CHAPTER XX
"HOLD THE FORT!"
As a rule it did not take these boys long to decide upon their course ofaction. And in the present instance they had so little choice thatunusually prompt results might be expected.
"We'd better tell the other fellows, to begin with?" ventured Allan.
"Yes," remarked the scout-master, promptly, "it wouldn't be fair to keepthings like this from the boys. They're just as much interested in howit turns out as we are. And, besides, we may get a bright idea fromsomebody."
"You never can tell," added Allan; and some of those same other scoutsmight not have felt complimented could they have heard him say thesewords, as they seemed to imply that miracles did sometimes happen, whenyou were least expecting them.
But having made up their minds on this score the pair walked over to thecamp under that friendly ledge.
Upon their arrival every eye was immediately glued upon Thad. It seemedas though Giraffe, Bumpus, Davy and Step Hen must have guessed that thescout-master had made some sort of exciting discovery, and now meant totake them into his confidence.
Complete silence greeted the arrival of the two who had been conferringso mysteriously near by. Of course, once Thad broke the ice, andstarted to tell what he had discovered, this was apt to give way to abombardment of questions; for Giraffe and Bumpus could think up thegreatest lot of "wants" imaginable; so that it would keep Thad busyexplaining, until their ammunition ran out, or he had to throw up hishands in surrender through sheer exhaustion.
He started in to explain what he had seen, and done, as soon as hedropped down beside his comrades of the Silver Fox Patrol. Immediatelyhe had the attention of every one enlisted. Bumpus sat there, watchingand listening with such intentness that you would hardly believe hebreathed at all. Step Hen, too, was following every word spoken by thescout-master, as though trying to grasp the seriousness of thesituation, and figure out a way to circumvent the danger that had arisenso unexpectedly in their path. And the other two could not be said to befar behind in the interest they betrayed.
As we have already heard Thad tell Allan about his first, seeing the manwho was spying upon the camp; and later on how he came to find thehidden boat, as well as the concealed cabin, there is no necessity forus to follow the scout-master while he imparts this information to thequartette who, having been absent from that interview, had no previousknowledge of the facts.
By the time he spoke of crawling silently away, and coming back to jointhe balance of the patrol, he had his chums worked up to a feverishpitch of excitement.
"Well," Step Hen was the first to break in with, "anyhow, game-fishpoachers ain't quite so bad as smugglers would have been, and that's onesatisfaction, I take it."
"But they're bad enough," urged Davy; "because they must be breaking thelaws by taking fish in some way that ain't allowed. And if trapped theystand a chance to face a heavy fine, or a long sentence in jail, perhapsboth. And if, as Thad says, they've got the silly idea in their headsthat we're connected with the Canadian militia, and came here meaning todestroy their nets, and likewise haul the men over the coals, why,they'll either skedaddle and leave us marooned on old Sturgeon forkeeps, or else do something worse."
"What sort of worse, Davy?" demanded Bumpus. "There you go again,saying things in a sort of half-cooked way, and leaving the rest to afellow's wild imagination. Do you mean you believe they'd really hurtus, when we ain't so much as lifted a finger to do the bunch any harm?Speak out and tell us, now, you old croaker."
"Thad, what do you think they might do?" Davy asked, under theimpression that he would be wise to leave the explanation of the matterto one who was more capable of handling it than he could possibly be.
"If they were sensible men," remarked the other, deliberately, as thoughhe had given that particular thought much attention, "I wouldn't beafraid, because then we could reason with them, and explain that we wereonly a party of the Boy Scouts of America, off on a little cruise, andshipwrecked in the storm; also, that if they helped us in any way we'djust forget that we'd ever seen them here."
"But explain and tell us what you mean by hinting that they mightn't besensible men?" remarked Step Hen.
"Oh! well, that was my way of putting it," Thad went on to say; "I meantthat as near as I could guess they seem to be Canadian half-breeds, forsome of their talk was in a French patois I couldn't just understand.And I've always heard that those kind of men are mighty hard to handle,because, like Italians they get furiously excited, and let theirimaginations run away with them, like some other fellows I happen toknow."
"Did you say there, were only three of this bad crowd, Thad?" Giraffeasked.
"I wouldn't like to say for sure," came the reply, "but as near as Icould make out that would cover the bill."
"Huh! and we count six, all told," continued the tall scout,indifferently, although Thad imagined he was not feeling so comfortableas he pretended to be.
"Yes, six boys," the scout-master reminded him.
