STILL FLOUNDERING IN THE MIRE
"Whee!"
It was, of course, Bobolink who gave utterance to this characteristic
exclamation.
Like most of the others, he had been so stunned by the message
read by Paul, that for the moment he failed to find words to
express his feelings.
An aeroplane had passed over the camp! And heading south, which would
take it toward the quarter where Stanhope lay!
Here they had thought themselves so far removed from civilization that
the only persons within a range of miles might be set down as a wild man
and some lawless counterfeiters, who had chosen this region because of
its inaccessibility.
And now they had learned that one of the latest inventions of the day had
been moving above the island, with the pilot actually looking down on the
camp, and so discovering the fact of the Boy Scouts having returned after
their banishment from the place.
No wonder they all stared at each other, and that speech was denied them
for a time.
Jack was the first to speak. He had read the message, being nearly as
good a signalman as Paul or Jud.
"Things seem to be picking up at a pretty lively clip for us; eh,
fellows?" was the way he put it.
"Picking up?" gasped Bobolink; "Seems to me they're getting to the red
hot stage about as fast as they can. An aeroplane! And up here on our
desert island at that, which folks said was given over to spooks and
wild men! That _is_ the limit, sure! Hold me, somebody; I think I'm
going to faint!"
But as nobody made any movement in that direction, Bobolink
changed his mind.
"Let's look into this thing a little closer, fellows," said Paul, always
prompt to set an investigation going.
"That's what!" echoed Bluff, surprising himself by not stammering a
particle, even though he was still quivering with excitement.
"Jud says an aeroplane passed over the camp; but he didn't tell whether
it rose from the island or not, though the chances are that it did," Paul
continued.
"Why do you say that as if you felt sure?" demanded Tom Betts.
"Yes," put in Phil, eagerly, "you've got on to something, Paul; give us
a chance to grab it, too, please."
"Sure I will," complied the scout master, cheerfully. "And I'm only
surprised that one of you, always so quick to see such things, hasn't
jumped on to this little game as soon as I have. Look back a short time,
and you'll remember how we were scratching our heads over the tracks of
wheels down in that big opening!"
"Wheels!" exclaimed Bobolink, with fresh excitement. "Well, I should say
yes; and looks to me like we had 'em in our heads too, where the brains
ought to be. Wheels, yes, and rubber-tired wheels too! Remember how they
seemed to run up and down a regular track, and just went so far, when
they gave out? Whoop! why, it's as easy as two and two make four. Anybody
ought to have guessed that."
"Huh!" remarked Tom Betts, scornfully; "that's what they said, you
recollect, when Columbus discovered America. After you know, everything
looks easy. In my mind Paul goes up head. He's in a class by himself."
"And that forge might have been used, among other things, for doing all
sorts of mending metal pieces connected with an aeroplane," Paul went on,
smiling at Tom's tribute of praise.
"Not forgetting these sort of things," Bobolink observed, positively,
as he took out a pair of bright new quarters, and jingled them
musically in his hand.
"Well, we haven't had any reason to change our minds about that
thing,--yet," said Paul. "But what strikes me as the queerest of all is
the fact that while we must have been pretty close by when that aeroplane
went up, how was it none of us heard the throbbing of the engine?"
They looked at each other in bewilderment. Paul's query had opened up a
vast field of conjecture. One and all shook their heads.
"I pass," declared Tom.
"Me too," added Phil.
"Must 'a got some new kind of motor aboard that is silent,"
suggested Jack.
"J-j-just a-goin' to s-s-say that, when Jack t-t-took the w-w-words out
of m-m-my m-m-mouth," Bluff exploded.
"No trouble doin' that, Bluff," laughed Bobolink. "If that aeroplane did
climb up out of that field, while we pushed through the heavy timber, and
none of us heard a thing, let me tell you, boys, they've got a
cracker-jack of a motor, that's what!"
"But arrah! would ye be thinkin' that a lot of bog-trottin'
counterfeiters'd be havin' a rale aeroplane?" burst out Andy Flinn, who
had up to now been unable to give any expression to his feelings.
"I'd say these fellers must be a pretty tony lot, that's all,"
Bobolink declared.
"Whatever do you suppose they use such a machine for?" asked Tom.
Again all eyes were turned upon Paul, as the oracle of the group of
wondering scouts. He shrugged his shoulders, as if he thought he had as
much right as any of the others to admit that he was puzzled.
"Well, we'd have to make a stab at guessing that," he observed. "Any one
thing of half a dozen might be the truth. An aeroplane could be used for
carrying the stuff they make up here to a distant market. Then again, it
might be only a sort of plaything, or hobby, of the chief money-maker;
something he amuses himself with, to take his mind off business. All men
have hobbies--fishing, hunting, horse racing, golf--why couldn't this
chap take to flying for his fun?"
"That sounds good to me," declared Bobolink; "anyhow, we know he must be
a kind of high-flier."
"Seems like our mystery bulges bigger than ever," remarked Phil,
frowning.
