CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE TRAIL AMONG THE ROCKS.
Of course the scout-master was given a shock when he realized thatSmithy could not be where he had told him to wait until relieved. Allsorts of dire things commenced to flash through his head.
"Here, this won't do at all," he presently muttered, starting to get afirm grip on himself; "I've myself alone to depend on, to find out thetruth about Smithy, and to do that I must keep my head level. Now, Iwonder have I made a mistake about the calibre of Smithy, and could hehave wandered off in a careless way?"
Somehow he did not find himself taking any great amount of stock in thistheory. Why, had it been easy-going Bumpus now, or even rather carelessStep-hen, Thad fancied that there might have been more or less truthback of the suspicion; but unless his study of the tenderfoot had beenwrong, Smithy would not be guilty of disobedience.
"Well, what am I thinking about?" was the way Thad took himself to taskpresently; "trying to find the answer to a riddle by bothering mybrains, when it ought to be written here on the sand as plain as print."
Immediately he commenced to move about, looking for signs. Of coursethere must be all manner of footprints there, some recent, and othersmade on the occasion of the preceding visit of the scouts. But Thad hadstudied trail finding more or less under the watchful eye of the Maineboy, who knew considerable about it; and hence he was able to decidewhat were new, and what old footprints.
And he had not been at this task more than half a minute when hereceived considerable of a shock.
"Why, here's that footprint with the marked sole!" he whispered, a newthrill in the region of his heart.
He could guess what that meant, for it was very fresh and new. The manwhom he now believed to be some sort of criminal, had been right thereon the beach since he, Thad, had quitted the spot to climb the treeselected for his signaling operations!
And since Smithy was supposed to be waiting there, only one inferencecould be drawn--the tenderfoot scout had fallen into the enemy's hands!
Evidently matters were approaching a crisis now. The two men who hid onthis island as though they feared their fellows to see them, werebeginning to grow bolder. At first they had only felt annoyed by thecoming of the scouts, and the making of the camp opposite their secretretreat. Then, by degrees, as the boys began to infringe on theirterritory, they had commenced to strike back; first by causing the boatto disappear; and now by capturing poor Smithy, who must be nearly deadwith fright because of his peril.
Thad suspected the men may have begun to fear that their hiding-placewas known, and that the boys would be trying to either effect theircapture, or communicate their discovery to the authorities in someneighboring town.
Perhaps they hoped to keep matters boiling at fever heat until nightfell, when they could make use of the recovered boat to slip away; orelse swim from the island retreat.
He looked further, and soon found marks that plainly told the story of astruggle. It had been brief, however, for evidently Smithy was evidentlytaken by surprise, and with his breath immediately cut off by a cruelgrip, must have soon yielded.
Thad looked around him. Would the two desperate characters be comingback to find the other scout? Did they know that Davy had gone with thatlog? Perhaps even at that minute hostile eyes might be upon him!
The very thought caused Thad to take a firmer grip on the stout cudgelhe carried, and resolve that should he be attacked, these rascals wouldnot have the easy victory they had found with his comrade, Smithy.
But all was quiet and peaceful around him; and by degrees his excitednerves quieted down. What should he do, now that he knew the worst? Ofcourse, being such a good swimmer, Thad might easily have stripped, andmade his way over to the mainland, providing the men did not take anotion to chase after him in the boat. He put the thought aside withimpatience. That would be deserting Smithy, who looked up to him as afaithful friend and ally; and this Thad would never be guilty of doing.
Should he simply conceal himself somewhere on the island, and wait forthe coming of afternoon, and the expected officers? Suppose, forinstance, Giraffe lost his way while trying to make Rockford, what thenwould become of Smithy?
Thad felt that he could never look a scout in the face again if he wereguilty of such small business.
"I'm going to do my best to find Smithy, no matter what happens," hesaid to himself, as he shut his teeth hard together, and took a freshgrip on that comforting cudgel he carried again. "Perhaps they may stickclose to their hiding-place, wherever that is, thinking they've scaredthe rest of us nearly to death; and that we'll swim ashore. Here goes,then, to follow the trail."
He had already discovered where the party had left the sandy stretch,plunging into the shrubbery, at a point beyond that where he and Smithyhad made use of.
The island, as has been stated before, was so very rocky that Thad, notbeing an expert at following a trail under such difficulties, might havehad a hard time of it in places, but for unexpected, but none the lesswelcome, assistance.
