NOT SO GREEN AS HE LOOKED
The only reason that Bumpus did not call out help! was because the rough
gag, consisting of a cloth tied about the lower part of his face,
prevented him from saying a single word.
It was a sight that staggered the other scouts, although at the same
time they felt considerable satisfaction at finding their lost churn so
speedily, and thus learning that he had not come to very serious harm.
There was an immediate rush made inside the shack, each seeming desirous
of being the first to render Bumpus assistance. All but the scoutmaster
entered in this promiscuous way, and Thad was too wise a bird to be
caught with chaff. What if this should be some sort of a trap, into
which the rest of the boys were rushing headlong? He did not stop to
consider how they might be caught, but made up his mind that it was
policy on his part to stand guard there at the door.
There were more than enough hands to free the prisoner, and he would not
be missed in that way. So Thad, handling his ready gun suggestively,
and keeping a keen lookout for signs of trouble, stood there, waiting
for the rest to come out.
Amidst more or less confusion Bumpus was unbound, after that gag had
been removed from his mouth. The first thing he did was to breathe
heavily, as though during his confinement he had not been able to get
his wind as freely as he liked. Then, when he could get on his feet
with the help of Step Hen and Giraffe, he stamped on the cloth that had
done duty as a preventative of speech.
"Oh! what haven't I suffered, having that measly old thing under my nose
for ages, and this smell of fish everywhere around me!" he exclaimed, as
though fairly bursting with indignation. "How long have I been shut up
here, anyway, fellows? Seems like days and weeks must a passed since
they took me. I kinder lost my senses I reckon, after that chap dropped
on top of me, like the mountain was acoming down. Please tell me what
day of the week this is?"
At this the others looked puzzled.
"Why, you sure must be locoed, Bumpus, to get so twisted as that!"
declared Giraffe.
"I should say he was!" echoed Davy.
"Why, this is the same morning after the storm, don't you know, Bumpus,
really and truly it is," Step Hen went on to assert, with a ring of pity
in his voice. "And, say, did you think it was to-morrow, or the next
day, and we'd just about forgotten we had a chum who was missing? Well,
if this don't take the cake, I never heard the beat of it."
"Fetch him outside so I can ask a few questions!" called Thad just then.
"Yes, for goodness sake get me where I can have a whiff of clean air;
I'm nearly dead with this fishy smell. I always did hate to handle fish
after they got over their jumping stage, and this is awful!" Bumpus
wailed.
"It certain is," muttered Giraffe, holding his fingers up to his nose.
So they all bustled out of the door, where they found the scout-master
on duty; and all at once it struck the other fellows how smart Thad had
been in holding back at the time the rush was made to free Bumpus.
"Oh! this is a thousand per cent better!" the late prisoner declared,
with genuine thanksgiving in his tones, as he fairly reveled in the
clear air that had been purified by the recent blow.
"I heard you asking what day this was, and from that we understand that
you must have lost your senses for a while, and got mixed up?" Thad
remarked.
"That's what happened, Thad," replied the other, promptly enough.
"Well, it's not only the same morning after the storm," continued the
other, "but just about an hour after you went off to hunt for your belt.
I see you found the same, and that they made good use of it to fasten
your arms behind your back."
Bumpus looked astonished, as though what he heard was hard to believe;
for he shook his head slowly, and observed:
"Tell me about that, will you? Well, sir, that was the longest hour
that ever happened to me in all my life!"
"Hold on!" corrected Giraffe, "you're forgetting that time you tripped
in the dark, and fell over a precipice a thousand feet deep, and hung
there from the top, yelling for help. We came galloping to the spot,
and rescued you, about as limp as a dish-rag; and you told us how you'd
suffered such agonies that you lived ten years, and wanted to know if
your hair had turned white. But when we held the light over the top of
that awful precipice, and showed you that the ground was just about six
inches below your toes as you dangled there, why, you made out that it
was all a good joke, and that anyhow you'd given the rest of us a bad
scare."
Bumpus grinned, as though the recollection rather amused him now.
"But this time it was different, Giraffe, because they wanted me to
tell, and I just wouldn't. Then the big man who was leader, gave me a
knock on the head, he was so mad at me, and I keeled over a second time.
That's when I thought days had passed, when I heard you fellows talking
outside, and after that an earthquake came knocking down the door. My!
but I was glad to see the bunch come piling in, you can take it from me.
Never will forget it, I give you my word, boys!"
