“But why under the sun do you suppose he wants to be with us on the _Pot Luck_?” demanded Will.
“That’s what I can’t tell you,” Frank replied. “I only know that he acts as if he wants to stick to us all the way to New Orleans; and that Uncle Felix seemed to be afraid he’d do that very same thing. Chances are, we’ll never know what it all means until we get there, and ask your uncle to explain.”
“Well, do we carry him there?” asked Bluff.
“I should say not, if we know it,” was the way Jerry vented his opinion.
“And as my uncle impressed it on me that, above all people, I mustn’t take Marcus Stackpole aboard, I think we ought to get rid of him right away,” Will declared.
“Yes, that’s easy to say, but how’re we going to do it?” Jerry broke in with. “The old fellow seems to like it here; yes, and I rather guess he’s taken something of a fancy to the bunch of us, too. He sticks worse than a mustard plaster on your back. Talk of Sinbad, and the Old Man of the Sea; Luther could give ’em points on how to stay right there.”
“Leave it to Frank,” interrupted Will. “He’s got a plan, I’m sure; haven’t you?”
“Well, here it is in a nutshell,” remarked Frank, smiling at the confidence the other chum seemed to have in his ability to meet a situation; “we’ll get to Memphis to-morrow, you see. Thinking that we mean to put him ashore only at Vicksburg, below, Luther will have no chance to play sick; so we can work the little racket.”
“Yes, you and Jerry are to go ashore after we tie up, to get some things, besides the mail. An hour later you’ll have come back, with your errands done; but remember you’re not to come aboard, or show yourselves. Then I’ll recollect something I wanted you to do very much. Will, at the time, can be deep in some business connected with his photography, and I can’t send him to hunt you up at the store; so I’ll ask old Luther to please take the bottle to get filled.”
“That’s dead easy,” muttered Bluff; “he’ll fall into the trap; and after he’s out of sight Jerry ‘nd I’ll slip aboard, when we part company with our passenger. Say, I’ll be a little sorry, someway, too; for after all, he’s not such a bad sort.”
“But, Frank, how will he know what our meaning is?” Will inquired.