CHAPTER XII.
A BOLD PLAN.
"Hold on, fellers! Let's get a line on what this rotten old shore lookslike," Max plainly heard Ted Shafter say, in a low tone.
The oars continued to dip in the water, for unless this were donecontinually the swift current would carry the boat downstream rapidlyenough.
Looking closely at the point from whence the sound proceeded Maxbelieved he could make out an object that seemed darker than thesurroundings. This then must be the boat in which the three boys hadpulled all the way up from Carson; a job not to be sneered at,considering the weight of the craft, and the strength of the current.
"Hang the luck, Ted, I can't see anything but just a solid blur,"remarked another of the occupants of the boat; and Max knew that it wasShack Beggs, whose father was an engineer in one of the works at Carson,who made this disgusted remark.
"I can see trees, and I think some rocks," said a third one, undoubtedlyAmiel Toots; for he had a soft oily voice, just as Amiel was a soft oilyboy, treacherous by nature, and only faithful to Ted because he reallyfeared the big bully.
"That accounts for the whole bunch of them," Max was saying to himself,and at the same time endeavoring to figure out how he could give thethree rowdies a scare that would send them flying down the river, not tocome back again.
Max thought he saw a way of accomplishing this much-to-be-desired end.He had in his pocket several flashlight powders that he had intendedusing in the line of photography, if the occasion ever arose for tryingto take a picture during the period of darkness. With them he alsocarried a clever little arrangement fashioned after the style of apistol, whereby with a pressure of one finger the flash could be broughtabout.
There, they were talking again, after all of them had been trying theirhardest to make out the conformation of the shore near which they wereat the time.
"Reckon yuh must move in a little closer, Ted, if so be yuh 'spect ustuh see just where tuh land," Shack remarked.
"Don't you think we ought to go a little slow about landing?" remarkedAmiel, who evidently had certain fears of his own, which same caused hissoft oily voice to quiver painfully.
"Aw! what's the matter with you?" grated Ted, savagely. "Just acausethem fellers go to talkin' 'bout ghosts and all that stuff, you'reafraid, that's what! Sho! didn't we see Max Hastings and his crowd thereon the foot of the plagued island? If they could stay here two nightsa'ready, what's a-goin' to hurt us inside of only one hour, tell methat, hey?"
When Max heard this he came near chuckling. It seemed to answer thequestion he had been asking himself; for he wondered whether thesefellows could have heard about the scare Herb and his friends receivedsome little time ago, when they tried to stop on the island over night.
Apparently, then, they had, and the fact had even made a strongimpression on the weakest one of the lot, Amiel Toots. And Max was notso sure about the others being very far removed from fear in connectionwith that same subject, much as they made out to show courage.
"It's going to work all right, see if it don't," Max whispered tohimself, as he began to make ready to start things moving.
First of all he wanted to screen his own body completely from sight; forwhen the sudden vivid flash came it would disclose every little objectaround for a radius of many feet. This was easily accomplished. Aconvenient tree trunk offered a friendly asylum; and back of this hemight hide, so that no one could see him, from the river side at least.
First of all he gave a very dismal groan. Max was not up in matterspertaining to ghosts in general, and could only make a guess at emittingthe proper kind of sound; but really it did seem quite "shivery," evento the boy responsible for making it.
"Glory be! What was that?" he heard Amiel ask, instantly.
Utter silence followed, and apparently everyone in the boat waslistening with might and main for a repetition of the groan. Max thoughtit would be a pity to disappoint those fellows. They had come so _very_far just to have some fun; and if they were now compelled to go all theway back to Carson without ever having the least amusement, think of thetrouble they had taken for nothing! And after all, it was so easy togive them good measure, brimming full, and running over. So he groanedthree times in rapid succession, just as if the troubled spirit might begetting impatient.
He heard exclamations of renewed alarm from the pitch darkness; forclouds shut out what little light might have come from the heavensabove.
"Let's get out of this, boys!" Ted was heard to say.
"Hurry, hurry! I thought I saw something moving right then! Be quick,fellows!" Amiel Toots exclaimed, in thick accents, as though his frighthad become such as to seriously interfere with the working of his vocalcords.
Max waited no longer. He knew that the boat, drifting down with thecurrent, was now exactly opposite to him. He heard the splash of theoars striking the water; although in their haste and clumsiness thethree Carson boys were in danger of upsetting their craft while tryingto turn so quickly.
