Bumpus dug his knuckles into his eyes, and then stared again at the pile of plunder which had evidently been taken from some bank; for besides the little rolls that seemed to contain gold eagles, and half eagles, and fives, there were a number of packages of bank bills, and a lot of bonds—at least that was what the boys guessed they must be.
“Somebody please give me a pinch,” said Bumpus. “I sure must be dreaming one of my old dreams about findin’ buried treasure. Hey! not so hard, Step Hen; I’m awake now all right, because that hurt like the dickens. But just look at what Thad’s unearthed, would you? Whew! I don’t blame that feller for hangin’ around here. I’d refuse to be chased away too, if I had all that stuff lyin’ under a stone in an old cabin.”
For some little time the boys continued to talk. Allan had wisely in the beginning stepped over and hung something over the one little window of the cabin. He seemed to understand that, with the finding of this stolen plunder belonging to a bank that had been looted at some previous day, they had taken up issues with these desperate men; and whether they wanted to or not, from this time forward it must be a question as to whether the hobo thieves recovered their prize; or were in turn taken prisoner by the scouts, and the guides with them.
By unearthing this rich haul Thad had settled the question. They could no longer hold aloof, and sit on the fence; but must enter into the game with the yeggmen.
And so the plan suggested, which looked to the ultimate capture of the rascals, appealed to the boys more than ever. If circumstances over which they seemed to really have little control, forced them to take a hand in the matter, it was the part of wisdom that they get in the first blow; and not wait for the desperate fugitives of the Maine woods to attack them, in order to try and force them to hand over this rich find.
“How’d it do to make up a dummy bundle, with these same old clothes,” remarked Giraffe. “We could fasten it with the string, same as they had it; and in case the fellers didn’t take the trouble to open the same, why, we’d be that much ahead, you see.”
“That’s a good idea, and can do no harm to try,” remarked the patrol leader, who was only too pleased to receive suggestions from the scouts, even though at times they thought of plans that were wildly impracticable; for it showed their minds were working; and anything was better than that they fall into the state of letting some one else do their thinking for them.
So Giraffe was set to work constructing the imitation bundle. Of course it did not contain one blessed thing worth mentioning. Bumpus wrote the single suggestive word “fooled” on a piece of paper, and wanted them to insert that; but Thad remarked that it would be better not to further arouse the anger of such lawless men. This was no child’s play in which they were now engaged, but the most serious adventure of all they had ever run across; and must be treated with the sober consideration grown-up men would be apt to give to such a matter.
But even this rebuff could not quench the newly-aroused spirit in the stout boy, Bumpus, who saw his dreams coming true. He could imagine the wonderful results when they delivered these valuable bonds over to the bank that had been looted. Surely there must have been a generous reward offered for their return; which, with that they were certain to receive for capturing the hobo thieves, would cram the treasury of the Boy Scout troop, and open up many delightful chances for other vacation trips to far-away places.
“But what will we do with all this glorious stuff?” he asked, as they sat, and looked, and talked, while the night wore on.
“I’m going to make it up into a packet, somehow,” remarked Thad. “Then, when I’ve got it in as small a compass as possible, I’ll wind a cord around it every which way, and use a little piece of red sealing wax I remember seeing in my haversack, to seal it up with. Then nobody can break it open without our knowing it.”
“My goodness! I hope now, Thad, you don’t think any scout would be so pokey as to want to meddle with it, after you’ve taken it in charge?” remarked Step Hen.
“Certainly I don’t,” replied the patrol leader, quickly; “I know you all too well for that; but I believe there’s a certain amount of red tape to be carried out in a case like this; and I’m going to fasten it in the presence of every one of you, so that you can hold up your right hands and vow, if ever you are asked, that everything we found is sealed in this package. And here goes for a tough job.”
Considering that he had little material to work with, it was a hard task; but then, Thad possessed considerable ingenuity; and could adapt himself to circumstances wonderfully well. And the result was all that could be asked, since the package he produced was not very large, but quite compact, and after being liberally daubed with the red sealing wax, so that none of the cords could be undone, really looked very important indeed.
“There, how will that do, boys?” asked Thad, when he had finished.
