CHAPTER II
THE BUSTERS
The girls could overlook the lower slope of the long roof through thebay window at the end of the living room. They crowded to it after PercyHavel, and beheld a most amazing as well as ridiculous sight.
A very fat youth, in a blue and white striped sweater and with aclosely-cropped yellow head, was face down upon a length of plank, whichplank was sliding like a bobsled down the incline of green-stainedshingles.
"It's Tubby!" gasped Frank Cameron.
"Oh! oh! oh!" squealed Mina. "Is he doing that for _fun_?"
Before any further comment could be made, the boy on the plank shot outover the edge of the roof and dived, with a mighty splash, into the deepwater of the pool, adjoining which Canoe Lodge was built.
"He'll be drowned!" cried Grace, wringing her plump hands.
"It'll serve him right if he is!" exclaimed Bessie. "What business hadhe on our roof, I want to know?"
"Poor Tubby!" cried Wyn, choked with laughter.
"Isn't he the most ridiculous creature that ever was?" rejoined Frank."See there! he's come up to blow like a frog."
"It's a whale that comes up to blow," Wyn reminded her.
"Well! isn't Tubby Blaisdell a regular whale of a boy?" returned theblack-eyed girl.
"There's Dave!" cried Mina.
"I knew the two wouldn't be far apart!" sniffed Bess Lavine.
"He's got a boat and is going to Tubby's rescue," cried Grace.
"But see Tubby flounder around!" Frankie observed. "Why! that boycouldn't sink if you filled his pockets with flatirons!"
"There! he _is_ going under," ejaculated the more timorous Mina.
"Dave will get him, all right," declared Wyn, with confidence.
She and Dave Shepard had been good chums since they were both inrompers. Her girl friends might tease Wyn sometimes about Dave; but thegirl had no brothers and Dave made up the loss to her in every way.
"Oh! he's going to spear him with that boathook!" gasped Mina again.
And really, it looked so. Tubby Blaisdell was splashing about in thepool before the canoe landing like a young grampus. Tubby was alwaysgetting into more or less serious predicaments, and he always "lost hishead" and usually had to be aided by his friends.
In this case Dave Shepard prepared to literally spear him in the water.Dave--who was a tall, athletic boy, with a frank, pleasant face, iffreckled, and close-cut brown curls in profusion--had driven theflat-bottomed skiff he had obtained from a neighboring landing, acrossthe pool, and now, standing erect in the boat, with a single lungeimpaled upon the boathook the tail of Tubby's coat.
His chum was going down, as Dave thrust the boathook; for theunfortunate victim of the accident had swallowed a quantity of waterwhen he dived with the plank from the eaves of the roof of Canoe Lodge.There was no time to lose if Dave wished to rescue Tubby before seriousinjury resulted to the unfortunate fat youth.
It was something of a feat to bring Tubby Blaisdell alongside the skiffand haul him inboard without overturning the boat. But Dave accomplishedit to the admiration of the girls--even to Bessie's satisfaction.
"Well, I'm glad he got Tubby out," said that damsel, nodding her head.
"Glad to know that you are so humane, Bess," laughed Frank.
The girls trooped out to learn at closer range if the Blaisdell youthwas really injured or only exhausted.
He lay panting like a big fish in the bottom of the skiff. It wasaltogether too cold an evening for him to be exposed in his wetclothing. When the skiff's nose bumped into the shore, Dave Shepardleaped out with alacrity and secured the painter to a post.
"Get up out of there, Tubby!" he commanded. "You'll get your death ofdampness. Come on!"
"Oh--oh--oh! I can't," chattered the fat youth. "I--I'm fr-roze to theve-ry mar-row of m-m-my bones!"
"The chill has struck in awful deep, then, Tubby," cried Frank Cameron,from the river bank.
"Come on out of that!" commanded Dave. "I'm going to run you home sothat you will not get cold."
