Part 6 (1/2)

After Max had gone down on all fours, holding the lantern, which Owen had lighted, and seemed to be trying to discover the trace of feet, he shook his head.

”Perhaps there might have been tracks,” he remarked, ”but we've moved about so much since, that they've just been covered up.”

”Tracks of what, the catamount?” asked Bandy-legs, anxiously.

”Perhaps human tracks!” Max went on.

”There! I expected something like that!” burst out Steve. ”If there was anything around here that gripped hold of Bandy-legs, and tried to yank him out of the tent, I'd be willing to wager a heap that it could be laid at the door of them measly critters, Ted Shafter and his gang!”

The others hardly knew what to think. But at any rate the fact that Max had ventured to propose such a solution to the strange mystery of the night a.s.sault seemed to give the victim more or less comfort. He could stand being made an object of attack on the part of prank-loving boys, but the very thought of having been seized by a hungry man-eating panther gave him a cold chill.

”Say, do we crawl back in our nice blankets, and try to get some more sleep?” asked Steve, who was s.h.i.+vering; because the air seemed cold, after being so rudely aroused, and made to leave a warm nest.

”Couldn't we just stick it out around the fire?” asked Bandy-legs, who doubtless had conceived a notion that he would feel ever so much safer if awake, and dressed, than lying there helpless, and at the mercy of every beast that chose to creep into the camp.

”I was just going to propose that, boys,” remarked Max; ”because, you see, it's just about peep of day,” and he pointed to the east as he spoke, where, upon looking, the others could see a faint seam of light close down near the horizon, which they knew indicated the coming of the sun.

”Well, I declare, the whole night's gone!” declared the surprised Steve.

”Oh! ain't I glad!” breathed Bandy-legs, crawling into the tent to get some of his ordinary garments, such as he was accustomed to wear when on an outing.

The others followed suit, and it was not long before the camp began to a.s.sume a busy appearance, with all of the boys bustling about.

”One night gone, anyhow,” remarked Max, as he and Owen started preparation for breakfast, all of them owning up to being hungry for the ham and eggs they had decided to enjoy for the first morning meal in camp.

Then, as daylight had fully come, Max seemed to conceive a sudden notion.

”Get one of the others to help you with this, Owen,” he remarked. ”I'll be back in half an hour, or less.”

Although wondering what he had in mind, Owen, being a boy of few words as a rule, did not attempt to question his cousin. He saw him go down to where the canoes lay up on the beach, and launching one of the smaller canvas ones, paddle off. And as he saw Max move along close to the sh.o.r.e of the island, now beginning to be bathed in the first rays of the rising sun, Owen smiled, as though he had guessed the other's mission.

Later on, just as the call to breakfast was given, Max returned, and drew the little canoe up on the beach where the others lay.

”What luck?” asked his cousin, as Max sat down and started to pour himself a tin cup of coffee, his platter having been already filled with fried ham and eggs that sent up a most tempting odor.

The others lifted their heads to listen, and even stopped eating, hungry as they were, to learn what it was Max had been investigating.

”Nothing doing,” replied the returned paddler, with a smile. ”I went completely around the island, and examined the sh.o.r.e the best way I could, for signs of some boat, or to see where one had landed last night, but I didn't get a glimpse of anything. If they did come off the mainland, they knew how to get ash.o.r.e without leaving any signs behind, that's all.”

”But, Max, I didn't know that Ted Shafter was such a good woodsman as all that!” objected Owen.

”No more he isn't,” replied the other, as he lowered his cup, after taking one good drink of the hot contents, that tasted better than anything he ever got at home, where they had thick cream, and delicate china to drink from. ”And that's one reason why I'm puzzled to believe it could have been them.”

Bandy-legs looked worried again.

Once more his hopes were shattered because, if it turned out the intruder had been an animal after all, what about those six other nights he would have to pa.s.s in that tent, with the unfeeling Steve and the heavy-sleeping Owen?

”Well, what are we going to do about it?” demanded the last-named boy.

”I'll tell you,” replied Max, in a matter-of-fact tone; ”we've got the whole day ahead of us, to prowl around, and see what the blessed old island looks like. And perhaps we might find out a few things before dark comes on again. As I said a while ago, one night's gone. I hope now none of you want to throw up the sponge, and go back home, to let Herb and his crowd crow over us?”