CHAPTER XIII
THE FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND
Then Paul felt a sensation of sudden relief pass over him. He haddiscovered a third figure running, some distance in the rear of the otherscouts; and when he recognized this as Jud Elderkin, he knew thatwhatever might have happened to frighten the fishermen, at least none ofthem seemed to be in any immediate danger.
Of course, by this time scouts were springing up all around, and allheading toward the common centre, which would be where Paul and thefishermen must meet.
Little Billie was the first one to arrive, for, being possessed of longlegs, in spite of his name, he could get over ground at a prodigiousrate, given cause. And judging from his ashen face, he had plenty of thatright now.
"What is it?" demanded Paul, as the other came panting along.
"Wild man!" gasped Little Billie.
"Whee!" exclaimed Bobolink, who had managed to get near enough to catchwhat was said.
"'Fraid he nabbed poor Jud!" said Gusty, now reaching the spot, and justabout at his last gasp.
"Not much he didn't, because there he comes now!" ejaculated Bobolink.
"Oh! mercy!" exclaimed Little Billie, evidently thinking he meantthe wild man.
"It's Jud, and all to the good; but even he looks white around the gills,too, Paul. They must have seen _something_, to give 'em all such ascare," Bobolink went on to say.
"You just bet we did; ask Jud!" declared Gusty, just as though heimagined the others might question their veracity, but would believe thepatrol leader, who was now coming along with great leaps and bounds.
And presently Jud Elderkin halted at the group. He looked first at Gusty,and then at Little Billie. There was a question in his eye.
"Sure, we saw it, too, Jud!" declared Gusty, holding up his quiveringhand just as though he were in the witness box; but then, as his fatherwas a lawyer, possibly Gusty often experimented on himself, since hemeant to either take up the same pursuit in life, or give his magnificentvoice a chance to earn him a living in the role of an auctioneer.
"Me too; and say, wasn't it a terror, though?" the tall scout declared.
"Well, I didn't wait long enough to have any words with the Thing,"admitted Jud. "You see, I happened to be further away from home than theother fellows, and I knew I'd have more space to cover. So, after lettingout a yell to sort of warn 'em, why I just put for cover. Never ranfaster even between bases. Thought he'd get me sure before I rounded thatbend; but when I looked back, blessed if he wasn't grabbin' up ourstrings of fish like fun, and making off with 'em. I don't know right nowwhether I'm just scared, or only boiling mad. Tell me, somebody!"
"A little of both, I guess!" declared Bobolink, grinning.
"Say, then, it wasn't just a big yarn about that wild man, after all; wasit?" said Tom Betts.
"How about that, Little Billie; did you see him?" demanded Jud.
"Did I? Think I was runnin' for my health? Why, he looked all of sevenfeet high to me, and covered with long hair. Talk about your RobinsonCrusoe making him a coat of an old nanny goat, that feller was in thesame class; eh, Gusty?" loudly asserted the tall boy.
"I saw him, all right, don't you forget it," declared the oneaddressed. "And I certain sure thought he was after _me_. But if Judsays he took our nice string of bass, why that changes the thing, andmakes me mad as hops. Think of us workin' all that time, only to fillup a crazy crank. Next time I go fishin' I'm meanin' to sit home, anddo it off the door step."
Paul was revolving many things in his mind and trying to understand.
"I want several of you to go back with me," he said, presently; "the resthead for camp or go about whatever you were doing."
"Want to take a squint at his tracks; eh, Paul?" asked Jud.
"No harm done if we do," remarked Bobolink, thus declaring his intentionof being one of those who were to accompany the leader.
Jack also went along, and Jud, making four in all; but the last mentionedrefused to budge a foot until he had obtained a healthy-looking club,which he tucked under his arm.
"Now, I want to warn that same critter to keep his distance from me," Judsaid, as he led off with long strides. "He gave me one scare, and Ipromise you that if he tries that game again there's going to be a warmtime around these regions. But I reckon he's satisfied with all our nicefish, and we won't see anything of him until he gets good and hungryagain. Wonder if he eats 'em raw, Chinese fashion, or has some way ofmaking a fire?"
"What's that over yonder?" asked Paul.
"Where?" gasped Jud, brandishing his club.
"Looks like a string of fish; and so, you see, the wild man didn't get_all_ you fellows caught. We'll just pick that lot up, and trot along,"observed Paul.
