A STARTLING INTERRUPTION
“Whee!” exclaimed Josh, hardly able to believe his ears when he heard
the fat boy make this astonishing declaration so positively.
George also expressed more or less surprise, though from the look on
his face it was evident that he was beginning to guess something in
connection with what his “crew” was stating.
Jack immediately took Buster in hand. It was the only way of making him
tell all he knew, without forever “beating about the bush,” and giving
himself lots of airs; for Buster seldom found himself in the center of
the stage; and when such an event did come along he wished to make the
most of it. What boy, wouldn’t, tell me?
“See here,” Jack went on to say, “you want to tell us all about that,
now, Buster; because you’ve just made a startling statement; and we hope
you can back it up. How could you see that boat, and none of the rest of
us notice it; tell us that in the first place.”
“Shucks! that’s easy enough, fellers,” replied the other, bent on
making the most of his advantage. “Tell you how that was. You may
remember that George found himself away ahead, near the close of the
run; and as George, he doesn’t like to hold up even a little bit, what
did he do but spin away over to the other shore, and go down that, say
about five miles above the upper end of this blooming old island.”
“Oh! get a move on, old Ice-Wagon; you’re as slow as molasses in
winter!” groaned impulsive George; whereupon the fat boy turned
deliberately toward him to say:
“Who’s telling this story, me or you, George Rollins? If I am, then you
just keep your hands off, and let me spin the yarn my own way. Don’t
expect me to be a whirlwind like you, for I ain’t built that way; you’re
a match, and I’m a----”
“Tub; but never mind, Buster, please go on!” urged Josh.
“Well, of course George, he had his head stuck down close to his engine,
watching every stroke it made, and couldn’t see anything, only when he
bobbed up every little while to tell me how to steer. And we went in
fairly close to the shore. All at once, in a snug little cove behind a
tongue of high land, I saw the boat. She was anchored there; and first
thing I saw was a young feller, just like that paper tells on, asittin’
on the gunnel, and directin’ a heavy-set chap, who was in jumpers, and
looked like he was the engineer, deck hand and crew all rolled in one;
he seemed to be mendin’ the engine, or doin’ something like that.”
“But how was it you didn’t call the attention of George to the boat?”
asked Jack.
“It was cruelty to animals, that’s what,” echoed Josh, “because, think
how joyful it’d make our chum to know that other people had their engine
troubles as well as him?”
“Oh! he did tell me to look,” admitted George just then, nodding his
head, “but we were going so very fast, you know, that when I did get my
head up it was just too late; I had a glimpse of the tip-end of some
sort of boat in that cove he mentions; and then the bully little
Wireless flipped by like a streak of light. Give you my word for it,
fellows, we must have been flying along at the rate of nearly twenty
miles per just then, current and all.”
“Ah! rats!” ejaculated some one, and George did not know who had spoken,
for the voice seemed to come from anywhere; but he just glared around,
and then, shaking his head menacingly, he muttered:
“Better not be so plain next time, whoever said that; or it might bring
on trouble. I c’n stand nearly anything about myself, but I won’t hear
my pet boat sneered at. Yes, it was all of twenty miles, understand!”
and he again looked at Andy, Buster and Josh, as though daring any one
to express another doubt.
“Well,” said Jack, “here’s some fun for us, now. If that description of
the robber launch holds good; and Buster didn’t see something that
wasn’t there, then it seems that we’ve got the thieves, and all their
plunder, here within five miles of us right now. That’s interesting, if
true, as the papers say.”
George began to grow excited.
“Get that gun of yours ready, Jack, the trusty old Marlin that has stood
between us and trouble many a time!” he exclaimed, jumping to his feet,
as though in a frame of mind to go rushing off, pell-mell, on some
reckless errand.
“What for?” asked the more cautious Herb.
