ever got so far over the world without
+being murdered or sent to the penitentiary. Still, he isn't always
+passing out advice."
+
+From their new shelter, the boys now saw Max and three men pass to the
+west and stand under a screen of boughs looking down toward the
+_Rambler_.
+
+"The war is on, I guess," Clay said. "Those fellows were here waiting
+for us to come back. Did it ever occur to you that they know about our
+having that mysterious map?"
+
+"Now you've said something," Alex exclaimed. "That map was intended
+for those opposing the Fontenelles. It was given to us by mistake, and
+the people who should have had it know that we've got it. That's why
+they're watching us so. Wonder we never thought of that before."
+
+"It seems to me that you've struck it right," Clay answered. "They've
+been waiting here all this time for us to come back it seems."
+
+"Then I should think they'd keep out of sight until we get busy
+looking for the channel. They surely won't want to drive us away
+before we demonstrate what we know about it."
+
+"I presume they think they are keeping out of sight," Clay decided.
+
+"Well, they're not keeping very close watch, for they don't seem to
+know that we're on shore."
+
+"Don't be too sure of that," Clay answered. "They may be watching us
+this minute. Perhaps we'd better move."
+
+As the boys spoke, Max and his three companions started at a swift
+pace up the bank of the stream keeping always out of view of the boat.
+They passed the place where the boys lay in hiding and for a moment
+the lads heard them pushing through the underbrush.
+
+"They've probably gone to their tent now," Alex suggested, "and I'm
+going to follow on and see if I can locate them."
+
+"All right," Clay said, "only be careful. I'll go back to the boat and
+tell the boys what's going on. Be sure you don't get captured, now,"
+he added as Alex turned to the thicket to the north.
+
+"No danger of that," the boy grinned and the next moment he was out of
+sight, pushing through the thicket in the direction taken by Max.
+
+Clay stood for an instant longer where the boy had left him and then
+moved in the direction of the river.
+
+But his progress toward the stream came to an abrupt termination in a
+minute. He tripped over what he at first believed to be a running vine
+and fell to the ground. Then, as he lifted himself to a sitting
+position, he saw the obstacle over which he had fallen was a rope and
+that it was held in the hands of two evil looking men.
+
+The men, bearded and dirty, broke into a laugh over Clay's look of
+amazement. They sprang toward him and in a moment he was relieved of
+his weapons. The boy sat perfectly still, for the attack had come so
+suddenly that he could hardly comprehend the situation.
+
+"Ain't it the cute little child?" guffawed one of the men, slapping
+his knees and bending down to look the boy in the face.
+
+"He's all of that," replied the other. "This is the little boy that's
+come out here to find a hidden channel that no one else can find. He
+used to be a real cute little newsboy in Chicago, and directly he'll
+wish he was back selling newspapers on Clark street!
+
+"Are these all the poppers you have, kid?" he asked pointing to the
+revolvers which had been taken from the boy. "You might injure
+yourself by carrying them."
+
+Clay glanced at the fellow steadily. He had now in a measure recovered
+his equilibrium. His impulse was to smash a blow into the grinning
+face bent over him.
+
+He didn't like the black, matted beard. He objected to the greasy,
+frayed jacket. The man's snaky, near-set eyes offended him. More than
+once he drew back a clenched fist to strike the evil face.
+
+"It seems to me," the boy said, restraining himself with a great
+effort, "that I walked right into a den and found the snakes at home."
+
+"Yes, little one," the man replied, "We sort of dipped you up in a
+bottle. I bet my chum, here, a dollar that he wouldn't get you the
+first time he tried. I lose, so you'd better pass out the dough and
+I'll pay up. I always pay my sporting debts."
+
+"Perhaps you'd better take the whole roll," Clay said, producing a
+small handful of change and passing it over. "You'll get it in time,
+anyway."
+
+The man took the money, counted it slowly with clumsy fingers and
+thrust it into a pocket.
+
+"As long as you have money, you know," Clay said sneeringly, "you
+won't have to be taking pennies away from children or stealing from
+blind men. You're quite welcome to what I have."
+
+"You just cut that stuff quick," snarled the man rising to his feet,
+his face blotching red. "Cut that quick!"
+
+He might have struck the boy only his companion drew him away.
+
+"Keep back, you fool," the cooler man said, "Do you want him to bring
+all the others here with his yelping? Why, we can't even shoot him
+till sundown, so we'd better gag him to keep him from squealing."
+
+"You needn't worry about me squealing," Clay said. "I learned how to
+keep my mouth shut when you ruffians were serving your last sentence
+in the penitentiary."
+
+One of the men drew out a knife and flashed it angrily before the
+boy's face.
+
+"Keep a civil tongue in your head," he said, "and you, Ben, chase up
+to the north and get the kid that followed Max. We'll tie 'em up
+together."
+
+Clay was now drawn to his feet and his hands tied tightly behind his
+back. In this condition, he was marched swiftly through the brush,
+vines and boughs striking his unprotected face. He paid little
+attention, however, to his physical discomforts. He was listening for
+some indication of the capture of Alex.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A SPLASH OF WATER
+
+
+Much to Clay's amazement, his captor kept to the east following a
+ridge of rocks from which both rivers might be seen in the distance
+whenever the foliage did not intervene. After walking half a mile or
+more, the fellow turned his steps into a narrow gully and soon entered
+a natural cavern before which a campfire had been built.
+
+"Now, you pretty little creature," he said, addressing Clay, "you're
+going to be tied up here and left until you return the map which was
+given to you by mistake."
+
+"A map of what?" asked Clay instantly.
+
+"A map of this country," was the short reply.
