CHAPTER XI
A FORTUNATE DISCOVERY
"Want to go fishing?" Rob inquired over the telephone of MerrittCrawford a few days later.
"Sure," was the response.
"We can run into Topsail Island and get a site for the camp picked atthe same time," suggested Rob.
"Bully! I'll meet you at the wharf. Going to bring Tubby?"
"You bet! We'll be there in ten minutes."
"All right. Good-by."
At the time set the three boys met on the wharf of the yacht club, andwere speedily ready to start on their trip. Rob brought along bluefishsquids and lines, and Tubby--never at a loss to scare up a hurriedlunch--had a basket full of good things to eat.
The run to the island was made without incident, and the boys were gladto see that, contrary to the captain's fears, his dog Skipper was allright again, for the animal came bounding and barking down the wharf asthey drew near, in token of his gladness to see them.
Attracted by his dog's barking, the old captain, who was at work in asmall potato patch he cultivated, came hobbling to meet the boys asthey tied up and disembarked.
"Well, well, boys; come ter stay?" he cheerily remarked, as the threelads shook hands.
"No, we're off after 'blues,"' said Rob; "but we thought we'd drop inand see how things are coming along with you, and if you have heard anynews yet concerning the robbery."
"Not a thing, boys, not a thing," said the old man. "In fact, Ihaven't left the island since my old safe was busted open. Skipper, asyer see, got over his sickness. It's my belief that them fellers fedhim poisoned meat or something."
"I shouldn't wonder," remarked Rob dryly. "It would be quite in theirline."
"By the way," exclaimed the old man suddenly, "a queer thing happenedthe other day. Skipper had been a-skirmishin' round the other side uvthe island after rabbits and critters, and he brought home this-- Waita minute and I'll show it to yer."
After some fumbling in his pocket, the old man produced a torn strip ofyellow material with a brass button attached to it.
"I wonder where that come from," he remarked, as he handed the fragmentto Rob for his inspection.
"Why, it's khaki," exclaimed Rob, as he felt it. "And, by hokey!" heejaculated the next instant, "it's a piece of a Boy Scout uniform!"
Old Skipper was jumping about in great excitement, and endeavoring tosniff the bit of torn material as Rob examined it, and a sudden ideastruck the boy.
"I wonder if Skipper could pilot us to where he found this bit ofmaterial."
"Are you sure it's a bit of uniform?" asked Tubby doubtfully.
"Certain of it. No one else wears khaki in these parts. Hey, Skipper,hey, good dog! Sic 'em, sic 'em!" cried Rob, holding up the khaki forthe intelligent creature to see.
The animal seemed to be greatly excited and gave short, quick barks ashe danced about the boys.
"Well, we might try and see if he will lead us anywhere." remarkedMerritt somewhat dubiously. "At any rate, there's no harm done, exceptwasting a little time; and if we can get on the track of our uniforms,it's not such a much of a waste, after all."
"He sure wants ter be off somewhere," observed the old captain,watching the antics of his dog, whom he regarded in the light of ahuman being. "He never acts nor talks that way unless he's got suthin'on his mind. Yer boys follow him, and I'll bet he'll lead yer tersuthin'. It may be nothin' more than a dead rabbit, and it may be whatye think. I'll stay here an' dig my pertaters, fer my rheumatiz ispowerful bad today."
"Very well, captain. We shan't be long," rejoined Rob, calling to thedog. "Hey, Skipper, hey, old boy! After 'em, Skipper--after 'em!"
The dog bounded on ahead of the three boys, occasionally looking backto see if they were following and then plunging on again.
"As the Captain said, he 'sure has got suthin' on his mind'!" laughedMerritt.
After traversing about a mile of beach, the dog suddenly bounded into athicket overhanging the shore and began barking furiously.
"He's treed something, all right," remarked Rob, pushing the branchesaside.
The next minute he gave a loud shout of triumph.
"Look there, boys! Old Skipper sure did 'have suthin' on his mind'!"
Peering over Rob's shoulder, the other two were able to make out twohidden sacks, the mouth of one of which had been torn open, evidentlyby the investigating Skipper.
From the aperture appeared the torn sleeve of a Boy Scout's uniform,and a brief searching of the sacks after they had been lugged out onthe beach revealed the entire stolen equipment.
"Bones for you, Skipper, for the rest of your life!" promised Tubby, asthe dog, evidently well pleased with the petting he received and theadmiration showered upon him, pranced about on the beach and indulgedin a hundred antics.
The only one of the uniforms damaged was the one that Skipper had torn.The others were all intact, but badly crumpled, having been hastilythrust into the sacks, and, as it appeared, tamped down to make themfit more compactly.
