"HOLD THE FORT!"
As a rule it did not take these boys long to decide upon their course of
action. And in the present instance they had so little choice that
unusually prompt results might be expected.
"We'd better tell the other fellows, to begin with?" ventured Allan.
"Yes," remarked the scout-master, promptly, "it wouldn't be fair to keep
things like this from the boys. They're just as much interested in how
it turns out as we are. And, besides, we may get a bright idea from
somebody."
"You never can tell," added Allan; and some of those same other scouts
might not have felt complimented could they have heard him say these
words, as they seemed to imply that miracles did sometimes happen, when
you were least expecting them.
But having made up their minds on this score the pair walked over to the
camp under that friendly ledge.
Upon their arrival every eye was immediately glued upon Thad. It seemed
as though Giraffe, Bumpus, Davy and Step Hen must have guessed that the
scout-master had made some sort of exciting discovery, and now meant to
take them into his confidence.
Complete silence greeted the arrival of the two who had been conferring
so mysteriously near by. Of course, once Thad broke the ice, and
started to tell what he had discovered, this was apt to give way to a
bombardment of questions; for Giraffe and Bumpus could think up the
greatest lot of "wants" imaginable; so that it would keep Thad busy
explaining, until their ammunition ran out, or he had to throw up his
hands in surrender through sheer exhaustion.
He started in to explain what he had seen, and done, as soon as he
dropped down beside his comrades of the Silver Fox Patrol. Immediately
he had the attention of every one enlisted. Bumpus sat there, watching
and listening with such intentness that you would hardly believe he
breathed at all. Step Hen, too, was following every word spoken by the
scout-master, as though trying to grasp the seriousness of the
situation, and figure out a way to circumvent the danger that had arisen
so unexpectedly in their path. And the other two could not be said to be
far behind in the interest they betrayed.
As we have already heard Thad tell Allan about his first, seeing the man
who was spying upon the camp; and later on how he came to find the
hidden boat, as well as the concealed cabin, there is no necessity for
us to follow the scout-master while he imparts this information to the
quartette who, having been absent from that interview, had no previous
knowledge of the facts.
By the time he spoke of crawling silently away, and coming back to join
the balance of the patrol, he had his chums worked up to a feverish
pitch of excitement.
"Well," Step Hen was the first to break in with, "anyhow, game-fish
poachers ain't quite so bad as smugglers would have been, and that's one
satisfaction, I take it."
"But they're bad enough," urged Davy; "because they must be breaking the
laws by taking fish in some way that ain't allowed. And if trapped they
stand a chance to face a heavy fine, or a long sentence in jail, perhaps
both. And if, as Thad says, they've got the silly idea in their heads
that we're connected with the Canadian militia, and came here meaning to
destroy their nets, and likewise haul the men over the coals, why,
they'll either skedaddle and leave us marooned on old Sturgeon for
keeps, or else do something worse."
"What sort of worse, Davy?" demanded Bumpus. "There you go again,
saying things in a sort of half-cooked way, and leaving the rest to a
fellow's wild imagination. Do you mean you believe they'd really hurt
us, when we ain't so much as lifted a finger to do the bunch any harm?
Speak out and tell us, now, you old croaker."
"Thad, what do you think they might do?" Davy asked, under the
impression that he would be wise to leave the explanation of the matter
to one who was more capable of handling it than he could possibly be.
"If they were sensible men," remarked the other, deliberately, as though
he had given that particular thought much attention, "I wouldn't be
afraid, because then we could reason with them, and explain that we were
only a party of the Boy Scouts of America, off on a little cruise, and
shipwrecked in the storm; also, that if they helped us in any way we'd
just forget that we'd ever seen them here."
"But explain and tell us what you mean by hinting that they mightn't be
sensible men?" remarked Step Hen.
"Oh! well, that was my way of putting it," Thad went on to say; "I meant
that as near as I could guess they seem to be Canadian half-breeds, for
some of their talk was in a French patois I couldn't just understand.
And I've always heard that those kind of men are mighty hard to handle,
because, like Italians they get furiously excited, and let their
imaginations run away with them, like some other fellows I happen to
know."
"Did you say there, were only three of this bad crowd, Thad?" Giraffe
asked.
"I wouldn't like to say for sure," came the reply, "but as near as I
could make out that would cover the bill."
"Huh! and we count six, all told," continued the tall scout,
indifferently, although Thad imagined he was not feeling so comfortable
as he pretended to be.
"Yes, six boys," the scout-master reminded him.