“Why, don’t it look like it’s up to us to surround that pirate craft,
and capture the bold burglars? Remember what we did once before when
cruising down this same old Mississippi! And then again, there was that
stunt we pulled off up among the Thousand Islands later on. Ain’t you
meaning to take a hand in this thing, Jack?”
“Oh! I don’t know,” replied the other, carelessly. “I really don’t see
why we should be called on to take the place of a sheriff’s posse every
little while, and risk our precious lives. None of our folks that I know
of have any interest in that looted bank up at Lawrence. And these kind
of men are a dangerous proposition to handle, let me tell you. It would
be a different matter if they broke in on us, and we got mixed up with
the pair in spite of things. Then we’d just have to do our level best to
capture the lot, and return the plunder to the cheering citizens of
Lawrence.”
“Hear! hear!” exclaimed Josh, pretending to clap his hands.
“But chances are, there’ll be something of a reward offered for the
apprehension of the thieves, and the safe return of the money,”
persisted George, although less strenuously than before.
“Well, what of that?” remarked Herb. “We ain’t officers of the law,
sworn to take all sorts of risks, just because some bad men get away
with the funds of any old country bank, are we? Let ’em lock up things
better, or hire a night watchman as the people in our town do these
days. Guess that goes, eh, Jack?”
“It certainly strikes at the root of the matter, as Professor Mapes
would say, Herb,” replied the other, quietly. “And then again, how do we
know but what circumstances might arise to make us take a hand in the
game? What more likely than that those same fellows would pick on this
island to hide for a while, until the chase for them gets played out.”
“Great brain, Jack!” cried Buster; “that’s as true as smoke. Fellers
like them are dead sure to know that Bedloe’s Island’s got a bad name
among honest folks; and that it’d be the boss hide-out for a couple of
crooks that thought the officers might be rushin’ up and down the river
looking for ’em.”
“Yes,” added Herb, “and if they’re as smart as we think they are,
chances’d be they would have brought some paint along with ’em, too.”
“Paint?” ejaculated Josh, “now, I c’n understand why Mr. Kedge, the
boatbuilder who owns the shed where we kept our craft all winter, has to
have that stuff around because he is in the business of fixing up all
sorts--say, looky here. Herb, d’ye mean they’d want to change their boat
from white to something else; is that your smart idea?”
Herb just nodded his head. He was not much given to talk; but once in a
while could be depended on to break in with a suggestion; and as a rule
what Herb said was worth listening to.
“Fine!” exclaimed George, always ready to admit the fact when one of his
mates really had a good idea.
“That’s where your head is level, Herb, me bye!” declared Andy.
Jack smiled, and nodded, as though he considered it a point well taken.
What more natural than that two smart rogues, trying to escape after
committing such a bold robbery, and traveling in such a conspicuous
boat, should think to prepare themselves with a pot of black or gray
paint, with which to completely alter the appearance of their craft
while hiding in some secluded spot, such as the island in the middle of
the river afforded?
“Well, we can keep that idea in mind,” Jack went on to say, “and for one
night set a watch, so that if they should happen along we’d know it.”
“Huh! that makes me feel bad!” grunted Josh.
“What about?” demanded Buster.
“Here I’ve been counting on having the jolliest old camp fire the first
night out you ever heard tell of. Been dreaming about it for a week
past, and seein’ the flames shootin’ up, with the sparks sailin’ away
out over the river; and here you go and throw cold water on that scheme
right in the start. No camp fire tonight! Why, half of the fun’d be lost
if we had to do the same thing every night, Jack, believe me.”
Josh did not look very happy over the gloomy prospect; so Jack had to
cheer him up the best way possible.
“It would only be for the one night, I reckon, Josh,” he remarked,
consolingly, “and if nothing happens before morning, why, after that you
can make fires to the limit of the wood on the island, if only you don’t
burn us all out.”
“Oh! well,” Josh went on to say, “if all the rest of you look at it that
way, course I’ve got to give in, because majority rules in this club,
always. So let the fire die out if you want; I’m not going to bother
putting another stick on it. Guess, with our sweaters and coats we c’n
be warm enough as we sit here and talk.”
