WHERE WAS BUMPUS
"Huh? I don't all speak at once, please. Seems like my splendid idea
ain't made a hit like I expected it would. What ails you all?" Giraffe
demanded, after a dead silence had fallen upon the little party, instead
of the quick response he had hoped for.
"We're waiting to hear from Thad," explained Step Hen, as though he
might himself be "up in the air," or, as he would himself have said,
"straddling the fence," not knowing whether to scoff at the other's
scheme, or give it his unqualified approval.
"Well, I wanted to figure it over in my own mind first," remarked the
scout-master, slowly. "It has some good points, Giraffe, but we'll have
to get good and hungry before we start to holding up other people and
demanding that they supply our wants, even if they are only fish
poachers."
"Then you don't think we had ought to rush the cabin, as yet?" asked the
other in a disappointed lone.
"Wait awhile; and see what turns up," Thad told him.
"But what could come along to give us a meal around noon?" Giraffe
flashed up, always thinking of the main chance, which meant looking
after the demands of that voracious appetite.
"Oh! lots of things," laughed Thad. "You know yourself it's the
unexpected that keeps happening with us right along. Many a time in the
past we didn't have any idea of what was going to stir us up, till it
came along. Just now it strikes me all of us ought to stick together,
and not go wandering around by ourselves."
"Bumpus ought to be here to get that advice, then," remarked Davy.
At that Thad turned upon the other scout.
"Why, I hadn't noticed that he was away," he said, hastily, and frowning
at the same time; "when and where did he go, can you tell me that, Davy,
since you seem to be the only one who knows about his being gone?"
"Why, you see, Thad," began the other, looking a trifle alarmed himself
now, "he just remembered after we'd had our breakfast, you know, that he
must have dropped his belt somewhere; and as he remembered having the
same after he came out of the water, he said he expected he'd be able to
pick it up between here and that place; so he strolled off. Why, I
never thought but what some of the rest of you saw him go; and because
nobody said a word I 'spected it was all right."
"How long ago was that, did you say, Davy?" Thad asked.
"Why, just after Giraffe here cleaned out the last piece of bacon in the
pan, as he said it was silly to waste even little things; and, after
all, he wasted it in a hurry, too, let me tell you," Davy proceeded to
say.
"Why, I think that must have been nearly twenty-five minutes ago!"
exclaimed Step Hen, in some excitement, as he cast an anxious look away
across the rocks and brush that interfered somewhat with their view of
the route Bumpus would be apt to take on his way toward their landing
place.
Thad jumped to his feet.
"This must be looked into!" he said, decisively.
"You're going off to hunt for him, I take it?" observed Giraffe; "how
about not getting separated, like you just told us? Ain't it going from
bad to worse, Thad, if so be you rush out by yourself and leave us
here?"
"Yes," added Davy, quickly, "if they're alooking around for chances to
gobble us up, one by one, first it'd be Bumpus, then our scout-master,
and then another of the bunch, till we all got caught. Thad, hadn't we
ought to go along with you--"
"Just what I would have proposed, if you'd let me speak," the other
assured them readily enough; "so get, ready now, and we'll start off."
"But how about all our stuff here; shall we leave it behind?" questioned
Davy.
"Oh! I hope not," remarked Step Hen; "I've got somewhat attached to that
blanket of mine, you know."
"Yes, we've noticed that lots of times, when you hated to get up in the
morning," chuckled Giraffe.
"But how about it, Thad; do we leave 'em here, and run the chance of
getting the same took; or shall we take the stuff along with us?"
"I don't believe these men will bother with such small things as
blankets and cooking things; if we had a supply of eatables it might be
a different matter; but we happen to be shy along that line. Yes,
bundle them up, and hide them 'as best you can. We may be in for a
fight, for all we know, and in that case we'd want the freedom of our
arms to work those clubs."
"Sounds like business, anyway!" muttered Giraffe, as he started in to do
as the scout-master recommended; for obedience is one of the first
principles laid down in the rules by which Boy Scout are guided when
they subscribe to the regulations of the troop they have joined.
They were soon ready.
As the five lads went forth they presented quite a formidable appearance
indeed, what with the gun, the camp hatchet, the long bread knife, and a
pair of clubs thick enough to give a fellow a nasty headache if ever
they were brought in contact with his cranium.
