“Bully for you, Thad!  I take it all back, every word!  It surely does pay to be cautious, even if people call you an old woman.  Only for that he might have found the money; and then how mean we’d feel.  Tell me what you did.  He acted like he was satisfied he’d done a big thing.”

“Well, perhaps he knows better now, if he’s had time to tear open the package I put in place of this book; for it was a nice fat sliver of wood!” laughed Thad.

Thereupon Maurice grappled him with a bear-like hug, and waltzed him out on deck, to the intense delight of Dixie, who seemed to think all this demonstration must be for his benefit, for he set up a furious barking and snapped at the heels of the dancing boys.

When they went ashore again things were left differently.  The cabin door was locked, with Dixie inside.  They could depend on his snappy barking to give warning of any uninvited guest aboard.

But the wood-cutting proceeded without further alarm.

True, Thad was so nervous over the matter that he insisted on carrying what fuel they had cut down to the dinghy every little while, just so he could call out to the yellow cur, and have him give a reassuring bark.

And finally the several loads had been safely ferried across the watery gap, so that the cruisers were ready to start moving.

The anchor was raised by means of a primitive but effective derrick Maurice had devised.  This he also made use of in handling the square fish net which could be dropped over the side, baited, and then lifted half an hour later, with more or less generous results.  Of course this method of fishing was only to be enjoyed while they were at anchor.  It is in general use along the Ohio river; and indeed, Maurice had even seen pictures of the same thing in the magazine lying on the table, and which illustrated queer doings far off in Uncle Sam’s Philippine possessions.

Once again they were floating southward, with a moving panorama of shore to interest them.

Maurice was figuring on the swiftness of the current, just how many miles an hour it ran at this point, and when they were likely to bring up at Morehead.

“I think we ought to make it by sun-down, Thad,” he finally announced, after finishing his complicated calculations.

“You make me feel good, partner, when you say that,” returned his chum, who was handling the sweep and keeping the boat a certain distance from the shore, where they could get the full benefit of the current without taking undue risks of being swept out on the broad bosom of the majestic river.

“Yes, I know what’s on your mind.  You’d like to get rid of our responsibility, and hand that packet over to Bunny,” remarked Maurice.

“Wonder what she’s like; sounds as if she might be a little girl; but that couldn’t be, for she was his daughter,” Thad said.

“Yes, and has three kids, the book said.  Oh! that must have been a pet name for her when she was little.  The chances are well find her a strapping big woman, something like that one we bought our last loaf of bread from.”