“Simply great!” declared Giraffe; “and it’s a wonder how you manage to get such big results from small things. I never saw the like.”
“I was thinking,” mused Allan, “that since Charlie Barnes came here only last night, what is to hinder him from paying us a visit again?”
“That’s so!” ejaculated Giraffe. “Say, mebbe that’s why Sebattis went out a long time back. He’s the sly one, now, let me tell you. Chances are he expects that we may have uninvited company some time around now; and if the Wandering Willy tries to peep in at our window like he did last time, why, he’s goin’ to run up against Sebattis, good and hard.”
“I knew that was why he went out,” Thad observed, “and it gave me a comforting feeling; because I’m as sure as anything can be, that nobody could steal up here on us with the Indian on guard.”
“Not much,” added Step Hen. “He’s got the ears of a fox, and can hear the least sound.”
“Of a weasel, you mean,” Bumpus declared. “I never turn over in my sleep but what, if I raise my head, there’s them black eyes of Sebattis awatchin’ me, just as if he expected I was goin’ to have a fit, like Davy here used to take.”
“Forget that, won’t you, Bumpus,” said the other hastily. “I reckon I’m cured of that caper by now; but sometimes,” he added, as he saw Giraffe looking at him, and grinning, “I do feel signs like one was acomin’ on again, though it never really and truly does, you see.”
“Now, where will you put that, Thad?” asked Step Hen, pointing to the sealed package that had been so officiously done up.
“Oh! keep it out of sight under my blanket till morning,” answered the other. “Then we can hide it in one of the canoes, under the duffle, where it’ll be safe.”
“We want you to take it in your boat, remember that,” observed Giraffe. “You was the one to find the prize, and the only claim any of the rest have to the reward will be that we stood ready to defend it.”
Thad looked squarely at him as Giraffe said this.
“That’ll do for you, Giraffe,” he remarked sternly. “I don’t want to hear any more like that. There are six of us here, and two more at home. Every scout will have an equal share in any reward that may happen to come to us; yes, and more than that, the other five who are on this expedition with me are going to be credited with their portion of the honor of recovering this lost bank capital. We’re in the same boat, sink or swim, survive or perish. Understand that, fellows; and now after this, I’ll take it hard of you if any member of the Silver Fox Patrol tries to shove more than a sixth of the glory on my shoulders.”
They saw he meant it, and their boyish hearts warmed within them at the knowledge that they had such a splendid chum at the head of the patrol. Where could another like Thad Brewster be found, they would like to know?
The dummy package was placed carefully under the hearthstone, and Thad tried the best he knew how to arrange it just about as he had found the treasure trove. And as one of them had said, if the hoboes in their hurry failed to open it up, they might remain in ignorance concerning their great loss, for some length of time.
“Now, I think that it must be nearly midnight,” announced Thad, “and a lot of us are dead tired; so I put it up to you, fellows, if we hadn’t ought to try and get some rest? We want to be in trim for other work to-morrow.”
Giraffe held up his hand.
“Count me in,” he remarked, wearily.
“Ditto here,” said Allan, also making the high sign.
“Can’t crawl under my blanket any too soon to please me,” Davy added.
“Well, if the rest of you want to turn in, I’m there,” Step Hen declared, yawning.
All eyes were fastened on Bumpus, waiting to hear his decision, so that it might be made unanimous.
“Great Scott! he’s dead asleep, and sittin’ up at that!” exclaimed Giraffe.
Which was a fact; for the fat boy had been so completely tired out with his labor of the morning, when securing the store of honey; as well as from the excitement and nervous shock brought on by the bee stings, that he could not keep his eyes open any longer; and sitting there like a heathen god, as Giraffe called it, he had gone fast asleep.
Of course they had to wake poor Bumpus up, so that he could take his shoes off, and get ready to crawl under his blanket; but he started to perform these little tasks grumblingly, because he had been disturbed.
