The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat Part 25

No wonder Bobolink fairly held his breath, and the other five scouts looked at each other, as though they could hardly believe their ears. For a full minute they sat there and stared; while Bobolink remembered the far-away black object that, at the time, he had thought to be a buzzard.

CHAPTER XXIII

STILL FLOUNDERING IN THE MIRE

"Whee!"

It was, of course, Bobolink who gave utterance to this characteristic exclamation.

Like most of the others, he had been so stunned by the message read by Paul, that for the moment he failed to find words to express his feelings.

An aeroplane had pa.s.sed over the camp! And heading south, which would take it toward the quarter where Stanhope lay!

Here they had thought themselves so far removed from civilization that the only persons within a range of miles might be set down as a wild man and some lawless counterfeiters, who had chosen this region because of its inaccessibility.

And now they had learned that one of the latest inventions of the day had been moving above the island, with the pilot actually looking down on the camp, and so discovering the fact of the Boy Scouts having returned after their banishment from the place.

No wonder they all stared at each other, and that speech was denied them for a time.

Jack was the first to speak. He had read the message, being nearly as good a signalman as Paul or Jud.

"Things seem to be picking up at a pretty lively clip for us; eh, fellows?" was the way he put it.

"Picking up?" gasped Bobolink; "Seems to me they're getting to the red hot stage about as fast as they can. An aeroplane! And up here on our desert island at that, which folks said was given over to spooks and wild men! That _is_ the limit, sure! Hold me, somebody; I think I'm going to faint!"

But as n.o.body made any movement in that direction, Bobolink changed his mind.

"Let's look into this thing a little closer, fellows," said Paul, always prompt to set an investigation going.

"That's what!" echoed Bluff, surprising himself by not stammering a particle, even though he was still quivering with excitement.

"Jud says an aeroplane pa.s.sed over the camp; but he didn't tell whether it rose from the island or not, though the chances are that it did," Paul continued.

"Why do you say that as if you felt sure?" demanded Tom Betts.

"Yes," put in Phil, eagerly, "you've got on to something, Paul; give us a chance to grab it, too, please."

"Sure I will," complied the scout master, cheerfully. "And I'm only surprised that one of you, always so quick to see such things, hasn't jumped on to this little game as soon as I have. Look back a short time, and you'll remember how we were scratching our heads over the tracks of wheels down in that big opening!"

"Wheels!" exclaimed Bobolink, with fresh excitement. "Well, I should say yes; and looks to me like we had 'em in our heads too, where the brains ought to be. Wheels, yes, and rubber-tired wheels too! Remember how they seemed to run up and down a regular track, and just went so far, when they gave out? Whoop! why, it's as easy as two and two make four. Anybody ought to have guessed that."

"Huh!" remarked Tom Betts, scornfully; "that's what they said, you recollect, when Columbus discovered America. After you know, everything looks easy. In my mind Paul goes up head. He's in a cla.s.s by himself."

"And that forge might have been used, among other things, for doing all sorts of mending metal pieces connected with an aeroplane," Paul went on, smiling at Tom's tribute of praise.

"Not forgetting these sort of things," Bobolink observed, positively, as he took out a pair of bright new quarters, and jingled them musically in his hand.

"Well, we haven't had any reason to change our minds about that thing,--yet," said Paul. "But what strikes me as the queerest of all is the fact that while we must have been pretty close by when that aeroplane went up, how was it none of us heard the throbbing of the engine?"

They looked at each other in bewilderment. Paul's query had opened up a vast field of conjecture. One and all shook their heads.

"I pa.s.s," declared Tom.

"Me too," added Phil.

"Must 'a got some new kind of motor aboard that is silent,"

suggested Jack.

"J-j-just a-goin' to s-s-say that, when Jack t-t-took the w-w-words out of m-m-my m-m-mouth," Bluff exploded.

"No trouble doin' that, Bluff," laughed Bobolink. "If that aeroplane did climb up out of that field, while we pushed through the heavy timber, and none of us heard a thing, let me tell you, boys, they've got a cracker-jack of a motor, that's what!"

"But arrah! would ye be thinkin' that a lot of bog-trottin'

counterfeiters'd be havin' a rale aeroplane?" burst out Andy Flinn, who had up to now been unable to give any expression to his feelings.

"I'd say these fellers must be a pretty tony lot, that's all,"

Bobolink declared.

"Whatever do you suppose they use such a machine for?" asked Tom.

Again all eyes were turned upon Paul, as the oracle of the group of wondering scouts. He shrugged his shoulders, as if he thought he had as much right as any of the others to admit that he was puzzled.

"Well, we'd have to make a stab at guessing that," he observed. "Any one thing of half a dozen might be the truth. An aeroplane could be used for carrying the stuff they make up here to a distant market. Then again, it might be only a sort of plaything, or hobby, of the chief money-maker; something he amuses himself with, to take his mind off business. All men have hobbies--fis.h.i.+ng, hunting, horse racing, golf--why couldn't this chap take to flying for his fun?"

"That sounds good to me," declared Bobolink; "anyhow, we know he must be a kind of high-flier."

"Seems like our mystery bulges bigger than ever," remarked Phil, frowning.

"It does, for a fact," admitted Tom; "instead of finding out things, we're getting deeper in the mud all the time."

"Oh! I don't know," Paul said, musingly; and although the rest instantly turned upon him, fully expecting that the scout master would have some sort of communication to make, he did not think it worth while, at that time, to explain what he meant.

"Say, I wonder, now, if we could see anything of those fellows from up here?" remarked Bobolink, suddenly.

"That's so," echoed Phil, perceiving what the other intended to convey; "we can see the whole of the island now; and if they're camped somewhere on the north end, perhaps we might get a glimpse of canvas."

"What makes you think these men have their headquarters on the north end, rather than anywhere else?" asked Paul, quickly.

"Why, when we got up here, I noticed that smoke was climbing up over there; and smoke means a fire; which also tells that some person must be around to look after it," replied Phil, promptly.

"Pretty good reasoning," said Paul, nodding his head toward Phil; for if anything gave him pleasure as scout master of the troop, it was to see a boy using his head.

All now looked over the crown of the hill, toward the upper end of the island. The first thing they saw, of course, was the thin column of smoke which Phil had mentioned. Then Bobolink burst out with: