CHAPTER XIV
BEGINS A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE WHICH THREATENS TO END IN DISASTER
“I haven’t said anything about it to Bob,” Dan explained. “You see,he’s so kind of--kind of--well, proper, you know.”
They were sitting--Dan and Nelson and Tom--on the edge of the landing.Supper was over and camp-fire was still an hour distant. Behind themthe hillside was darkening with the mysterious shadows of night. Beforethem the lake lay like a sheet of purple glass, streaked here and therewith pencilings of steely blue. At the end of the lake and at intervalsalong the farther shore the lights twinkled in windows or at landings.From the direction of Crescent came the _chug--chug--chug_ of themotor-dory returning with the evening mail. Overhead gleamed the whitelight of the lantern, pale and wan as yet against the sky. Tom beat atattoo with his feet against the spile beneath. They had come downhere because the camp was infested--to use Dan’s language--with kidsand visitors, and they wanted to be alone to plot and conspire. But Tomdidn’t relish just sitting here and watching the afterglow fade overBass Island. He yawned.
“Seems to me,” he said disgustedly, “we’re a mighty slow lot ofconspirators. If some one doesn’t get busy pretty quick and conspireI’ll go back and read that book. There’s more conspiracy in that thanyou can shake your ears at. When I left off the villain was creeping upthe lighthouse stairs in his stocking feet with a knife a foot long inhis hand.”
“What for?” asked Nelson interestedly.
“To kill the hero and the girl he was shipwrecked with, of course!”
“Of course there’d have to be a girl in it,” sighed Nelson. “That’s theway they spoil all the good stories nowadays, putting a silly girl intoit! Wait till I write a story!”
“This girl’s all right,” answered Tom warmly. “Why, she saved thehero’s life; swam with him over half a mile from the wreck to thelighthouse, carried him in her arms to the door, and fell fainting onthe threshold!”
“Rot! No girl could do that!”
“Why couldn’t she? I’ll bet you she could!”
“Oh, get out! Swim half a mile and lug a man with her? And then carryhim in her arms another half mile----”
“It was only a little ways, and----”
“She must have been a--an Amazon!”
“She wasn’t, she was a Spaniard.”
“Maybe she was a Spanish mackerel,” suggested Dan. “They can swim likeanything. Now shut up, you chaps, and listen.”
“The chief conspirator has the floor,” murmured Tom.
“You know those Wickasaw dubs came over here to-day to our ball fieldand had the cheek to cheer for the Inn, don’t you?”
“Sure,” muttered Tom.
“Well, they had no business doing it.”
“That’s so,” Nelson concurred.
“And so we’re going to get square with them.”
“Hooray!” said Tom in a husky whisper.
“How?” questioned Nelson.
“I’m coming to that,” answered Dan importantly.
“You’re a long old time coming,” Tom grumbled. “I’ll bet that fellowhas got up-stairs by now and murdered the hero and the girl, and Iwasn’t there to----”
“Cut it out, Tommy!” commanded Dan. “You see that flag over there atWickasaw’s landing?”
“I see something sort of white that may be a flag, or may be somefellow’s Sunday shirt,” answered Nelson.
“Well, that’s that old white flag with the score on it. They’re toolazy to do anything shipshape, and so instead of tying it onto thelanyards under the camp-flag----”
“Bending it on, you mean,” said Tom.
“You be blowed,” said Dan. “You know too much, Tommy. Well, instead of_fixing_ it on to the rope they just nailed it on to the pole. That’sthe lucky part of it; see?”
The others looked across at the blur of white and then looked at Dan.Then they shook their heads.
“I may be stupid, Dan,” said Nelson apologetically, “but I’m blowed ifI do see.”
“I guess the answer’s a bottle of ink,” said Tom flippantly.
“Why,” said Dan impatiently, “if they’d taken it in we couldn’t havegot it.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Nelson. “Then we’re going--to--to----”
“Swipe it!” said Dan.
Tom heaved a sigh of relief.
“Bully! I was afraid it was something to do with blue paint!”
“What’s your scheme?” asked Nelson, beginning to take interest. But Danhad nothing more to say until the motor-dory had come alongside and itsoccupants had finally taken themselves off up the hill, whooping likean Indian war-party.
