"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.
"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."