"But husky boys in the bargain, and accustomed to taking care of
themselves in tight places," Giraffe went on to remark, proudly.
"Besides, ain't we got a gun that shoots twice? That ought to account
for a couple of the rascals; and then what would one poor fish poacher
be against a half dozen lively fellows, tell me that?"
Allan laughed at hearing the boast.
"How easy it is to figure out who's going to win the next championship
in the National League of baseball clubs, while you're sitting around
the stove in the winter time?" he told Giraffe. "But these paper
victories seldom pan out the same way when the good old summer time
comes along, and the boys get hustling. I suppose now, Giraffe, you'll
be the one to knock over those two men, each with a single shot from
your faithful double-barrel. Give him the gun, Step Hen, and let him
start in right away."
Of course that rather startled the tall scout.
"Hold on there, don't be in such a big hurry!" he went on to say,
holding up a hand to persuade Step Hen to keep the firearm a while
longer. "Course now I didn't exactly mean it that way. I never wanted
to shoot a man, that I know of. What I had in my mind, I reckon, was
that one of us could keep a pair of these rascals covered with the
shotgun, and hold 'em steady, while the other five managed the third of
the bunch. See?"
"The trouble is," Thad told them, "none of us know French, and in that
case we mightn't be able to talk with the poachers, even if they gave us
half a chance. They seem to have a bad case of the rattles right now,
and if it wasn't for the storm I really believe they'd get away from
here in a hurry."
"Do we want 'em to go, or stay?" asked Bumpus, as though he could not
settle in his own mind which one of these several openings would be best
for their interests.
"For my part," spoke up Step Hen, "they couldn't clear out any too soon
to make me feel happy. I know what the breed is like, and believe me,
boys, I don't care to make their acquaintance, not me."
"That's all mighty fine, Step Hen," remarked Giraffe, loftily, "but when
you talk that way you don't look far enough ahead."
"Just explain that, will you, and tell me why I don't?" demanded the
other, with some show of indignation.
"Well, suppose now they did jump the island, and give us the merry ha!
ha! what difference would it make to us whether they upset out there on
that stormy lake or not; wouldn't we lose all chance of being ferried
across to the mainland, and so making our escape from this measly
island?"
Step Hen apparently caught the force of this reasoning, for he subsided,
with a sort of discontented grunt.
Davy, however, took up the reasoning at this point.
"But suppose now they wouldn't want to get out in such a hurry? What if
they had a lot of valuable fish nets around somewhere that they hated to
let go? Don't you reckon in that case they might take a notion to try
and bag the lot of us, so's to hold us prisoners till they could decide
what to do with the ones they took to be Government spies?"
Bumpus groaned as he listened to all this terrible talk. His mind was
already on fire with anticipations of what the immediate future might
bring forth. Still, on occasion Bumpus could show considerable valor;
and several times in the past he had astonished his chums by certain
feats which he had engineered.
"It's up to me to think up some way to get us out of this terrible
pickle," he was telling himself, over and over again; but even if any
one of his five comrades heard what he was saying they paid little
attention to it; but the fat scout meant all he said, as the future
proved.
"One thing sure," Giraffe went on to remark, presently, "they know where
our little camp is, because Thad saw that spy watching what we was
adoing here. And if so be they should take a notion to pay us a visit
before morning, why, they wouldn't have any trouble finding us out."
"Not less we made a move," argued Davy.
"And we're too nicely fixed here for that, ain't we?" Giraffe demanded,
as he cast a swift look around to where the various blankets, having
first been dried in the heat of the fire, were now inviting to repose,
each fellow having apparently selected the particular spot where he
meant to sleep, let the wind howl as hard as it wished, for that
projecting rocky ledge would keep any rain from coming in upon them.
"That's right, Giraffe; you know a good thing when you see it!" declared
Bumpus, who did not altogether fancy starting out to seek another camp,
where they would have to lie down in the dark, and take chances of being
caught in a rain, if later on such a change in the character of the
storm came about.
"Then, if Thad says the word, we'll stick right here, and hold the
fort!" the tall scout exclaimed. "In the words of that immortal Scot we
read about, what was his name, Roderick Dhu, I think, who cried: 'Sooner
will this rock fly from its firm base, than I.' Them's our sentiments,
ain't they, fellows?"
"Hear! Hear!" came from Bumpus, as he snuggled down again contentedly,
believing that this disagreeable part of the program at least had been
indefinitely postponed, and that they stood a good chance for staying
out their time under that friendly protecting ledge.