The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat Part 26

"And you were right, Paul, when you said that the chances were the island was close to the north side of the lake, so animals could swim across.

Why, only a narrow streak of water separates 'em there, sure enough."

"Oh! that was only a guess on my part," Paul confessed. "I saw about how far away the mainland trended up there, and supposed that our island must run near it in places. I'm pleased to see that I hit the mark, for once at least, in this mixed-up mess."

Paul was evidently more or less provoked because he had been unable to understand many of the strange things that had happened since their arrival on Cedar Island. And the others knew that he was taking himself to task because of his dullness; but what of them, if the scout master needed to be wakened up--where did they come in?

"I can't be sure about it," observed Phil, who had been looking intently at one particular spot; "but it seems as if I could make out the roof of a shed of some kind, over yonder, close to where the smoke rises."

This set them all to looking again. Andy, who had very good eyes, declared he could make it out, and that it was a roof of some kind; one or two of the others, after their attention had been called to the spot, also admitted that it did look a little that way, though they could not say for a certainty.

"Anyhow, I reckon that's where these men live," Paul declared; "and now the question is, are we going to turn back here; or keep right on exploring this queer old Cedar Island?"

Bobolink, who was busy cutting his initials in the bark of the big cedar that topped the squatty hill, spoke first of all; for being an impetuous fellow, he seldom thought twice before airing his opinions.

"Me to push right on," he said. "What difference does it make to us that some other fellows chance to be camping on the same island? It's free to all. We aren't going to bother them one whit, if only they leave us alone. But they began wrong, you see, when they told us to get off the earth. That riled me. I never did like to be sat on by anybody. It just seems like something inside gets to workin' overtime, and all my badness begins to rise up, like mom's yeast in a batch of dough. Count my vote to go on ahead, Paul."

"Well, who's next?" asked the scout master "and remember, that when it comes to a matter like this, I always try and do what the majority wants."

"I'm willing to do what the rest say," came from Jack.

"Go right on, and make a clean job of it," said Tom Betts, grimly.

"S-s-same here!" jerked out Bluff.

"That spakes my mind to a dot, so it do," Andy followed.

Paul threw up his hand.

"Enough said; that makes four in favor already, and settles the matter. I won't tell you which way I would have voted, because the thing's been taken from my hands. And besides, I would only have considered your welfare in making my decision, and not my own desire."

"Which manes he would have said yis for himsilf, and no for the rist of us," declared the Irish boy, exultantly; "so it's glad I am we've made up our minds to go on. Whin do we shtart, Paul, darlint?"

"Right away," replied the one addressed. "There's no use staying any longer up here, unless you think I'd better get Jud again, and wigwag him all that we've learned up to now."

"It'll keep," said Phil, hastily, for he wanted to see the faces of those other scouts when the several astonis.h.i.+ng pieces of news were told; especially about the finding of the real wild man asleep, the discovery of the field forge in the open glade and the picking up of the two silver quarters, which last he felt sure would give them all a surprise.

"A11 right!" the scout master announced, "I think pretty much the same way; and besides, it would take a long while sending all that news.

But perhaps I ought to let the boys know we're going on further; and that they needn't expect us much before the middle of the afternoon.

That'll give us plenty of time to roam around, and perhaps come back another way."

So he started once more to catch the attention of Jud, perched high up in that tree above the sink near the lower end of the island, where he could have an uninterrupted view of the cedar on the top of the hill.

Then there was a fluttering of the signal flag and briefly the scout master informed the other as to what their intentions were.

"That job's done," Paul remarked, presently, when Jud replied with a gesture that implied his understanding the message; "and now to move down-hill again. We're taking some big chances in what we're expecting to do, fellows, and I only hope it won't prove a mistake. Come along!"

CHAPTER XXIV

THE DISCOVERY

"There's one thing that I think we haven't bothered our heads much about, Paul," remarked Jack, just before they quitted the vicinity of the big cedar on top of the hill.

