A SURPRISE FOR VEDDER
It was a distinctly informal council-fire. There were no special stunts
or games or competitions, as there would be later; merely songs, a few
announcements, and finally, as the fire died down to glowing embers, a
story or two. But Dale Tompkins had rarely been more perfectly content.
Drawn together, perhaps, by the events of the afternoon and by the
interesting secret they held in common, the members of Tent Three were
gathered in a group on one side of the circle. Whether by accident
or design, Dale sat close to Ranny and a little behind him, where he
could watch the play of light and shadow on the leader's handsome
face. Scarcely a word passed between them, but Dale was conscious of
something in the other's manner which made him wonder, with a thrill,
whether the hateful barrier that had existed for so long between them
wasn't growing a shade less formidable. Suppose some day it should
vanish altogether! Suppose the time came when they could be real
friends of the sort he had always dreamed about! He told himself that it
was probably all imagination, but this did not take away his pleasure in
the picture. And when Ranny, lazily shifting his lounging attitude,
leaned carelessly back against the knees of the boy behind him, Dale
thrilled to the touch almost as much as he would have done had he not
felt the other to be quite unconscious of his presence.
The routine of the second morning in camp was much the same as the first
had been. But directly after dinner the fellows piled into boats and
rowed out to where the _Aquita_ was anchored. As many as the power-boat
would hold went aboard, leaving the rest, with a large assortment of
crab-nets, hooks, lines, bait-boxes, and the like, in the trailers.
They made a hilarious bunch as they chugged upstream past the straggling
fishing-village, under the bridge, and on between the low banks of sedge
and tough water-growth that lined the little river. But the noise was
as nothing compared with the racket that began when they anchored and
dispersed for the afternoon sport.
Some took to the boats, others went ashore and fished from the bank,
while a few stayed on the _Aquita_. The tide was out and it was an ideal
spot for crabbing. In fact, the creatures were so plentiful that many of
the boys abandoned the slower, more cautious method of luring them to
the surface with bait, and took to scooping them off the bottom with
nets, to the accompaniment of excited shouts and yells and much splashing
of mud and water. They kept at it for about two hours, and when the
whistle summoned them back to the motor-boat they brought along a catch
big enough to furnish several meals for the entire camp.
The last boat to come in was rowed by Dale Tompkins. Sanson and Bennie
Rhead were with him, besides one or two others; but the interest and
attention of those gathered on and about the _Aquita_ was swiftly
centered on Harry Vedder, perched precariously on the stern seat. His
fat legs were drawn up clumsily under him, his pudgy hands tightly
gripped the sides of the craft, while his plump face was set in lines
expressive of anything but joy.
"What's the matter, Puffy?" called Ranny Phelps, as they approached. "You
look like Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall!"
Vedder merely sniffed poutingly. The faces of Tompkins and Sanson
expanded in wide grins. "It's the crabs," chuckled the latter. "They're
so fond of him they won't let him alone. You see," he added, his eyes
dancing, "some of 'em happened to get out of the box, and the minute they
saw Humpty they got terribly attached to him."
"Yes!" snorted the plump youth indignantly--"to one of my legs, the
beastly things! Hurry up, Dale, for goodness' sake; I'm all cramped up!"
A snicker went up from the other boats. "You ought to have spoken to 'em
sharply, Ved," grinned Ranny, "and discouraged such liberties."
"Yes," laughed Court; "be firm with 'em!"
Vedder snorted again and, reaching for the rail of the _Aquita_, climbed
aboard with remarkable agility. "Maybe you think that's funny," he
growled, taking possession of the most comfortable seat in sight; "but
I'd rather tackle a snake any day than a boat-load of crabs."
He was so taken up with his own affairs that he quite missed the meaning
glance that passed between Court Parker and Bob Gibson as they fastened
their painter to the stern of the power-boat. He thought nothing,
either, of the fact that they were first ashore, where, hastening to
remove from under one of the seats a medium-sized bait-box covered
with seaweed, they disappeared behind the cook-shack.
But later on, an uncomfortable suspicion came to him that there was
something in the wind. Approaching the cook-shack, where a crowd was
occupied in breaking up shells and extracting crab-meat for supper, he
noticed Parker, Sanson, and Tompkins giggling and whispering with heads
close together. As he came up they stopped abruptly, but after supper he
saw them again, clustered in a group with Gibson and Bennie Rhead, and
caught a grinning glance from the latter that deepened his suspicion.
"I'll bet they're up to some trick," he said to himself.
Uneasily, he kept a sharp lookout, determined that they should not catch
him napping. But oddly enough, the joke, whatever it was, seemed to
subside, and for all his watchfulness Vedder failed to detect any more
suspicious confabs during the evening.
Nevertheless, he remained on guard, especially after dark. He did not
stray far from headquarters without peering about for such pitfalls as
taut ropes, water-pails, and the like. At the council-fire he selected
his place with especial care, and saw that no one approached from behind
without his knowing it. But the evening passed uneventfully, and when he
had reached the tent in safety and was undressing by the light of the
single lantern, he decided he must have been worrying to no purpose.
"Guess I was wrong after all," he thought, tying the pajama-strings about
his ample waist. "My, but bed's going to feel good!"
If there was one thing Vedder took pains about, it was in the arrangement
of his blankets. To avoid the unpleasant exposure of toes he had
worked out an elaborate system of folds and safety-pins until the
combination resembled a sleeping-bag more than anything else. It was
his habit to attend to this immediately after supper so that at bedtime
there need be no shivery delay in getting fixed for the night. This
evening he climbed ponderously to his perch, inwardly congratulating
himself on his forethought, for the others, chattering busily on the
day's doings, were only beginning to spread out their blankets.
"It pays to be systematic," he thought complacently, and thrust his legs
between the warm folds with a luxurious sigh of content.
An instant later a howl of terror resounded through the camp, followed by
a convulsive movement of Vedder's legs and body which disrupted the neat
arrangement in a flash. Dale Tompkins, sitting on the edge of the lower
bunk, had no time even to roll aside before the fat boy, still gurgling
with fright, landed on him with a crash that shook the tent.