CHAPTER XX.
DRAWING STRAWS FOR A CHANCE.
At any rate Bumpus was manly enough to do the right thing. He walkedstraight up to Step-hen, and held out his hand.
"I was a fool, and that's all there is about it, Step-hen," he said,frankly. "Will you shake hands with me, and excuse the blunder I madewhen I felt sure you had hooked the old bag, just to bother me?"
"Sure I will, Bumpus," said the other, gripping the fat hand extended soconfidingly toward him, and giving it a squeeze that brought tears tothe eyes of poor Bumpus. "And after all, I don't hardly blame you forthinking I had a hand in gettin' away with the bag; because, you know,I've wanted to look through it this long time. Don't you think you mightlet me have it now, Bumpus?"
"But I tell you I haven't got anything that belongs to you, Step-hen,and you ought to believe me," protested the fat boy, firmly.
Step-hen looked at him queerly, as though he might be still a littleundecided. Then with a sigh he turned away; and Bumpus knew that he hadnot been convinced.
"Here, you c'n tumble out everything I've got in the haversack, if youwant to, Step-hen," added the other, giving in finally.
"Never mind, I take your word it ain't there," said the other, over hisshoulder; but somehow Bumpus knew that the feeling of suspicion was only"scotched," not killed; and that Step-hen fancied that he, Bumpus, hadonly changed the hiding-place of the lost compass.
Thad had considerable to think about as he sat there, looking into thefire, and listening to the talk that was going the rounds. His mind wasfixed upon the mystery that seemed to be hovering over the island; andin various ways he found himself trying to connect the coming of the twomen and the bear, with the presence of those tracks across on the woodedterritory beyond the water.
He even got up, and went across to the other side of the fire, to stoopdown and examine the plain footprints left by their late guest. Then heshook his head as though the result failed to tell him what he sought.
To make absolutely sure, he took a pine knot that had been thrust intothe fire; and using this as a torch, made his way to the tree where thebear had been chained ever since coming among them.
It was no great task to discover the imprint made by the heavy shoesworn by the Russian. They were marked all around by hobnails such as areused by the lower classes across the water, in order to save the leathersoles, for leather costs more money than a few nails.
Apparently Thad found little satisfaction in his labors, for he wasfrowning when he returned to the circle.
"Not the same parties, eh, Thad?" asked Davy, who had kept a wonderingeye on the movements of the young scout-master, and could give a shrewdguess as to the reason for his action, as well as the disappointingresult.
"I'm dead sure of that," replied Thad.
"Different shoes make different trails, eh?" went on Davy.
"Oh!" Thad replied quietly, but conclusively; "that splutteringforeigner has hobnails in his soles; and I saw none like that over onthe island. And this other man wears a shoe with a square toe; butpretty good material in it. There was no print like that either."
"Well, then, that proves them innocent, don't it?" asked Smithy. "For mypart now, fellows, I rather took to that man who sat here, and drank hiscoffee. He's no hobo, I give you my word. His hands may look soiled, butunder it all they're decent enough to belong to a gentleman."
"Hey! listen to Smithy, would you?" exclaimed Step-hen, as if surprised."Now, I never knew he had such a way of figgering out things. If hekeeps on like that, he'll leave us all in the lurch, fellers."
"To tell the truth," admitted the other, smilingly; "time was when Iwouldn't have thought of noticing a single thing about such a man; butyou see, I've been studying up the rules and suggestions ourscout-master loaned me, and it keeps on telling greenhorns andtenderfeet to always be on the lookout, so as to remember what they see.And when he sat there, I just thought it would be a fine chance to makea mental note of anything queer about him I could detect."
"Good for you, Number Five," said Thad, warmly. "I said you were goingto make your mark yet, once you got into the fever of things; andalready you're proving a credit to the Silver Fox Patrol."
"Then you saw the same things, did you, Thad?" asked Smithy, eagerly,and with a really happy look on his delicate face; because this practiceof "doing things" was a new experience for him, and success made himfeel proud indeed.
"Partly so; though you went me one better when you made out that hishands were white under the grime," answered the scout-master.
"That sounds like you think he took on all that dirt on purpose?"remarked Bumpus.
"Perhaps he did," replied Thad; "perhaps the man is playing some sort ofpart, for a reason of his own."
"Bunking with an ignorant foreigner just to get a chance to sneak intocamps, and run off with the haversacks that have been carelessly leftlying around loose?" suggested Step-hen, still harping on his wrongs.
