CHAPTER X
DISAPPOINTMENT
"Oh! my stars!"
That was what George said, in a faint voice, as though he was verynearly overcome, after taking his look into the box, Jack holding thesame most obligingly all the while.
Of course, even this did not have any effect upon Josh, who was next inline. In fact, if anything, it served to spur him on to all the soonerget his peep-in; wondering at the same time what it could be.
Buster heard Josh give a gasp, as he bent his head down. It must besomething wonderfully fetching, to influence all of the boys in thatqueer way. And consequently Buster, impatient for his turn, actually putout his hand and shoved Josh out of the way.
No sooner had he looked than he too gave evidence of being nearlyovercome.
"Great governor! somebody hold me. I'm going to faint!" was what Busterwhispered; and this suspicious remark made Andy want to get out of line,only that Herb, coming last, would not allow such a thing, but actuallyshoved the other up until he just had to do his duty and look.
Andy threw up both hands as he exclaimed, perhaps in a louder voice thanwas really discreet:
"Tare and ounds! Be the powers, 'tware a grave afther all, so it was!"
"What's that?" quivered from the lips of Herb, as he now hesitated inturn.
"Come on, don't hang back like that, Herb; you've just got to see!"ventured Josh, laying hold of the other's sleeve, and commencing to draghim forward.
It was like the boy who jumps into the pond so early in the spring thathe is nearly frozen stiff; but whoever heard of him confessing to thefact; while his comrades hesitate on the bank he puts on the mostangelic face possible, and declares that the water is "as warm asanything;" until he has coaxed them all in; for misery loves company,they tell us.
So Herb had to do his duty, and look.
"Good gracious, why, it's only a little puppy dog after all!" broke fromhis white lips, as he stood there and stared.
"That's just what it is," replied Jack. "And after all, that fellowspoke what he meant, when we thought he referred to another sort oftreasure. This must have been his pet."
"But Jack darlint," broke in Andy, "phat d'ye think he wanted to burythis ki-yi on the island for at all, at all?"
"What for?" echoed Buster, before Jack could say a word, "why, becausethe little beast had gone and kicked the bucket--died on him--you know."
"Must have been a pet dog," suggested Josh, "'cause we heard him say hefelt bad at putting the thing underground. Say, Jack, d'ye think now,the little beast could a got hurt that night when they broke into theLawrence bank and looted it? P'raps somebody fired at the thieves andhit the pup; or it might a got hold of rat poison somehow."
"Quit your guessing, Josh; what does it matter to us how the poor littlebeast came to his end?" demanded George, who had a liking for dogshimself, and seemed to feel less hilarity than any of the rest, once theshock of the discovery, and their own disappointment wore away.
Jack was for taking it as a joke at his expense.
"Say, just think of that splendid sneak of mine wasted," he remarked,sadly. "And all for this, too. I've got half a notion to crawl backagain, and bury the poor little wretch over, just to pay for making sucha mistake."
"But hold on," Herb observed, "this doesn't mean that the two overyonder ain't what we took 'em to be, does it? There's the white boat,you know, with the red trimming; didn't Jack tell us he could see itplain enough anchored close to the shore? Just because they put a littlepet dog underground don't make 'em better, I reckon, eh, Jack?"
Jack did not reply immediately. The old doubts were commencing to workdouble time with him. He was beginning to question the truth of theirsolution of the problem. Again he could see the face of the youngerfellow, who had seemed to be hardly more than a boy. Was that affectationonly assumed? Might it not be a part of the nature of the fellowafter all? Was he a desperate crook, who was able to put on an air ofinnocence; or could it be possible they had made a tremendous mistake,and that he was a pampered son of some rich man, cruising in his finemotorboat, with a mechanic as crew to do the rough work, while he playedhis part as skipper of the craft?
Yes, Jack was now in the Doubting Thomas class. He shook his head, andseemed to be trying to figure things out, as he laid the box on theground, and covered it temporarily with the lid which had taken him solong to pry off.
"And if they are the bank thieves," Herb went on to say, "what d'yesuppose they could have done with all that stuff they took away? Thinkthey buried the same before they got here to this island, Jack, or couldit still be on board the little white boat right now?"
"Oh! yes, that's the stuff; how about it, Jack?" George went on to add.
"We sure did fall all over ourselves in making this blunder," admittedJosh, "and it's up to us now to get busy and try to make things square."
