Motor Boat Boys' River Chase Part 10

"Jack first, fellers!" cautioned Josh, "don't you all crowd the mourners so. Let him take a peek, and then the rest of us c'n feast our eyes on all that bully money and stuff. Keep back, Buster, you ain't the first in line; that's George, and me, I'm second choice. Look at the stuff Jack's a-pullin' out, would you? Seems like rags or somethin' like that, to me. Reckon they just stuffed the top of the box full to keep the coin from rattling around like. What's ailing Jack, fellers? See him a-starin' in like he seen a ghost. Gee! but it must be a great sight, all that boodle from the bank, to make our partner stare like that.

George, get a move on you, and step up. You're next, you know. No crowdin', Buster. Keep your place in line, can't you?"

Jack was indeed standing there, and staring into the opened box as though he had received something of a shock; but over his face there began to creep a semblance of a smile, or a grin, or something of that character, as he held out the box for George to take his turn next.

CHAPTER X

DISAPPOINTMENT

"Oh! my stars!"

That was what George said, in a faint voice, as though he was very nearly overcome, after taking his look into the box, Jack holding the same most obligingly all the while.

Of course, even this did not have any effect upon Josh, who was next in line. In fact, if anything, it served to spur him on to all the sooner get his peep-in; wondering at the same time what it could be.

Buster heard Josh give a gasp, as he bent his head down. It must be something wonderfully fetching, to influence all of the boys in that queer way. And consequently Buster, impatient for his turn, actually put out his hand and shoved Josh out of the way.

No sooner had he looked than he too gave evidence of being nearly overcome.

"Great governor! somebody hold me. I'm going to faint!" was what Buster whispered; and this suspicious remark made Andy want to get out of line, only that Herb, coming last, would not allow such a thing, but actually shoved the other up until he just had to do his duty and look.

Andy threw up both hands as he exclaimed, perhaps in a louder voice than was really discreet:

"Tare and ounds! Be the powers, 'tware a grave afther all, so it was!"

"What's that?" quivered from the lips of Herb, as he now hesitated in turn.

"Come on, don't hang back like that, Herb; you've just got to see!"

ventured Josh, laying hold of the other's sleeve, and commencing to drag him forward.

It was like the boy who jumps into the pond so early in the spring that he is nearly frozen stiff; but whoever heard of him confessing to the fact; while his comrades hesitate on the bank he puts on the most angelic face possible, and declares that the water is "as warm as anything;" until he has coaxed them all in; for misery loves company, they tell us.

So Herb had to do his duty, and look.

"Good gracious, why, it's only a little puppy dog after all!" broke from his white lips, as he stood there and stared.

"That's just what it is," replied Jack. "And after all, that fellow spoke what he meant, when we thought he referred to another sort of treasure. This must have been his pet."

"But Jack darlint," broke in Andy, "phat d'ye think he wanted to bury this ki-yi on the island for at all, at all?"

"What for?" echoed Buster, before Jack could say a word, "why, because the little beast had gone and kicked the bucket--died on him--you know."

"Must have been a pet dog," suggested Josh, "'cause we heard him say he felt bad at putting the thing underground. Say, Jack, d'ye think now, the little beast could a got hurt that night when they broke into the Lawrence bank and looted it? P'raps somebody fired at the thieves and hit the pup; or it might a got hold of rat poison somehow."

"Quit your guessing, Josh; what does it matter to us how the poor little beast came to his end?" demanded George, who had a liking for dogs himself, and seemed to feel less hilarity than any of the rest, once the shock of the discovery, and their own disappointment wore away.

Jack was for taking it as a joke at his expense.

"Say, just think of that splendid sneak of mine wasted," he remarked, sadly. "And all for this, too. I've got half a notion to crawl back again, and bury the poor little wretch over, just to pay for making such a mistake."