"What?" asked Bobolink, c.o.c.king his head on one side to see how well his initials looked in the bark of the tree from which Cedar Island took its name; and which would tell later explorers that others had been there ahead of them.

"Why, it seems to me those clouds down there on the southern horizon have a look that spells storm," Jack continued.

"Wow! wonder if we will strike another rainy spell?" said Bobolink, so quickly that none of the others had a chance to get a word in; "that last one helped us get out of the mud in the ca.n.a.l; if another comes will it be as accommodatin', or turn on us, and whoop things up, carrying our tents away over the island, and losing 'em in the swamps beyond there?"

"Oh! say, don't imagine so much, Bobolink," interrupted Phil. "You're the greatest fellow I ever saw for figuring all sorts of bad things out long before they ever get a chance to start. What Jack means is, will we be apt to get caught in the rain, and be soaked?"

"That's the main thing," added Tom Betts, who was rather particular about how his khaki suit looked on him, for Tom was a bit of a "dresser," as some of the others, less careful with regard to their looks, called it.

"I've noticed that it's grown pretty close and muggy," Paul went on.

"I should say it had," added Bobolink. "I kept moppin' my face most of the way up the rise. Thought we'd sure get a fine breeze after reachin'

the top; but nixey, nothing doing. It's as dead as a door nail; or Julius Caesar ever was. Yes, that spells rain before night, I'd like to risk my reputation as a weather prophet in saying."

"Still, we go on?" Paul asked.

"Well, we'd be a fine lot of scouts," blurted out Bobolink, "if the chance of getting our backs wet made us give up a plan we'd decided on."

"Lead the way, Paul; they're bent on finding out something more about these men. And feeling that way, as Bobolink says, a little rain storm wouldn't make them change their minds," and Jack, while speaking, started after the scout master, who had commenced to descend the hill.

They did not immediately turn toward the north side. There seemed no use in deliberately making their presence known to any one stationed over at the north end of the island, providing the mysterious men were not already aware of it.

Paul, when doing his wigwag act, had been careful to keep the crest of the hill between his flag and that suspicious quarter where the smoke column was lazily creeping up, as smoke has a habit of doing just before rain comes.

Of course it might be possible that the man in the aeroplane, after discovering the tents in the sink, may have made some sort of signal that would tell his comrades the fact of the scouts having returned in the night.

Paul wished, now that it was too late, he had thought to ask Jud about that point. It might be of some benefit to them to know whether the men were aware of their presence; or rested serene in the belief that they were the only occupants of the island, besides the wild man.

After the scouts had gone down a little way, Paul began to change his course. He was now turning toward the north. The trees grew much more thickly here, and would surely screen them from observation.

The boys had resumed their former habit of observing everything that came in their way, as true scouts always should. They turned their heads from right to left and Bobolink even looked back of him more than a few times.

Perhaps he remembered that there was a wild man at large who might take a notion to awake from his sleep, and, discovering the scout patrol, think it his business to follow them.

And then, to be sure, they ought to keep in mind the fact concerning that wild dog that had gone back to the habits of its ancestors, preferring to live by hunting, rather than take food from the hand of man. It would be far from pleasant to have old Lion suddenly sneak up on them, and give them a scare.

But everything seemed peaceful around them. Now and then a bird would fly out of a thicket, or give a little burst of song from the branch of some tree. A red-headed woodp.e.c.k.e.r tapped boisterously on the dead top of a beech near by, trying hard to arouse the curiosity of the worms that lived there, so as to cause them to poke out their heads to see who was so noisy at their front doors; when of course the feathered hammerer stood ready to gobble them up.

"Oh!" gasped Bobolink, when there was a sudden whirring sound of wings, and they had a furtive glimpse of something flas.h.i.+ng through the undergrowth near by.

"It's only a partridge; don't be worried!" remarked Phil.

"Sure it was," muttered Bobolink, with scorn; "any fellow with only one eye'd know that _now_; but all the same, the thing gave me a bad turn, I'm that keyed up."