“Might let a feller snooze where he was,” he muttered, working away, with his eyes still closed. “I was just goin’ to sit down to the dinner table at home, an’ it was Thanksgiving day too. Um! how that big turkey did make me crazy to get at it. And then comes a budge in the ribs, and Giraffe here sayin’ as how I’m takin’ all the room, an’ must roll over. A feller never can be let alone when he wants to, in this——”
Bumpus did not finish what he was saying. Nor was he longer sitting there with his eyes closed, groping at the fastening of his leggings in the endeavor to get the shin protectors off. On the contrary he started half-way to his feet, once more wide-awake.
For without the slightest warning there came to the ears of the scouts the loud report of a rifle from some point just outside the cabin walls. And they suddenly remembered what had been said only a short time before, about the dangerous yeggmen coming back again on this night.
And also that Sebattis was on guard.
“What did I do with my gun?” cried Giraffe, darting around this way and that, as he tried to remember in which corner he had stacked his rifle, after coming in earlier in the night, from the bear hunt.
Already had Thad, Allan and Davy snatched up their weapons, and made a bolt for the door, following the lead of Jim and Eli, and wildly excited by the possibilities of finding that something of a tragic nature had been occurring without.
Poor Bumpus, having no gun of his own, looked around in despair. He certainly did not want to be left behind when all this turmoil was going on; nor was he desirous of rushing out without some sort of means of defending himself, in case he was set upon by enemies.
So he hastened to snatch up the same stout stick which had enabled Thad to pry loose the heavy hearthstone. And swinging this vigorously, Bumpus trotted after the other scouts, dragging his half-unfastened leggings along with him as he went.
It was dark outside, for the young moon had gone to rest long before. But then Thad, with his customary wisdom, had remembered this, and as he went out he snatched up the only lantern they had brought along.
Bumpus could hear them all making for one point, and he followed suit. Eli and Jim had been able to locate the quarter from whence that single shot had come, and were now heading for it.
At any rate, there had been no succeeding shots, no bombardment of the cabin. And Thad, thinking it wise to have some light on the subject, stopped for a few seconds to scratch a match, and apply the flame to the wick of the lantern, after which he again hastened on.
By that time the others had gone ahead, but his short delay served one good turn, since it enabled poor puffing Bumpus to reach the side of the patrol leader, which fact, no doubt, gave the fat boy considerable gratification.
“What is it, Thad?” Bumpus managed to gasp, as they hurried along.
“I don’t know myself,” came the reply; “but we’ll soon find out now, because I hear them talking just ahead.”
“And that’s Sebattis, too,” declared Bumpus, in a relieved tone; just as though he may have been worrying over the possibility of the Indian having been injured when that gun was discharged.
“Of course it is,” Thad said. “And I never thought it was any one else but him who fired that shot. He must have believed he saw a suspicious figure making up through the brush, or trying to damage our boats; though why these men should want to do that, when they’re hoping for us to clear out, surprises me.”
They were now close on the rest of the party; indeed, by the light which the lantern gave, they could make the group out, all of the others being clustered around the Indian guide, who was talking in his usual short-sentence way.
“Hear sound, see something move, shoot!”
That comprised the whole business with Sebattis. Where a white man would have described how he was thrilled to locate the suspicious noise; and tell what his feelings were as he drew up his gun and blazed away; the Penobscot Indian simply gave the bare facts—he came, he heard, he fired.
“You don’t think, now, it could have been one of those wolves we heard yelping last night, do you, Sebattis?” Giraffe ventured to ask, more to draw the other out than because he himself believed any such thing.
“Huh! when wolf speak does he swear hard?” asked Sebattis, quaintly.
“Oh! then he must have been a man, because so far animals haven’t learned how to use hard language,” admitted Giraffe, doubtless chuckling at the success that had followed his little plan.
“He must have been pretty mad because you blocked his plans, to use hard words like that,” ventured Davy.
“Hurt!” declared the guide.
“He means that he thinks he wounded the fellow,” explained Thad.
“Well, what else could he expect, to come nosing around our camp like that, and even taking a sly shot at our hunters, after stealing their nice buck?” demanded Bumpus, who could not be accused of acting as though he were sleepy now.
“Where were they when you heard them first, Sebattis?” asked Thad, wishing to get all the information possible.
“Round here, mebbe. Hear talk in whisper like, and know two men come. Then fire just one shot. That all. They make off in hurry, quick!”
