THE DISCOVERY
"There's one thing that I think we haven't bothered our heads much about,
Paul," remarked Jack, just before they quitted the vicinity of the big
cedar on top of the hill.
"What?" asked Bobolink, cocking his head on one side to see how well his
initials looked in the bark of the tree from which Cedar Island took its
name; and which would tell later explorers that others had been there
ahead of them.
"Why, it seems to me those clouds down there on the southern horizon have
a look that spells storm," Jack continued.
"Wow! wonder if we will strike another rainy spell?" said Bobolink, so
quickly that none of the others had a chance to get a word in; "that last
one helped us get out of the mud in the canal; if another comes will it
be as accommodatin', or turn on us, and whoop things up, carrying our
tents away over the island, and losing 'em in the swamps beyond there?"
"Oh! say, don't imagine so much, Bobolink," interrupted Phil. "You're
the greatest fellow I ever saw for figuring all sorts of bad things out
long before they ever get a chance to start. What Jack means is, will we
be apt to get caught in the rain, and be soaked?"
"That's the main thing," added Tom Betts, who was rather particular about
how his khaki suit looked on him, for Tom was a bit of a "dresser," as
some of the others, less careful with regard to their looks, called it.
"I've noticed that it's grown pretty close and muggy," Paul went on.
"I should say it had," added Bobolink. "I kept moppin' my face most of
the way up the rise. Thought we'd sure get a fine breeze after reachin'
the top; but nixey, nothing doing. It's as dead as a door nail; or Julius
Caesar ever was. Yes, that spells rain before night, I'd like to risk my
reputation as a weather prophet in saying."
"Still, we go on?" Paul asked.
"Well, we'd be a fine lot of scouts," blurted out Bobolink, "if the
chance of getting our backs wet made us give up a plan we'd decided on."
"Lead the way, Paul; they're bent on finding out something more about
these men. And feeling that way, as Bobolink says, a little rain storm
wouldn't make them change their minds," and Jack, while speaking, started
after the scout master, who had commenced to descend the hill.
They did not immediately turn toward the north side. There seemed no use
in deliberately making their presence known to any one stationed over at
the north end of the island, providing the mysterious men were not
already aware of it.
Paul, when doing his wigwag act, had been careful to keep the crest of
the hill between his flag and that suspicious quarter where the smoke
column was lazily creeping up, as smoke has a habit of doing just before
rain comes.
Of course it might be possible that the man in the aeroplane, after
discovering the tents in the sink, may have made some sort of signal
that would tell his comrades the fact of the scouts having returned in
the night.
Paul wished, now that it was too late, he had thought to ask Jud about
that point. It might be of some benefit to them to know whether the men
were aware of their presence; or rested serene in the belief that they
were the only occupants of the island, besides the wild man.
After the scouts had gone down a little way, Paul began to change his
course. He was now turning toward the north. The trees grew much more
thickly here, and would surely screen them from observation.
The boys had resumed their former habit of observing everything that came
in their way, as true scouts always should. They turned their heads from
right to left and Bobolink even looked back of him more than a few times.
Perhaps he remembered that there was a wild man at large who might take a
notion to awake from his sleep, and, discovering the scout patrol, think
it his business to follow them.
And then, to be sure, they ought to keep in mind the fact concerning that
wild dog that had gone back to the habits of its ancestors, preferring to
live by hunting, rather than take food from the hand of man. It would be
far from pleasant to have old Lion suddenly sneak up on them, and give
them a scare.
But everything seemed peaceful around them. Now and then a bird would fly
out of a thicket, or give a little burst of song from the branch of some
tree. A red-headed woodpecker tapped boisterously on the dead top of a
beech near by, trying hard to arouse the curiosity of the worms that
lived there, so as to cause them to poke out their heads to see who was
so noisy at their front doors; when of course the feathered hammerer
stood ready to gobble them up.
"Oh!" gasped Bobolink, when there was a sudden whirring sound of wings,
and they had a furtive glimpse of something flashing through the
undergrowth near by.
"It's only a partridge; don't be worried!" remarked Phil.
"Sure it was," muttered Bobolink, with scorn; "any fellow with only one
eye'd know that _now_; but all the same, the thing gave me a bad turn,
I'm that keyed up."
"And that's a cotton-tail looking at us over yonder, so don't throw
another fit when he takes a notion to skip out," Phil continued, pointing
with his cudgel to where a rabbit sat, observing the intruders, as though
wondering what business any human beings had coming to the island that
had been left alone so long.
Presently the little animal skipped off a few paces and then stopped
again. As the scouts advanced, it repeated these tactics; indeed, so
tame did it seem that any of them could have easily hit the rabbit with
a stone, had they felt so inclined, which, as scouts, they could not
think of doing.
"Looks like she's got a litter of young ones close by here," said
Bobolink; "and is playing lame just to lead us away from the bunch. I've
seen rabbits do that before now. The cuteness of the thing! Look at her,
would you, just beggin' us to run after, and try to capture her?"
"I've seen a partridge act as if she had a broken wing," Jack remarked,
quietly; "and flutter along the ground in a way that couldn't help but
make one try to catch her; but if you chased after her, it would be to
see the old bird take wing pretty soon, and go off like a rocket."