"He got mine, all right; these must have been what one of the otherfellows had. You see, they were so badly rattled they just cut and run,and held on to their rods only. Yep, there's a second string of fish, andthat accounts for both; but you needn't think mine'll be laying around,for he got 'em.
"Well, show me just about where he was when you saw him last,"Paul demanded.
Jud could easily do this. They found the print of human feet in theearth. It must have been an unusually large foot that made the marks; andthis tallied with what had been said about the height of the wild man.
"You're not goin' to try and follow him, I hope, Paul?" asked Jud,uneasily, as if he drew the line at certain things, ready and willing ashe might be to back the scout master in most ventures.
"Oh! it wouldn't pay us," retorted Paul. "As one of the boys said, wehaven't lost any wild man; and so far as I know there's no one missingaround Stanhope, so it can't be some man from there. I think we'd do wellto mind our own business in this affair; don't you, fellows?"
"Yes, I do," replied Jack, "but I was wondering whether this thing willcrop up to give us a heap of bother while we're camping up here."
"How's that?" asked Bobolink. "There's only one thing that gives me anycarking care, and you know what that is, Jack, old boy. If I only knewabout those boxes, I'd be so much easier in my mind."
"Well," said Paul, "if this crazy man would steal our fish, he'd just aslief take anything else we've got that's good to eat. When he smells ourcoffee cooking it'll call up some long-forgotten craving for the Javabean; and first thing you know he'll be invading our camp every night,hunting around for any old thing he can steal."
"Now, I like that," said Bobolink, satirically. "Nice prospect, ain't it,not to be able to step out of the tent of nights, without bumping noseswith that awful Man Friday in wild animal shows? P'raps in self-defensewe may have to do that grand capture act after all, Paul."
"Well, there's nothing more to learn here, so we might as well turn backagain. As I don't see anything of your string of fish, Jud, I calculatethat he must have gotten away with 'em. We can add a few more to these,and have enough for a regular feast. Come on, boys, back to camp for us."
Some way or other it was noticed that during the early afternoon most ofthe boys hung around the camp. It seemed to have an especial attractionfor them all. One busied himself sorting over the collection of themorning in the way of plants. A second was polishing up certain specimensof quartz he had found, after cracking some of the round stones that hadwashed on the island during a flood, possibly many years back. A thirddeveloped his pictures, having brought along his daylight tank.
And so it went, until Paul smiled to observe what a busy colony he had inhis charge. On his part, he took a rod and line, with some bait, and wentoff with Jack to add to the number of fish, so that there would be enoughfor all at supper time. And as the others had fished in one direction,Paul and his chum decided to move in the other.
They put in an hour with very fair success, considering that it was notthe best part of the day for fishing.
Of course, as they walked along, keeping close to one another,occasionally Paul and Jack would chat on various subjects. They also kepttheir eyes open, not wishing to be taken by surprise, should that hairyindi
vidual, who seemed to have a craving for fish, rush out at them.
And more than that, Paul had copied the example set by Jud. It wasfashionable about that time not to walk forth without a nice little Irishshillelah under one's arm, with which a head could be made to singunmercifully, in case of necessity.
Paul had just had a pretty lively time with a good fish, and hadsucceeded in bringing his prize to land, when he happened to look down atthe beach on which he was standing. Bobolink and Tom Betts were comingalong, as though curious to see how fast the stock of provisions forsupper was increasing.
So Paul bent down to examine something that had caught his attention. Theother three coming up, Jack having joined Bobolink and Tom, found thescout master still on his hands and knees.
"Hello! found something, have you?" asked Bobolink.
"Mebbe the footprints of the ghost!" chuckled Tom, meaning to behumorous.
But Jack saw that his chum was very serious; and as he dropped downbeside Paul, he let his eyes fall upon the sand.
"What's this, Paul?" he remarked, immediately. "Looks like the prow of arowboat had been pulled up here--why, that's a dead certainty, becauselook at the plain prints of boots here, and several different kinds,too. Shows that somebody landed here on the island; and Paul, it musthave been _after_ that rain storm, for these marks don't seem to bewashed, as they would be if the rain had beat down on them. What in theworld d'ye suppose it means? Are there people on this queer old CedarIsland? If there are, who can they be, and why should they hide fromeverybody like this?"
As Jack said this he looked up. Bobolink and Tom were staring at theplain marks in the sand, with wonderment written on their faces; and evenPaul shook his head.