"Me?" chattered Blaisdell, rising like a turtle out of its shell. "Runme home? Wh-wh-why, I c-c-couldn't do it. You know I couldn't r-r-runthat far, Dave."
"He must go right in by our fire and get warm," declared Wyn, quickly."Get your things, girls, and we'll all go home and leave Dave and Tubbyto enjoy that nice fire Grace built."
"That wet boy all over our nice rug!" exclaimed Bessie. "I object."
"Don't be hateful, Bess," admonished Grace.
"But what was he doing on our roof?" demanded the girl who claimed thatshe did not like boys.
At this Dave burst into a great laugh and was scarcely able to dragTubby ashore.
"It's a wonder he didn't come right through on our heads," complainedFrank. "He's so heavy."
"But he _would_ do it," declared Dave, still laughing as he helpedhis fat friend up the bank to the door of Canoe Lodge. "It would havebeen a real good trick, too, if Tubby hadn't slipped."
"Always up to mischief!" sniffed Bessie Lavine. "That's why I dislikeboys so."
"I don't see what he could do on our roof," said Wyn, wonderingly.
"And he had no business there!" cried Grace.
"Why," explained Dave, for Tubby could not defend himself. "We saw Gracemaking the fire, and we knew the wood was green. It made a big smudgecoming out of the chimney, and Tubby thought he had a brilliant idea."
"I know!" exclaimed Frankie. "He had that plank to put over the top ofour chimney. We'd have been smoked out, sure enough."
"That's it," chuckled Dave. "Tubby got up all right, and he got theplank up all right. But just as he tried to lift the plank to the top ofthe chimney his foot slipped, the board dropped, he fell on it as if hewas coasting down hill, and--you saw the rest!"
"Oh--oh!" chattered Tubby. "Come on in and let me get--get to--toth-that f-f-fire. I'm _frozen_!"
"Here's the key, Dave," said Wyn, laughing (for the fat youth _did_look so funny), "and you can lock up when you go home and bring the keyto my house. Don't you boys make a mess in here for us to clean up," sheadded.
"But they will. Boys always do," declared Bessie Lavine.
"Well, thank goodness, it won't be _my_ turn to clean up afterthem, or make another fire," declared Grace.
"They will do no damage," returned Wyn, with assurance, as the girlstrooped away from the boathouse toward the town.
"They have to keep their camp clean," declared Frank. "I know that.Professor Skillings may be forgetful; but he is very particular about_that_. Ferdinand Roberts told me so."
"I expect those horrid Busters _do_ know a lot more than we doabout camping."
"Indeed they do," sighed Grace. "How'll we ever put up a tent big enoughto house seven?"
"The boys will help us," declared Wyn.
"I expect we'll have to let them," grumbled Bess. "Or else pay a man todo it for us."
"My goodness me!" laughed Frances Cameron. "It must be a dreadful thingto hate boys like Bess does! They're awfully bad sometimes, I know----"
"Look at what those two boys tried to do to us this very evening,"exclaimed Bessie.
"Oh, Tubby's always up to some foolishness," said Percy, laughing.
"And that Dave Shepard is just as bad!" cried Bess Lavine, tossing herhead.
"Wyn won't agree with that statement," chuckled Frank.
"And all six of the Busters are full of mischief," went on thecomplaining one. "I wish they were not going to the same place we are tocamp."
"Why, Bess!" exclaimed Mina.
"I _do_ wish that. They'll be around under foot all the time. Andthey'll play tricks, and be rough and rude, and I know they will spoilthe summer for us."
"You go on!" came from Frank, with some scorn. "I guess I can hold up myend against the Busters."
"Just wait and see," prophesied Bessie, shaking her head. "I feel verysure that, the Busters and the Go-Ahead Club will not get along welltogether at Lake Honotonka."
"It takes two part
ies for an argument," said Wyn Mallory, quietly. "Andin spite of their mischief I believe in the Busters."
"Wait and see if what I say isn't true!" snapped Bessie, and turned offinto a side street toward her own home.