A STRANGE MEETING
"Something is wrong!" cried Snap, leaping up and feeling for his gun.
"What is it, Wags?"
The dog kept on barking and commenced to tug on the cord that held him.
"Shall I let him loose?" asked Whopper. All the boys were now on
their feet, and he and Giant were rubbing their eyes. The wind had
shifted and was blowing the smoke of the smoldering camp fire toward
the tent.
"Don't do it---yet," answered the doctor's son. "He might bite
somebody. Let us go outside first."
"Maybe it's that crazy hermit," suggested Whopper, and gave a little
shiver. He could still see that impish face glaring at him. "Be
careful."
One after another the young hunters stepped into the open, each with
his gun ready for use. Shep stirred up the camp fire and threw on
some lightwood, causing a renewed blaze.
"I don't see anything wrong," said Shep after a long look around.
"See any wild beasts?" asked Giant. "Wags would bark at a wild beast,
I am sure."
"Nothing in sight now."
All walked completely around the tent and the camp fire, but failed
to see anything out of the ordinary. The collie had now ceased
barking and was wagging his tail, apparently as happy and free from
anxiety as ever.
"The dog must have dreamed he heard something," grumbled Whopper.
"Hang the luck! I was so sleepy!" And he yawned broadly, setting
his chums to doing likewise.
"Well, dogs do dream sometimes," admitted the doctor's son. "But
what made him bark so loudly and look so mad?"
Nobody could answer that question, and nobody tried. They took
another look around the tent, fixed the fire again, and at last one
by one retired to rest once more, Wags at the foot of the tent pole
as before.
It was broad daylight when they awoke again, and for a while nobody
felt like stirring. At length Snap looked at his watch.
"Great mackerel!" he ejaculated. "Eight o'clock! Time we were
getting breakfast and moving."
"That's so," answered Shep. "Still, there is no great hurry. Our
time is our own. That's the charm of such an outing as this."
"I think we might stay here to-day," came from Giant. "It will give
us a chance to rest up and to fish. Remember, we won't have much
fishing after we get to the mountains."
"We can get brook trout," answered Whopper. "But just the same I'm
willing to stay here to-day and fish. Maybe we can get some big
maskalonge, same as we did before."
"And if we can't get those we can get some pickerel and bass and
perch," added Giant.
Snap had promised to get breakfast ready, and he set in with a will
as soon as he was dressed. While he was working Giant and Whopper
walked down to a cove, where the boat had been left, to look over
their rods and lines. The doctor's son busied himself with a
camera, determined to take a few pictures before leaving the lake
shore.
Suddenly there came from the cove a hurried shouting that instantly
attracted the attention of Snap and Shep.
"What are they saying?" demanded the doctor's son.
"I don't know---something about the boat," answered Snap, and
dropping the coffee-pot he held he ran toward the lake. Shep
set the camera on a box and followed.
When they arrived at the cove they found Giant and Whopper gazing
up and down and across the water in perplexity. The rowboat, with
the larger portion of their outfit, was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's the boat?" demanded Snap.
"That's what we want to know," answered Giant.
"Didn't you leave it tied up?"
"Certainly I did---to this elderberry bush."
"Well, where is it now
"Don't ask me."
"Did Giant tie the boat?" asked the doctor's son. He had not seen
the craft since the parting at the rapids.
"Yes, I did---and I tied it good and fast, too," answered the small
youth. "Snap saw me do it."
"Yes, I saw him tie it up, but I thought maybe he shifted the boat
afterward."
"No, I left it just as it was tied up."
The boy hunters looked blankly at one another. All gazed up and down
the shore and across the lake.
"Maybe Ham Spink-----" began Snap.
"If he took our boat I'll---I'll kick him full of holes!" cried
Giant. He had not forgotten how Spink and his cronies had annoyed
them in the past.
"I don't see any footprints around here," remarked the doctor's son,
looking over the ground carefully.
"Here's a tree branch broken," said Whopper.
"They might have come in a boat and towed our craft away," suggested
Snap.
"Boys, I know why Wags barked during the night!" cried Giant. "He
heard somebody at the boat."
"Yes, and we didn't know enough to come down here," added Snap
bitterly. "If we had come we could have caught the boat-stealers
redhanded."
A lively discussion followed, but it did nothing toward enlightening
the boy hunters. The one fact remained that the boat and a large
portion of the outfit were gone, and unless the craft could be
recovered their outing would come to a premature finish.
"All I can think of to do is to take our guns and walk up and down
the lake front," said the doctor's son. "Two can go one way, and
two the other. If you see anything, shout or fire a gun."
"Shall we have breakfast first?" asked Snap, "It's started."
"Might as well, since we don't know how long this search will last."
Much disappointed, the chums walked back to the camp fire and there
made a hasty meal of cold partridge, crackers, cheese and coffee.
They left Wags tied to the tent pole.
"Maybe he'll scare off intruders---if any come," said Shep.
It was decided that Snap and Shep should go up the shore and Giant
and Whopper down in the direction of the river leading to Lake
Cameron. All started off briskly, anxious to catch sight of their
craft as speedily as possible, or learn what had become of it.
It was comparatively easy to walk along the shore of Firefly Lake,
and Snap and the doctor's son made good progress. They passed the
camp, receiving a joyous bark from Wags, and then skirted a small
bay leading to a fine, sandy beach.
"Fine spot for a swim," remarked Snap. "We ought to have one
before we go to the mountains."
"Yes; but let us find the boat first."
"Of course."
Half an hour's walking brought the two churns to another bay. They
were walking behind a fringe of bushes, and now the doctor's son
stepped forward, parted the branches and peered eagerly out on the
bosom of the lake.
"Hello!" he cried, with something of joy in his voice.
"Is it the boat?"
"Yes!"
And now Snap came forward.
"There it is, just rounding yonder bend of the shore. Hurry up!
We'll catch the rascal who is running off with it!"
They had seen the craft, piled high with their outfit. A single
person was at the oars---a boy, by his size. He was pulling leisurely.
"Maybe he won't come ashore; and we can't follow him out on the lake,"
said Snap.
"We won't have to follow him."
"But if he won't come in?"
"We'll make him," and the doctor's son raised his shotgun
significantly.
"That's so; I forgot about our guns. Of course he'll come in
if we threaten to shoot him."
The boys quickened their footsteps and soon reached a point opposite
to where the rowboat was moving along.
"Hi, you, stop!" yelled Shep loudly. "Stop, I say!"
At the command the boy in the boat ceased rowing and looked around
curiously.
"Who called?" he asked in a low but distinct voice.
"I did," went on the doctor's son. "Turn in here with that boat
and be quick about it. What do you mean by running off with our
property?"
"Why, I declare!" gasped Snap as he caught a good look at the face
of the lad in the rowboat. "Shep, do you recognize him? He's the
lad from the circus---the young acrobat who ran away!"