“Let’s see if we can find their tracks,” suggested Step Hen; but before he spoke Thad was already circling around, holding the lantern close to the ground, and carefully looking to see if there could be found any signs telling that the Indian had not made a mistake.
“I hope they won’t think to take a pot shot at the lot of us while we stand around here,” said Giraffe, uneasily.
“You needn’t worry,” spoke up Bumpus: “a sharpshooter couldn’t hit you, because you ain’t wide enough to make a shadow. Think of me, and what dreadful chances I’m taking all the time. They could get me by shootin’ with their eyes shut. But all the same, you don’t hear me whine. I’m ready to take my medicine without showing the white feather.”
“What’s that over there; looks like a man kneeling down, and aimin’ a gun!” called out Step Hen just then; and forgetting the boast that was still on his lips, Bumpus threw himself on the ground, and started to crawl behind a clump of thick bushes.
“It’s only a stump, after all,” announced Thad, throwing the light of his lantern in the direction of the suspicious object.
“Get up, Bumpus, the coast is clear,” said Giraffe, sneeringly.
“These old leggings keep gettin’ under my feet the worst kind,” remarked Bumpus, complacently, as though a poor excuse might be better than none. “But see there, the Indian’s found something or other. Just as like as not it’s them tracks we’re all lookin’ for.”
“Just what it is,” added Davy Jones, eagerly.
As scouts who yearned to learn the many interesting things connected with woodcraft, it can be set down as certain that Step Hen and his comrades gathered about Sebattis and Thad, then and there, convinced that something was coming worth while.
“Just as Sebattis told us, there were two of them,” Thad was saying, while he bent down to see the imprint of footgear at closer range.
“Seems to be something familiar about one of them tracks, Thad,” remarked Giraffe.
“Yes, our old friend, the patched shoe, has turned up again,” chuckled the patrol leader, pointing to the plain, unmistakable sign across the toe of the impression of the shoe.
“Which of course means that Charlie is doing it again,” Step Hen remarked. “He wants to be in every mix-up, seems like. But if here are two, where is the other feller?”
“You know we decided that he must be sick or something like that,” Allan pursued.
“They were coming straight at the cabin when our guard turned them around, and sent ’em flyin’,” Giraffe put in. “That looks like they wanted to see if we’d disturbed that stuff any. I guess they’re gettin’ rather nervous about our hangin’ out here so long. It sorter interferes with their plans, p’raps.”
“Well,” Allan observed, drily, “they’ll see us getting out of here to-morrow, if they keep their eyes open, which we hope will be the case. And then perhaps this Charlie Barnes and his two cronies will think they’re safe in entering the old cabin.”
“And putting up at the woods’ tavern for a time, feedin’ off our nice venison, to beat the band,” grumbled Giraffe, who never could forgive the hobo outfit for depriving the scouts of that young buck.
“I wonder, now,” piped up Bumpus, “if the chief means to start in tracking these two men tonight? He’s thrown a good scare into ’em, seems; and they’re running yet, I just reckon; but he gave ’em back the shot they fired at Thad and Eli and Davy here. That’s the way we pay back our debts. All good scouts are supposed to settle when they owe anything, ain’t they? What’s Thad doing now, I wonder?”
“What do you take us for, Bumpus?” demanded Giraffe. “Don’t you understand that Thad said he wanted us to do things with as little risk as we could? And then, to think we’d try to foller up these hard cases, holdin’ a lantern, just to ask ’em to bang away at us as much as they pleased. We ain’t that green. The other plan promises to work best, and you see if Thad don’t stick by it.”
“Well,” said the fat boy plaintively, “How was I to know what they’d expect to be doin’? And when you’re puzzled what to think, ain’t it policy to just hold off, and fight for wind? That’s what I was adoin’ when I said that. But Thad is lookin’ for something again, because he’s movin’ off with the lantern.”
Not wishing to be left in the dark, all the others followed Thad and Sebattis, both of whom seemed to be searching industriously along the ground, as if they had lost something which was worth looking for.