+
+"I'm not giving out maps at present," the boy answered.
+
+"Perhaps you will be, after you get good and hungry," snarled the
+other.
+
+"In the first place," Clay said, "I haven't got the map. I couldn't
+get it for you if I wanted to. The boys wouldn't give it up."
+
+"So you admit that you've got it?"
+
+"I did have a rough drawing of this country," was the reply, "but it
+didn't seem to mean much to me."
+
+"That's the document we want," the outlaw said, "and the quicker you
+give it up and get out of this district, the safer your hide will be."
+
+Before Clay could make any response the man who had set off in pursuit
+of Alex came wrathfully into the cave. One hand was bleeding
+profusely, and there was a long cut on his left cheek. His clothing
+was disarranged, showing every evidence of a physical struggle.
+
+"Where's the kid, Ben?" was asked.
+
+The man's reply was a volley of epithets and profanity.
+
+"You never let him get away from you, did you?" asked the other
+angrily. "You might bring him in in your pocket."
+
+"You couldn't bring him in in a dray," answered Ben. "You might as
+well try to wrestle with a bumble bee. I got a grip on the little
+imp's collar, but before I could do a thing, he had a knife out. And
+then I got this," laying a dirty finger on a dirtier hand, "and this,"
+pointing to the bleeding cheek. "And the next I knew, he was out of
+sight in the jungle."
+
+"You're the brave boy!" snarled the other.
+
+"Look here, Steve," Ben said, "if you think it's such a fine stunt to
+seize a Chicago newsboy, you just go and try it yourself. I've had
+enough of it. And that's no fairy tale."
+
+Ben threw himself angrily on the floor of the cave, took a bottle of
+liquor and a roll of white cloth from under a fur robe which lay in a
+corner and proceeded to cleanse and bind up his wound. Clay watched
+him with a smile on his face. Steve was scowling frightfully.
+
+"You needn't look so pleased over it, young feller," the outlaw said.
+"We'll get that little imp, yet. And we'll get your boat and your
+whole crew. And if we have much more trouble, we'll start a cemetery
+right here."
+
+Clay made no reply at the time. He was wondering just how much the
+outlaws knew of the map. It seemed to him that the person who had
+drawn the first one might easily draw a second upon the loss of the
+first. He could not understand why the outlaws were making such
+strenuous efforts to secure the document when they might have procured
+a copy.
+
+"What was it you said about a map?" the boy finally asked of Steve who
+sat now scowling at Ben. "Where did the map come from?"
+
+"It came from a blooming Indian," was the sullen reply.
+
+The fellow answered the question so promptly that Clay decided that he
+was merely a cheap tool in the employ of some master mind.
+
+"Well," the boy went on, "why are you bothering us about it? Why don't
+you go and get him to make another?"
+
+Steve hesitated and Clay listened very impatiently indeed for his
+answer. Finally the outlaw spoke:
+
+"Blest if I know," he said. "We were told to get the map and that's
+all we know about it."
+
+"And if you can't get it?" asked Clay.
+
+"Then all we've got to do is to start a graveyard. If we can't get it,
+no one else shall use it. Mind that!"
+
+"How long have you been waiting here for the _Rambler_ to come back
+down the river?" asked the boy.
+
+"Look here," replied Steve, apparently regretting his previous
+loquacity. "I've known a whole lot of boys to get along in the world
+without asking so many questions."
+
+As he spoke he arose, went to the mouth of the cavern and glanced out.
+Ben followed him with the one eye which was free of the bandage, but
+did not arise. Directly a stone broke loose from a side of the gully
+and went pounding down to the rocky bottom. Then a low whistle was
+heard.
+
+"Come on in," shouted Steve. "We did our part. What about you?"
+
+The man who entered was roughly dressed. His face was covered by a
+week's growth of beard. His long black hair hung straggly about his
+ears. Yet, after all, the carriage of the head and body was not that
+of a riverman. Clay sat looking at him for a long time wondering where
+he had seen him before. He was certain that he had seen him before.
+Strive as he might, however, the boy could not associate the figure
+and pose with any scene in his past life. The man advanced into the
+cave and looked about.
+
+"Where is the other boy?" he asked sharply.
+
+Steve threw out a hand to indicate flight and snapped his fingers
+significantly. The newcomer frowned.
+
+"And so you let him get away, did you?"
+
+"Ask Ben about that," Steve replied, pointing to the bandaged face.
+
+In spite of the newcomer's evident disappointment, a smile came to his
+face as he looked toward the wounded man.
+
+"He's a bloomin' bumble bee!" growled Ben.
+
+"And it seems that he stung you with steel," said the newcomer. "Brave
+men you are, to let a kindergarten kid get away with you!"
+
+"What I say is," Ben answered, angrily, "that you can go and get him
+yourself. This here beauty mark I've got is enough for me."
+
+"Don't get excited," smiled the newcomer. "It will all come out right
+in the wash. We'll get them all, in time."
+
+Clay began to remember the voice.
+
+"I have heard it before somewhere," he mused. "This man is not an
+outlaw in the common acceptance of the word. He is probably the man
+having this very delectable enterprise in charge."
+
+Then he remembered the scene on the street in Montreal, and the story
+which had been told him by the campfire up the St. Lawrence came back
+to his mind.
+
+This man might be the Lawyer Martin who had been referred to by the
+farmer. The lawyer, it had been stated, was apt in private theatricals
+and of pleasing personality. This man was disguised so far as clothing
+went, and his conversation showed that he was tactful and understood
+how to keep on the right side of the men with whom he mingled.
