Part 8 (1/2)

It had been a long day, and the Jolly Rovers were glad to get to bed.

They were too drowsy to think about the possibility of another visit from the mysterious boat, and in a very few minutes all were sound asleep.

About midnight--as nearly as he could judge afterward--Ned sat up with a start, firmly convinced that some danger was at hand. As he listened with a wildly throbbing heart, soft footsteps cracked on the pine needles outside, and then the tent flap was torn open, revealing against the lingering embers of the campfire the semblance of a human form.

”Hi! you chaps in thar!” whispered a gruff and unfamiliar voice. ”Get awake, quick!”

The words had a soothing affect on Ned's fears, and satisfied him that the visitor--whoever he was--had come in the guise of friends.h.i.+p. He drew a match from his pocket and rubbed it on his trousers. It ignited, and revealed the pale face of Batters, framed between the tent and flap.

”Great Caesar! Is it you?” exclaimed Ned. ”What's wrong?”

”Hus.h.!.+ not so loud,” whispered Batters. ”Put that light out, quick!”

Ned obeyed in haste.

”Now rouse the other chaps, and do it quietly, so they don't make no noise.”

This was a pretty stiff order, and Ned had some fears for the result.

Happily all went well, and in two or three minutes an audience of four trembling and well nigh panic stricken lads was sitting in the darkness, listening to Batter's ominous tale.

”Joe waked me up a little while ago,” he began, ”an' said there was a strange boat, an' two men in it, down by the mouth of the run. I tole Joe ter stay an' watch our stuff. Then I sneaked along the sh.o.r.e an'

seen the fellows sittin' on the beach along side the canoes.

”I didn't dare go close enough to hear what they was sayin', so I come right up to the tent. I reckon you uns had better make a move afore the canoes get carried off. I'll do what I kin fur you. If we all take paddles and run out yellin' an' screachin' mebbe the fellars will get scared and make tracks without showin' fight.”

This proposition rather staggered the boys.

”The thieves probably want more than the canoes,” said Ned. ”It's very likely they are right outside the tent now. I hardly know what we ought to do.”

”Let's give them our money and watches, and anything else they want,”

suggested Nugget. ”If we don't they'll surely cut our throats.”

”Keep quiet!” whispered Clay savagely. ”If you don't I'll throw you out of the tent.”

At this awful threat Nugget subsided and buried his head in his blanket.

Meanwhile Randy, whose temper was beginning to rise at the thought of being robbed, had quietly reached for his gun, and was fumbling with it under cover of the darkness.

An unlucky move dashed the stock against his lantern, and the crash of broken gla.s.s followed. At the same moment Batters called in a loud whisper, ”Here they are. I see them movin' among the trees.”

At this startling news a wailing cry broke from Nugget, and an instant later a gruff voice called distinctly:

”Come out of that one at a time, young fellars. Move lively, an' you won't be harmed.”

There was dead silence for a few seconds, and then the command was repeated in a more peremptory tone.

”They ain't got no shootin' weapons,” whispered Batters; ”only short sticks. I can see 'em by the firelight.”

On hearing this, Randy was seized with a sudden access of courage. Gun in hand, he dashed by his companions to the front of the tent.