“P’raps they got a notion one of them fellers might a dropped somethin’,” suggested Step Hen, himself unable to grasp the true meaning of the strange actions of the two ahead.
“You’re closer to it than you think,” was the puzzling remark of Allan; while old Eli and young Jim seemed too amused by the remark.
And while they all watched, and speculated, each according to his light, they saw Sebattis come to a pause. He called to Thad, whose back happened to be turned at the moment; and the patrol leader hastened to join him.
Sebattis was pointing down at his feet. The boys noticed that there was something rather dramatic about his attitude while doing this; and Giraffe voiced the feelings of his mates when he said:
“He found what he was looking for, believe me; and what d’ye suppose it c’n be?”
The scouts pushed forward. Just as Thad was doing, so Allan, Step Hen, Davy, Giraffe, yes, and even Bumpus, as curious as the rest, craned their necks forward, and stared at the object in plain view beyond the tip of the dark finger which Sebattis had extended.
There was a plain imprint of a shoe there, though not the one that bore the mark across the sole. And there was something more than this; for when Thad touched what seemed to be a little dark pebble, with the point of a stick he had picked up, they realized what it was.
A drop of blood, showing that Sebattis had made no mistake when he declared his random shot had at least slightly wounded one of the prowling hoboes!
“I should say Sebattis did hit something!” declared Giraffe, staring hard at the tell-tale spot in the footprint.
“But it wasn’t Charlie that got hurt,” remarked Davy, evidently alive to the fact that the track which showed the trace of blood did not have any cross line, showing where the sole had been patched.
“No, it was the other fellow,” observed Thad. “Where was he hit, Sebattis?”
“Left leg, not much, but bleed heap,” and the Indian pointed to several other significant spots as he moved along the trail.
“Now how under the sun could he tell it was the left leg?” asked Step Hen, evidently deeply puzzled to account for the positive manner in which the guide made this assertion.
“Oh! that would be easy enough,” remarked the patrol leader. “Just stop, and you’ll remember that each foot makes a different track. This one is the left foot. And now you’ll be quick to think, even if you don’t say it, that perhaps that drop could have fallen from the right foot as it was raised, into the track of the left foot. Sebattis has other ways to prove what he says. Show them, chief, won’t you; because they want to learn all they can.”
“Huh! look this way, see how,” replied the dark-faced guide, leading the several eager scouts to where he knew an extra-plain print of the foot in question might be found.
Then he pointed out the difference between the mark of the right from the left foot, and showed them that there was a heavier trail where that same right shoe happened to be planted.
“You understand?” remarked Thad, who was following all this with considerable interest himself, for he, too, had more or less to learn.
“Seems to me he means that if a feller happened to get hurt, sudden like, in his left leg, he’d begin to limp,” Giraffe spoke up, eagerly.
“And when he limped,” Step Hen went on to add, “it stands to reason the print of the foot on the leg he wanted to favor wouldn’t be near so plain as the other. Why ain’t that the easiest thing you ever heard tell of?”
“Sure it is,” Davy Jones insinuated; “and after Columbus showed those Spanish grandees how to stand an egg up on end by punching the top down on the table, why, didn’t they think that was the silliest thing ever? Oh! it’s just as simple as turnin’ over your hand—after another feller has been and told you how.”
“All the same, it is easy,” Thad went on to say, “and next time, perhaps some of you will be able to figure things out yourselves. That’s what scouts ought to do every time. That’s the best part of the Boy Scout movement, General Baden-Powell says; it makes boys stop depending on other people, when they can just as well look out for themselves.”
“Will these hoboes haul off now, do you expect, Thad, and give the cabin a wide berth?” asked Bumpus.
“Well, it begins to look as though they ought to steer clear of it, as long as we’re in possession,” the patrol leader replied. “Still, you can never tell. By now they must be feeling pretty ugly toward us; and when such men have a grudge pushing them on, it’s hard to say what they wouldn’t do.”
“Ketch me agoin’ to sleep then,” remarked Bumpus; but even while he was making this brave remark, with one of his hands he was trying to suppress a great yawn.
