EXPLORING THE ISLAND.
There was little time wasted in getting outside the two tents; almost
before the last of the excited Bandy-legs' complaint had sounded, five
shivering boys made their appearance alongside the fire, clad only in
their pajamas.
Max had his gun in his hands. He may have carried it out more as a
precaution, or to keep the impulsive Steve from dodging in after it,
than from any great expectation of finding a use for the weapon. And
then again, its appearance would go far toward reassuring poor
Bandy-legs that the fear of the unknown beast returning to drag him away
was reduced to a minimum.
Steve immediately made a pounce for the fire. Max thought he meant to
knock it together, and perhaps induce it to flare up, so as to give them
more light; but it seemed that the other was only after a smoldering bit
of wood, which he swung around his head until it burst into a flame.
"Now, let it try and attack us, that's all!" cried Steve, as though
quite ready to use his novel weapon after the manner of a baseball club,
should a vicious bobcat emerge from the dark circle around them, and
attempt any "funny business," as Steve called it.
It was thoughtful Owen who stooped down, and threw a little inflammable
fuel on the remains of the camp fire, so that when it blazed up, which
immediately happened, there was no longer darkness near the spot, as
they could see far into the jungle that lay on the side away from the
water.
"Now, what happened?" asked Max, turning on Bandy-legs for an
explanation.
"Why, here's the way it was, fellers," replied that worthy, bent on
squaring himself with his chums; "I was dreamin' of bein' home, when the
old tomcat got a sudden notion that I'd been and stepped on his tail.
Gee; he turned on me like a flash, and grabbed me by the leg. Seemed
like he was changed into a big striped tiger, then and there, for he
started to drag me away, like he meant to eat me up. I got hold of the
leg of the table, and held on like all get-out. That's when I waked up,
and found that I was bein' yanked out of my blanket by some critter that
did have hold of my left ankle. And it was Steve and not the table leg
I'd been hangin' on to like grim death."
"I should say you had," muttered the one mentioned, who was now rubbing
his arm where Bandy-legs had pinched it, "and if you left a piece of
skin as big as a fifty-cent piece below my elbow, I'll be glad, believe
me. Bet you I'll be black and blue for a week of Sundays. You sure did
give me the worst scare I ever had, with that whoop right in my ear, and
then grabbin' me like a bear might."
"And l-l-listen to him, w-w-would you," remarked Toby, "he s-s-says he
was d-d-dreaming, fellers!"
"After this I vote that we tie Bandy-legs up, head and heels, with the
rope we brought along," ventured the aggrieved Steve, pulling up the
sleeve of his pajamas to see what the damage might really be. "If he's
going to dream about cats going mad, and bust our nice sleep all to
flinders in this way, why give him that small tent to himself. Blessed
if I want him for a tentmate again."
"But, Steve, I tell you it wasn't a dream after all; only I just
happened to get things mixed, you see. Somethin' did grab me by the leg,
and try to pull me out of the tent! If I'd been scared so I couldn't
kick and yell, why chances are you'd be short one camp-mate right now,
that's all."
"Shucks!" grumbled Steve, hard to convince, "talk is cheap; prove it,
Bandy-legs!"
"I will, then!"
With that the other dropped down on the ground and started to roll up
the left leg of his loose pajamas. He did so with a certain amount of
confidence, as though he felt positive that he would be able to display
such evidence, that even skeptical Steve might not dispute.
"Now, how about that?" demanded Bandy legs? triumphantly.
All of them lowered their heads to look. And a variety of exclamations
attested to the fact that apparently Bandy-legs had carried his point.
"Scratches, as sure as anything!" commented Owen, seriously.
"Fresh done, too, ain't they?" demanded the victim, energetically,
determined to clinch matters beyond all chance for dispute, while about
it.
"That's right, they are," Max chimed in with.
"P'r'aps if you looked sharp now, one could see where claws had raked me
through the leg of my pajamas," suggested Bandy-legs, satisfied to have
cleared himself of the charge of having aroused his campmates simply
because he happened to be visited with a bad dream.
"Well, I can't just say that's clear," Max continued, "but it looks like
something had had hold of you by the ankle, just like you say,
Bandy-legs."
"And just add to that, it was pullin' me along in a big hurry, Max. Say,
didn't I tell you that if there was anybody goin' to be eat up by cats,
it'd be me?" wailed the victim of the night assault.