+
+The more the boy studied over the problem, the more certain he became
+that the man who was handling the unlawful enterprise, designing to
+keep the Fontenelles out of their rights stood before him.
+
+Presently Lawyer Martin, if it was he, turned a pair of keen yet
+half-humorous eyes in the direction of the boy.
+
+"Did you have a pleasant trip up the river?" he asked.
+
+"Fine!" replied Clay. "Plenty of good sport."
+
+"If you had asked my advice," the other said, "you would have
+proceeded straight up the lakes from Ogdensburg. It would have been
+safer."
+
+"If safety was the only thing we figured on when we started away," the
+boy answered, "we wouldn't have started at all. We would have remained
+at home and gone to bed."
+
+"You seem to be quite a bright boy," the other suggested. "Why don't
+you give up the map turned over to you by mistake, and go on about
+your business? That's what you ought to do."
+
+"Why don't you get another map?" asked Clay.
+
+"Because," was the reply, "the old Indian who made the one you have
+was drowned on the night he turned it over to you."
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," Clay said, "you come on board the
+_Rambler_ with me and we'll give the map to Captain Joe, and then
+we'll all go together and deliver it to Fontenelle. It seems to belong
+to him."
+
+"I think you'll change your mind," replied the other.
+
+After a short whispered conversation with Steve and Ben, the man left
+the cavern. Clay would have given a good deal for some knowledge as to
+his objective point. He believed that the outlaws had a base of
+supplies other than the cavern on the peninsula, and he was wondering
+if the boys on the _Rambler_ would be able to discover it.
+
+After a time Ben began drinking from the bottle of liquor he had drawn
+from under the rug, and Steve, seeing that the fellow was drinking
+himself into insensibility, left the cave, first seeing that Clay was
+tied hand and foot and gagged with one of his own handkerchiefs.
+
+The boy's position was an uncomfortable one. He moved restlessly
+about, rolling toward the entrance as if in quest of fresh air. Ben
+arose and stood watching him drunkenly.
+
+"You're not so worse," the fellow cried. "If I had my way, I'd get out
+of this mix mighty quick. I'm a kind-hearted man, kid! The drunker I
+get, the kinder I am."
+
+Clay was on the point of suggesting that he drink the remainder of the
+liquor in the bottle, so that he might be kind enough to untie him,
+but did not do so for obvious reasons.
+
+The boy was in hopes that Ben would become too intoxicated to pay any
+attention to his movements, but he did not do so. Instead, he filled a
+cob pipe with villainous tobacco and sat down at the entrance to the
+cavern within a few feet of where the boy lay.
+
+During all this time, the boy was wondering if Alex had gone back to
+the _Rambler_ or whether he had trailed on after the men who had
+attempted his capture. In the latter case, the boy was evidently not
+very far away. He listened intently for some indication of the boy's
+presence, but none came. He wondered if the boys on the _Rambler_
+would make an effort to find him before night set in.
+
+And so, gagged and bound, he spent a long, painful day. No one came to
+the cave, and Ben was his sole guardian. The man became talkative
+after a while and discussed the streets of Chicago, which he seemed to
+know well, but became silent whenever an incautious word regarding the
+present situation came to his lips.
+
+When darkness came, Steve and two more burly ruffians made their
+appearance. They uncovered a box at the back of the cavern and,
+reaching in, drew out bread and canned fruit and vegetables. As the
+four sat feeding like a drove of swine, Ben observed Clay's eyes fixed
+hungrily on the food.
+
+"Why don't you give the boy some of the chuck?" he asked, angrily.
+
+"Here, kid," he added, taking the handkerchief from Clay's mouth,
+releasing his hands, and passing him a loaf of bread and tin of beef,
+"just help yourself to this table d'hote dinner."
+
+Steve and the others snarled out their objections to this procedure,
+but Clay was finally left to eat his scanty supper in peace.
+
+After the men had finished eating, they arose and threw their cans and
+bottles into a shallow annex to the cave on the south.
+
+"I'm great for keeping things in order," grinned Ben, giving a tin
+tomato can a particularly vigorous kick. "I always like to see things
+kept decent."
+
+The can bounded against the wall, fell to the floor and rolled down a
+dark incline, and Clay's heart beat into his throat as he heard the
+splash of water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+LIFTING A SUNKEN LAUNCH
+
+
+After the departure from the _Rambler_ of Clay and Alex, Captain Joe
+began exploring the little store rooms of the craft in search of
+cables and grappling hooks. He soon had quite a collection laying on
+the deck.
+
+"What's the idea, Captain Joe?" asked Case.
+
+"Well, boys," the captain replied, "you remember what the Quebec chief
+of police said regarding the _Cartier_ and the perfectly good
+assortment of supplies lying at the bottom of the St. Lawrence river?"
+
+"Sure, we remember that," Case replied.
+
+"And you remember what Clay said about having discovered the boat as
+we came in? Why, he told us right where it is."
+
+"Yes, he said he saw it on the bottom," Jule interrupted.
+
+"Now, I have an idea," Captain Joe smiled, winking at the two boys,
+"that it would be all right for us to lift the launch while Clay is
+away. What do you say to that?"
+
+"Great idea!" shouted Case.
+
+"Then let's get at it," Jule suggested.
+
+"The first thing to do," Captain Joe said, "is to find out exactly
+where the _Cartier_ lies."
+
+"Aw, I know that," Jule said, "Clay told me about that. It's right
+over there in about fifteen feet of water just below that submerged
+bar."
+
+"Fifteen feet with or without the tide?" asked Captain Joe.
+
+"Fifteen feet with the tide out," was the reply, "and the tide is out
+now, so we'd better be getting busy."
