AN UNWELCOME DISCOVERY.
"Bully, they're still there, just like we left them!" shouted Steve; and
from the manner in which he said this, it was evident that he had shared
in some of the fears which beset his companions.
In fact, all of the boys experienced a singular relief when they
discovered that the canoes still lay there on the beach.
"Seems to be all hunky dory," Bandy-legs was heard to remark, as he came
puffing along in the rear, determined to keep up with the procession;
"if only now them tricky fellers ain't gone and bored more auger holes
in my little cedar dinky! You never can tell. 'Pearances are often
deceitful, remember, we used to write in our copybooks at school? Well,
they are, sometimes. I know it, because I never 'spected to have the
river come in on me; and it did, you just bet it did!"
But while Bandy-legs was amusing himself by this manner of talk, no one
was apparently paying the least attention to him. They had hurried
along, eager to get to the camp, and verify their first impression, to
the effect that all was well.
So far as they could see, as they drew near, things were just as they
had left them something like an hour and a half previously. The two
tents stood there, with the little burgees flapping idly in the morning
breeze. Possibly a wandering 'coon or a curious fox may have dropped in
to investigate conditions; but the food had all been placed far above
the reach of such hungry creatures, so no one need feel the least bit of
alarm.
It was Max who made the first discovery that set them to quivering again
with a new apprehension.
"Look at the flap of the tent here!" he exclaimed. "I'm dead sure I
fastened it tight behind me; and I was the last one in there. It's
hanging loose, right now!"
"Wow, so's ours!" whooped Steve, furiously.
The boys plunged into the tents, anxious once more concerning the state
of affairs; and immediately a chorus of indignant outcries told that
they found things otherwise than satisfactory.
"Somebody's been rooting around in here!" called out Steve, from the
depths of the second tent.
"And mauled all our duds, too! Look at the stuff scattered around, would
you?" Bandy-legs was heard to howl.
"Looks like the thief wanted to find something or other, and must have
been frightened off by hearing us coming," Owen declared, also a bit
angrily.
As yet there had come no loud outcries from the other tent; but that was
not because those who had rushed inside found things just to their
satisfaction. Max was always a fellow of few words; and as for Toby, he
never could express himself intelligently when tremendously excited. He
just stood there, with his lower jaw moving up and down, yet no sound
following the action.
There was good reason for this feeling of dismay on the part of the pair
occupying the smaller tent, where most of the provisions were kept. For
they had discovered, as soon as they entered, that everything was thrown
about, helter-skelter. Indeed, it looked as though the unknown thief
must have been gathering together pretty much all their supplies in the
shape of foodstuff, with the evident intention of carrying the same off;
when, alarmed by their coming, he had grabbed up a strip of breakfast
bacon, the last loaf of bread, and possibly a can of baked beans, with
which he had hastily decamped.
Max, after the first flush of his indignation had passed away, was
rather amused than otherwise by the affair. The loss had not been so
very great after all, since no damage had been done to the precious
canoes. And if it came to the worst, one of the campers could easily be
dispatched to the home town to buy more provisions, since they had
plenty of money still in the treasury, thanks to those wonderful little
pearls, taken from the waters of this same Big Sunflower River.
As usual with him, Max began to cast around in order to find some clew
to the identity of the thief. Of course the other three had by this time
hurried into the smaller tent to ascertain what the extent of the
damages might be. And loud were the wailings of Bandy-legs when he heard
that among the missing things was the splendid strip of bacon, on which
he had cast many an envious eye, as he contemplated future enjoyment,
with slices of the same sizzling in a hot frying pan, and sending off
the odors that made him positively ravenous with hunger.
"Oh, but wasn't it good we came back just in time!" he exclaimed, as he
looked around at the untidy interior of the tent, with a pile of
provisions lying in the open center, where the eager intruder had thrown
them. "He meant to just clean us out, that's what he did. I bet that
Herb Benson had something to do with this mean old raid. He wanted to
scare us off the island, or starve us out!"
If Max thought along these same lines he had not as yet mentioned the
fact; but he did look queerly at Bandy-legs when he said this last
sentence, as though the possibility of such a thing appealed to him.
"Was there only one feller here, or a crowd?" demanded Steve, as he eyed
the pile of canned goods, that ham that was only partly cut, and a
number of packages containing prunes, sugar, flour and such things, many
of them as yet not even opened.
"Looks like there was half a dozen; or else the feller, if there was
only one, had an appetite that would beat Bandy-legs here all holler,"
declared Steve, who was really more enraged than any of the others.
All of them looked to Max to decide this question, satisfied that if the
truth could be learned at all, he would unearth it.
"I think there was only a single thief here," he presently said. "And
I'll tell you why I hit on that. He certainly carried off a few things,
just as much as he could grab up in a big hurry when he heard us. Now,
his first intention was to scoop in the whole business; you can see how
he piled the stuff up here, meaning to get it all. And if there had been
two, three, or more, they'd have made a bigger hole in our grub
department than happened."
"That sounds good to me, Max," remarked Owen, nodding his head
attentively.
Toby was here heard to make a jumble of sounds, being still too excited
to get his vocal cords in decent working order. He kept pointing at a
nail that had been driven into the tent pole.
Now, strange to say, Steve was really the quickest to understand what
the stammering boy meant, when he became twisted up in this way.
"He says his sweater is gone, the dark-blue one that his guardian, Mr.