“When it’s good and dark,” he continued then, “we’ll swim over thereand get the old rag; that’s all.”
“But why not take a boat?” asked Tom.
“Because somebody would be sure to hear us.”
“Then what’s the matter with a canoe?”
“Well, that might do,” answered Dan thoughtfully. “But we don’t want tohave any trouble about it; Clint’s got his eye on us, I’ll bet, and ifwe get caught swiping Wickasaw’s flag we’ll get what for!”
“But there won’t be any fun in it if they don’t know who’s taken it,”Nelson objected.
“Oh, they’ll know all right,” said Dan; “only they won’t be able toprove anything.”
“I tell you what,” Tom exclaimed. “We’ll tear it up and tie it aroundthat stake off the end of the island, the one that marks the sand-bar.”
“That’s so,” said Nelson. “And look, Dan, we can take a canoe andpaddle down the shore until we’re opposite the landing and then swimacross. That way we won’t have to swim over a half mile in all.”
“All right,” agreed Dan. “I don’t care whether we paddle or swim; butthat flag’s got to come down from there.”
“They’ll probably put another one up,” said Tom.
“Let ’em! We’ll have had our fun,” said Nelson. “What time had webetter go, Dan?”
“About eleven, I guess. We want to wait until Verder and Smith areasleep so that they won’t hear us sneak out.”
“You don’t think Bob will be hurt at being left out, do you?” askedNelson.
“I don’t believe so; anyway, I don’t think he’d go. And if any rowcomes up he won’t get into it because he won’t know anything about it.Come on; let’s go up.”
So the plotting ended and they went back to camp-fire lookingbeautifully innocent, and were so sleepy, all three of them, that noone would have suspected for an instant that they intended to stayawake until midnight. After camp-fire the launch took the visitors backto the Inn, but none of the Four went along; they didn’t know what timethey would get back and they wanted the senior dormitory to be wrappedin slumber as early as possible; for, after all, the day had been abusy one and it might prove to be no easy task to keep eyes open untileven eleven. The lights went out promptly at half past nine, and Danand Tom and Nelson stretched themselves out between the blankets withthe other occupants of the hall. It was hard work to keep awake duringthe next hour and a half. Nelson, despite his best endeavors, dozedonce or twice, but was sufficiently wide awake to hear Dan’s bed creakand Dan’s bare feet creeping up the aisle.
“Awake, Nel?”
“Yes,” Nelson whispered.
“All right; come on. I’ll get Tommy.”
Nelson slipped noiselessly out of his bunk and as noiselessly out ofhis pajamas and crept along to Tom’s bed. That youth was fast asleep,breathing like a sawmill, and Dan’s gentle shakes and whispers werehaving no effect.
“Oh, come on and let him stay here,” said Dan finally. “We can’t wakeup the whole place on his account. The silly dub ought to have keptawake.”
“Wait, let me try him,” whispered Nelson. Some one had told him thatthe best way to awake a person so that he wouldn’t make any noise wasto take hold of his nose with the fingers and press it. So Nelson gota firm hold on that organ and gave a vigorous pul
l. The effect wasinstantaneous.
“_Lemme ’lone!_” said Tom drowsily but sufficiently loud to be heardall over the dormitory. Dan slapped his hand over the slumberer’smouth, and Nelson whispered “Hush!” as loudly as he dared. Luckily,save for a sleepy murmur from the next bunk, there was no notice takenof Tom’s remonstrance. By this time Tom had gained his senses and arealization of what was up, and in a moment the three conspirators werestealing down the aisle and out of the dormitory, naked and shivering.
Once on the path they could talk, and Dan called Tom to task for goingto sleep and nearly spoiling everything. “It would have served youbloody well right if we had left you behind,” he ended severely.
“Wish you had,” muttered Tom. “I’m as sleepy as a cat.”
“Did any one hear the launch come back?” asked Dan presently.
“I didn’t,” said Nelson; “but I dropped off to sleep a couple of times.”
“So did I,” said Tom truthfully but unnecessarily.
“Well, I was awake all the time,” Dan said, “and I’ll swear I didn’thear a sound from it. But they must be back by this; it’s ten minutesto eleven.”