+
+They swung the _Rambler_ over to the north side of the bar and
+anchored. From this new position, across the white surface of the
+bottom, they could see the trunk cabin of the _Cartier_ sitting
+squarely up in the water. The boat had evidently dropped straight down
+when scuttled, and she now lay on an almost even keel with her nose
+pointing upstream.
+
+"Now, I tell you, boys," Captain Joe observed, "one of you must go
+down and attach a line to her forward towing bitts. I'd go down
+myself, understand, only I'm so big and clumsy that I might displace
+too much water in the stream. Who'll go?"
+
+"I'm the champion diver of the South Branch," Jule cried, "and I'll go
+down and have that line fast in about a second."
+
+"It's a long dive," warned Captain Joe.
+
+"I've stood on my head in deeper water than that," said the boy.
+
+Case got out the rowboat and Jule was taken over to the place from
+which he was to dive. The end of the cable was passed to him and he
+dropped down. In a moment, he came climbing up the rope like a young
+monkey, shaking water over Case as he tumbled into the boat.
+
+"Now get a-going," he said, "and we'll have this boat out of the mud
+before Clay and Alex return. I wonder what we'll find on board of
+her."
+
+"You don't expect to find a lost channel, do you? Or a casket of
+family jewels?" asked Case, with a wink.
+
+"I was thinking," Jule replied, "that we might find something to eat."
+
+The boys rowed back to the _Rambler_, clambered on board, and the
+motor boat was started forward, one end of the cable attached to her
+after deck cleats. She pulled steadily for a moment under full power,
+but the launch refused to move. She was evidently deeply imbedded in
+the bottom.
+
+"I reckon we'll have to go down and push," Case grinned.
+
+"You just wait, boys, and I'll try it once more," Captain Joe said.
+
+The second attempt was successful, and the _Cartier_ was drawn slowly,
+carefully, to the bar. When she left her original position on the
+bottom of the river, she listed to one side and so came in almost on
+her beam ends.
+
+"I guess we've spilled some of her crockery," Jule laughed as the boat
+showed one side of her hull. "Fontenelle may kick on our wearing out
+his furniture."
+
+"Oh, he'll be glad enough to get his boat back," Captain Joe remarked.
+"Now, we'll see if we can pump her out."
+
+The launch now lay tipping only slightly on the bar, her keel having
+cut into the soft sand, with her gunwales two or three inches above
+the surface of the river. The cabin stood well out of the river, of
+course, but the great body of water in the cockpit and over the cabin
+floor held her down.
+
+"Now we'll see if we can't pump her out," Captain Joe said. "I don't
+understand what sent her to the bottom. She looks to be as fit as a
+fiddle."
+
+"Perhaps we can tell that when we get the water out of her," Case
+suggested. "There may be a big hole in her bottom."
+
+The _Rambler's_ pump was now put in operation, but the interior of the
+launch remained full of water. The river rushed in as fast as the
+pumps removed it, so the craft did not rise to the surface.
+
+"You'll have to get your feet wet again, Jule," Case said. "Just drop
+over into the cockpit and see if you can see any hole in the bottom."
+
+Jule did as requested, floundering and splashing about in the water as
+though he considered the enterprise only a bit of fun.
+
+"Nothing doing here!" he shouted back. "There's no hole in the bottom
+that I can see. There may be one under the double floor in the cabin
+but I don't believe it."
+
+"Look for the sea-cock," cried Captain Joe, leaning over the gunwale
+of the _Rambler_. "It may have been opened. It ought to be right there
+in the cockpit close to the wall of the cabin."
+
+Jule felt around in the water for a time, ducked his head under in
+order to get closer to the bottom now and then and finally raised his
+dripping face with a shout.
+
+"I've found it!" he cried. "The sea-cock was wide open and that's what
+sunk the launch."
+
+"Wonder Fontenelle wouldn't have investigated," said Case.
+
+"The launch was probably sunk in the night," Captain Joe suggested,
+"when the members of the party were away. When they returned to the
+boat, of course, they had no grappling apparatus or anything to help
+raise her, and so they just went away and left her in the mud."
+
+"That's probably it," Case said, turning on the pump.
+
+"Hold on," Jule cried. "You wait till I get something to plug this
+sea-cock with. I can't turn the valve. It's rusty."
+
+The boy was given a basket of waste which had been used in cleaning
+the motors, and in a short time the sea-cock was securely plugged.
+
+Then the pumps were set in motion again and in a very short time the
+_Cartier_ was virtually free of water.
+
+"That's a mighty handsome boat," Captain Joe observed as the launch
+lay on the surface. "If I had her down on the South Branch, I could
+have the time of my life every day in the week."
+
+The boys worked over the boat for some time drying off the woodwork
+and fixing the valve of the sea-cock so it would close.
+
+"Of course, she won't run now," Captain Joe explained, "because the
+batteries and the magneto are soaked with water. We can transfer new
+apparatus from the _Rambler_ and, as she has plenty of gasoline, she
+will go like a duck on a mill-pond."
+
+"I guess Clay will think we have been going some to get that boat off
+the bottom," laughed Case.
+
+Captain Joe looked at his watch, his face clouding as he did so.
+
+"Why, look here," he said. "We've been a long time on this job. It is
+after one o'clock."
+
+"We might have known that by the tide coming in," Case said.
+
+"I wasn't thinking about the water," the captain laughed. "I was
+thinking about Clay and Alex. Now, where do you suppose those two
+scamps are? They ought to have been here long ago."
+
+"Perhaps they've found the lost channel!" Jule put in.
+
+"It is more likely they found a nest of outlaws they couldn't get away
+from," was Case's idea of the situation. "I think we ought to do
+something about it right now," he added.