"Of course," said Jack, slowly, as though he might be revolving thislast idea in his mind, "that's possible. If these are the right men, andthey've not got rid of the plunder up to now, why, it stands to reasonit would be somewhere on board, that's right."
"But seems to me, Jack," remarked Herb, suspiciously, "you're beginningto hedge a heap. Just a little while ago you were dead sure thesefellows must be the two robbers. Now you say 'if they are.' How's that?Didn't you see their boat, and wasn't it just what that newspaperaccount said the suspicious craft looked like."
"Boys, I admit all that," the other went on to say, "but if you stop andthink, the article in the paper didn't say positively that the whiteboat belonged to the bold bank thieves--only that it had been seenhanging around, like it might be in hiding, and they thought it musthave for a crew the two yeggs who broke into the Lawrence bank. There'ssome difference, you'll admit between making a positive statement, andjust guessing things."
"Well, for one, I still believe they are the men that are wanted," saidGeorge, to prove that he had not been convinced otherwise.
"I think so, too," added Josh.
"And for one now," added impetuous George, boldly. "I'd like nothingbetter than to sneak that boat of theirs away while they sleep. Whatd'ye say to that, fellows, ain't it worth considering?"
For a minute no one replied. The audacity of the proposition staggeredthem, it seemed; and yet as is nearly always the case with boys, itappealed to the love of mischief and the daring that somehow seems to bea part of their nature.
"Say that would be a great stunt, now," said Josh.
Buster drew a long breath as he went on to say:
"George, you ain't so very bad a hand at laying out a game after all.Whee! just think how they'd rub their eyes, and stare, when they woke upin the morning, and went to look for the jolly old white boat, whichwouldn't be there."
George began to feel his importance. After all, Jack could not have amonopoly of engineering things; once in a great while some other fellowwas apt to have an inspiration; and it seemed to be his turn just then.
"You seem to think well of my little scheme?" he remarked, proudly.
"Jack, how do you feel about it?" asked cautious Herb, not noticing thatthe other had as yet made no comment; which, in some boys might havesignified that they were feeling jealous; but everybody knew JackStormways could not allow such a thought to enter his head.
"Do you want to know my idea, George?" asked Jack, frankly.
"I sure do," came the reply.
"Well, I'll tell you," the other went on to say. "It would be a greatstunt to carry off this white boat, if only we were sure the parties arethe robbers. But stop and think what we'd be up against if they wereinnocent parties. Why, they could have us arrested for stealing theircraft; and what excuse would we have to offer? The old gag about notknowing it was loaded wouldn't pass in court. We'd get a heavy fine,even if it wasn't worse. This is a time when it'll pay us to be surebefore we go ahead."
"Huh! p'raps you're right, Jack," grunted Josh, already beginning toweaken before this sort of logic.
George did not open his mo
uth, but he was always willing to listen towhat Jack had to say; for the other never gloried in showing any of hiscomrades up as being in the wrong.
"But the principal thing of all, and which we'd have to find out first,before thinking of hooking the boat, would be to know whether theyexpect to sleep ashore, or aboard," Jack went on to say.
At that Buster tittered.
"Think what a cheeky thing it'd be," he remarked, softly, "if we ranaway with the boat, and then found that we'd kidnapped a couple ofinnocent ducklings, one of them mamma's darling boy! Whew! mebbe wewouldn't feel cheap though!"
"Oh!" said Jack, "then you've been thinking that this terrible SlimJim, the dandy hobo, might be somebody else, have you, Buster? Well, Itell you what we ought to do, boys--hang around, and watch that pairsome more. If they begin to get the camp ready as though they meant tostay ashore tonight, we can talk it over again, and decide whether we'llplay George's trick or not with the boat. How?"
"I say leave it that way," ventured Josh, now completely won over.
"I'm agreeable," George hastened to say, for he was not altogetherunreasonable in anything save that troublesome engine aboard hisWireless; and in that quarter he would never take advice from any oneuntil in difficulties; he knew it all.
And so it was arranged.
They could creep up, and from their old place of observation keep an eyeon the two who were under suspicion; and in this way something mightarise whereby they would be able to tell definitely whether they wouldbe justified in going to extremes, or ought to keep their hands off.
Even as they started to once more advance toward the spot where the campfire burned, they began to hear a strange clanking sound, as of steelsmiting steel, that gave them new cause for wonder.