XI
PERILOUS SPYING
AT Dick’s suggestion the boys cut a number of larger logs than usualand placed them on their camp fire that evening before setting out ontheir expedition.
“It will avert suspicion of what we are at,” Dick said in explanationof his proposal. “So long as the camp fire burns up brightly nobodyseeing it from a distance will doubt that we are here. It isn’t muchtrouble, anyhow.”
The night proved to be an unusually dark one, with an overcast sky,threatening rain, and on the chance of that Cal rigged up the largesttarpaulin the company owned and so arranged it as to conduct allthe water that might fall upon it into the bait pail and such otherreceptacles as would hold it. “If it rains hard,” he explained, “we’llcatch enough water before morning to fill both the kegs.”
Going to the big gum tree, Tom climbed to the top of it to see ifhe could discover anything the little company might want to know.After a careful scrutiny of the landscape to the west he came downagain, reporting that everything was quiet “in the region of our latevisitor’s country seat.”
Then the party set out on their exploring expedition. Tom, acting asguide, followed the little blind trail, while the rest made their waythrough the undergrowth on either side, keeping near enough to thetrail to hear even a whispered warning or direction if Tom should haveneed to give any such.
Slowly, carefully, and in profound silence, they made their way to thepoint from which Tom had watched the place during the day. Then, as hadbeen arranged in advance, the four stretched out their little line, soas to see the place from different points of view.
At first there was not much to see, and on so dark a night even thatlittle could be seen only indistinctly and with difficulty. The “manwith the game leg,” as the boys called him, was moving about the placein a leisurely fashion, but what he was doing none of the investigatingparty could make out in the darkness, though they had crept very closeto the camp and were watching intently.
At last their watching and waiting were rewarded by a happening whichinterested them, though they did not understand it. The man with thegame leg went into the hovel Tom had seen, and after remaining therefor a considerable time, came out again. As he did so the boys wereeasily able to make out that he carried a dark lantern in his hand. Itwas carefully closed, but there were little leaks of light from itsfastenings, as there always are from such contrivances when they are ofthe common, cheap variety as this one obviously was.
Carrying it in his hand and still closed, the man limped off down thetrail that led toward the cove.
No sooner had he got well clear of the camp than the four watchersbegan scrambling up the trees nearest to them for the sake of a betterview. There was nobody to hear them, but under the impulse of thatcaution which their presence in such a place required of them, theywere careful to climb as silently as possible.
Very dimly, but with certainty, they could see the glow of the closeddark lantern and in that way trace the man carrying it throughout hisbrief journey.
When at last he reached the mouth of the cove where the view opened outtoward the broad inlet, he opened his lamp for a brief second, holdingit so that its gleam should show down the inlet to his right. A momentlater he flashed it again, this time straight across the broad inlet.Presently he opened it for the third time, sending the flash up theinlet.
The whole proceeding did not occupy half a minute, and after that allremained in darkness except that the boys could still locate the darklantern by the dim halo of light that surrounded it.
For half an hour or more there were no further developments. The manwith the game leg seemed to be sitting still, waiting for time to passor for something to happen. At last he opened the lamp again, sendingits flash down the inlet as before. Then he showed his gleam straightout upon the water.
This time the boys in the tree tops saw a brief answering gleam fromthe open water half a mile or more from shore.
It was safe for the boys to speak now, and Tom thought it best for allof them to come down out of the trees before the man with the gameleg, who had started slowly back toward the camp, should reach theirneighborhood.
“Come down off your roosts, fellows,” he directed, “and secreteyourselves well in the bushes. The ‘others’ are coming to-night, sureenough. Be careful to hide yourselves so that a flash from that darklantern won’t search you out. By the way, after they come and we seeall we can, we must get out of here. I can’t speak then, but noticewhen you see me moving away, and follow my example. Now, no moretalking, even in a whisper.”
The man with the game leg did not return immediately, as Tom hadexpected. Instead, he made his way up the bank of the cove and aroundits bend, to a point only two or three hundred yards away. Obviouslythat was to be the landing place, hidden as it was by the bend and thedense forest growth from all possible observation on the part of boatsin the sound outside. The man with the game leg had gone to the mouthof the cove only to send his signals to his companions outside. Nowthat they had been seen and answered, he had gone to the landing-place,there to await their coming.
Fortunately for the purposes of the boys, the landing was in full viewfrom their hiding place, and after the man with the game leg had gonethither they had only that one point to watch while they waited.
The wait was a long one, and perhaps it seemed longer because adrizzling rain had set in, soaking them to the skin. After a long time,however, the man with the game leg turned his dark lantern and flashedit once down the cove.