+
+"I am afraid," Captain Joe said, poking a stubby finger into Case's
+side, "that it takes you boys about half your time to find each other
+when you go off on these river trips. First one gets lost and then the
+other."
+
+"That's all right," Case replied, "but every time a fellow gets lost
+he butts into valuable information. Clay may pick up those Fontenelle
+diamonds while he's gone, or find the lost charter."
+
+"It's up to us to do something," Jule insisted. "After dinner, we'll
+go out on the peninsula and see what we can discover if Captain Joe
+will remain on the boat. We won't be gone long."
+
+Dinner was hastily prepared and hastily eaten, and then Case and Jule
+rowed to the shore in the _Rambler's_ boat, the canoe having been left
+on the bank by Clay. The captain saw them disappear in the thicket and
+then sat down in the cabin to watch and wait.
+
+In less than half an hour, he heard shouts on the shore, and then two
+figures came plunging down the high bank into the river some distance
+above the location of the _Rambler_.
+
+The captain reached for his gun and stood waiting, fearful at first
+that a bold attempt to board the _Rambler_ was being made, but as the
+two figures in the water came closer, he saw Case and Jule alternately
+swimming on the surface and diving. The reason for this apparently
+strange conduct on the part of the boys was soon discovered, for
+bullets began whistling about their heads and about the deck of the
+_Rambler_.
+
+However, the swimmers reached the deck of the boat unharmed and
+dropped down behind the gunwales.
+
+"Use your gun, Captain Joe!" Case panted. "Alex is back there in the
+woods trying to get to the river."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+DOWN IN THE WHIRLPOOL
+
+
+When Clay heard the splash of water as the tin can disappeared from
+sight, he began wondering if what he had heard had reached the ears of
+the others. The lost channel was always in his mind, and he was
+wondering if the presence of a subterranean body of water there could
+have any connection with the channel which had disappeared as if by
+magic two or three hundred years before.
+
+In order to settle the question as to what the outlaws knew concerning
+the water which must lie directly under their cave, he asked:
+
+"Will some of you men give me a drink of water?"
+
+"Aw, go take a drink out of the river," was the reply he received.
+
+"Gladly!" cried Clay. "Just untie my feet and I'll show you how
+quickly I can get to the river."
+
+The men laughed heartily at what they considered a good joke and
+continued their preparations for leaving the cavern. In a short time
+the man believed by Clay to be Lawyer Martin made his appearance, and
+then the party started up the gully turning to the east and walking
+over the roughest territory Clay had yet seen in that vicinity. The
+leader of the party paused now and then to inspect the landscape and
+to listen for sounds from the west river.
+
+"What were your friends doing this afternoon," he asked presently.
+"They have dug up a new boat somewhere."
+
+"I don't know," replied Clay, stumbling over the ground with two husky
+guards close to his sides. "Was it my friends who were doing the
+shooting?" he added.
+
+"Shooting?" the leader repeated in apparent amazement. "Did you hear
+any shooting? Which way did it come from?"
+
+"From the west," was the brief reply.
+
+Clay's escorts glanced at each other significantly, but said nothing.
+The boy was satisfied from the attitude of those about him that his
+chums had been attacked, but, as a matter of fact, he had heard no
+shooting, being at the time it took place in the cavern opening from
+the gully.
+
+After what seemed to Clay to be an endless journey, the party came to
+the west shore of the east river. Here, in the glade to the north of
+the rocky ledge which they had followed, was a fairly comfortable camp
+with tents and bunks and plenty of cooking appurtenances.
+
+Clay was pushed into a tent and his hands and feet bound again.
+
+"We can't take any chances on your jumping us in the night," the
+leader said as he saw the ropes adjusted around the boy's ankles and
+wrists. "If you only had a little sense, we might make you more
+comfortable."
+
+Time and again Clay had the name of Lawyer Martin on his lips. He was
+almost positive that the leader of the outlaws was the disguised man
+he had met in Montreal, the man of whom the farmer had spoken at the
+campfire. However, he conquered the inclination to address the fellow
+by the title which he believed to belong to him.
+
+"If he really is Lawyer Martin," the boy reasoned, "and I let him know
+that I know the truth, he'll take good care that I never get out into
+the world again to tell of his connection with these outlaws."
+
+That night was a long one for the boy. One of the outlaws walked
+watchfully about the camp all night and another sat close by his bunk
+watching with unwearying eyes. It was plain that they considered his
+capture of great importance. He reasoned that it was because they had
+failed in any attack that might have been made on his chums, and had
+not succeeded in securing the map they sought.
+
+He did not know whether Alex had escaped the clutches of the ruffians
+or not, but he believed that if the boy really had been taken prisoner
+he would have been brought to the camp he himself occupied.
+
+The camp was astir at daybreak, when most of the outlaws disappeared
+from view, going in every direction except across the river. Clay
+would have given a good deal for exact information regarding their
+plans for the day, but he could only surmise that all their energies
+would be directed toward the destruction of the _Rambler_ and the
+driving away of his chums.
+
+While he lay pondering over the possibilities of the day, the leader
+of the party came to his side.
+
+"How do you feel this morning, my boy?" he asked lightly.
+
+"I feel like I'd like to stretch my legs a little," was the reply.
+
+"If I gave you the privilege," asked the other, "will you promise to
+make no attempt to escape?"
+
+"I'm not making any promises," Clay replied, "so I suppose I'll have
+to remain where I am."
+
+"But you can't get away," the leader insisted.
+
+"How do you know I can't get away?" replied Clay, laughing up into the
+man's face.
