CHAPTER XVI--SIGNS THAT SPELLED TROUBLE
"Look! they're doing it, too, Frank! Oh! what luck! Good for Bluff!"ejaculated Will, hardly able to control himself in his excitement.
"Just as sure as you live, they are. They knew Bluff meant business whenhe said that. Why, even the wounded fellow has his one well arm raised.It's great!"
Frank generously handed the glasses to his comrade, whose hands trembledso that he could hardly hold them to his eyes.
"What's he doing now, Will?"
"Seems to be holding that blessed gun with one hand, and paddling softlywith the other. Ain't he the real thing, though? And once we doubtedwhether he would be just the right sort of fellow to be a member of theclub. I'm proud of good old Bluff, and that's a fact!" cried Will.
"So say we all of us. He must be past the other boat by now; isn't he?"
"Yes, and has laid the gun down, but where he can grab it up in a hurryif necessary. Pet and his crowd have resumed rowing, too, as if goingashore. They don't seem anxious to call out at Bluff just now. Jerryused to say that terrible gun would frighten game to death; but evenJerry would have to admit that it's worth while, if he could only behere, to see this lovely sight. Oh! why didn't I have my camera ready?What a good picture that would have been," sighed the officialphotographer of the club.
"Too far away to make out what was going on, my boy. But I only wishJerry could have been here to see it. That would relieve me of myanxiety," said Frank.
The canoe kept moving straight toward them, while the heavily laden boatcontinued over the lake toward the western shore.
Not even a derisive howl was sent after Bluff. He seemed to haveeffectually cowed the rowdies. Perhaps it was the last straw that brokethe camel's back, and they had really gone through so much lately thatthe limit had been reached.
Bluff presently landed directly beside his chums.
"Well done, old fellow!" said Will, hastening to pat him on the back.
"It was as fine a piece of bluff as I ever put up," grinned the paddleras he stepped ashore, holding the redoubtable gun in his hand.
"How so?" demanded Will, curious to know.
"Why, the gun isn't in a condition to use. I had it at a locksmith's,and thought I'd bring it along if he had mended it. Said he had, butdidn't have time to finish putting all the parts together again. I saidI could do that easily enough in camp, and fetched it along," repliedthe other, chuckling.
"Then it wasn't loaded at all?" asked Will.
"Of course not; but then they didn't know that, you see. It was a caseof where ignorance was bliss. Answered the purpose all right. Younoticed they let me alone."
"Now I see where you got your name; but that was a time when bluffingwas worth while. Come and sit down here and have some breakfast,"remarked Frank.
He was looking closely at the returned wanderer, as if trying to decidewhether he brought good news or bad.
"Tell me first, have you heard anything from Jerry?" demanded the other.
"Not the least thing. But I've been making up a plan that it seems wewill have to follow, since you come back alone," observed Frank.
Of course this was an invitation for Bluff to unload, and tell what hehad accomplished besides getting his gun just before starting back.
"Sheriff out hunting the hobo thieves, just as you feared. No one couldsay as to when he would return. Might be in an hour, and again, perhaps,it would not be for the balance of the day," he began.
"You waited until you got tired and then left a note for him?" askedFrank.
"Just what I did, fellows. The whole community is aroused. Seems likethese two hoboes must be yeggmen for keeps. At any rate severalrobberies occurred on the night following the affair on the steamer. Afarmer reported that his place was entered and some money and otherthings taken. Then the thieves broke open the storage warehouse over inNewtonport, and rummaged through a lot of stuff. No one knows what theytook there, but they left everything in a great upset. The local militiacompany in our town is out helping the sheriff hunt!"
"Say, things seem to be stewing at a great rate," gasped Will.
"And to think that the nervy chaps responsible for it all are here onthis very island near us. Yes, more than that, we've had experienceswith them, and even now they undoubtedly are holding our poor chum forransom, or some other purpose," declared Frank, shaking his head.
"Do you think Mr. Dodd will come?" asked Will.
"He certainly will, as soon as he knows. Why wouldn't he when the menhe's on the lookout for are here waiting for him?" replied Bluff,beginning to eat.