By its light the watchers made out three large boats slowly moving upthe cove, apparently with carefully muffled oars, as their strokescould not be heard even at the short distance that now separated themfrom their destination. As they approached the landing with obviouscare, there were frequent flashes from the dark lanterns that all ofthem seemed to be carrying, and by these flashes Tom and his companionssaw that the boats were piled high with freight of some kind, sobestowed as to occupy every inch of space except what was necessary forthe use of the men at the oars. Of these there were only two in eachboat, each plying a single oar, while a third, perched upon a freightpile at the stern, was steering. Thus there were nine men in the threeboats, who, with the man on shore, constituted a rather formidablecompany for four boys to face if they should decide to attack the_Hunkydory’s_ camp, as the man with the game leg had threatened.
Whence the boats had come, Tom could not in any wise guess, and ofcourse he could not discuss the matter with his comrades while hidingthere in the bushes under a life-and-death necessity of keepingperfectly silent. Two things he was sure of: the boats could not havecome very far, with only two oarsmen to each of them, and they couldnot have traversed any but smooth waters, with their freight piled highabove their gunwales, as it was.
As soon as the boats were landed, the men began unloading them andcarrying their freight to the camp, which was evidently to be itshiding place for a time at least. In the main it seemed to consist oflight boxes or packages, many of them bound together into single largebundles which one man could carry. There were also some kegs, whichseemed pretty heavy, as the men carried them on their shoulders. Butit was difficult to make out anything more definite than this, as thedarkness was dispelled infrequently by flashes from a dark lantern, andthen only for a fraction of a second at a time.
When the greater part of the freight had been brought to the camp theman who seemed to be in authority over the rest set some of them towork bestowing it in the hovels, of which there appeared to be several,each securely hidden in the thick undergrowth so that a person casuallypassing that way would never have suspected their existence. Evenwhile this work was in progress the man in charge permitted as littleshow of light as possible. When all was done a hamper of provisions wasbrought from one of the boats, together with a demijohn, and the wholecrew assembled around the midnight spread, eating and drinking in thedark, except when now and then it became necessary to permit a littleshow of light for a moment.
 
; At first they feasted in silence, too, but after awhile the liquor theywere drinking seemed to go to their heads and they quarreled amongthemselves a good deal. Some of them wandered about now and then as ifsearching the bushes jealously.
It was clearly time for the boys to leave the place and they watchedand listened for Tom’s beginning of the retreat. At last they heardhim moving and, assuming that he had begun the withdrawal, they allcautiously crept away to the rear. As each was following a separatetrail there was no word spoken among them until Larry, Dick and Calcame out of the bushes and joined each other at the gum tree.
“But where is Tom?” one of them asked.
Nobody knew. Nobody had seen or known anything about him since hisfirst stirring of the bushes had set the retreat in motion. They hadall heard a commotion in what they called “the scoundrels’ camp,” withsounds as of angry quarreling and fighting; but they had heard nothingof Tom.
The boys were in consternation.
“Do you suppose those scoundrels can have caught him?” asked Dick, withhorror in his tones.
“I don’t know,” Larry answered through his set teeth. “But there’s onlyone thing to do.”
“Only one thing,” answered Dick. “We must go to his assistance, and ifthey have him prisoner we must rescue him or all die trying. I for onewill never come back alive unless we bring him with us.”
“That’s of course,” said Cal, who for once spoke crisply, wasting nowords. “Wait a second, Larry! How many cartridges have you—each ofyou?”
When they answered, Cal said:
“Here, take six more apiece. You may need ’em.”
As he spoke he took the extra cartridges from his pockets and hurriedlydistributed them. It was Cal’s rule in hunting never to be withoutabundant ammunition.
“Now then, Larry,” he said, when the others had pocketed thecartridges, “give your orders; you’re the captain.”
“All right! Come on at a run, but don’t trip and fall. There’s no timeto lose.”
Down the trail they went, not at a run, for running was impossible insuch a tangle of vines and bushes, but at as fast a trot as they couldmanage. Suddenly there was a collision. Larry had met Tom “head on,”as he afterwards said. Tom was making his way as fast as he could tothe gum tree, knowing that his friends would be in terror when theymissed him, while they were hurrying to his rescue. In the darkness andthe heavy downpour of rain he and Larry had failed to see or hear eachother till they came into actual collision.
“Where on earth have you been, Tom?”
“Why did you fellows retreat before the time?”
These were questions instantly exchanged.
“Why, you gave the signal, Tom. You began moving off and we followed asagreed.”
“I understand now,” Tom answered, resuming the journey, “but it wasa mistake of signal. Come on out of here. Let’s go to camp and talkit all over there. I’ve found out all about this thing and it’sinteresting.”
“What does it mean? Tell us!”
“Not here in the downpour. We’ll go to camp first and get under theshelter and put on some dry clothes. My teeth are chattering and Idon’t care to imitate them. Come on!”