"It does, for a fact," admitted Tom; "instead of finding out things,
we're getting deeper in the mud all the time."
"Oh! I don't know," Paul said, musingly; and although the rest instantly
turned upon him, fully expecting that the scout master would have some
sort of communication to make, he did not think it worth while, at that
time, to explain what he meant.
"Say, I wonder, now, if we could see anything of those fellows from up
here?" remarked Bobolink, suddenly.
"That's so," echoed Phil, perceiving what the other intended to convey;
"we can see the whole of the island now; and if they're camped somewhere
on the north end, perhaps we might get a glimpse of canvas."
"What makes you think these men have their headquarters on the north end,
rather than anywhere else?" asked Paul, quickly.
"Why, when we got up here, I noticed that smoke was climbing up over
there; and smoke means a fire; which also tells that some person must be
around to look after it," replied Phil, promptly.
"Pretty good reasoning," said Paul, nodding his head toward Phil; for if
anything gave him pleasure as scout master of the troop, it was to see a
boy using his head.
All now looked over the crown of the hill, toward the upper end of the
island. The first thing they saw, of course, was the thin column of
smoke which Phil had mentioned. Then Bobolink burst out with:
"And you were right, Paul, when you said that the chances were the island
was close to the north side of the lake, so animals could swim across.
Why, only a narrow streak of water separates 'em there, sure enough."
"Oh! that was only a guess on my part," Paul confessed. "I saw about how
far away the mainland trended up there, and supposed that our island must
run near it in places. I'm pleased to see that I hit the mark, for once
at least, in this mixed-up mess."
Paul was evidently more or less provoked because he had been unable to
understand many of the strange things that had happened since their
arrival on Cedar Island. And the others knew that he was taking himself
to task because of his dullness; but what of them, if the scout master
needed to be wakened up--where did they come in?
"I can't be sure about it," observed Phil, who had been looking intently
at one particular spot; "but it seems as if I could make out the roof of
a shed of some kind, over yonder, close to where the smoke rises."
This set them all to looking again. Andy, who had very good eyes,
declared he could make it out, and that it was a roof of some kind; one
or two of the others, after their attention had been called to the spot,
also admitted that it did look a little that way, though they could not
say for a certainty.
"Anyhow, I reckon that's where these men live," Paul declared; "and now
the question is, are we going to turn back here; or keep right on
exploring this queer old Cedar Island?"
Bobolink, who was busy cutting his initials in the bark of the big cedar
that topped the squatty hill, spoke first of all; for being an impetuous
fellow, he seldom thought twice before airing his opinions.
"Me to push right on," he said. "What difference does it make to us that
some other fellows chance to be camping on the same island? It's free to
all. We aren't going to bother them one whit, if only they leave us
alone. But they began wrong, you see, when they told us to get off the
earth. That riled me. I never did like to be sat on by anybody. It just
seems like something inside gets to workin' overtime, and all my badness
begins to rise up, like mom's yeast in a batch of dough. Count my vote to
go on ahead, Paul."
"Well, who's next?" asked the scout master "and remember, that when
it comes to a matter like this, I always try and do what the
majority wants."
"I'm willing to do what the rest say," came from Jack.
"Go right on, and make a clean job of it," said Tom Betts, grimly.
"S-s-same here!" jerked out Bluff.
"That spakes my mind to a dot, so it do," Andy followed.
Paul threw up his hand.
"Enough said; that makes four in favor already, and settles the matter. I
won't tell you which way I would have voted, because the thing's been
taken from my hands. And besides, I would only have considered your
welfare in making my decision, and not my own desire."
"Which manes he would have said yis for himsilf, and no for the rist of
us," declared the Irish boy, exultantly; "so it's glad I am we've made up
our minds to go on. Whin do we shtart, Paul, darlint?"
"Right away," replied the one addressed. "There's no use staying any
longer up here, unless you think I'd better get Jud again, and wigwag him
all that we've learned up to now."
"It'll keep," said Phil, hastily, for he wanted to see the faces of those
other scouts when the several astonishing pieces of news were told;
especially about the finding of the real wild man asleep, the discovery
of the field forge in the open glade and the picking up of the two silver
quarters, which last he felt sure would give them all a surprise.
"A11 right!" the scout master announced, "I think pretty much the same
way; and besides, it would take a long while sending all that news.
But perhaps I ought to let the boys know we're going on further; and
that they needn't expect us much before the middle of the afternoon.
That'll give us plenty of time to roam around, and perhaps come back
another way."
So he started once more to catch the attention of Jud, perched high up in
that tree above the sink near the lower end of the island, where he could
have an uninterrupted view of the cedar on the top of the hill.
Then there was a fluttering of the signal flag and briefly the scout
master informed the other as to what their intentions were.
"That job's done," Paul remarked, presently, when Jud replied with a
gesture that implied his understanding the message; "and now to move
down-hill again. We're taking some big chances in what we're expecting to
do, fellows, and I only hope it won't prove a mistake. Come along!"