is not smart, only cunning, Fred," answered Dick. "In regular business I don't believe he'd ever make his salt."
"Do you think he is still following the houseboat?" was the question put by Songbird Powell.
"I can't say as to that. If he is, he must hustle pretty lively, for we are now making a good many miles a day."
After this conversation, the days had gone by swiftly and pleasantly enough. Soon the broad Ohio River was left behind, and the houseboat started down the Mississippi. Stops were made at various points, and the young folks, as well as the two ladies, enjoyed themselves to the utmost. They had a few friends in the South, and, when-ever they stopped off to see these, they were treated with great cordiality.
"No more troubles of any kind for us," said Sam one day, but he was mistaken. That very afternoon a lumber raft came close to hitting the houseboat, frightening all who chanced to be on the deck at the time.
"Phew!" was Tom's comment. "No more such close shaves for me. That raft might have smashed us to smithereens!"
Two days went by, and the boys and girls enjoyed themselves by going fishing and by watching the sights on the river and along the shore. The weather was ideal for the outing, and they had not a care until the second big lumber raft came into sight, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, and threatened, as the first had done, to run them down.
CHAPTER II
THE BIG LUMBER RAFT
"Py chiminy! dot raft vos coming dis vay so sure like nefer vos!" cried Hans Mueller, after an anxious moment had passed.
"We ought to warn 'em off with a shot-gun," growled Tom. "Even if they don't hit us, they haven't any right to make my hair stand up like quills on the fretful porcupine."
"Vot has der porkerpint to do mit your hair?" questioned Hans innocently.
"You'll soon find out – if that lumber raft hits us, Hansy. Got your life insured?"
"Mine life insured?"
"That's it. If you haven't, better take out a policy for 'steen dollars and some cents, payable at nine cents a week in advance."
"Tom, this is no joking matter," broke in Dick. "Be quiet, till I use the megaphone."
"Dot's it!" cried Hans. "Use dot magnify-phone by all means."
There was a fair-sized megaphone on the houseboat, used to call to persons on shore, if necessary, and, bringing this out, the eldest Rover placed it to his mouth.
"On board the lumber raft!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Sheer off! Don't run us down!"
"We are not running you down," was the surly answer from a man at the front of the raft.
"Yes, you are, and we want you to keep off."
"Go on in toward the west shore and you will be all right," said the man. He was a burly looking individual, with an unusually long nose.
By this time the lumber raft was sweeping closer. The raft and the houseboat were moving in the same direction, and this kept them for the time being apart.
"If you don't keep off, there will be trouble," cried Sam.
"Oh, you boys dry up!" was the reply from the man with the long nose, and now they recognized him as a fellow they had met in a hotel at their last stopping place. The man had had a row with a porter, and had made himself generally disagreeable.
The houseboat was under the immediate command of Captain Starr. The captain, a rather strange individual, was not feeling very well, and had gone off to take a nap. Now it was thought best by all to call him.
"The overgrown wood-choppers!" growled the captain as soon as he had come out on deck and taken in the situation. "Sheer off!" he yelled. "Do you hear?"
"Turn in toward shore," was the answering cry.
"We can't – it's too shallow."
"Is it really too shallow?" asked Dick.
"I think so. We are not in the channel as it is."
"I'm going to get a gun," came from Tom, and off he rushed to secure the firearm.
The raft had now swept so close that several on board could be seen plainly. They were a rough-looking sort, and the man with the long nose was the shrewdest of the lot.
"We'll have to turn in, or we'll be hit!" ejaculated Sam. "Those side logs are bound to strike the cabin!"
He pointed to some timbers that projected over the edge of the raft. They were only a few feet off and might crash into the cabin of the houseboat at any moment.
In anger at being forced to change his course, Captain Starr turned the houseboat toward the bank of the river. Then the big raft began to pass them, just as Tom reappeared, shotgun in hand.
"I ought to have you arrested for this!" stormed Captain Starr. His words were always louder than his actions.
"Bah!" answered the man with the long nose, in derision.
"Maybe you'd like to have a taste of this?" put in Tom, holding up the gun.
"Don't you dare to shoot!" yelled the man, and lost no time in sliding from his seat and out of sight.
At that moment those on the houseboat felt a slight shock, and then the craft's headway was checked.
"What's up now?" cried Dick.
"We're aground, that's what's the matter," muttered Captain Starr.
"Those rascals ought to suffer for this!"
In a moment more the big raft had passed the houseboat. The latter now began to swing around with the current.
"I hope we are not stuck in the mud for good," grumbled Fred Garrison.
"Look! look!" burst from Sam's lips. He was pointing to the raft.
"What's up now?" came from several of the others.
"Unless I am mistaken, Dan Baxter is on that raft."
"Baxter!" exclaimed Tom.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"He was sitting on that pile of boards in the rear. As soon as he saw me, he slid out of sight."
"Are you sure it was Baxter?" questioned Songbird Powell.
"If it wasn't him, it was his double."
"If it was Baxter, we ought to try to catch him," suggested Fred.
"I don't see how we are going to catch anybody just now," sighed Dick. "We are stuck hard and fast."
"Oh, Dick, are we really aground?" questioned Dora.
"We are that," said Captain Starr.
"Is there any danger?" asked Nellie Laning, who had joined the others, accompanied by her sister Grace.
"No