+
+"Because we've got you tied hard and fast," was the reply.
+
+"I've read in the papers," the leader went on, "about this Captain Joe
+bulldog of yours and this Teddy bear cub doing wonderful things in the
+way of helping you boys out of trouble, but they are up against the
+impossible here."
+
+"I'm sorry," Clay said with a shrug of the shoulders, "but you know
+just as well as I do that no game is ever played out as it should be
+until the last card is on the table."
+
+The leader smiled whimsically and turned away. After talking for some
+moments with the only man present in the camp, he turned to the west
+and disappeared. Then the man he had last talked with approached the
+boy.
+
+"What do you want for breakfast?" he asked.
+
+"Pie!" roared Clay. "Green apple pie, red apple pie, dried apple pie,
+and pie pie. And if you've got any chicken pie, that will come in all
+right later on."
+
+"Your troubles don't seem to affect your appetite, kid," laughed the
+man whom Clay discovered to be the cook of the camp. "You're a jolly
+kind of a fellow, anyway, and I'm going to give you the best there is
+in the larder."
+
+In half an hour a really good breakfast of ham and eggs, potatoes,
+bread and butter, and coffee was served to the boy. He ate heartily,
+of course, as most boys will under any circumstances, talking with the
+cook as the meal proceeded.
+
+Directly the leader came to the edge of the little glade and beckoned
+to the cook. The latter looked from his employer to the boy and back
+again. The leader beckoned imperatively, and the cook left the tent
+and approached him. Together they stepped away into the edge of the
+thicket and engaged in an animated conversation.
+
+Clay heard the leader ask if the ropes which held his hands and feet
+were still in place, and heard the cook reply that he supposed they
+were as he had not examined them.
+
+"Just for the fun of the thing, now," Clay mused, "I'll find out
+whether that chap is right."
+
+He pulled away at the cords on his wrist, but for a long time was
+unable to move them beyond the limit of the motion which had enabled
+him to use a fork at his breakfast.
+
+"I wonder," he thought, "why they didn't give me a knife to eat that
+ham with. Never mind, I can make a knife of my own."
+
+He set his elbow against an earthen plate which lay on the ground,
+breaking it into several pieces. The largest fragment, he got into his
+mouth and began to saw his wrist ropes against it. The strands of the
+rope soon gave way and the boy's hands were free. It took him but a
+moment to untie the cords which held his ankles.
+
+Thus released, he listened for a moment to make sure that the two men
+in the edge of the thicket were not observing him. All was still in
+that direction and he finally ventured to the opening of the tent and
+looked out. The two men were nowhere in sight.
+
+"Now or never," thought the boy. "While those fellows are cooking up
+some scheme for the destruction of the _Rambler_, I'll make a quiet
+sneak. The peninsula must be crowded with outlaws, all in search of a
+lost channel, and so I'll have to take to the river."
+
+The boy was out of the glade in an instant, crouching low, of course,
+but making good time until he reached the margin of the river. Hoping
+to see a boat, he paused there a moment and looked about. As he did
+so, the roar of the falls which had obstructed the progress of the
+_Rambler_ on her first trip to that vicinity, reached his ears and he
+knew that a boat would be practically useless, as it would never live
+through the falling water. The only thing for him to do, seemed to be
+to take to the water and keep as much out of sight as possible under
+the bank.
+
+He sprang in and struck out down stream wondering if he could pass the
+falls without returning to the shore. After swimming a few strokes, he
+heard a shout from the bank and saw the leader and the cook hastening
+toward the river. The current was strong there just above the falls
+and the boy was an excellent swimmer, so the men did not decrease the
+distance between themselves and their quarry.
+
+"If you don't stop, we'll shoot!" the cook cried.
+
+"And shoot to kill!" came the voice of the leader.
+
+For a moment Clay swam on blindly under a rain of bullets but he had
+no idea whatever of voluntarily returning to the shore. The leaden
+pellets splashed into the water all about him for a time but presently
+as the men got better range, they began making closer acquaintance.
+
+The roar of the falls was now almost deafening. The boy could hear a
+torrent of water pouring down upon broken rocks. He knew now that it
+would be impossible for him to negotiate the falls by way of the
+river. He must swim to the shore and pass around the danger point.
+This would subject him to the direct fire of his pursuers.
+
+At last, almost hopeless, he dived into the water to escape the rain
+of bullets. To his surprise, he did not come to the surface again when
+he used his strength in that direction.
+
+Either his body had lost its buoyancy or the water was pulling him
+down. He seemed to be in a whirlpool. The force of the water drew at
+his arms and his legs and clutched him about the chest. Around and
+around he whirled, until he grew dizzy with the motion and his lungs
+seemed bursting for want of air.
+
+Then, almost unconscious, he knew that he was being drawn through an
+opening into which the water poured with awful force. He knew that he
+was being tossed to and fro in something like a basin or pool a moment
+later, and felt the fresh air creeping into his lungs.
+
+The water where he lay did not seem to be more than three or four feet
+deep but the current was swift and steady. There was no light
+anywhere. The boy groped forward with his hands outstretched until he
+came to what seemed to be a ledge of rock. There, exhausted and almost
+unconscious from his exertions, he dropped down and his mind became a
+blank.
+
+When he returned to consciousness, a single shaft of light penetrating
+the darkness of the place showed him to be in a cavern the dimensions
+of which he had no means of knowing. The ledge upon which he had
+fallen lay a yard or so above the surface of an underground stream. He
+could see the light glancing on the water and hear the roar of the
+whirlpool which had brought him into this subterranean place.
+
+"I've found the lost channel, I guess," he thought bitterly, "and I
+guess there'll be two of us lost--a lost river and a lost boy."
