Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence Part 15

"Hear! hear!" cried George; "that is a good ill.u.s.tration, Herb. You see, fellows, he means that we ain't going to be chased away by hard knocks and bluffing; but if some one would come and ask us politely to vacate, and give us a good reason why we ought to move along, we'd do it willingly. That's the Yankee policy."

"Then, as we're going to be here for another day, anyhow, suppose Jimmie and me take a turn after the muskies?" suggested Nick.

"It's only fair you should have a chance," Jack observed; "but you can see what risk there always is in one of the clumsy little punkin-seed boats, when handling a big fish."

"You forget that I can swim like a duck, Jack!" observed Buster, proudly.

"All the same," Jack went on, seriously, "you know you're not quite as spry as some of us; and I hope you will keep that life preserver on all the time. This water is deep, and the current makes it treacherous."

"Oh! I promise that, sure," Nick a.s.sented. "Between us, believe me, I meant to carry that bally old cork life preserver along, anyway. Jimmie might take a crab while rowing, and upset. There's no telling, you know.

All right, us for the grand sport today, Jimmie. And now, post us about the place, Jack, and just how you do the business."

"Wouldn't I just give a cookie to see Buster fast to a hustler like I had on yesterday," chuckled Herb.

"Well," remarked the fat boy, coolly, "it would do you good, I guess.

You'd know how to manage, after that, so as not to let a measly fish upset your boat. It takes brains to be a successful fisherman, Herb, real brains."

Jack went ash.o.r.e again a little later, but none of the others seemed to care to accompany him, being satisfied to lie around, taking things easy, and talking of their future plans; for a new idea had been broached which had to do with an extended cruise up through the great lakes, rather than knock around here on the St. Lawrence for two full months; and all of them were full of suppressed excitement over it.

If Jack made any further discoveries during the time he was on the island, he did not think to take the others into his confidence when he came back; but that may have been because just then a noisy little motor boat was heading straight toward the cove, and every one was guessing what new developments were about to be sprung upon them.

CHAPTER XIII-THE GHOST HUNTER

"Wonder if this can be the same parties we met yesterday?" George remarked, as they watched the approach of the bustling little motor boat, which pushed over the water with a series of fierce explosions, not unlike the discharge of a pack of giant fire-crackers.

"No, I don't think it is," Herb spoke up, in answer. "Fellow at the wheel looks like a Canuck guide from one of the hotels, a full-blooded Indian, and the man with the gla.s.ses and the fis.h.i.+ng rod is more like a college professor, I'd say."

"That was just what I thought," put in Jack.

"Anyway, we'll soon know, for they're coming in, as sure as anything,"

Josh added.

Inside of five minutes the noisy little boat swung close to where the boys sat watching. The gentleman sitting holding the rod, and winding up his reel with a clicking sound, waved a hand in cheery greeting.

"How d'ye do, boys?" he said, cordially; and somehow Jack rather liked the tone of his voice, as he also did his looks.

"Any luck, sir?" he inquired, as is the custom at such a time.

"Had two fierce strikes; but I'm afraid I've lost my cunning, for I let the beggars have a slack line, and lost both. Are you fis.h.i.+ng any? I saw two lads in little d.i.n.kies like that one yonder, fis.h.i.+ng over by the long island, and guessed that possibly they belonged to your party."

"Yes, they do," George replied; and went on to tell about what luck they had had, with the usual pride of a successful fisherman.

Jack meanwhile was not saying much, but observing the gentleman. It struck him that the other was trying to make himself very agreeable; and somehow he could not help remembering the fable that Herb had spoken about so recently. Having failed to scare the motor boat boys off by stern means, were milder tactics about to be adopted now?

Presently the other thought he ought to introduce himself.

"I am Professor Herman Marshland, of Ann Arbor," he said, modestly.

So Herb started to tell just who they were, and how they happened to be knocking around on the St. Lawrence at this time.

"Have you been stopping long in this cove?" asked the other, in what he doubtless intended to have appear as a casual way; but Jack saw that he seemed to set more store by the question than surface indications would indicate.

"Why, sure, we have, Professor," George said. "We might have gone on before now, but we just hate to leave under fire, you see."

"Excuse me, but I hardly grasp your meaning, I fear," remarked the gentleman, with one of his winning smiles.

"Well, you see, some persons appear to have taken offense because we've monopolized their dandy cove here. And they've been trying in all sorts of ways to shoo us away. Last night they threatened to run us down with a speed launch that came buzzing around that point of the island there.

And then, would you believe it, sir, they even went so far as to attempt to scare up-to-date American boys, by setting up a silly ghost game on us."

"What's that you say?" remarked the gentleman, interrupting George. "A ghost? Now, that's right in my line, you see. I've been making a study of all manner of strange and incomprehensible manifestations along that line for five years. In that time I've investigated dozens of so-called haunted houses. Why, you arouse my interest at once to fever heat, my young friends."

"And did you ever discover a real, genuine bona fide ghost, sir?" asked Josh.

Professor Marshland smiled.

"I never have," he replied, with a forlorn shake of the head; "but I still live in hopes. What knows but what this may be the golden opportunity I have waited for so long? You must tell me all about it, boys. And afterwards I'll just drop off and take a little look around, on my own responsibility."

Of course George and Herb were only too willing. a.s.sisted by an occasional word from Josh, they soon told the story. Then Josh in turn related what he and Jack had found out when they investigated ash.o.r.e.

The college professor seemed deeply interested in the forlorn cabin, the dilapidated door of which was fastened by a broken padlock.

"They say ghosts are peculiar in many things," he remarked at the conclusion of the little talk. "And that might account for the padlock.

It's all very interesting, boys. I only regret that I was not here when the manifestation occurred. Perhaps, if I hung around tonight, the thing might get up courage enough to show again. It would repay me for all my trip here. I came for the fis.h.i.+ng; but to catch a ghost in the act, would be positively refres.h.i.+ng, I a.s.sure you."

Jack was still watching the professor. While he liked the other, somehow he seemed to feel that there was something rather strange about him. He seemed to be studying the four lads as though seeking to read them, and make up his mind as to whether they were just what they claimed.

Could it possibly be that he was connected with those mysterious men who seemed so bent on chasing the motor boat boys away from the lonely island?

After chatting for some time, and making quite a favorable impression on Herb, George and Josh, the professor remarked that if they would excuse him he would step ash.o.r.e, and take a look at the delightful old ghost cabin.

Josh was just about to volunteer to accompany him, when he caught the quick look Jack cast in his direction, accompanied by a negative shake of the head.

"If he wanted us he'd have said so, Josh," came in a whisper.

A minute later the gentleman, having managed to land, vanished amid the heavy growth of timber and brush.

Josh looked at Jack.

"Sure as you live, he's following that trail, Jack," he said.

"That's only natural," remarked the other, "because, you see, it was mighty plain, as though lots of people had gone back and forth."

"Yes," observed Josh, simply, "if them chaps were camping in the cabin, and going out fis.h.i.+ng every day, of course they'd make a well-worn trail down to this cove here, where their boats must have been tied up. I've been thinking, Jack, that p'raps they're engaged in some sort of fis.h.i.+ng that's illegal, such as setting nets against the law. Say, wouldn't that be an idea now? And if true, it must explain just why they watched us so close. They thought we might be wardens getting on the track of their business. How's that for a guess, fellows?"

"Sounds kind of fishy," remarked George.