BUSTER HAS A SHOCK
“What in the wide world’s that?” asked Buster Longfellow, as they came
to a halt in order to listen.
“Sounds like somebody’s started a blacksmith shop over here on the
island, that’s what!” remarked Josh.
“Mebbe they’re counting over the ducats they’ve stolen,” suggested
George; but the idea of silver dollars making such a loud sound as this
as they jingled in a heap, was really so ridiculous that even Buster
chuckled in derision; whereupon George had to hastily add “joke!”
“Tell you what I think,” observed wise Herb. “You know they were having
some engine trouble a while back; and I reckon that mechanic fellow has
got busy fixing it up. The only thing that surprises me is that George
here didn’t recognize something mighty familiar in the racket. He’s
forever making it himself, so if I didn’t know he was alongside, I’d
take my affidavy that was him right now.”
“Huh! think yourself smart to make fun of my twelve-horse power engine,
don’t you, Herb?” he started to say, and would doubtless have delivered
himself of considerably more along the same lines, only that Jack broke
in by observing:
“All the same, Herb is right, there; for the man is aboard the boat and
working away at the motor. He’s some machinist, believe me, from the way
he goes about things. And there’s the other one going aboard too; wonder
what that means?”
Watching they presently saw the younger fellow come in sight again, and
step to the bank of the island from the power tied-up and anchored boat.
“Got an armful of blankets?” asserted Josh, immediately.
“That settles one thing, then,” came from George.
“Yes, they’re going to make camp ashore, and pass the night on firm
ground,” Jack admitted. “Perhaps they like the change, as we do. Plenty
of times when you just have to sleep aboard the boat, you know.”
“And p’raps,” George went on, “we’ll be trying out my little bit of a
scheme, after all.”
“Nobody knows,” Jack assured them.
They made themselves as easy as possible, and took up their vigil, not
knowing how long it might last.
Back and forth the younger fellow went, until he had carried a great lot
of articles, calculated to induce a comfortable night’s rest ashore.
Then he started in to fix things to suit him, taking a part of the
blankets.
“That settles it,” whispered Jack, to Herb, who was next, “he’s a
greenhorn, as far as camping goes.”
“Yep, guess he is,” assented the other, although, if put to the test,
Herb might have found it difficult to explain on what he founded his
belief.
“See where he’s gone and arranged his blankets,” Jack continued. “There,
he’s trying to see how they feel; and would you look at his head toward
the fire. No experienced camper ever does that, because it’s his feet
that get cold in the night, so he always has them closest to the fire.”
“Sure!” agreed Herb, just as though he had always known that fact, when
in truth it had never occurred to him before.
“He fetched some grub with him the last time he came!” whispered George,
on the other side of Jack, “and if anybody asked me what that stood for
I’d be likely to say it meant they were going to stay on dry land a
little while, till they get that engine working that’s what.”
“Well, that isn’t going to be long,” remarked Josh in turn as there came
a series of explosions from aboard the boat, that sounded as regularly
as clockwork. “He’s got her working now, all right, I guess.”
“Then he must be a crack-a-jack of a mechanic,” observed George,
thoughtfully, as though a vague idea had come into his head that it
might pay him to get such a man to look over his engine, given the
chance.
“But I haven’t seen any paint--yet,” remarked Buster, obstinately.
“Well, what would they want to get busy with that for at night time?”
Josh asked him. “If they put in tomorrow hiding here on the island
you’ll see enough of paint slingin’ to suit you, Buster, believe me.
They’ll want to get the boat partly up out of the water on some skids,
using block and tackle to drag her; and then so change her looks that
nobody’ll recognize her as the same suspicious white boat that took the
bank’s cash away.”
After that they fell silent for some time, meanwhile continuing to watch
the two who were still objects of concern, not to say suspicion. The one
ashore had crawled under his blankets as though bent on getting fixed
cozy for the night. He came out and went back three separate times. Now
it was to arrange his covering a little differently; and again it was to
draw the blankets back and dig out a root that must have started to hurt
his back while lying there, as roots have a failing for doing with
campers, especially the big gnarly ones that have a knob on them--every
boy knows that without being told.
About the time he finally seemed fixed comfortably with the fire burning
low not very far from his head the second one came ashore.
“How is she now, Jenks; I heard you give her a trial spin?” came a voice
from among the collected heap of blankets which the intended sleeper had
drawn over him.