"That's all right, Bandy-legs," said Steve, in a tone meant to be
cheering; "you know we've got a good rope along, and if you only choose
to take the trouble to tie yourself to the tent pole every night,
nothin' can't run away with you."
Max had to laugh at the idea; and somehow that seemed to rather make
things look a bit more cheerful. He made Bandy-legs show him just where
he had been lying, and as it was between the other pair, it certainly
seemed singular why any intruder should have picked the short-legged boy
out for attention.
After Max had gone down on all fours, holding the lantern, which Owen
had lighted, and seemed to be trying to discover the trace of feet, he
shook his head.
"Perhaps there might have been tracks," he remarked, "but we've moved
about so much since, that they've just been covered up."
"Tracks of what, the catamount?" asked Bandy-legs, anxiously.
"Perhaps human tracks!" Max went on.
"There! I expected something like that!" burst out Steve. "If there was
anything around here that gripped hold of Bandy-legs, and tried to yank
him out of the tent, I'd be willing to wager a heap that it could be
laid at the door of them measly critters, Ted Shafter and his gang!"
The others hardly knew what to think. But at any rate the fact that Max
had ventured to propose such a solution to the strange mystery of the
night assault seemed to give the victim more or less comfort. He could
stand being made an object of attack on the part of prank-loving boys,
but the very thought of having been seized by a hungry man-eating
panther gave him a cold chill.
"Say, do we crawl back in our nice blankets, and try to get some more
sleep?" asked Steve, who was shivering; because the air seemed cold,
after being so rudely aroused, and made to leave a warm nest.
"Couldn't we just stick it out around the fire?" asked Bandy-legs, who
doubtless had conceived a notion that he would feel ever so much safer
if awake, and dressed, than lying there helpless, and at the mercy of
every beast that chose to creep into the camp.
"I was just going to propose that, boys," remarked Max; "because, you
see, it's just about peep of day," and he pointed to the east as he
spoke, where, upon looking, the others could see a faint seam of light
close down near the horizon, which they knew indicated the coming of the
sun.
"Well, I declare, the whole night's gone!" declared the surprised Steve.
"Oh! ain't I glad!" breathed Bandy-legs, crawling into the tent to get
some of his ordinary garments, such as he was accustomed to wear when on
an outing.
The others followed suit, and it was not long before the camp began to
assume a busy appearance, with all of the boys bustling about.
"One night gone, anyhow," remarked Max, as he and Owen started
preparation for breakfast, all of them owning up to being hungry for the
ham and eggs they had decided to enjoy for the first morning meal in
camp.
Then, as daylight had fully come, Max seemed to conceive a sudden
notion.
"Get one of the others to help you with this, Owen," he remarked. "I'll
be back in half an hour, or less."
Although wondering what he had in mind, Owen, being a boy of few words
as a rule, did not attempt to question his cousin. He saw him go down to
where the canoes lay up on the beach, and launching one of the smaller
canvas ones, paddle off. And as he saw Max move along close to the shore
of the island, now beginning to be bathed in the first rays of the
rising sun, Owen smiled, as though he had guessed the other's mission.
Later on, just as the call to breakfast was given, Max returned, and
drew the little canoe up on the beach where the others lay.
"What luck?" asked his cousin, as Max sat down and started to pour
himself a tin cup of coffee, his platter having been already filled with
fried ham and eggs that sent up a most tempting odor.
The others lifted their heads to listen, and even stopped eating, hungry
as they were, to learn what it was Max had been investigating.
"Nothing doing," replied the returned paddler, with a smile. "I went
completely around the island, and examined the shore the best way I
could, for signs of some boat, or to see where one had landed last
night, but I didn't get a glimpse of anything. If they did come off the
mainland, they knew how to get ashore without leaving any signs behind,
that's all."
"But, Max, I didn't know that Ted Shafter was such a good woodsman as
all that!" objected Owen.
"No more he isn't," replied the other, as he lowered his cup, after
taking one good drink of the hot contents, that tasted better than
anything he ever got at home, where they had thick cream, and delicate
china to drink from. "And that's one reason why I'm puzzled to believe
it could have been them."
Bandy-legs looked worried again.
Once more his hopes were shattered because, if it turned out the
intruder had been an animal after all, what about those six other nights
he would have to pass in that tent, with the unfeeling Steve and the
heavy-sleeping Owen?
"Well, what are we going to do about it?" demanded the last-named boy.