"But see here, Bumpus," said Thad, "what do you mean when you say you
refused to tell? Of course all of us know how stubborn you can be, when
you take a notion; but what could these men want to get out of you that
you'd refuse to let go? Not any information about us, I should think?"
"Well, hardly," replied the other. "You see, they had me tied up, and
that horrible fishy rag fastened around my mouth so I couldn't talk; but
the fellow that could speak United States bettern'n either of the others
told me to nod my head if I promised to show 'em where I'd hid it; but
every time I shook it this way," and he proceeded to give an emphatic
demonstration of what a negative shake might be.
"But what had you hid away that they wanted so badly?" persisted Thad.
Bumpus grinned, and raised one of his eyebrows in a comical manner.
"Oh! that was a little trick of mine," he remarked, composedly. "P'raps
the rest of you'll give me credit for being a mite smart when I tell
you. But in order to make you understand, just wait till I go back to
the time I left camp to look for this belt."
"That's the best way, I should think," agreed Giraffe, who knew from
experience how hard it sometimes proved to drag the details of a story
from Bumpus.
"Oh! I ain't meaning to string it out everlastingly!" declared the
other. "I'm going to be right to the point, see if I don't. Well, after
I picked up my belt I just happened to remember what Thad had told us
about that concealed boat belonging to the queer chaps who were hiding
on this island; and before I knew hardly what I was doing I found myself
aboard the same, nosing around.
"All at once it struck me what a bad job for us it'd be if they took a
notion to skip out after the wind and waves went down, and left us here
by our lonely. So I made up a cute little plan calculated to block that
game right in the start. What did I do? Just unfastened the crank they
used to start the engine agoing and hid the same under my coat. I was
meaning to fetch it to our camp, so we could make terms with the men,
when I thought I saw somebody slip around a tree and, on the impulse of
the moment, as they say in the books, I just let that handle drop into
the hollow of a stump I happened to be passing."
"Good for you, Bumpus!" exclaimed Giraffe, patting the other on the
shoulder.
"Well, it wasn't so very good for me in one way," the fat scout
remarked, with one hand tenderly caressing a bump he seemed to have on
his head; "because that same little trick got a fellow of my size in
heaps of trouble right away. But you know how I hate to give a thing
up, boys; and once I'd done this job I was bent on holding out to the
bitter end.
"Well, to make a long story short, the next thing I knew I didn't know
anything, because that big clodhopper came down from a tree right on top
of me, and one of his shoes must a struck me on the head right here, for
it hurts like the mischief.
"When I came to my senses I was fixed up like you saw, and inside this
old fish house. Honest boys, first thing, before I got a good look
around, I thought I had died, and was amouldering in my grave. The
three men were hanging over me, ajabbering like so many monkeys or poll
parrots. Then the big fellow with the black beard began to throw all
sorts of questions at me, which I managed to understand.
"Seems like they had gone to the boat after leaving me here, p'raps
meaning to take chances out on the lake, waves or no waves, because they
thought if they stayed any longer they were agoing to be gobbled by the
soldiers, sure pop. And then they missed that old crank. Course they
knowed I'd been pottering around their boat, and they wanted to find out
what I did with the handle, because it happens you can't start that
engine like some I've seen, in an emergency, without the crank.
"We had it pretty warm back and forth for a session, him a firing
questions at me, sometimes in French, and again in mixed English; and me
a shaking my head right and left to tell him I wouldn't give up the
information, not if he kept going for a coon's age. And sudden like, he
got so fiery mad he just slapped me over the head, and I admit I lost
all interest in things on this same earth till I came to, and heard
voices outside that seemed familiar like. You know the rest, boys; now
let's get away from this place in a hurry. I'll taste rank fish for a
month of Sundays, sure I will. Ugh!"
"Wait, don't be in such a hurry, Bumpus," said Thad. "First of all I
want to say that you've done a smart thing, even if it was reckless;
because with that boat in our hands we can really leave Sturgeon Island
any time we want, once the lake quiets down some. And on the way back
to camp we'll just pick up that crank, after which all we have to do is
to make sure these three frightened men don't jump in on us, and take us
by surprise. But while we're here we ought to see what they've got that
makes them want to avoid the officers who patrol the lakes looking for
smugglers, game-fish poachers and the like."
"Give me the gun then, Thad," said Allan, promptly, as he saw the other
glance toward him; "and I'll stay out here on guard while some of the
rest investigate."
"Thanks, that pleases me," replied the scout-master, relinquishing the
weapon that had proved to be worth its weight in silver to them, in that
it cowed the trio of lawless men who had their headquarters on Sturgeon
Island.