"Same here," declared Paul; "and going back, I flushed a whole covey of
the prettiest little birds you ever saw. They'd been crouching under a
bush while the old one played lame; just as if she'd told them all about
it. But I heard her calling in the brush later on, and of course she got
them all together again."
"There goes your lame rabbit now, Bobolink; and say, look at the way she
jumps over the ground," remarked Phil, chuckling.
"Not so loud, boys," cautioned the scout master. "These things are all
mighty interesting; but we mustn't forget what we're here for nor yet the
fact that we've got a pretty good hunch there are some men close by who
would be just as mad as hops if they knew we meant to stalk their camp
and spy on them. If you have to say anything, whisper it softly,
remember."
At that they all fell silent. It was true that they had forgotten for the
moment that they were doing scouting work; and under such conditions
talking was not allowed, especially above the lowest tone.
All of them noticed that it was getting very close now, for they had to
use the red bandanna handkerchiefs they carried, and quite frequently at
that, to wipe away the perspiration that oozed from their foreheads.
"Lucky we left our coats in camp; isn't it?" remarked Phil.
"Looks that way now, but if that rain does strike us, we may wish we had
'em on," Tom Betts replied; showing that he at least had not been able to
put out of his head the possibility of a storm.
"Seems to me we must be getting somewhere," Phil observed.
"It can't be very much further," Paul answered, feeling that the remark
was addressed to him as the pilot of the expedition."
"I should say not," came from Bluff, as chipper as a bird's song, and
without the least sign of halt or break; "if we go on much more, we'll
walk off the end of the island."
Bobolink patted him on the back, as if to encourage him in well doing.
"That's the stuff, Bluff; you c'n do it when you try," he whispered; "but
as to steppin' into the lake, I guess we aren't that near the north end
yet, by a good sight."
Paul nodded his head, but said nothing; from that Bobolink knew the scout
master agreed with him. They could go considerably longer without being
halted by coming to the water's edge.
Jack called the attention of his chums just then to something ahead.
"Seems to me I smell smoke," he said, "and if you bend down here, so you
can look under the branches of the trees, you'll see something that's got
the shape of a shed, or cabin, off yonder."
The others, upon making a try, agreed with Jack that it did seem that
way.
"Oh! we're right on top of the nest, all right" chattered Bobolink, but
showing his wisdom by keeping his voice down to its lowest note; "and
now, if we c'n duplicate that little dodge we played at the shack of the
wild man, it's goin' to be as easy as turning over off a spring-board,
with a ten foot drop."
"But if we're caught we might get shot at," suggested Phil, as if the
idea had struck him for the first time that they were really playing with
fire, in thus bearding desperate lawbreakers in their den.
"We aren't going to get caught," said Bobolink; "who's afraid? Not I.
Lead along, Paul. I want to get this thing out of my system, so I c'n
have a little rest up here," and he placed a hand on his brow.
Although himself doubtful as to the wisdom of the move, Paul could not
back down now, after allowing the boys to vote on the matter. Perhaps he
was more or less sorry that at the time he had not exercised his
privilege as scout master to put his foot down on their taking any more
chances, just to satisfy such curiosity as reckless fellows like Bobolink
might feel, with regard to the unknown men.
It was too late now. Until some of the boys themselves manifested a
desire to call the retreat, he must go on; although it began to seem more
than ever audacious--this creeping up on a den of men who were hiding
from the eye of the law in order to carry on their nefarious trade.
And so they started to creep forward, now dodging behind trees, and
crawling back of friendly patches of bushes whenever the chance presented
itself. It was all exciting enough, to be sure, and doubtless gave the
boys many a delightful little thrill.
In this fashion they came upon a larger clump of trees and bushes, which,
instead of trying to round, they concluded to pass through.
It was just as they gained a point inside this clump that they were
brought up with a round turn by discovering a couple of objects standing
there, as though they had been left behind when the valuable contents
which they formerly encased had been taken out.
These were two large packing cases, of unusual shape, and made of heavy
planed boards!
Some of the scouts looked at them carelessly, for to them these objects
did not carry any particular meaning. Not so Jack, Tom Betts and
Bobolink. Those three boys had received a shock, as severe as it was
unexpected.
They recognized those cases as being the identical ones which had only
lately reposed snugly in the planing mill of Jack's father in Stanhope,
and to guard which one Hans Waggoner had been hired by the man who owned
them, Professor Hackett! And as they stood there and gaped, doubtless
among the many things that flashed into the minds of those three lads was
the fact that _somebody_ had been trying to get to see what the contents
of those mysterious cases might be; which person they now knew must have
been a Government Secret Service man, a detective from Washington, on the
track of the bold counterfeiting gang!
All these things, and much more, flashed through the minds of Jack and
his chums, as they stood there in that thicket, and stared hard at the
two big cases bound around with twisted wire, but which had now been
relieved of their unknown contents, for they stood empty.
And the others, realizing that something had occurred out of the regular
channel, waited for them to speak, and explain what they had discovered.