+
+After a time, he felt his way along the ledge only to find that it
+came to an abrupt termination against a shoulder of rock.
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE LOST CHARTER IS FOUND
+
+
+An instant after being laid on the deck, however, Clay opened his eyes
+and smiled up into the faces of his friends.
+
+"He'll be saying, 'Where am I?' in a minute!" Alex cried, dancing
+joyfully about the prostrate figure. "That is the usual thing in
+stories, you know. He'll have to say, 'Where am I?' and I'll have to
+tell him that he mustn't talk. Look at him grin."
+
+"What gets me," Captain Joe said, lifting the boy into a sitting
+position, "is how you came up from the bottom of the river without
+ever diving down to it. It looks uncanny."
+
+"The lost channel!" answered Clay weakly.
+
+"You found it, did you?" asked Alex.
+
+"Boys, boys," said Captain Joe, "never mind the lost channel until we
+get this boy dressed and fed up."
+
+The processes suggested by the captain were quickly accomplished, and
+in a short time, Clay sat in the cabin telling of the adventures of
+the morning. The boys listened wide-eyed.
+
+"Now let me get this thing right," Captain Joe said. "You went into a
+whirlpool above the falls and came out into a cavern?"
+
+"That's just it, exactly," Clay replied, still weak from his
+exertions. "I landed on a ledge, where I lay unconscious for a few
+moments and then followed down the channel of the underground river.
+There is plenty of room in the cavern," he continued, "and plenty of
+fresh air, but the place is shy on light. I fell many times in the
+darkness."
+
+"I thought it wasn't safe for me to be in there!" grinned Alex.
+
+"I thought it wasn't safe for me be in there!" Clay replied with a
+wink, "and so I made my way out as swiftly as I could. At this end of
+the channel, the water runs out just below the surface of the west
+river, and I thought I'd better reduce my weight as much as possible
+before going through the opening, so I took off my clothes and was
+pushed out by the current."
+
+"Looked mighty funny to see you come floating out of the river without
+ever having gone in!" laughed Jule.
+
+"Now, boys," said Captain Joe, after the boys had discussed all phases
+of the situation, "let's size this thing up together. In the first
+place, Clay has undoubtedly discovered the lost channel."
+
+"It might have been found years ago," Clay said, "if the men who tried
+to describe it had only said that it was a subterranean stream."
+
+"And now, the question is," went on the captain, "whether the charter
+and the family jewels are anywhere in the cavern through which the
+lost stream runs."
+
+"It seemed to me," Clay broke in, "that the cavern was big enough to
+hold a small sized city. It is just the kind of a place where one
+would naturally hide valuables."
+
+"It seems to me," Alex complained, "that the hardest part of our job
+is still to come, even if we have discovered the lost channel. We
+can't go up there and dive through the whirlpool, as Clay did, because
+the outlaws would perforate us before we got anywhere near the falls."
+
+"I've been thinking of that," Clay said, "and I believe there is a way
+to get into the cavern without getting wet. When I lay in the cavern,
+high up on the ridge, before being taken to the shore, the men with me
+emptied several tin cans of food and pitched them into a corner of the
+cavern. One of the cans was sent along with a kick, and I heard a
+splash of water when it fell."
+
+"Je-rusalem!" cried Alex. "Show me where that cavern is, and I'll take
+a rope and go through the opening where the can fell!"
+
+"What would these fellows on shore be doing all the time you were
+reaching the cavern?" asked Case.
+
+"I am certain," Clay went on, "that there is an opening from the floor
+of the cavern to the chamber in which the lost river runs, for when I
+came down, I saw a blur of light about halfway through the journey."
+
+"That settles that part of it, then," Captain Joe said. "We'll have to
+wait for a suitable opportunity and get into the chamber by way of the
+cave. And now," he continued, "I propose that we move out to the bay
+or the St. Lawrence, where we won't be under the guns of the enemy,
+and cook several square meals. Honest, boys," he went on, "I've been
+so worried lately, that I've almost lost my appetite."
+
+"Yes," Case laughed, "I notice you consumed only half a dozen of those
+Bismark pancakes for breakfast."
+
+The _Rambler_ was dropped down to the bay with the launch still by her
+side, and, once out of rifle shot, the boys enjoyed the freedom of the
+deck.
+
+"Now, we'll stay here until night," Captain Joe said, "and then we'll
+see what we can do towards finding that cavern and dropping down into
+the lost channel. We ought to explore it in one night with the help of
+our searchlights."
+
+The plan mapped out by the captain was successfully carried out.
+Leaving Jule on board the _Rambler_, the other members of the party
+crept cautiously ashore that night, and were led directly to the
+cavern by Clay. They were not disturbed during the journey. Off to the
+east, they saw the reflection of a campfire and the sound of many
+voices showed the boys that the outlaws were not at all anxious to
+conceal their presence.
+
+The opening leading from the cavern to the channel of the stream was
+large enough for even Captain Joe to pass through with comfort.
+Directly under the opening was a ledge of rock and here the boys
+landed. Almost at the point of entry they saw marks on the wall which
+indicated that at some distant time an inscription had been carved
+there.
+
+"We can't read the words," Clay said, flashing his searchlight over
+the wall, "but at least it tells us that this is somewhere near the
+scene of the old-time operations."
+
+Alex, who had been poking about around an angle of rock, now gave a
+great shout of delight which called the boys to his side.
+
+"There's your old safe!" he cried, pointing up to a niche in the wall,
+"and it's dollars to doughnuts that the lost charter and the jewels
+are inside of it!"