“Workin’ tip-top, sir, right now,” replied the other; and somehow it
seemed to the listening Jack that there was a vein of deference in
his tones such as might hardly be expected to be disclosed when one
cracksman addressed another, no matter if it was a Slim Jim, and a
recognized master of the art of thievery.
“Then we’ve got that thing off our hands, Jenks,” the unseen one went
on, every word reaching the ears of the listening boys, because he
called out loudly, thinking his voice might be muffled by the blankets,
“and we can take it easy tomorrow, with the other job, if we conclude to
hide until darkness comes around again.”
“That’s right, sir, so we can,” assented the other, beginning to shift
his blankets and make up his bed in the regulation way.
There was no more said.
Jack, watching Jenks, immediately decided that the man must have been
in the open more or less, for he seemed to know just how to go about
things; and his head was not toward the fire either, when he lay down.
Still, he did not attempt to arrange the blaze so that it would keep up
for many hours; perhaps he thought that since the other had incautiously
placed his head that way it would be folly to keep the heat going, so as
to roast him out.
And then at last both seemed to have successfully arranged themselves,
for there was no longer any wriggling movements of the blankets that
might stand for uneasiness.
“Think they’re asleep, Jack?” queried Herb, softly, as he touched the
other gently on the arm.
“If they ain’t they’ll soon be,” muttered George, who had overheard the
question and took it upon himself to answer.
“Wonder how much longer this game’s goin’ to keep up?” grumbled Josh;
“my right leg’s nigh paralyzed as it is, and I’m gettin’ a crick in my
back, Jack, what’s the best word?”
For reply he received a low warning hist that somehow thrilled Josh, and
possibly some of the others as well. Immediately every one fastened his
eyes on the two bundles of blankets near the dying fire, as though
expecting to see some upheaval in that quarter; but nothing of the kind
took place.
“What was it, Jack?” whispered Josh, wondering why the other had given
that low warning, when there seemed to be no sign of trouble in the
hostile camp.
“Something moving over yonder in the bushes; watch sharp, to the right,
now!” was what came from the Commodore.
“Gee! mebbe a wild animal goin’ to raid the camp for grub!” Josh
suggested.
“More’n likely the same hungry guy that carried off that ham of ours,
that’s what,” Buster was just heard to say, deep down in his throat.
Then they lapsed into silence again; though all this talking had been
conducted in such low tones, that a short distance away any one would
have taken it for granted that it could only be the night wind
whispering through the branches of the trees overhead, not yet fully
covered with the fresh green leaves that came with the spring.
Yes, there certainly was something moving over there, in the quarter
which Jack had indicated. They could see the bushes beginning to bend
again, but very slowly, as though the intended intruder tried to
exercise great care, not meaning to arouse the sleepers.
Man or animal, they could not say immediately, for even when they first
caught sight of the moving figure it was crouched so low that it could
pass for either one or the other, in that uncertain light.
Every eye was riveted on it, that can be set down as positive. In fact,
just at that minute all of the watchers seemed to be holding their very
breath, such was their natural condition of suspense, as well as deep
interest.
“Is it a panther, Jack; and have you got your Marlin ready?” Josh
whispered in the other’s ear.
The only answer Jack made was to kick Josh on the shins; with that
unknown thing creeping forward it seemed no time to be asking foolish
questions. Josh evidently understood, for he hushed up immediately.
But then that might have been because all of them saw about this time
that it was a man and not an animal, for he had raised his head, in
order to take a sharp look toward the spot where the fire glimmered and
the two figures were huddled in the piles of blankets.
Possibly the low murmur of Josh’s voice had reached the ears of the
intruder, so as to arouse a slight suspicion; but if so, this must have
been lulled to sleep again immediately he found that neither of the
inanimate figures had changed position.
But when the man thus partly arose it disclosed the fact that he was a
heavyset sort of a fellow, wearing a cap and that his face was partly
covered with a beard. It did something more than this. When he stretched
his neck to see the better a portion of his body was exposed to view.
Now, it was nothing strange that this unknown prowler wore a sweater, or
that this was a fine soft gray woolen sweater, of the kind used by
automobile tourists in these days, buttoning down the front; but
it certainly nearly gave Buster Longfellow heart disease when he
discovered on the breast of that same garment the wonderful blue moon
that he had so often described as marking his lost present, which he had
been suspecting poor innocent Josh of having purloined!