Jackson, gave him just a week ago on his birthday. And he left it
hanging there on that old nail," was Steve's explanation of the strange
jumble of sounds Toby was giving forth.
"And that's true every word of it," put in Max at that moment; "for just
as I turned to quit this tent, as we were going off, that same sweater
fell down off the nail. I stopped long enough to hang it up again. So if
it's gone, the thief took a notion he could make good use of it."
Toby remained silent with indignation for a long time; and in his case
this was not a mere figure of speech either, but a grim reality, for he
was tongue-tied.
"Let Max hunt around, and see if there are any tracks," said Owen.
"That's the ticket!" added Bandy-legs; and both the others nodded their
heads in immediate approval of the scheme.
Whenever it came down to a showing of woods lore, Max was the one always
designated to handle the matter. His chums believed him capable of
discovering almost anything going, if only a few faint tracks had been
left behind.
Nothing loth, Max started in to look; but he knew in the beginning that
the task would be a difficult one, and the results not at all equal to
the exertion put forth.
Still he did find several places where a footprint, not at all like any
made by their own shoes, seemed to tell where the intruder had stepped,
in making his rapid rounds of the camp.
"There was only one thief, boys," he announced, after he had looked
carefully.
"Man or boy, do you think, Max?" asked Owen.
"A man; and I should say a pretty hefty one, too," replied the other,
with conviction in his voice.
"Why, how c'n you tell that, Max, without ever once gettin' sight of the
feller?" demanded the astonished Bandy-legs.
"Oh, shucks, how dense some people are!" put in Steve, scornfully. "Why,
stands to reason, don't it, that a big man'd wear shoes ever so much
longer than a little man, or a kid? Well, look at that print Max is
pointing to right now! Don't think any Shafter, Toots or Beggs made
that, do you?"
"Gosh!" exclaimed Bandy-legs, staring; "he must 'a' been a giant, sure.
I never did see a bigger shoe print, honest now. And, boys, it ain't the
nicest thing going to know that monster is right here, marooned on this
island with us."
"Now what makes you say that, Bandy-legs?" demanded Steve. "How d'ye
know but what he come across from the mainland?"
"Why," the other hastened to say, as though proud of having his opinion
asked, "he'd have to swim, then, because Max here said there wasn't a
sign of a boat landin' anywhere along the shore. Fact is, the island is
so rough that boats would find it pretty hard to land anywhere, but on
this little beach right at the foot, and made just for such a thing. And
then again, Steve, don't you forget about that queer old cabin, now. He
lives there, sure as you're born!"
"Whew, six more nights!"
That was Toby Jucklin finally getting his breath; and as there was no
telling when he would talk steadily, or stammer, none of his campmates
thought it at all strange to hear him say these words calmly and evenly.
Toby had been wrestling with those miserable vocal cords of his for so
long a time that he now had them under control for a short period at
least.
"Can we stand it, fellows?" asked Owen, more to find out how the others
felt than because his faith was becoming wobbly.
"Sixty, if you said the word!" declared the impulsive Steve, grimly;
"why, after accepting that dare, a dozen critters like this one we
haven't ever seen yet couldn't frighten _me_ away from Catamount Island;
no siree, bob!"
Max looked admiringly, also affectionately at the speaker. If there was
one trait he liked about Steve, it was his indomitable pluck. The boy
was absolutely afraid of nothing that walked, flew, or crawled. He was
as bold as a lion, but very indiscreet. He often reminded Max of a small
terrier attacking a big St. Bernard, and snapping viciously all the
while. Yes, Steve was a bundle of nerves, and not to be daunted.
"I honestly believe you would stick it out if it took all summer,
Steve," he remarked, laying a hand on the other's arm.
"Excuse me, then," declared Bandy-legs. "This thing wears on my nerves
like everything. I'll soon be skin and bones if it keeps up. Somebody
tell me what that big thief wanted with me last night, when he grabbed
my leg, and started to haul me out of the tent? That's what bothers me.
He seems to've got a spite against me in particular. I bet you he's got
his wicked eye on me, right at this blessed minute."
"Oh, p'r'aps he thought it was a ham he grabbed hold of," remarked
Steve, flippantly, as he pointed to Bandy-legs' rather plump lower
limbs, of which he was rather vain, in spite of their shortness.
But for once Bandy-legs did not laugh at a joke that was on himself. The
matter appeared too serious for trifling. How could he ever go to sleep
peacefully when expecting to be aroused suddenly by a terrible tug, and
feel himself being dragged along the ground, just as though seized by a
striped tiger of the East Indian jungle?
"I see there's only one way to be on the safe side," he was muttering
disconsolately; "I've just got to come to tying myself to the tent pole
every night Then if he drags me off, down comes the old tent; and I
guess the rest of you'll sit up and take notice at that."
"You might shin out for home, Bandy-legs?" suggested Steve, just to test
the sticking quality of the other.
"But I won't, all the same," flashed Bandy-legs, with a determined shake
of his head. "If the rest of yer c'n stand havin' that sort of business
goin' on, reckon I ought to hold out. But I wish now I'd brought a gun
along. Then mebbe he'd let me alone, or take a feller of his size."
"Come along, boys, let's get things in shipshape again, and see just
what's gone!" called out Max, who believed in looking things squarely in
the face, and then making the best out of a bad bargain.
So the campers started with a vim to put things as they were before the
visit of the unknown forager, who seemed destined to occupy Catamount
Island with them during the balance of their stay.