“Well, just as long as we don’t meet them at the landing it’s allright,” said Nelson cheerfully. “Hush! What’s that?”
They stopped short at the foot of the hill and listened breathlessly.
“What?” whispered Dan.
“I thought I heard voices,” answered Nelson.
But after a moment, as no sounds reached them, they went on, and foundthe landing dark, save for the little glare of the lantern, and quitedeserted. It was but a moment’s work to put one of the canoes intothe water, and soon they were paddling stealthily along the shoretoward the foot of the lake. The stars were bright overhead, but forall of that the night was pretty dark and here under the trees it wasdifficult to see their course and to keep from running aground. As aresult they made slow progress. Bear Island was a darker blotch againstthe dark water. Wickasaw never displayed a lantern at night, but theboys thought they could make out a dim light where the landing ought tobe. When they had reached a point along the shore about opposite thefarther end of the island they drew the canoe half onto the shore andwaded out into the darkness.
“Swim for the landing,” instructed Dan, “and don’t make any noise.We’ll see what that light is before we get very near.”
Then they struck out, swimming slowly and silently, Dan and Tom abreastand Nelson a length behind. The water was warm and felt grateful totheir chilled bodies; although the days were warm the nights weregetting cool. It was very good fun, this stealthy progress throughthe dark water with only the white stars to see. Nelson experiencedan exhilarating sensation of excitement as they drew near the shadowyisland; he felt like a conspirator, indeed, and one on a desperatemission. To be sure, the danger of being caught was very slight, hesupposed, but there was enough of it to lend spice to the venture. Thedistance from shore to island was well under a quarter of a mile, butat the slow speed they went it was almost ten minutes before Dan calleda halt a hundred feet from the landing. Nelson swam up to the othertwo boys, and they remained quiet for a moment, looking and listening.There was no sound to be heard, but an orange glow slightly abovethe level of the float puzzled them. Finally Tom was sent forward toreconnoiter. Presently he was back again.
“It’s the Chi-chi-chi--” he sputtered excitedly.
“Cut it out,” whispered Dan. “Say it quick without thinking.”
“It’s the Chi-chi-chi-chi-chi----”
“Steam-engine,” suggested Nelson _sotto voce_.
“Chi-chi-Chicora!” blurted Tom finally in a hoarse whisper.
“What?” asked Dan. “The Chicora? Then, Clint’s there visiting DoctorPowers. Wonder who’s with him?”
“I think Thorpe went along in the launch,” said Nelson.
“Lu-lu-let’s go back,” suggested Tom uneasily.
“What for? It’s better to have Clint here than at camp, I think,” saidDan. “Come on. Did you hear any one, Tommy?”
“No, but I could see a light in the main house.”
“That’s it, then; Clint and Thorpe are paying a call on Powers,probably about the water sports. Shall we go on? What do you say?”
“Yes,” answered Nelson. “Let’s do what we started to do.”
“I don’t care,” said Tom.
So ahead they went, and in a minute were pulling themselves up onto thefloat. Beside it lay the steam-launch, her engine sizzling gently. Thelight they had seen came from the lantern which hung by the steam-gage.Softly they crept up the gangway to the pier above and there listened.The main building of Camp Wickasaw, a rather elaborate cottage, stoodabout two hundred feet away. Light shone from the door and from thewindow to the right of it. Both were open, and the boys thought attimes they could hear the hum of voices. But they couldn’t be certain,for Tom’s teeth were chattering loudly and they were all shiveringso they could scarcely keep still. But no one was in sight, and sothey hurried to the end of the pier and Dan mounted the railing. Theflagpole, a small affair, was secured to the floor of the pier and toa post of the railing, and on it, barely visible in the darkness, hungthe obnoxious white flag. Unfortunately, it was two feet out of Dan’sreach.
“I’ve got to shin up a ways,” he whispered. Then he wound his legsabout the slender pole and started up. And then--well, then there wasa sharp sound of breaking wood, an involuntary cry from Dan, and aninstant later a mighty splash as boy and pole and a section of railingwent down into the water six feet below. And at that moment voices camefrom the house and footsteps crunched the gravel of the path!