Motor Boat Boys' River Chase Part 11

"Huh! p'raps you're right, Jack," grunted Josh, already beginning to weaken before this sort of logic.

George did not open his mouth, but he was always willing to listen to what Jack had to say; for the other never gloried in showing any of his comrades up as being in the wrong.

"But the princ.i.p.al thing of all, and which we'd have to find out first, before thinking of hooking the boat, would be to know whether they expect to sleep ash.o.r.e, or aboard," Jack went on to say.

At that Buster t.i.ttered.

"Think what a cheeky thing it'd be," he remarked, softly, "if we ran away with the boat, and then found that we'd kidnapped a couple of innocent ducklings, one of them mamma's darling boy! Whew! mebbe we wouldn't feel cheap though!"

"Oh!" said Jack, "then you've been thinking that this terrible Slim Jim, the dandy hobo, might be somebody else, have you, Buster? Well, I tell you what we ought to do, boys--hang around, and watch that pair some more. If they begin to get the camp ready as though they meant to stay ash.o.r.e tonight, we can talk it over again, and decide whether we'll play 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 altogether unreasonable in anything save that troublesome engine aboard his Wireless; and in that quarter he would never take advice from any one until in difficulties; he knew it all.

And so it was arranged.

They could creep up, and from their old place of observation keep an eye on the two who were under suspicion; and in this way something might arise whereby they would be able to tell definitely whether they would be 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 camp fire burned, they began to hear a strange clanking sound, as of steel smiting steel, that gave them new cause for wonder.

CHAPTER XI

BUSTER HAS A SHOCK

"What in the wide world's that?" asked Buster Longfellow, as they came to a halt in order to listen.

"Sounds like somebody's started a blacksmith shop over here on the island, that's what!" remarked Josh.

"Mebbe they're counting over the ducats they've stolen," suggested George; but the idea of silver dollars making such a loud sound as this as they jingled in a heap, was really so ridiculous that even Buster chuckled in derision; whereupon George had to hastily add "joke!"

"Tell you what I think," observed wise Herb. "You know they were having some engine trouble a while back; and I reckon that mechanic fellow has got busy fixing it up. The only thing that surprises me is that George here didn't recognize something mighty familiar in the racket. He's forever making it himself, so if I didn't know he was alongside, I'd take my affidavy that was him right now."

"Huh! think yourself smart to make fun of my twelve-horse power engine, don't you, Herb?" he started to say, and would doubtless have delivered himself of considerably more along the same lines, only that Jack broke in by observing:

"All the same, Herb is right, there; for the man is aboard the boat and working away at the motor. He's some machinist, believe me, from the way he goes about things. And there's the other one going aboard too; wonder what that means?"

Watching they presently saw the younger fellow come in sight again, and step to the bank of the island from the power tied-up and anch.o.r.ed boat.

"Got an armful of blankets?" a.s.serted Josh, immediately.

"That settles one thing, then," came from George.

"Yes, they're going to make camp ash.o.r.e, and pa.s.s the night on firm ground," Jack admitted. "Perhaps they like the change, as we do. Plenty of times when you just have to sleep aboard the boat, you know."

"And p'raps," George went on, "we'll be trying out my little bit of a scheme, after all."

"n.o.body knows," Jack a.s.sured them.

They made themselves as easy as possible, and took up their vigil, not knowing how long it might last.

Back and forth the younger fellow went, until he had carried a great lot of articles, calculated to induce a comfortable night's rest ash.o.r.e.

Then he started in to fix things to suit him, taking a part of the blankets.

"That settles it," whispered Jack, to Herb, who was next, "he's a greenhorn, as far as camping goes."

"Yep, guess he is," a.s.sented the other, although, if put to the test, Herb might have found it difficult to explain on what he founded his belief.

"See where he's gone and arranged his blankets," Jack continued. "There, he's trying to see how they feel; and would you look at his head toward the fire. No experienced camper ever does that, because it's his feet that get cold in the night, so he always has them closest to the fire."

"Sure!" agreed Herb, just as though he had always known that fact, when in truth it had never occurred to him before.

"He fetched some grub with him the last time he came!" whispered George, on the other side of Jack, "and if anybody asked me what that stood for I'd be likely to say it meant they were going to stay on dry land a little while, till they get that engine working that's what."

"Well, that isn't going to be long," remarked Josh in turn as there came a series of explosions from aboard the boat, that sounded as regularly as clockwork. "He's got her working now, all right, I guess."

"Then he must be a crack-a-jack of a mechanic," observed George, thoughtfully, as though a vague idea had come into his head that it might pay him to get such a man to look over his engine, given the chance.

"But I haven't seen any paint--yet," remarked Buster, obstinately.

"Well, what would they want to get busy with that for at night time?"

Josh asked him. "If they put in tomorrow hiding here on the island you'll see enough of paint slingin' to suit you, Buster, believe me.

They'll want to get the boat partly up out of the water on some skids, using block and tackle to drag her; and then so change her looks that n.o.body'll recognize her as the same suspicious white boat that took the bank's cash away."

After that they fell silent for some time, meanwhile continuing to watch the two who were still objects of concern, not to say suspicion. The one ash.o.r.e had crawled under his blankets as though bent on getting fixed cozy for the night. He came out and went back three separate times. Now it was to arrange his covering a little differently; and again it was to draw the blankets back and dig out a root that must have started to hurt his back while lying there, as roots have a failing for doing with campers, especially the big gnarly ones that have a k.n.o.b on them--every boy knows that without being told.

About the time he finally seemed fixed comfortably with the fire burning low not very far from his head the second one came ash.o.r.e.

"How is she now, Jenks; I heard you give her a trial spin?" came a voice from among the collected heap of blankets which the intended sleeper had drawn over him.

"Workin' tip-top, sir, right now," replied the other; and somehow it seemed to the listening Jack that there was a vein of deference in his tones such as might hardly be expected to be disclosed when one cracksman addressed another, no matter if it was a Slim Jim, and a recognized master of the art of thievery.

"Then we've got that thing off our hands, Jenks," the unseen one went on, every word reaching the ears of the listening boys, because he called out loudly, thinking his voice might be m.u.f.fled by the blankets, "and we can take it easy tomorrow, with the other job, if we conclude to hide until darkness comes around again."

"That's right, sir, so we can," a.s.sented the other, beginning to shift his blankets and make up his bed in the regulation way.

There was no more said.

Jack, watching Jenks, immediately decided that the man must have been in the open more or less, for he seemed to know just how to go about things; and his head was not toward the fire either, when he lay down.

Still, he did not attempt to arrange the blaze so that it would keep up for many hours; perhaps he thought that since the other had incautiously placed his head that way it would be folly to keep the heat going, so as to roast him out.

And then at last both seemed to have successfully arranged themselves, for there was no longer any wriggling movements of the blankets that might stand for uneasiness.

"Think they're asleep, Jack?" queried Herb, softly, as he touched the other gently on the arm.