"You said you were thinking up a plan, Frank?" suggested Will, turningeagerly to the chum upon whom the rest were accustomed to rely inemergencies.
"Well, I leave it to the rest of you whether we do it or not. Theconditions are peculiar. We want to search for poor Jerry, and yet if weleave our camp unguarded, those savages may steal the whole outfit. Thenagain, Will naturally doesn't want to stay here alone while Bluff andmyself do the hunting. I can see only one way of fixing it."
"All right. I'm willing to do anything you say," remarked the one whohad a cup of coffee up to his lips, and was drinking the contents withsupreme pleasure.
"Ditto here, Frank," from Will.
"This idea I had was to break up our camp, stow all the stuff in thecanoes, and then have Will paddle far out on the lake with the wholeoutfit, where he could wait to see what happened. Nothing could reachhim there, and we would be free to follow up our plan. How about that,fellows?" asked Frank.
Will glanced out on the lake.
"All right. It looks like it would be quiet enough, and if a big winddoes come up, I can paddle the string over to the shore and get underthe lee," he said.
"Call it settled, then. And now, while Bluff is finishing his breakfast,you and I can be taking down the tents and stowing them away," observedFrank.
"Oh! I'm about through now, but give me a little time to get my guntogether, boys. It may come in handy, who knows," remarked Bluff.
"This is kind of tough, taking down tents when our little outing ishardly half through with," complained Will, as he labored pulling uptent pegs.
"Oh! it may be only temporary. If Mr. Dodd comes and rounds up thosehoboes as we expect, there's nothing to prevent our pitching camp againright on the old spot, and enjoying another two days or so of thisbusiness," came from Frank, who was under the falling canvas, workinglike a beaver.
Things were quickly accomplished. The more one camps the easier it is tostow things away in their proper places; and Frank was always particularabout doing this, as a labor-saving device.
Hardly an hour after the coming of Bluff and the space was bare. All the"dunnage" had been snugly packed in two of the canoes, while Will wasready to enter the other and convoy the string out on the bosom of LakeCamalot.
They made him take Jerry's gun as a means of protection. On his part,Will entrusted his precious camera to the tender mercies of Bluff, inhopes that the other might find some chance to snap off a few strikingpictures while engaged in his search for Jerry.
"And it isn't like your gun, remember, for it's loaded," he remarked.
"Well, my repeater is now. And perhaps when Jerry learns what a part ithas had in his rescue he may stop sneering at it as a modern joke," saidBluff.
After Will had started, and gone some little distance out on the lake,the two others left the deserted camping-ground.
"Where away first?" asked Bluff, willing to leave these matters to hisfriend, whose experience up in Maine was apt to prove valuable now.
"Let's make along the beach for the place where those chaps were,"replied Frank.
"Oh! I see. You think we may find the trail of the wild man there?"
"I'm curious to see what it looks like, that's all. After that, I thinkof making for the place where I lost Jerry. We've had no rain since, andit seems to me we ought to take up the trail at the place I lost it.I've since figured out how I came to go wrong that time, a
nd if we havegood luck, we ought to be able to follow it straight to the placethey're staying at."
It took them but a short time to reach the late camp of Pet Peters andhis cronies, which was full of signs of a hasty departure.
"I wonder what could have happened here?" mused Frank, as he lookedaround.
"Seems like they must have been having a high old time. There's aremnant of a hat, and I declare if this isn't piece of a coat sleeve. Itwas a fight, Frank, I tell you!" exclaimed Bluff, convincingly.
"Just as I suspected, but, of course, we may never know what caused it,and whether they were just indulging in a little racket among themselvesor with the two hoboes. They had little left that would induce thoserascals to attack them, seems to me," remarked Frank.
"Listen! what was that?" suddenly asked Bluff.
Both boys stood motionless, with heads cocked on one side, strainingtheir ears to catch a repetition of the sound that had come to them.
Quickly they heard it again.
"Say, it seems like a groan to me," whispered Bluff, with eyes aglow.
"Just what I thought. There! that time I located it, Bluff. Come overhere. Good gracious! what do you think of that?"