“Oh! I don’t suppose there will be as much danger as that,” Thad continued, not wishing to alarm his chums unnecessarily. “The guides will divide up the balance of the night into three watches; and if we like, one of us can keep company; in fact,” he went on in haste, fearing that Bumpus might, in the goodness of his heart, volunteer his services, which it would be hard to decline, “I’ll appoint Allan here as one of the assistants, to help out Jim; while Giraffe can stay up with Eli; and I’ll share the watch of Sebattis, because I want to have a little whispered talk with him as we sit alone.”
So it was arranged. Bumpus made out to feel a little hurt that he had been overlooked in the distribution; but Davy showed him that both he and Step Hen were in the same boat.
“Besides,” he added as a clincher, “you know you haven’t got any gun, Bumpus; and don’t know much about firearms anyway.”
“Don’t you forget it,” remarked the stout scout earnestly; “I’m just determined to know more about ’em right along, after this. The Boy Scouts may stand for peace, all right; but I c’n see right now that the feller that’s able to look out for himself is just the one that never gets trampled on. Be prepared to defend yourself, and chances are you’ll never be called on to do a blessed thing. Oh! I’m on to a few dodges. I ain’t so much asleep as some of you think. Wait till we go off on our trip across the Continent, with the money we’re going to rake in for recovering this stuff, an’ capturin’ the thieves; mebbe I’ll show you a thing or two then.”
“He’s got a programme all laid out, I do believe,” ventured Step Hen, afterward to Giraffe; “and expects to take lessons in shooting, and all sorts of stunts, once we get back to Cranford. But it’ll be the making of Bumpus if he does wake up and do all kinds of things. He’ll quit bein’ so fat then, and make muscle instead. And for one, I hope he carries it out.”
The entire party went back to the cabin. Here arrangements for the balance of the night were concluded, and the first pair sent out to take their places as sentries.
Bumpus had declared that he would not sleep a wink; but once he lay down, he really knew nothing more until he felt some one tugging at his sleeve.
“Is it my turn to be on guard? All right, I’ll be up right away!” he exclaimed, and then began to sniff the air. “Say, what’s all this mean; are you goin’ to eat breakfast in the middle of the night?”
“Go over to the door, and look out,” laughed Thad. “You’ll think it still funnier to see the silly old sun poking his face up at such a time; but he’s gone and done it, all the same.”
“Blessed if I ain’t slept the whole night,” muttered Bumpus, not knowing whether to be pleased because he had obtained such a refreshing sleep, or miffed on account of having been neglected when there was “a call for all brave men and true.” Finally he concluded that what was done could not be undone; and besides, that venison did smell mighty appetizing. So he folded up his blanket, and went outdoors to chase the last remnant of drowsiness from his eyes by a dash of icy water.
There was no haste, for they did not mean to leave their present comfortable quarters until about the middle of the morning. This had been decided on as the best policy to be pursued; since they hoped that their actions would be observed by those in whom they were so deeply interested.
By degrees they started to pack their belongings, and stow them away in their regular places; for each canoe had its own complement, the object being to divide the many things besides tents which they carried, so that the boats might be about equally loaded.
It is no easy task to paddle a heavily charged canoe up against a strong current, hour after hour. Muscles hardened by constant use are needed to accomplish such a feat successfully without great fatigue. The scouts knew this now, if they had not been so wise before; for at sundry times each of them had been given opportunities to wield the spruce paddle, and battle with the swift current.
It was in the neighborhood of ten o’clock that the last thing was stowed; and after looking all around to make sure that nothing had been forgotten, the patrol leader gave the signal to depart.
Bumpus did not have his bugle along on this expedition. He had wanted to carry it, being a clever musician, and quite fond of practicing the many fine calls whereby scouts may regulate their going to bed, rising in the morning, assembling for meals, and other things. But Thad and Allan had shown him the folly of sounding a bugle in the Maine woods, where, as hunters, they were expected to keep as still as possible, so that the big game they hoped to secure might not take the alarm, and flee wildly from the vicinity of such weird sounds.
But Bumpus, not to be entirely undone, placed his hand to his mouth, and managed to give a pretty good imitation of the bugle call; though he subsided suddenly when he saw the patrol leader frowning at him.
