A LIVELY TIME IN THE DARK
Slowly but surely Snap got closer to the campfire, which was built
in a little hollow and screened from the lake by a wall of rocks.
"They built the fire there so that we couldn't see it from across
the lake," reasoned the young hunter, and he was right.
Presently he was near enough to make out six forms around the
fire. Then he recognized Ham Spink, Carl Dudder, Jack Voss, and
some other of the lads of the town who usually went with Ham and
Carl. One boy, named Ike Akley, was a ne'er-do-well, who had
once set a barn on fire and burned up two cows. For this he had
been locked up, but his father had procured his release by paying
heavy damages.
The crowd around the campfire were eating supper and talking in
such low tones that Snap could not make out what was said. They
seemed to be in the best of spirits, as if something had happened
to please them greatly.
Between the campfire and the lake a large tent had been erected.
Near the tent, on the ground, lay portions of a camping outfit,
and Snap wondered if it could be the things belonging to himself
and his friends.
Suddenly the idea struck Snap to take a look at what might be
near the water, and he moved in that direction. He had to pass
through a fringe of brushwood and then he gained a tiny cove,
well screened from the lake proper by a number of overhanging
trees. Here it was so dark he could see but little. He felt
his way along and soon reached a fair-sized boat, tied to a tree.
The craft was not the one belonging to his party and he was a
trifle disappointed. Then he saw another boat and his heart gave
a bound.
"It must be the _Snapper_!" he murmured and hurried to the second
craft. But this proved to be nothing but a canoe, and again his
heart sank.
"Maybe we've made a mistake after all," he thought dismally, but
continued to move around the cove. To reach one point he had
to push through some more bushes, and in the midst of these he
fairly tumbled over a third boat, piled high with various camping
things. He gave a close look and almost uttered a cry of triumph.
"Our boat, and all of our things! Here's luck at last!"
As well as he was able in the dark, he looked over the articles
in the _Snapper_. The things were in great confusion, showing
they had been thrown in in a hurry. But almost everything appeared
to be there, and for this he was thankful.
Snap's next thought was to go back and tell his chums of his discovery.
But then he reasoned that this would take time and in the meanwhile
someone of the other crowd might come down to the boat and take
away some of the things.
"I'll take this boat around to where we left the raft," he told
himself, and set to work to shove the _Snapper_ into deep water
without delay. This was no light task, for the outfit on board
was heavy, and Snap had to work like a Trojan to accomplish it.
The _Snapper_ safely floated, another idea popped into the young
hunter's mind and made him grin broadly.
"Tit for tat," he murmured, and set to work to float out the other
rowboat and the canoe. Once they were free of the shore he tied
both to the stern of the _Snapper_, and then settled down to row
along the lake shore.
"Hi there!" came a sudden call out of the darkness. "Who are you?"
Snap was startled, but he did not drop his oars nor did he stop
rowing. He was just rounding one of the points of the cove, and
now he saw somebody running toward the point at top speed.
"I say, who are you?" continued the party on shore, and now Snap
recognized Ham Spink's voice.
"None of your business!" answered Snap gruffly and in as heavy
a tone as he could command.
"You are running away with our boats!" continued Ham, in consternation.
"Hi, fellows, come here! Somebody is running away with all the
boats!" he bawled.
His cries soon reached those around the campfire, and a grand
rush was made to the water's edge. By this time Snap had rounded
the point of the cove and was rowing as rapidly as possible in
the direction where the raft lay.
"Stop him!"
"He has all the boats!"
"Who can he be?"
"Must be somebody from that other camp!"
Such were some of the cries uttered. Then someone ran for a shotgun,
but by this time Snap was out of sight around a fringe of brushwood.
He continued to row his best, and before very long gained the spot
where the raft rested. Then he leaped ashore and ran in the
direction of the campfire.
"This way, fellows!" he cried. "I have the boat! Back to the
raft! Back to the raft!" And he gave the well-known whistle.
In a few minutes he encountered Giant and Whopper and learned that
Shep had gone forward, to find out what the cries at the lake front
meant.
"We must get him to come back," he said. "You go down to the boats
and the raft and get them ready to shove off on short notice." And
he ran closer to the campfire.
The entire camp was now in wild commotion, for each lad present
understood that all the boats were gone. Ham Spink and Carl Dudder
were in a rage.
"We should have placed somebody on guard," cried Ham. "We were
chumps not to do it."
"I didn't think anybody would be over here so quick," answered
Carl. "How could they do it without a boat?"
"Maybe they had another boat," put in Ike Akley. "We missed it
by not looking around a little closer."
"Whoever he is, he isn't rowing across the lake," said Ham. "Let
us run along the shore and see if we can't get at him some way."
As there seemed to be nothing else to do, this plan was carried
out. The crowd, however, had only gone a short distance when they
literally ran into Shep, who had gone forward as already mentioned.
"Here is one of 'em now," shouted Carl Dudder, as he caught Shep
by the arm. The next moment he received a blow in the chest that
sent him reeling backward.
"Who is it?" asked several.
"Shep Reed. Stop him---he is running away!"
Carl was right, the doctor's son was doing his best to escape. But
before he had gone a dozen steps Ham Spink, Ike Akley and Jack Voss
were on top of him and had borne him to the ground. They did not
treat him any too gently and he was kicked in the side and the
breath was literally knocked out of him.
"St---stop! Do---don't ki---kill m---me!" he gasped, when he
could speak.
"What are you doing here, Shep Reed?" demanded Ham, angrily.
"Came over after our things."
"How do you know we have your things?"
"Well, we thought you'd be just mean enough to take our outfit---you
did something like that before, if you'll remember."
"Humph!"
"Will you let me up?"
"We will if you'll promise not to run away," answered Carl.
"That's the talk---let us make a prisoner of him!" cried Ike Akley.
"You have no right to touch me," said Shep. "You did very wrong
to steal our things, and to try to burn down our cabin."
"We---er---we didn't steal any things---we just ran off with them,"
said Ham Spink.
"It amounts to the same thing."
"Then your crowd just stole our boat and our canoe," put in Carl
Dudder.
"Is your boat gone?" asked Shep, for this was the first he knew of it.
"You know well enough it is."
"Where is our boat and our outfit?"
"Didn't you just take that too?" asked Jack Voss.
"Oh, then Snap-----" began the doctor's son, and broke off short.
"Was that Snap Dodge in the boat?" demanded Ham.
"What boat?"
"Your boat."
"I don't know anything about it."
"But you just said-----"
At that moment came a cry through the dark woods:
"Shep! Shep! where are you? Go back to the raft! It is all
right---we have the outfit back! Go back to the raft!"
It was Snap who was calling, and in another minute he appeared
and confronted the crowd that was holding Shep a prisoner.