"First of all, it's only right we should give a hail; and if Bumpus is
wandering around somewhere he may answer us; and then we can wait for
him to come in. I see he's left his bugle with his blanket here; pick
it up somebody and give the recall, if anybody knows how."
"Trust that to me!" exclaimed Davy; and snatching up the nickeled
instrument he placed it to his lips, immediately sending forth the
strident sounds that have done duty on many a battlefield.
No sooner had the last note pealed forth than every boy listened
eagerly; but there was no reply.
"Sure he could have heard that, even if he was at the other end of the
island," remarked Davy, ready to try again if the scout-master told him
to do so.
"And Bumpus has got a good pair of lungs, so he'd be able to let us know
he was on to the job, if he had the use of his mouth!" remarked Giraffe,
darkly.
"But you don't hear even a peep, do you, fellows?" remarked Step Hen.
"Come on, and fetch that bugle with you, Davy," said Thad; "we might
need it again later, you know. I wonder, now, what the poachers will
think when they hear a bugle sound? If they don't know anything about
the Scouts, they'll think more than ever that we belong to the Canadian
militia."
Thad could understand just what course Bumpus was likely to take in
passing along the rough surface of the ground between their landing
place and the spot where they had found the friendly ledge.
That was the way he expected to go also, keeping constantly on the
lookout for any sign calculated to tell him if the fat scout had fallen
into difficulties.
It led them down near the edge of the water, too; and this gave Thad a
sudden bad feeling. Could it be possible that Bumpus, who was always a
clumsy fellow at best, owing to his great bulk, had tripped, and taken a
nasty fall, so that his head had struck some cruel rock?
He would not say anything to the rest just now upon that score; but all
the same it troubled him not a little as he wandered along, keeping on
the alert for just such a trap, into which the missing scout may have
fallen.
All at once Thad stopped, and the others saw a peculiar look cross his
face. It seemed to tell them that their guide had conceived an idea.
"Guessed where he's gone, have you, Thad?" inquired Giraffe, quickly.
"Well, no, hardly that," was the reply; "but I ought to tell you that
right now we're close to that clump of brush that hides the little rock
hollow where they've got their boat hidden."
"Oh! mebbe Bumpus he went and took a look in there, just the same as you
did, and discovered the boat, too!" remarked Step Hen.
"Well, what if he did, would that explain his absence one little bit?"
demanded Davy. "You don't think, now, I hope, our chum is such an idiot
that he'd start to take a little cruise out there on that rough water
all by himself? Bumpus ain't quite so much in love with sailing as all
that, let me tell you right now."
In another minute they were looking at the boat that lay concealed in
among the rocks and brush. Thad even jumped down, and passed into its
cabin; while the others listened, and waited with their hearts
apparently ready to jump up into their throats, lest they caught sounds
of a conflict.
But presently the scout-master again appeared, and joined them.
"Not there, then?" asked Giraffe, in a disappointed tone.
"No, but I saw the print of his shoe on the seat of the boat, which
shows Bumpus did climb down here; but it was heading outward, so it
seems he came up again. Now to look a little further, and find out if
he went on toward the spot where we came to land."
They started off, leaving the vicinity of the fish poachers' hidden
boat. For a couple of minutes, Thad seemed to be having little or no
trouble in following the marks which Bumpus had left behind him; for the
fat scout never so much as dreamed that there was such a thing as
covering his trail; nor would he have known of any reason for doing
anything like this had he been so far up in woodcraft.
"Hold up!" they heard Thad say, suddenly, as he bent over more than he
had been doing up to now.
All of the others waited anxiously to hear what the scout-master
believed he had discovered, for they could see him moving this way and
that. Finally Thad looked up, to disclose a frown upon his usually calm
brow.
"Well, would you, believe it," he went on to say, as free from anger as
he possibly could bring himself to speak, "they've gone and done it,
after all."
"What, Thad?" asked Giraffe, who had been actually holding his breath
the while.
"Jumped on our chum right here, and made him a prisoner," came the
staggering reply; "I reckon they must have done something rough to him,
or we'd have heard him make some kind of an outcry; but they got Bumpus,
all right, boys!"