"But husky boys in the bargain, and accustomed to taking care ofthemselves in tight places," Giraffe went on to remark, proudly."Besides, ain't we got a gun that shoots twice? That ought to accountfor a couple of the rascals; and then what would one poor fish poacherbe against a half dozen lively fellows, tell me that?"
Allan laughed at hearing the boast.
"How easy it is to figure out who's going to win the next championshipin the National League of baseball clubs, while you're sitting aroundthe stove in the winter time?" he told Giraffe. "But these papervictories seldom pan out the same way when the good old summer timecomes along, and the boys get hustling. I suppose now, Giraffe, you'llbe the one to knock over those two men, each with a single shot fromyour faithful double-barrel. Give him the gun, Step Hen, and let himstart in right away."
Of course that rather startled the tall scout.
"Hold on there, don't be in such a big hurry!" he went on to say,holding up a hand to persuade Step Hen to keep the firearm a whilelonger. "Course now I didn't exactly mean it that way. I never wantedto shoot a man, that I know of. What I had in my mind, I reckon, wasthat one of us could keep a pair of these rascals covered with theshotgun, and hold 'em steady, while the other five managed the third ofthe bunch. See?"
"The trouble is," Thad told them, "none of us know French, and in thatcase we mightn't be able to talk with the poachers, even if they gave ushalf a chance. They seem to have a bad case of the rattles right now,and if it wasn't for the storm I really believe they'd get away fromhere in a hurry."
"Do we want 'em to go, or stay?" asked Bumpus, as though he could notsettle in his own mind which one of these several openings would be bestfor their interests.
"For my part," spoke up Step Hen, "they couldn't clear out any too soonto make me feel happy. I know what the breed is like, and believe me,boys, I don't care to make their acquaintance, not me."
"That's all mighty fine, Step Hen," remarked Giraffe, loftily, "but whenyou talk that way you don't look far enough ahead."
"Just explain that, will you, and tell me why I don't?" demanded theother, with some show of indignation.
"Well, suppose now they did jump the island, and give us the merry ha!ha! what difference would it make to us whether they upset out there onthat stormy lake or not; wouldn't we lose all chance of being ferriedacross to the mainland, and so making our escape from this measlyisland?"
Step Hen apparently caught the force of this reasoning, for he subsided,with a sort of discontented grunt.
Davy, however, took up the reasoning at this point.
"But suppose now they wouldn't want to get out in such a hurry? What ifthey had a lot of valuable fish nets around somewhere that they hated tolet go? Don't you reckon in that case they might take a notion to tryand bag the lot of us, so's to hold us prisoners till they could decidewhat to do with the ones they took to be Government spies?"
Bumpus groaned as he listened to all this terrible talk. His mind wasalread
y on fire with anticipations of what the immediate future mightbring forth. Still, on occasion Bumpus could show considerable valor;and several times in the past he had astonished his chums by certainfeats which he had engineered.
"It's up to me to think up some way to get us out of this terriblepickle," he was telling himself, over and over again; but even if anyone of his five comrades heard what he was saying they paid littleattention to it; but the fat scout meant all he said, as the futureproved.
"One thing sure," Giraffe went on to remark, presently, "they know whereour little camp is, because Thad saw that spy watching what we wasadoing here. And if so be they should take a notion to pay us a visitbefore morning, why, they wouldn't have any trouble finding us out."
"Not less we made a move," argued Davy.
"And we're too nicely fixed here for that, ain't we?" Giraffe demanded,as he cast a swift look around to where the various blankets, havingfirst been dried in the heat of the fire, were now inviting to repose,each fellow having apparently selected the particular spot where hemeant to sleep, let the wind howl as hard as it wished, for thatprojecting rocky ledge would keep any rain from coming in upon them.
"That's right, Giraffe; you know a good thing when you see it!" declaredBumpus, who did not altogether fancy starting out to seek another camp,where they would have to lie down in the dark, and take chances of beingcaught in a rain, if later on such a change in the character of thestorm came about.
"Then, if Thad says the word, we'll stick right here, and hold thefort!" the tall scout exclaimed. "In the words of that immortal Scot weread about, what was his name, Roderick Dhu, I think, who cried: 'Soonerwill this rock fly from its firm base, than I.' Them's our sentiments,ain't they, fellows?"
"Hear! Hear!" came from Bumpus, as he snuggled down again contentedly,believing that this disagreeable part of the program at least had beenindefinitely postponed, and that they stood a good chance for stayingout their time under that friendly protecting ledge.