+
+It was the work of only a few moments to bring the safe down from the
+ledge of rock to where the boys stood. It was merely a box of steel,
+not more than a foot in diameter each way, and was evidently
+constructed with thin walls for its weight was not great. However, it
+was tightly closed and the boys could see no means by which it might
+be opened. There was not even a keyhole or a button.
+
+"We'll take it back to the _Rambler_," Captain Joe said. "Perhaps we
+can find a way to open it there."
+
+"We'll find a way to open it," Alex exclaimed, "when we get hold of
+the document Max was looking for in the cabin of the _Cartier_."
+
+"Good idea!" Captain Joe replied. "If you wait long enough, you'll
+always find something like intelligence in the head of a boy!"
+
+When the party returned to the cabin, daylight was just showing in the
+east and the noisy revel of those at the campfire had ceased.
+
+"I tell you what it is," Captain Joe exclaimed, "those fellows have
+given up chasing us for the reason that they have arrived at the
+conclusion that we don't know any more about the lost channel than
+they do. At first, they doubtless thought the map might direct us to
+it, but now they have given up that idea, and are satisfied to let us
+hunt for the lost charter if we want to."
+
+"Yes, but they are still watching us, all the same," Clay replied,
+"expecting to take the proceeds of the discovery away from us if we
+are lucky enough to find what both parties are seeking for."
+
+This explanation of Captain Joe's seemed to be the correct one, for
+the boys were not molested while on their way to the _Rambler_ with
+the steel box. Having secured the box, the question now was how to get
+it open, so nearly all that day, they searched among the papers in the
+cabin of the _Cartier_ for some clue to the mystery. Before night it
+was found in a bundle of old papers stowed away in a secret draw at
+the bottom of the owner's secretary, where it had lain for a long
+time.
+
+"This is easy," Clay said holding the paper up between his thumb and
+fingers. "The box is only an old French puzzle box. Press on the upper
+right hand front corner and a button will show. Press the button and
+the box will open, and there you are."
+
+"What the dickens do you think the Fontenelles left this paper laying
+around in a place like this for?" asked Case. "Do you suppose they
+knew what it was?"
+
+"Of course they knew," Clay answered, "and the paper was brought along
+so that the box might be opened as soon as found."
+
+Although the hinges and lock of the steel box were rusted, it was
+opened with little difficulty and there were the family jewels and the
+lost charter! In spite of difficulties, the boys had succeeded in
+their quest. The search of more than three hundred years was ended!
+
+When the _Rambler_ and the _Cartier_ started away toward Quebec, they
+left the men who had opposed them still on the peninsula. Reaching the
+city, they lost no time in communicating the result of their
+expedition to the Fontenelles. It is needless to say that the latter
+were overjoyed at the recovery of the charter and the jewels.
+
+At the close of the interview between the elder Fontenelle and Clay,
+the former wrote a check for ten thousand dollars and passed it over
+to the boy. Clay smiled as he passed it back.
+
+"You remember," he said, "that we recovered the _Cartier_, and that we
+searched her papers pretty thoroughly to discover the secret of the
+steel box. Well, Captain Joe, our old friend from Chicago, has
+conceived a great liking for the boat, and if you can induce your son
+to give us the launch, and also to make no trouble for the poor people
+who will suffer under this charter, we shall consider ourselves amply
+repaid for all our trouble. It has been a pleasant excursion, anyway."
+
+"So far as the boat is concerned," the old man Fontenelle replied,
+"you are entitled to it as salvage. Besides, now that the charter and
+the jewels have been discovered, through your agency, the _Cartier_
+will no longer be elaborate enough for my son. He will have a handsome
+yacht built, anyway, so you may as well take the launch. So far as
+making trouble for those who have occupied our lands for years goes,
+no one shall suffer except those who combined their wealth to obstruct
+us.
+
+"And so you see," he continued, "that the check is yours after all."
+
+And the old gentleman would not accept "No." for an answer.
+
+"One thing I should like to know," Clay said, before leaving Mr.
+Fontenelle, "and that concerns the mysterious map we received and the
+manner in which it came into our possession."
+
+"I can set you right on that point," the old man said. "The man who
+gave you the map and who was drowned that same night was long in our
+employ. He finally became angry at some fancied slight and disappeared
+taking with him valuable papers. It is believed that the crude map
+delivered to you was among the papers he took. At any rate, on the day
+before you saw him, he expressed to a relative remorse at what he had
+done and promised to restore the papers. How he came to deliver the
+map to you, knowing the _Cartier_ as well as he did, is something
+which will never be known."
+
+The boys left Quebec the next morning without waiting for the return
+of the men who were still looking for the lost channel on Cartier
+island. Therefore they never saw either Lawyer Martin or Max again,
+but they read later in the news dispatches of Max being sentenced to
+the penitentiary for highway robbery.
+
+The boys went over the old ground on the river again to Ogdensburg,
+where the _Cartier_ was fully equipped with new electrical apparatus
+and then the two started away on their long journey up the lakes.
+
+Captain Joe, was, of course, overjoyed at becoming the owner of the
+launch, which is now one of the show vessels on the South Branch.
+
+Captain Joe, the bulldog, and Teddy when in Chicago alternate between
+the _Rambler_ and the _Cartier_, having a welcome on either boat.
+
+The boys were not content to remain long on the South Branch. In fact,
+within a few days, they fitted the _Rambler_ out for a trip down the
+Ohio river. What occurred during this trip will be related in the next
+volume of this series entitled: The Six River Motor Boat Boys on the
+Ohio; or, the Three Blue Lights.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The River Motor Boat Boys on the St.
+Lawrence, by Harry Gordon
+
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