“But all of us ain’t got sweaters,” exclaimed Buster, shiveringly,
“’less somebody happens to have my blue moon one stickin’ at the bottom
of his bag. Now, don’t everybody get mad at what I’m sayin’, and turn
on me savagely. Course I mean that it might a-got in there just by
accident like. And I’d be ever so much obliged if you’d look and see. A
sweater is a mighty fine thing to have sometime, which right now is one
of ’em; and when you don’t find it, you feel as blue as that moon mine
had on the breast.”
Jack obligingly turned out all the contents of his bag, as did Andy and
Herb, but Josh and George disdained to bother, saying they just knew it
was no use, as they had a complete record of every lasting thing that
was in their kits, and what was the need anyway; because a fellow as
careless as Buster chose to leave one of his useful garments hanging
somewhere in that boat builder’s shed, for he was always forgetting to
fasten the lockers of his boat when he left it, and everything like
that; why should they be put to such a nuisance?
But Buster eyed the pair suspiciously, especially Josh. Truth to tell,
it was on this individual that the burden of his belief fell; for was
not the other continually trying to play a trick on him?
“All right, I’ll know before a great while,” Buster was saying to
himself, as he lay back, having wrapped his blanket around his
shoulders, in order to ward off the chill breeze that found its way to
them, in spite of the fact that trees and underbrush lay in dense
masses between the northern end of the island and the spot which they
had chosen for their camp.
They talked for a while, but by degrees it might have been noticed that
for some unknown reason their voices gradually became more and more
subdued; though if asked the cause for this hardly any one could have
ventured an explanation. But possibly the subject they had recently been
discussing, in connection with the chances of the two suspects making
for the island, in order to lie there for some days, while they changed
the color of their boat from white to black, may have had an influence
on them all.
George was of course bothering his head about his one favorite pastime,
and trying to puzzle out just how he could do something to his tricky
engine in order to get more speed out of it, and at the same time stop
its balky ways. Buster, on his part, was perhaps making a mental
calculation concerning the amount of stores they had brought along; for
he had a dim suspicion that before they wished to return home the stock
would fall low, and the whole of them be put on short rations; a thing
that would seem very much like a calamity to Buster.
And each one of the others seemed to have something on his mind; for
presently absolute silence had fallen on the little group. This was a
most unusual occurrence, for as a rule several of the boys dearly loved
to hear themselves speaking, and would air their views at the slightest
excuse for doing so.
Jack, sitting there in what seemed to be a reverie, had his head against
the trunk of a good-sized tree. This may have acted as a conductor of
sound, for he seemed to catch a certain noise before any of the others
did; and none of them could be accused of dull hearing, either.
“Hark, everybody!” he said suddenly, in a low, thrilling tone, that
seemed to startle his companions, for everyone of them sat up straight.
“What did you think you heard, Jack?” whispered Buster, unconsciously
lowering his voice.
“Something that sounded like the gurgling of water against the side of a
boat, and voices in the bargain,” replied the other. “There, if you try,
you can get the same thing yourself. Seems to me there are push poles
being used to turn a boat in against the shore up above here a little
ways.”
All of them strained their ears. A minute, two of them, passed, and they
heard the swishing sounds Jack mentioned, each being followed by a
“plunk,” as of a pole being dropped into the water for another push.
Then a voice, rather soft and melodious, came drifting to their ears.
“That’ll do, Jenks; we can tie up to the shore here, all right, and in
the morning look for a suitable cove to lay the boat in, while we get to
work, and make the changes. Just think of it breaking down above this
island again. Only for the old bunch of ground sticking out here in the
river we’d have had to anchor. And, Jenks, I guess we might as well bury
that box here as tote it any further, you know. I hate to leave a thing
I cared for so much behind, but it can’t be helped.”