Max pressed the trigger of his little flashlight pistol. Instantly adazzling light sprang forth, blinding the eyes of the three in the boatjust as if they had met with a bolt of descending lightning.
Then it was gone, as quick as that, leaving the darkness of the nightmore noticeable than before. Max was satisfied with his work. He heardcries of horror break forth from Ted Shafter and his two cronies. AmielToots even started to crying like a big baby, he was so badlyfrightened; while the others tugged at the oars desperately, in theendeavor to turn the boat, so as to head downstream.
And when they did finally get started, the way they tugged at thoseashen blades was enough to win almost any race.
"Good-by, Ted and Company!" said Max, not out loud, but to himself in alow tone; for he did not want to lessen the fear that had gripped thosethree fellows.
He could hear the sound of the oars working furiously in the rowlockslong after the fugitives must have passed the lower end of the island.Of course the rest of the campers would catch the sounds that had welledforth, and feel curious about them; but between the four they ought tobe able to figure out what it meant. And as the fact of his possessingthe flashlight powders was known, they must realize that he, Max, was atthe bottom of the whole affair.
As Max continued his forward progress he was trying to understand whatTed and his friends had meant to do. They knew, of course, how thecampers expected to stay there on Catamount Island for a whole week; andthe temptation to try and play a mean trick on Max and his chums hadfinally moved them to get a boat, and row all the way up here.
No doubt they had arrived in the vicinity of the island at some timeduring the afternoon; but unwilling to show themselves, lest theirintentions be thwarted, they had waited down around the next bend untildarkness came along to conceal their movements.
Just what they expected to do no one ever knew; but such mean trickswere always cropping up in the minds of the trio, that even the settingadrift of all the canoes, thus compelling the campers to swim ashore,and foot it all the way back to Carson, would not be anything unusualfor them.
However, there need be little fear that those three frightened boyswould ever make a second attempt to land on Catamount Island, especiallyduring the night time. So far as they were concerned, the campers mightnow rest easy; and even Bandy-legs, when he heard the facts, could drawa relieved breath.
Max now tried to forget all about the recent little adventure, and fixhis whole mind on what lay ahead of him. He had started out on whatseemed rather a risky errand, if, as they suspected, the occupant of thestrange cabin was really a desperate escaped convict. Still, Max was abrave lad; and having once conceived this little plan of campaign, hecould not force himself to give it up, just because it carried a spiceof danger.
He knew that at a certain point, which he had marked, he must leave theshore of the island, and turn aside. Through dense shrubbery then hiscourse lay; but he had marked it well in his mind, so that he couldfollow it faithfully, even in pitch darkness. And it
was only a littleway, after all, before he would come upon the strange cabin with thegreen roof and lichen-covered side logs.
Several times he stopped to listen, but heard no suspicious sound. Oncea small animal of some sort started off nearly under his feet, and gavethe boy a shock; but nevertheless he did not turn back. Having made hismind up on a certain matter, it would have to be something more thanthat to make him change his plans.
Before quitting camp he had asked his chums to leave something in theline of food, where it could be easily found by a roving man, while outof the reach of foxes, 'coons, and 'possums. This he meant to be in theshape of a bait. If the half-starved marooned convict once got it in hisclutch he would undoubtedly make straight for the cabin retreat, thereto devour his prize. And it was while the unknown party was engaged inthis delightful task that Max expected to slip up and fasten the door bymeans of the arrangement he had fixed that afternoon, a very simpleaffair, too, as it turned out.
Now he could just distinguish the dark blur ahead of him, which he knewmust be made by the cabin itself. As the trees were not quite so denseoverhead in this spot, for once upon a time, many years ago, poor WesleyCoombs had started to clear around his then newly made log cabin, Maxwas soon able to make out the partly open door, just as he had found,and also left it, so as not to excite the suspicions of his intendedvictim.
Then he settled down to watch, hoping that if the man were waiting for achance to steal more food, he would soon find an opportunity, and comehurrying back to dispose of it as before. For Max had found the bone oftheir ham, picked clean, in the shack that afternoon when he visited it;though there had been no sign of any human being around at the time, theman evidently only sleeping under that old but stout roof.