"Well, what do you know about that?" was Merritt's astonishedexclamation, as one by one Rob drew forth the regimentals and laid themon the beach.
"You mean what does Jack Curtiss and Company know about that,"seriously returned Rob.
"However, we found them--that's one thing to be enthusiastic over,"observed Tubby sagely.
"I'd like just as well almost to find out exactly who hid them there,"was Merritt's reply.
"The same folks that stole the old captain's seventy-five dollars, Iguess," returned Rob, thrusting the garments back into the sackspreparatory to carrying them to the boat. "Here, Tubby, you carry thisone--it'll take some of that fat off you to do a hike along the beachwith it. I'll shoulder this one."
"Well, boys, yer certainly made a haul, thanks ter old Skipper here,"declared Captain Job, after the delighted boys had made known theirdiscovery. "He's a smart one, I tell yer. No better dog ever lived."
"That's what we think," agreed Merritt warmly, patting old Skipper'sblack and white head.
The recovery of the uniforms had quite put all thoughts of blue or anyother fishing out of the boys' heads, and after bidding farewell to thecaptain, who promised to point out to them a good site for a camp ontheir next visit, they made their best speed back to Hampton. On theirway to the armory they spread the news of their discovery broadcast, sothat in a short time the town was buzzing with the information that theBoy Scouts' lost uniforms had been found under most surprisingcircumstances; and the editor of the Hampton News, who was just goingto press, held his paper up till he could get in an item about it.
It was this item that caught Jack Curtiss' eye, the next morning as heand Bill Bender and Sam were seated in Bill's "club room."
"Confound those brats, they seem always to be putting a spike in ourschemes!" muttered Jack, as he handed the paper to Bill for thatworthy's perusal. "Which reminds me," he went on, "that we haven'tattended to the case of that young Digby yet."
"I wish you'd leave those kids alone for a while, Jack," objected Sam,in his usual whining tones. "You've had your fun with them. They'vehad to do without their uniforms for a long time. Now let up on them,won't you?"
"Oh, you're feeling friendly toward 'em, now, are you?" sneered Jack.
"Oh, no, it isn't that," Sam hastened to assure him; "nothing of thekind. What I mean is that we are liable to get into serious trouble ifwe keep on this way. I saw Hank Handcraft the other day, and I cantell you he's in no very amiable mood. He wants his money for theother night, he says, and he intimated that if he didn't get it he'dmake things hot for us."
"He'd better not," glowered Bill Bender, looking up from his paper."We know a few things about friend Hank."
"Yes, and he knows a good deal about us that wouldn't look well inprint," retorted Sam gloomily. "I wish I'd never gone into that thingthe other night."
"Pshaw, it was just borrowing a little money from the old man, wasn'tit?" snorted Jack. "We'll pay it back some
time."
"When we get it," rejoined Sam more gloomily than ever; "and I don'tsee much immediate chance of that."
"Oh, well, cheer up; we'll get it all right somehow," Jack assured him."And in connection with that I've got a scheme. Why shouldn't we threefellows go camping after the motor-boat races?"
"Go camping--where?" asked Bill, looking up surprised.
"Well, I would have suggested Topsail Island, but those pestiferouskids are going there, I hear. However, there are plenty of otherislands right inside the Upper Inlet. What's the matter with ourtaking possession of one of those?"
The Upper Inlet was a sort of narrow and shallow bay a short distanceabove Topsail Island, and was well known to both Bill and Jack, who hadbeen there in the winter on frequent ducking expeditions.
"We might as well do something like that before school opens," saidSam. "I think that Jack's suggestion is a pretty good one."
"I don't know that it's so bad myself," patronizingly admitted Bill;"but what connection has that with your scheme for getting money, Jack?"
"A whole lot," replied the bully. "I'm going to get even with thatyoung Digby if it takes me a year. He cost me the fifty-dollar prize,and, beside that, all the kids in the village now call me 'cheater,'and hardly anybody will have anything to do with me."
"Well, how do you propose to get even by going camping?" inquired Bill.
"I plan to take that Digby kid with me," rejoined Jack calmly.
"You're crazy!" exclaimed Bill. "Why, we'd have the whole countryafter us for kidnapping."
"Oh, I've got a better plan than that," laughed Jack coolly, "and wewon't need to be mixed up in it at all. It'll all come back on HankHandcraft, I owe him a grudge for bothering me about money, anyhow, theold beach-combing nuisance!"
"But where do we come in to get any benefit out of it?" demanded Sam.
"I'll explain that to you later," said Jack grandiloquently. "Ihaven't quite worked out all the details yet; but if you'll meet mehere this evening I'll have them all hot and smoking for you."