"What luck, Jack?"
It was just a week later. The three motor boats were anchored in a
little cove near one of the numerous rocky islands that give this part
of the wide St. Lawrence river its great reputation for summer outings.
Herb was leaning over the side of his boat, engaged in rubbing some
dingy part of the brass railing; and Jack at the time happened to be
approaching, seated in a little dinky or tender, which each larger boat
now trailed behind every time they made a move from one anchorage to
another; and which proved so useful in going ashore, fishing or
visiting.
"Oh! pretty fair," replied the one who handled the short oars, as he
turned in his seat to reach for something that lay in the bow of the
skiff. "We can have a fish dinner tonight, anyway."
Then he held up a monster muskalonge, that must have weighed all of
twenty pounds.
"Great Jupiter, what a sock-dollager!" cried George, who was taking it
easy in his boat; while Nick thrust up his head to shout:
"Bully for you, Jack! Now we won't starve to death! The country is
saved!"
"Well, I like that," said Herb. "To hear him talk you'd think I'd cut
him down to one meal a day, when to tell the truth he----"
"Stop right there, Mister Skipper!" cried the fat boy, threateningly.
"It's rank treachery to betray your boatmate to the common enemy. But
that is a dandy fish, Jack. Where did you catch him?"
"I think in the upper jaw," replied Jack, solemnly, at which there was a
shout.
"I see you did," replied Nick, bending over, "for there's a broken hook
sticking out of his mouth right now. Ugh! look at the cruel teeth, would
you? I'd hate to let him close his jaws on my finger. But if the gimp
snell gave way, how under the sun did you ever get him aboard, Jack?"
"I'll tell you," came the calm reply. "It happened that I had to play
this old pirate for nearly twenty minutes before I could tire him out.
You'd have laughed to see how he towed my little punkin-seed of a boat
around. But finally he seemed all but exhausted, and I kept reeling in
until I had him right up close, where I could bend over and touch him
with my hand."
"Wow! you couldn't hire me to do that now," exclaimed Nick, shuddering
as he gazed at that array of sharp, vicious looking teeth.
"I could see right then and there," Jack continued, quietly, "that the
gimp had been twisted until it was ready to break away. So I knew I
didn't dare try to lift him aboard by the line; and I had no gaff hook
along. So I just let my hand slide over his back until I reached his
opening and closing gills. Then I suddenly inserted several of my
fingers, and gave a quick fling. He came aboard all right; but the line
parted. So you see, Nick, it was a close shave for our supper, all
right."
Josh, having made sure the fierce-looking fish was actually dead, by
pounding it on the head several times with a piece of wood, started to
get it ready for the pan. It was really the first one of decent size
that they had thus far hooked; though several meals had been made of
small-mouth black bass, taken either by casting, or trolling with a
spoon.
"It strikes me as rather queer," remarked Jack, as he lay there resting,
"while Jimmie was starting to get supper for the two aboard the _Tramp_,
that so far we've neither seen nor heard a thing of Clarence and Joe."
"And haven't we had a great old week of it though?" George remarked.
"Outside of one stormy day the weather has been just prime; and even my
engine has given no trouble. I'm beginning to have hopes that it's
entirely cured of those tantrums that used to bother me so. Or perhaps
the Jonah has shifted to your boat, Herb."
"That ain't fair," called out Nick, from some unseen place, where he was
wrestling with the cookery department, and slyly taking peeps in his
notebook as to whether salt pork was used in frying fish, or butter.
"Tell the gentleman, Herb, that I never brought you the least bit of bad
luck. Why, we've been getting along here in a perfectly harmonious way,
haven't we?"
"Y--yes, I guess so," replied Herb, a little dubiously, "but I'd be a
heap happier if only you could forget that business about who leaked,
and let out our secret to the enemy. You ding-dong about that thing
morning, noon and night. And then you turn around to Mr. Amos, and fret
your head off because you're afraid some day you're going to be as much
of a whopper as he is."
"Well," grunted Nick, without even taking the trouble to poke his head
out, "you know right well this is a world full of trouble, fellows. If
it wasn't for my worrying the way I do, just imagine how I'd be taking
on flesh. I say, Josh, do you put the salt pork on first, and try it
out, before dusting the fish in cracker crumbs and dropping it in the
frying pan?"
It was not long before the appetizing odors that arose around the
anchorage of the motor boat fleet announced that supper was well under
way.
One thing pleased Nick; being the cook aboard the _Comfort_ he was in a
position to prepare a sufficient quantity to suit his generous ideas of
what constituted a meal for a healthy person's appetite; and
consequently there was no complaint about short rations. But when, as
was inevitably the case, the _Comfort_ had to borrow from the other
boats, the powerful effect of the fat boy's appetite became very
apparent.
"Say, Jack, did you have any particular reason in picking out this place
for our next stop?" asked George presently.
"Why, yes, lots of them," laughed the one addressed. "In the first place
it was an extra big island, and situated near the Canadian shore, you
see. Then again, the place looked kind of fishy, don't you know; and I
had an idea we might pick up some large muskies. From the fact that I
did bring in a dandy, first start, it seems as if my guess hit the
mark."
"It sure did," George went on. "But you don't know anything out of the
way about this heavily wooded island here, do you?"