Here and there, when he came to a small patch of earth, he was surprisedto find plain marks of feet, and several deep furrows, as though someone had sagged in his walk, and was being half dragged along by thosewho had hold of either arm.
This must have been Smithy; and at first Thad was dreadfully worried,under the belief that his comrade might have been struck on the head,and injured. But when the same thing kept on repeating itself, andinvariably when there was earth to show the marks, he suddenly graspedthe splendid truth.
"Oh! isn't that boy a dandy, though?" he whispered to himself, indelight; "as sure as anything now, he's just doing that on purpose,meaning to leave as broad a trail as he can, so I could follow. Didn't Isay Smithy had it in him to make one of the best scouts in the wholetroop; and don't this prove it? Good for Smithy; he's all right!"
It made Thad feel quite pleased to know that the tenderfoot could be sosmart, with such little training. He continued to follow the trackswith new ambition. So energetic a chum deserved to be looked after; andThad was better satisfied than ever because he had resolved to hunt forSmithy, rather than lie around, trying to hide from the enemy in casethey were out looking for him.
By degrees he found that he was getting into a section of the islandwhich did not seem familiar to him in the least. Evidently, then, intheir various trips over the place, the boys had unconsciously avoidedthis part; possibly because of its very roughness, and the difficulty ofpushing through the dense vegetation, and over the piled-up rocks.
"No wonder they chose this place to hide," thought Thad, as he climbedacross a barrier that taxed his powers; and wondered at the same timehowever poor Smithy was ever able to make it, tied as he must be, orgripped in the hands of his two captors.
He realized that he must now be getting nearer the den where the twounknown men used as a hideout. The very solitude of the place affectedhim. It was as if a heavy weight had been laid on his back, thatthreatened to crush him.
Still, Thad was a very determined lad. Having made up his mind toaccomplish the rescue of his comrade, if it were at all possible, hewould not allow himself to be daunted by trifles such as these. Onlyshutting his teeth more firmly together, he kept pushing resolutely on,eyes and ears constantly on the alert.
Perhaps Giraffe was having just such a difficult job in making his wayacross the country between the lake and Rockford; and if so, Thad hopedhe too was pushing resolutely forward, undismayed by no obstacles thatloomed up ahead.
Now and then Thad was at a loss which way to turn, for the rocks leftlittle or no trace for him to follow. At such times he had to exercisehis knowledge of slight clues to the utmost. Then besides, he could lookaround him and judge pretty well how those he was following, foot byfoot, must have gone.
And finally Thad saw something just beyond that told him he had reachedthe end of the faint trail. It was a gloomy looking hole among the rocksthat stared him in the face, with the trail leading straight toward it.
If ever there was a bear that had its den on that island, surely thismust have been the spot; for it far excelled anything else that thescout had seen since he had started to prowl around.
As he crept closer he was astonished to see what a peculiar conditionexisted with regard to that open mouth of the bear den. Just above hungan immense stone that ordinarily several men could never have turnedover, or even moved; yet by some convulsion of nature far back, thisrock had been so delicately poised above the mouth of the cave thatThad believed even a boy could send it crashing down, if he but hurledhis strength against it.
"And if it _did_ fall," he said to himself, with a sudden shiver ofdelight, "I honestly believe it would fill in that hole, so that noteven a rattlesnake could crawl out. Oh! if those men are in there, as Ihope, and I could start that cap-stone rolling, wouldn't they be shut upas snug as if they were in a bottle, with the cork shoved in?"
But fascinating as that possibility appeared to Thad, he must rememberthat the men had Smithy with them as a hostage. They could dictate termsof surrender so long as they held the tenderfoot scout a prisoner. Andunless he could manage in some clever way to effect the release ofSmithy, he had better go slow about trying to bottle them up in thatbear's den.
He crept still closer, and lying there on his breast, listenedanxiously, his ear close to the black opening. A regular sound camestealing out that, for a short time, puzzled him; and then Thad decidedthat it must be the snoring of a man who was asleep, and lying on hisback.
Dare he try and crawl into the cave, to ascertain how the land lay? Thadwas anything but a coward; but he could be excused for hesitating, andtaking stock of the chances before deciding this important matter. Butafter a little he must have made up his mind; for he crept past theguardian rocks, and slipped into the entrance of the bear's den!
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