"Then I'm strong for Captain Joe!" cried Jule. "We'll bring the perturbed spirit on board and put it with our collection of animals! And there's the breakfast call, at last!" he continued, whereat both boys rushed into the cabin.
Clay, who had been tinkering around the motors for half an hour, entered the cabin before breakfast was over, his face looking troubled, his clothing smeared with grease.
"I have an idea that we'll stop here a few days until some one goes to one of the towns hereabouts and brings back some bolts," he said. "The motors are out of whack, and ought not to be operated in the shape they are in."
"I'll go back to Hickman in the rowboat," declared Case. "I have a notion that I'd like to see the town."
"And row against that current?" asked Alex. "I see you doing it!"
"You couldn't do it in a thousand years!" Jule observed.
"Well," Case went on, looking at his map of the river, "there's New Madrid, on the Missouri side. I might walk up there and back in a day."
"Up there?" laughed Alex., looking over Case's shoulder. "Why do you say up there? New Madrid is north from here, all right, but it is down stream, for all that!"
"Well, walk down there, then!" Case replied. "I want to learn something about that robbery anyway, and there may be news of it; besides, a walk along the river will be a sort of a picnic. It isn't more than ten or twelve miles to the town."
"Then you'd better arrange to return to-morrow," Clay advised. "You are not used to such long walks. We are in no hurry to go on, for we have all the time there is until this time next year!"
So it was finally arranged that Case should walk down to New Madrid and get the needed repairs for the motors, while the others looked over the country which lay about them. When Alex. suggested the visit to the deserted house, Clay was anxious to become one of the party. He said he had had the same idea in his mind ever since seeing the old place.
"After Case goes," Jule suggested, "that would leave only Mose and Teddy Bear on board the _Rambler_. I don't believe it is safe to leave her alone."
"Of course it isn't," Clay admitted, "so I'll remain here to-day and visit the old building to-morrow. Then you two boys can remain at home."