Part 22 (1/2)

”If they'd only leave us alone, why, what's to hinder us mending our own s.h.i.+p, and sailing away out of this, sooner or later?” b.u.mpus wanted to know; after they had been talking the matter over for a long time.

”I suppose you'll do the mending part, b.u.mpus?” demanded Step Hen, wickedly.

”Well, I'd be only too willing, if I knew how,” instantly flashed back the other, ”but unfortunately my education was neglected when it came to patching up boats, and tinkering with machinery. I'm ashamed to confess to that, but it's the whole sad truth. But, thank goodness, we've got a scoutmaster who can do the job mighty near as well as any machinist going. I'll back Thad, yes, and Allan in the bargain, to make a decent job of it. And even Giraffe here might fix things up in a pinch. So long as we've got a chance to make the Chippeway Belle do duty again at the old stand we hadn't ought to complain, I think, boys.”

”I'm sorry to tell you that there's only a slim chance of that ever coming about,” Thad remarked, right then and there.

”Then you believe she was smashed worse'n any of us thought was the case; is that it, Thad?” asked Giraffe.

”No, it isn't that so much as another thing I've noticed lately, that's going to upset our calculations,” replied the scout-master.

”Tell us what that might be, won't you?” pleaded b.u.mpus, with a doleful shake of his head; as though he might be beginning to believe in the truth of that old saying to the effect that ”troubles never come singly.”

”You may remember,” Thad went on to say, ”that when you asked my opinion be fore about the boat staying where we left it, I said there was a good chance we'd find her there in the morning if the wind didn't s.h.i.+ft?”

”And now you mean that it's doing that very same thing, do you?” Giraffe asked.

”If you'd taken the trouble to notice all sorts of things, that you had always ought to as a true scout,” the other told him, ”you'd have found that out for yourself. The fact of the matter is that when we first reached this place under the ledge the wind seemed to find a way in here, and make the fire flare at times. Look at it now, and you'll see that it's as steady as anything; yet you can hear the rush of the wind through the treetops just the same. It's turned around as much as twenty degrees, I should say.”

”And that's bad for the boat, ain't it?” b.u.mpus wanted to know.

”I'm afraid so,” the scout-master replied; ”because it will get the full force of both wind and heavy seas. Long before morning it will most likely be carried out into deep water, and disappear from sight. I think we've seen the last of the Chippeway Belle, boys.”

”But, Thad,” observed Giraffe, ”how about that anchor rope? You know we carried it ash.o.r.e, and fastened it to a rock. Would that break, now?

It was a dandy rope, and nearly new.”

”Well,” said Thad, decisively, ”once the seas begin to pound against the boat, with every wave the strain on that rope is bound to be just terrific. It might hold for a time; but mark my words, the constant chafing against the rock, where you fastened the end, will wear the strands until they snap; and then good-bye to our boat.”

”Then we had better make up our minds to facing that fact, and not feel very much disappointed if in the morning we can't see a sign of the Belle,” Allan went on to give, as his opinion; for he accepted, the theory advanced by the scout-master as though there could be no reasonable doubt about its being a positive fad.

”What if them fellows took a notion to step in on us to-night, and make us all prisoners of war?” queried b.u.mpus; for this possibility had been working overtime in his brain, and he was only waiting for a break in the conversation to advance it.

”Just what I was going to speak about,” Giraffe up and said, somewhat excitedly. ”You all sat down on me when I happened to remark about getting a pair of the birds with the gun. I move that we ask Thad to take charge of the firearm, and the rest can load up with whatsoever they can find,” and leaning over, he deliberately appropriated the camp hatchet before Step Hen, whose eye had immediately started to look for the same, could fasten, upon it.

”Me too, I second the motion!” exclaimed Davy, in turn making a dive for the long and dangerous looking bread knife, which had proved so handy for many services while on the trip, and was being constantly lost and found again.

”But where do I come in?” asked b.u.mpus, as he saw the favorite weapons of offense and defense taken possession of so rapidly.

”A club will do for you, and Step Hen as well,” remarked Giraffe, complacently; ”for when a fellow has appropriated the best there is, he can afford to smile at his less fortunate comrades, and a.s.sume a superior air.

”Oh! well, I'd just as soon arm myself that way,” the fat scout told them, as he set about finding something that would answer the purpose from amidst the firewood they had carried under the ledge to keep it from getting wet. ”I'm a peaceful fellow, as you all know, and think there's nothing like a good hickory or oak club to convince other people that you've got rights you want them to respect. I've practiced swinging Indian clubs by the hour; and when it comes to giving a right hard smack, count me in. That's going to hurt, without injury to body or limb.”

At another and less exciting time Giraffe would have surely insisted upon b.u.mpus explaining the difference, between these two sources of injury; but just then he had too much else to bother his head about to start an argument.

”Now, let's see any three men tackle this crowd, that's what!” he went on to remark, as he swept his eye proudly over the motley array of weapons; for even Allan had armed himself, having a stout stick, with which he doubtless felt able to render a good account of himself in a tussle.

”But let's remember,” warned Thad, ”that we don't want to let ourselves be drawn into a battle with these poachers, unless it's the last resort.

They're ignorant men, and just now they must feel pretty desperate, thinking that we're going to break up a profitable game they've been playing for a long time, carrying their fish to some American market against the laws of Canada, and perhaps smuggling their cargo in, if there's any duty on fish, which I don't know about.”