"Well, I don't agree with you there, Step-hen," remarked Allan. "LikeSmithy here, I found something about that man that interested me. Ifasked me point-blank now, possibly I couldn't tell you what it was thatattracted me--his eyes, his smile, or his whole manner. But I'd be badlymistaken if he would turn out to be a rascal."
"And I say the same," observed Thad, vigorously.
"Oh! well, you fellows may be right," remarked Giraffe; "but to my mindthere's something mighty suspicious about the way they came snoopingaround here. Reckon that party might know more about how certain kindsof wild game find their way to the New York hotels in the close season,than he'd like to own up to. And I tell you right now what I mean todo."
"Go on, we all want to know," urged Thad.
"While I'm up here," Giraffe continued, loftily, "I expect to keep myeyes open to find evidences of traps and snares set in the woods tocatch partridges, rabbits and the like. And some time, if anybody wantsto paddle for me, I'm agoin' to go all the way around this here lake,lookin' for nets, set to haul in the game bass."
"You ought to be wearing the badge of a game warden, Giraffe," declaredDavy, with a mock bow in the direction of the speaker; "but they'd haveto watch you right smart now, because some of that game would go to keepyou from starving."
They continued to talk until a late hour, and every boy was given achance to air his opinion. Still, no wonderfully new ideas seemed to bein evidence; and when the patrol sought the blankets, leaving thecamp-fire dying down, they were about evenly divided on the question asto whether the educated tramp keeping company with the foreign owner ofthe bear was a smart man, or just a scamp.
But a night of peace followed all these thrills. The skies above showedno sign of storm; and from the neighboring forest there issued no morebears, or any other savage beast, to raid the camp, and produce anothermad scamper of the scouts to places of refuge among the branches of thefriendly trees.
Once or twice Allan came out to take a look around. It seems to be thehabit of all old campers to do this, whenever they happen to awaken; notthat he suspected that there would be any peril hovering around; butthen possibly the fire might have worked its way through a line of deadgrass, and threaten to extend; or it perhaps needed another small log tokeep the blaze going, and ward off the chill of night.
Over the water came a weird cry at the time Allan last performed thisvigil; and the Maine boy smiled as he listened for a repetition; becauseit was a familiar sound in his ears, and reminded him of his former homefurther north.
"Was that a loon, Allan," asked a quiet voice near him; and turning, theMaine boy saw the acting scout-master poking his head out from under thecanvas of the second tent.
"Just what it was, Thad," replied the other, when the last speakercrawled out to join him; "I think he must have just dropped down here,for I heard a splash before he gave tongue; and we know there wasn'tany such bird around up to sunset. If any of the others wake up and hearthat cry, they'll think it's the ghost of the island, sure."
As it was too cool to sit aro
und with such a scanty amount of clotheson, both scouts soon vanished again. The fish were jumping as on theprevious night; and in the eastern sky the battered old moon had thrusther remnant of a circle above the horizon for a little peep at the worldbelow.
Morning came along in due time, and of course the usual swim was firstin order. Giraffe was apparently in high spirits. The others saw himtaking stock of what stores they had left, and evidently the big eaterfound that there would be an abundance to see them through. That sort ofthing always pleased Giraffe. He was gloomy only when he feared for theworst; and in his mind that consisted of short rations.
After breakfast the question came up as to which one of the other scoutsThad was to take with him. As he had stated he would do, in order to bequite fair, and keep the others from feeling that any favoritism hadbeen shown, Thad took a number of short blades of grass, each of adifferent length. These he mixed up in his hand, so that no one couldknow which was the long, and which the short ones. Then he invited theboys with the exception of the second in command, Allan, to draw as theypleased, the shortest straw to win out.
Of course there was more or less joking as the operation was carriedout; for boys can hardly do so simple a thing as draw lots without acertain amount of fun being injected into the game.
"Now, the last belongs to Smithy, because he didn't draw," said Thad."Hold up the one you got, Bumpus, and see if you go along with me."
Bumpus actually shook a little when he compared his "straw" and findingthat it was longer than the other, he laughed with glee. That island didnot have much drawing power for Bumpus; in fact, he hoped never to setfoot on it again.
Each one tried to show that he had a shorter straw than the one thatfell to Smithy, but without success.
"It's Smithy who goes," observed Thad; and possibly he looked pleased;for he was beginning to take a great interest in the boy who had beenwrongly raised by his mother and maiden aunts, to be what is known as a"sissy;" and hoped to see him turn out to be a manly, self-reliant andbrave scout.