CHAPTER XXIV
THE DISCOVERY
"There's one thing that I think we haven't bothered our heads much about,Paul," remarked Jack, just before they quitted the vicinity of the bigcedar on top of the hill.
"What?" asked Bobolink, cocking his head on one side to see how well hisinitials looked in the bark of the tree from which Cedar Island took itsname; and which would tell later explorers that others had been thereahead of them.
"Why, it seems to me those clouds down there on the southern horizon havea look that spells storm," Jack continued.
"Wow! wonder if we will strike another rainy spell?" said Bobolink, soquickly that none of the others had a chance to get a word in; "that lastone helped us get out of the mud in the canal; if another comes will itbe as accommodatin', or turn on us, and whoop things up, carrying ourtents away over the island, and losing 'em in the swamps beyond there?"
"Oh! say, don't imagine so much, Bobolink," interrupted Phil. "You'rethe greatest fellow I ever saw for figuring all sorts of bad things outlong before they ever get a chance to start. What Jack means is, will webe apt to get caught in the rain, and be soaked?"
"That's the main thing," added Tom Betts, who was rather particular abouthow his khaki suit looked on him, for Tom was a bit of a "dresser," assome of the others, less careful with regard to their looks, called it.
"I've noticed that it's grown pretty close and muggy," Paul went on.
"I should say it had," added Bobolink. "I kept moppin' my face most ofthe way up the rise. Thought we'd sure get a fine breeze after reachin'the top; but nixey, nothing doing. It's as dead as a door nail; or JuliusCaesar ever was. Yes, that spells rain before night, I'd like to risk myreputation as a weather prophet in saying."
"Still, we go on?" Paul asked.
"Well, we'd be a fine lot of scouts," blurted out Bobolink, "if thechance of getting our backs wet made us give up a plan we'd decided on."
"Lead the way, Paul; they're bent on finding out something more aboutthese men. And feeling that way, as Bobolink says, a little rain stormwouldn't make them change their minds," and Jack, while speaking, startedafter the scout master, who had commenced to descend the hill.
They did not immediately turn toward the north side. There seemed no usein deliberately making their presence known to any one stationed over atthe north end of the island, providing the mysterious men were notalready aware of it.
Paul, when doing his wigwag act, had been careful to keep the crest ofthe hill between his flag and that suspicious quarter where the smokecolumn was lazily creeping up, as smoke has a habit of doing just beforerain comes.
Of course it might be possible that the man in the aeroplane, afterdiscovering the tents in the sink, may have made some sort of signalthat would tell his comrades the fact of the scouts having returned inthe night.
Paul wished, now that it was too late, he had thought to ask Jud aboutthat point. It might be of some benefit to them to know whether the menwere aware of their presence; or rested serene in the belief that theywere the only occupants of the island, besides the wild man.
After the scouts had gone down a little way, Paul began to change hiscourse. He was now turning toward the north. The trees grew much morethickly here, and would surely screen them from observation.
The boys had resumed their former habit of observing everything that camein their way, as true scouts always should. They turned their heads fromright to left and Bobolink even looked back of him more than a few times.Perhaps he remembered that there was a wild man at large who might take anotion to awake from his sleep, and, discovering the scout patrol, thinkit his business to follow them.
And then, to be sure, they ought to keep in mind the fact concerning thatwild dog that had gone back to the habits of its ancestors, preferring tolive by hunting, rather than take food from the hand of man. It would befar from pleasant to have old Lion suddenly sneak up on them, and givethem a scare.
But everything seemed peaceful around them. Now and then a bird would flyout of a thicket, or give a little burst of song from the branch of sometree. A red-headed woodpecker tapped boisterously on the dead top of abeech near by, trying hard to arouse the curiosity of the worms thatlived there, so as to cause them to poke out their heads to see who wasso noisy at their front doors; when of course the feathered hammererstood ready to gobble them up.
"Oh!" gasped Bobolink, when there was a sudden whirring sound of wings,and they had a furtive glimpse of something flashing through theundergrowth near by.
"It's only a partridge; don't be worried!" remarked Phil.
"Sure it was," muttered Bobolink, with scorn; "any fellow with only oneeye'd know that _now_; but all the same, the thing gave me a bad turn,I'm that keyed up."
"And that's a cotton-tail looking at us over yonder, so don't throwanother fit when he takes a notion to skip out," Phil continued, pointingwith his cudgel to where a rabbit sat, observing the intruders, as thoughwondering what business any human beings had coming to the island thathad been left alone so long.
Presently the little animal skipped off a few paces and then stoppedagain. As the scouts advanced, it repeated these tactics; indeed, sotame did it seem that any of them could have easily hit the rabbit witha stone, had they felt so inclined, which, as scouts, they could notthink of doing.
"Looks like she's got a litter of young ones close by here," saidBobolink; "and is playing lame just to lead us away from the bunch. I'veseen rabbits do that before now. The cuteness of the thing! Look at her,would you, just beggin' us to run after, and try to capture her?"