So they left the spot where so many interesting, as well as exciting, events had come to visit them. And they carried away quite a few things besides the memories that would always haunt them. There was the honey, for instance, fastened up in every possible receptacle that could hold it securely; then they had some bear meat that would do to chop up into hash; the fine skin that Giraffe meant to have made into a rug for the floor of his den at home; and last but far from least, that precious packet so carefully tied up and sealed, containing the plunder which some bank must have lost a year or more back.
This, of course, had been carefully hidden, so that even though the hoboes were secretly watching their departure, they could hardly guess that the scouts were carrying off their ill-gotten loot.
Gaily they paddled against the current. Although they were warned not to seem to stare around in too curious a fashion, most of the boys were really watching the shore as they bucked up against the stream. And a short time after they had quite lost sight of the cabin and landing, Giraffe quietly informed Thad, who was close by, that he was pretty positive he had seen a man peering out at them from a clump of bushes along the river bank. He had not mentioned the fact at the time, because he said he was afraid one of the “tenderfeet,” meaning possibly Bumpus and Step Hen, might betray themselves by appearing too curious, and thus bring a shot from the shore.
On they pushed until fully a mile had been covered. Thad allowed the boys to emit an occasional shout, meaning that it should be carried back to the ears of the man on the shore, and by gradually growing fainter and fainter, convince him that the party had really gone for good.
“There’s the very place where we want to land,” said Thad, after a little more time had elapsed. “Plenty of rushes growing along the bank, where we can hide the canoes, and leave two to guard them, which will be Jim, and Bumpus here. The rest of us ought to be enough to do the business, if we manage to surprise the hobo crowd.”
Hearing what his fate was to be Bumpus groaned; but remembering what a scout must promise to do when given an order by one in authority, he shut his teeth hard, and doubtless determined that the next time he would have a gun, and then they must consider that he had rights, as well as the remainder of the party.
Once in the rushes the landing was made. It proved to be a splendid place for slipping away without showing themselves, for the woods grew unusually thick just alongside, and the sun happened to be hidden by clouds at the time, which was near noon.
And this was the way Thad led his company back toward the lone cabin, with himself and Sebattis in the lead, then Davy and Giraffe; and old Eli, in conjunction with Step Hen and Allan, bringing up the rear,—seven in all.
After leaving the spot where they had drawn the three canoes into the rushes, the little party started through the woods. Bumpus was very much grieved to see the balance of the scouts go off without him. He did not say anything; but his rosy fat face was eloquent enough, as he nodded in turn to each one of his chums.
“Poor old Bumpus,” said Giraffe, to Davy, in a whisper, “he feels badly cut up at not gettin’ a chance to earn that reward he’s had on his mind so long. And you mark me, the first opening Bumpus gets, he’ll be buying a gun, all right. He doesn’t like to be left out of the fun.”
As a rule they were supposed to keep absolute silence, and Giraffe knew this, as did Davy. Hence the other only nodded in reply, and taking his cue from this, the long-legged scout relapsed into quiet again.
But Giraffe was wide-awake. He meant to observe every little thing that took place around him. With two such veteran guides as old Eli, and the Indian, doubtless there would be more or less woodcraft displayed that must be well worth treasuring up; because a Boy Scout cannot learn too much along these lines.
And the first thing Giraffe noticed was the confident way in which the leader started out. Why, he never seemed to bother his head in the least as to what direction the cabin lay in. Giraffe marveled at this very much. He realized that if the task had been left to him, he would have had to cudgel his poor brains to remember all he had been told by Allan, as to the various methods whereby woodsmen know what is north, when in the dense forest, with the sun hidden from sight, and no compass along.
So Giraffe amused himself while he strode along as carefully as he knew how. He attempted to picture himself in the rôle of guide to just such an expedition, starting out to get to the cabin as quickly as possible, by taking a short cut through the woods, rather than by following the windings of the river.
What would he do first? Oh! yes, there was the bark of the tree to be observed, and the fine green moss that grew only on one side, never all the way around. He remembered that this moss was said to be almost universally upon the north side of the tree, and that if it varied at all, it leaned toward the northwest; because it was from that quarter most of the severe wintry gales came.