"But hold on," Herb observed, "this doesn't mean that the two over yonder ain't what we took 'em to be, does it? There's the white boat, you know, with the red tr.i.m.m.i.n.g; didn't Jack tell us he could see it plain enough anch.o.r.ed close to the sh.o.r.e? Just because they put a little pet dog underground don't make 'em better, I reckon, eh, Jack?"

Jack did not reply immediately. The old doubts were commencing to work double time with him. He was beginning to question the truth of their solution of the problem. Again he could see the face of the younger fellow, who had seemed to be hardly more than a boy. Was that affectation only a.s.sumed? Might it not be a part of the nature of the fellow after all? Was he a desperate crook, who was able to put on an air of innocence; or could it be possible they had made a tremendous mistake, and that he was a pampered son of some rich man, cruising in his fine motorboat, with a mechanic as crew to do the rough work, while he played his part as skipper of the craft?

Yes, Jack was now in the Doubting Thomas cla.s.s. He shook his head, and seemed to be trying to figure things out, as he laid the box on the ground, and covered it temporarily with the lid which had taken him so long to pry off.

"And if they are the bank thieves," Herb went on to say, "what d'ye suppose they could have done with all that stuff they took away? Think they buried the same before they got here to this island, Jack, or could it still be on board the little white boat right now?"

"Oh! yes, that's the stuff; how about it, Jack?" George went on to add.

"We sure did fall all over ourselves in making this blunder," admitted Josh, "and it's up to us now to get busy and try to make things square."

"Of course," said Jack, slowly, as though he might be revolving this last idea in his mind, "that's possible. If these are the right men, and they've not got rid of the plunder up to now, why, it stands to reason it would be somewhere on board, that's right."

"But seems to me, Jack," remarked Herb, suspiciously, "you're beginning to hedge a heap. Just a little while ago you were dead sure these fellows must be the two robbers. Now you say 'if they are.' How's that?

Didn't you see their boat, and wasn't it just what that newspaper account said the suspicious craft looked like."

"Boys, I admit all that," the other went on to say, "but if you stop and think, the article in the paper didn't say positively that the white boat belonged to the bold bank thieves--only that it had been seen hanging around, like it might be in hiding, and they thought it must have for a crew the two yeggs who broke into the Lawrence bank. There's some difference, you'll admit between making a positive statement, and just guessing things."

"Well, for one, I still believe they are the men that are wanted," said George, to prove that he had not been convinced otherwise.

"I think so, too," added Josh.

"And for one now," added impetuous George, boldly. "I'd like nothing better than to sneak that boat of theirs away while they sleep. What d'ye say to that, fellows, ain't it worth considering?"

For a minute no one replied. The audacity of the proposition staggered them, it seemed; and yet as is nearly always the case with boys, it appealed to the love of mischief and the daring that somehow seems to be a part of their nature.

"Say that would be a great stunt, now," said Josh.

Buster drew a long breath as he went on to say:

"George, you ain't so very bad a hand at laying out a game after all.

Whee! just think how they'd rub their eyes, and stare, when they woke up in the morning, and went to look for the jolly old white boat, which wouldn't be there."

George began to feel his importance. After all, Jack could not have a monopoly of engineering things; once in a great while some other fellow was apt to have an inspiration; and it seemed to be his turn just then.

"You seem to think well of my little scheme?" he remarked, proudly.

"Jack, how do you feel about it?" asked cautious Herb, not noticing that the other had as yet made no comment; which, in some boys might have signified that they were feeling jealous; but everybody knew Jack Stormways could not allow such a thought to enter his head.

"Do you want to know my idea, George?" asked Jack, frankly.

"I sure do," came the reply.

"Well, I'll tell you," the other went on to say. "It would be a great stunt to carry off this white boat, if only we were sure the parties are the robbers. But stop and think what we'd be up against if they were innocent parties. Why, they could have us arrested for stealing their craft; and what excuse would we have to offer? The old gag about not knowing it was loaded wouldn't pa.s.s in court. We'd get a heavy fine, even if it wasn't worse. This is a time when it'll pay us to be sure before we go ahead."