"I've seen a partridge act as if she had a broken wing," Jack remarked,quietly; "and flutter along the ground in a way that couldn't help butmake one try to catch her; but if you chased after her, it would be tosee the old bird take wing pretty soon, and go off like a rocket."
"Same here," declared Paul; "and going back, I flushed a whole covey ofthe prettiest little birds you ever saw. They'd been crouching under abush while the old one played lame; just as if she'd told them all aboutit. But I heard her calling in the brush later on, and of course she gotthem all together again."
"There goes your lame rabbit now, Bobolink; and say, look at the way shejumps over the ground," remarked Phil, chuckling.
"Not so loud, boys," cautioned the scout master. "These things are allmighty interesting; but we mustn't forget what we're here for nor yet thefact that we've got a pretty good hunch there are some men close by whowould be just as mad as hops if they knew we meant to stalk their campand spy on them. If you have to say anything, whisper it softly,remember."
At that they all fell silent. It was true that they had forgotten for themoment that they were doing scouting work; and under such conditionstalking was not allowed, especially above the lowest tone.
All of them noticed that it was getting very close now, for they had touse the red bandanna handkerchiefs they carried, and quite frequently atthat, to wipe away the perspiration that oozed from their foreheads.
"Lucky we left our coats in camp; isn't it?" remarked Phil.
"Looks that way now, but if that rain does strike us, we may wish we had'em on," Tom Betts replied; showing that he at least had not been able toput out of his head the possibility of a storm.
"Seems to me we must be getting somewhere," Phil observed.
"It can't be very much further," Paul answered, feeling that the remarkwas addressed to him as the pilot of the expedition."
"I should say not," came from Bluff, as chipper as a bird's song, andwithout the least sign of halt or break; "if we go on much more, we'llwalk off the end of the island."
Bobolink patted him on the back, as if to encourage him in well doing.
"That's the stuff, Bluff; you c'n do it when you try," he whispered; "butas to steppin' into the lake, I guess we aren't that near the north endyet, by a good sight."
Paul nodded his head, but said nothing; from that Bobolink knew the scoutmaster agreed with him. They could go considerably longer
without beinghalted by coming to the water's edge.
Jack called the attention of his chums just then to something ahead.
"Seems to me I smell smoke," he said, "and if you bend down here, so youcan look under the branches of the trees, you'll see something that's gotthe shape of a shed, or cabin, off yonder."
The others, upon making a try, agreed with Jack that it did seem thatway.
"Oh! we're right on top of the nest, all right" chattered Bobolink, butshowing his wisdom by keeping his voice down to its lowest note; "andnow, if we c'n duplicate that little dodge we played at the shack of thewild man, it's goin' to be as easy as turning over off a spring-board,with a ten foot drop."
"But if we're caught we might get shot at," suggested Phil, as if theidea had struck him for the first time that they were really playing withfire, in thus bearding desperate lawbreakers in their den.
"We aren't going to get caught," said Bobolink; "who's afraid? Not I.Lead along, Paul. I want to get this thing out of my system, so I c'nhave a little rest up here," and he placed a hand on his brow.
Although himself doubtful as to the wisdom of the move, Paul could notback down now, after allowing the boys to vote on the matter. Perhaps hewas more or less sorry that at the time he had not exercised hisprivilege as scout master to put his foot down on their taking any morechances, just to satisfy such curiosity as reckless fellows like Bobolinkmight feel, with regard to the unknown men.
It was too late now. Until some of the boys themselves manifested adesire to call the retreat, he must go on; although it began to seem morethan ever audacious--this creeping up on a den of men who were hidingfrom the eye of the law in order to carry on their nefarious trade.
And so they started to creep forward, now dodging behind trees, andcrawling back of friendly patches of bushes whenever the chance presenteditself. It was all exciting enough, to be sure, and doubtless gave theboys many a delightful little thrill.
In this fashion they came upon a larger clump of trees and bushes, which,instead of trying to round, they concluded to pass through.
It was just as they gained a point inside this clump that they werebrought up with a round turn by discovering a couple of objects standingthere, as though they had been left behind when the valuable contentswhich they formerly encased had been taken out.
These were two large packing cases, of unusual shape, and made of heavyplaned boards!
Some of the scouts looked at them carelessly, for to them these objectsdid not carry any particular meaning. Not so Jack, Tom Betts andBobolink. Those three boys had received a shock, as severe as it wasunexpected.
They recognized those cases as being the identical ones which had onlylately reposed snugly in the planing mill of Jack's father in Stanhope,and to guard which one Hans Waggoner had been hired by the man who ownedthem, Professor Hackett! And as they stood there and gaped, doubtlessamong the many things that flashed into the minds of those three lads wasthe fact that _somebody_ had been trying to get to see what the contentsof those mysterious cases might be; which person they now knew must havebeen a Government Secret Service man, a detective from Washington, on thetrack of the bold counterfeiting gang!
All these things, and much more, flashed through the minds of Jack andhis chums, as they stood there in that thicket, and stared hard at thetwo big cases bound around with twisted wire, but which had now beenrelieved of their unknown contents, for they stood empty.
And the others, realizing that something had occurred out of the regularchannel, waited for them to speak, and explain what they had discovered.