"To be sure I don't, since I couldn't tell you right now what name it is
known under," answered Jack, who knew the other had some object back of
his questions, for George always led up to things, and never took
delight in springing a surprise on his chums, as most of the others
would invariably do.
"I just wondered if you could know any reason for it, that's all,"
George said.
"Reason for what? Now you've got me guessing; and that's probably just
what you wanted to do," observed Jack. "Speak up, and tell me what
you've noticed."
"Well, we seem to be objects of considerable curiosity to some people."
"Ashore, do you mean?" and Jack turned his head, to glance at the
frowning bank of the big island, the grim rocks of which were crowned
with a dense growth of trees and underbrush, so that it certainly looked
rather mysterious as the sun began to set.
"Well, no, I don't believe any of us have seen a living thing there,
except a coon, fishing on the edge; and a kingfisher flying from stump
to stump along the rim of the water. But three separate times a boat has
come along just out there, and the people in her would just stare at us
without saying a single word."
"Three, you say--the same boat and the same people?" Jack asked.
"Not at all," George replied. "That would not have seemed so queer, you
know; for I could believe that they happened to have an interest in this
cove, and disliked seeing us stop here; or else that the Canadian
authorities thought Yankees had no right to be fishing over on their
side of the broad river. It was the same boat."
"Three different boats, eh?" Jack mused. "And they looked unhappy at
seeing our fleet quartered here?"
"I thought they looked mad," Josh put in right then, popping his head up
like a jack-in-the-box; for he still persisted in wearing that white cap
while engaged in his department of the pots and pans.
"Were there any women or children aboard the boats?" Jack continued.
"How about that, fellows?" asked George.
"One boat had two men, another three, and the last one five," Herb
remarked, in his positive way.
"And they all stood off some distance, just looking at us. Perhaps there
are thieves in these waters, just as we found down on the Mississippi,"
Josh added.
"Maybe we'd better change our anchorage after supper, and hunt a new
place. There's going to be a bully moon tonight, fellows," from Nick,
still unseen.
"Oh! I don't think there's any call for us to run away--yet," Jack
laughed. "No doubt the men were from the Canada side, and there was some
reason why they looked at our little fleet so queerly."
"Well," Josh said, as if he had been worried more or less about the
matter, "I only hope one thing; that this blessed old island ain't
haunted, that's all!"
Jack laughed at that, it put such a new aspect on affairs. At the same
time he could not help thinking that superstitious Josh certainly had
some ground for allowing such an idea to seize hold of his mind; for the
island, with its dense vegetation, and its rough shore line, did look
out of the common. No doubt, when night dropped her blanket over the
broad river with its myriad of islands, both large and small, this
spooky place could easily be believed to shelter uncanny things.
"Don't give yourself any more uneasiness on that score, Josh," Jack
urged. "If there ever was a ghost anywhere near this place it took wings
long ago, when the thousands of summer tourists began coming here for
their vacations. What with the big hotels, and the hundreds of cottages
perched on the islands, small chance a poor spirit would have today."
While he said nothing more about the three boats with their unfriendly
crews, Jack did not entirely forget them. Perhaps there might have been
some deep reason for the strange actions of these men. Perhaps--but
then, without any foundation for a theory, what was the use bothering
himself forming any such?
The night came on; but even while they were eating supper a change had
begun to take place in the weather conditions. Nick's prediction of a
beautiful moonlight night gave promise of being far from the actual
fact; for clouds had drifted over the heavens, some of them dark and
threatening, though as yet broken.
"We may get a storm before morning," observed George, looking up.
"And I wager Jack foresaw that same thing when he picked out this cove
for our anchorage," declared Herb. "You notice that it is to the
eastward of the island; and don't you see about all the storms up here
come out of the west. In that way we will be protected against a heavy
blow."
Jack might have kept still, and allowed his chums to heap honors on his
unworthy head; but that was not his style.
"Hold on, you're doing me too much credit, boys," he observed frankly.
"I took to this cove just because it looked good to me, and never for a
minute thinking how it would serve us in case of a blow. But just as
Herb says, we are protected here, and that's another reason for not
changing, as Nick hinted we should do."
They ate supper before the dusk turned into night, and the whippoorwills
were calling from back on the wooded island, to be answered from the
further Canada shore.
The three boats were close enough together to allow the boys a chance to
exchange any remarks they wished.
"Better get ready in case we have a downpour tonight," remarked Jack, as
he cast a look upward to where the moon was just starting to peep out
from behind a threatening bank of clouds.
"For one I'm glad I got that hole in my tent mended in time," observed
Herb.
"Me too," spoke up Buster, "because, you see, it was so nicely fixed
right over my poor head. Think of a stream turned on while you slept!
Ugh! when I take my cold baths I'll choose my time."
"I've known when you didn't all the same," ventured George, chuckling.
"That's mean of you," Buster replied, reproachfully, "bringing up old
happenings. Yes, I did fall overboard into the river; but who wouldn't,
in that cranky speedy boat of yours, shivering and jumping to beat the
band. Why, hello! what ails Josh there?"
"Yes, what are you staring so hard at, Josh?" demanded George, turning
his head.
"Didn't any of the rest of you see it?" asked the other, eagerly.
"See what? Are you beginning on that ghost racket already?" insinuated
Herb.
"Ghost nothing," exclaimed Josh; "and yet truth to tell it did glide out
of sight behind the point yonder like a phantom boat. Then the moon went
under, and I lost it again!"