"I'll tell you," replied Max, in a matter-of-fact tone; "we've got the
whole day ahead of us, to prowl around, and see what the blessed old
island looks like. And perhaps we might find out a few things before
dark comes on again. As I said a while ago, one night's gone. I hope now
none of you want to throw up the sponge, and go back home, to let Herb
and his crowd crow over us?"
"Not me!" shouted Steve, like a flash.
"And I'm willing to stick it out!" added Owen, firmly.
"M-m-me t-t-too!" put in Toby, who was munching some cold biscuits they
had fetched along, and of which he was especially fond.
All of them looked at Bandy-legs, and he could not deny the appeal he
saw in the faces of his chums. It made considerable difference, too, now
that the bright daylight surrounded them; for even a timid boy can feel
brave between sunrise and sunset.
"I'm willing to hold on, if the rest do," he declared, "though it's
pretty tough if I'm goin' to be the only one that's in danger of bein'
chawed up by savage tomcats that roam about here. But, Max, if we go
nosing around to-day, I want to keep close to you, and that bully little
gun of yours, understand. Them's my conditions for agreein' to stand
pat, and stay here on this haunted island."
"Rats!" scoffed the unbelieving Steve; "haunted, your eye! You mark my
words, it'll all turn out just as common as anything, when we once get
the hang of things. Ain't it always that way, Max? Didn't it look easy
to the old fellers over at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, when
Columbus, he stood an egg on end by just breaking it a little?"
"That's what it did, Steve; and I'm glad to see how you take it,"
replied Max.
But when a little later they did start out to look around a little,
being more than curious, Bandy-legs was allowed to do as he suggested,
and keep close company with Max and the twelve-bore gun. He carried in
his hand a ferocious-looking fish spear, which he had mounted on a pole
about ten feet long. Owen had the hatchet; Toby the long-bladed knife
which they used to cut bread and ham with; while Steve patted his pocket
in a significant way, as though he carried something there, up to now he
had overlooked, but which seemed to give considerable confidence.
In this manner, then, the five boys sallied out to investigate their
surroundings, and see what the island with the bad name contained. If
they happened to run against some wild-cat, or other savage animal, they
wanted to be in shape to put up a good stiff fight.
Max had to laugh when he saw his chums lined up, armed in this fashion.
"I just pity the poor thing that tries to give this crowd trouble," he
remarked; "to look at the lot of weapons we carry, you'd think we
expected to have a battle for the possession of Catamount Island instead
of starting out on a peaceful little exploring expedition."
"All the same, the handling of such things makes a fellow feel better,"
declared Bandy-legs.
"It may you," burst out Steve, who had been dodging that fish spear
right and left for some time, "but if you keep on trying to poke that
blooming four-pronged stabber into my eyes, like you've been doing, it
won't be much fun for the rest of us. Show him how to carry the thing,
Max, if he must take it along."
This being amicably arranged, with Bandy-legs holding the spear part in
front of him, so that he might make use of it in an emergency as a
lance, they started out. Somehow, no one seemed to consider the
possibility of their camp being invaded during their absence. The
eatables had been hung up, so that hungry wild-cats might not run away
with them should they take a notion to visit the place while the five
boys were away; but no one thought of one of their own species coming
around.
It was indeed hard work making their way through the dense growth that
covered the main part of Catamount Island. Max saw that as the place had
been let alone by mankind, Nature had kept on increasing the wild tangle
of vines, bushes and saplings that filled the spaces between the larger
trees. In some places the branches were so very dense overhead that it
seemed gloomy and even "spooky," as Bandy-legs took pains to inform his
companions.
Birds they saw many times, and often the whirr of wings announced the
sudden flight of a partridge. Squirrels abounded, and even a raccoon was
sighted, while Max declared that he felt sure he had a glimpse of the
red brush of a vanishing fox that had been disturbed in his day nap by
their approach.
Still, all these were such things as they had expected to meet with.
What pleased Max most of all was the fact that outside of a few harmless
small snakes the island seemed to hardly deserve the terribly bad name
it had gained as a breeding spot for venomous reptiles, and which
reputation it was that had always kept local hunters from visiting its
shores in the season.
The little party was pushing through the thickest part of the jungle,
where they had great difficulty in making progress at all, and often
tripped over roots, or found themselves twisted up in vines that hung
down from the trees, when Max, who led the van, turned and made a motion
with his hand that the others new signified he had discovered something
to which he wished to call their attention.
And so, filled with eager curiosity, they craned their necks forward in
the endeavor to learn just what it was that had apparently aroused the
interest of Max so abruptly.