CHAPTER XVII
ROBINSON CRUSOE, JR.
"There you are," said Giraffe, presently.
"Why, that shelf of rock looks just like it was meant to keep the rainoff," declared Step Hen, delighted at the prospect.
"Hold on," Bumpus advised.
"What ails you now?" Giraffe wanted to know.
"Why, you see," the stout boy went on to say, "she looks kinder dark andgloomy under that same rock."
"But it won't after I get a fire started; you see the night's beginningto settle down already," Giraffe told him.
"How d'ye know there ain't somethin' ahiding in there?" demanded Bumpus.
At that the lengthy scout laughed scornfully. "Oh! that's the way thewind blows, does it? Well, you watch me eat your old wolf up. I'mhungry enough right now to eat anything, I reckon."
Few of them could remember when Giraffe was anything but starving, forhe always had that appetite of his along, and working overtime.
He immediately crawled under the ledge, for the shelf of rock was nothigh enough to admit of his standing erect.
"Seems to be all right," admitted Bumpus.
"Of course it is, though I kind o' think a wolf, if he showed goodtaste, would let me alone, and wait for you, Bumpus," Giraffe calledback.
They hastened to deposit their burdens under the shelving rock.
"Now, Thad, don't you think it'd be a good idea to have everybodyhustle, and collect what fuel we could?" the fire-maker asked.
"As it's apt to rain any, time now," answered the scout-master, "andwe'll be glad to have a fire all night, it seems as though we'd show ourgood sense by gathering wood while we have the chance."
"That's the ticket! You hear Thad speaking, fellows, so get busy."
Giraffe showed them how by immediately starting in to collect such woodas lay conveniently at hand.
"Pile it up here, where it'll keep dry, and we can get what we need fromtime to time," he told them.
Many hands make light work, and as the entire half dozen boys busiedthemselves like a pack of beavers, before long they had accumulated sucha pile of good dry fuel as pleased Giraffe exceedingly.
"That's what I call a hunky-dory lot of wood," he finally declared, whenThad had announced the they must surely have enough to see them throughthe night, "but better bring in a little more, boys, because you don'tknow how fast the fire eats it up."
As for himself, Giraffe was now ready to get his cheery blaze started.
He actually wasted a match in doing this, muttering at the time thatthere was no use bothering with his fire-sticks, which would come inhandy later, perhaps, when the stock of matches ran low.
Well, every boy admitted that things certainly did take on a rosier hue,once that fire began to crackle and send up sparks.
"That feels good, Giraffe," said Bumpus, holding his hands out towardthe blaze.
"Sure it does," the fire maker went on to say, "and we'll all feelbetter still after we get some grub inside. Thad, what are we going tohave for supper?"
Nobody started making fun of Giraffe now. They were all pretty sharppushed, and could sympathize with the hungry one.
"Oh! look over our stock, and see what we've got," replied thescout-master. "Only go slow, and don't cook too much, because nobodycan tell how long we might have to stay here on this island, and we mayhave to come down to half rations yet."
His words struck a chill to some of their hearts.
Giraffe, however, refused to allow himself to be concerned.
"Oh! don't worry, boys," he remarked, "we ain't going to starve, even ifwe have to be marooned here two weeks before a vessel can be signaled.Why, what use are the fishing lines to us if we can't take lots of finnyprizes? Then, if there's ducks around, or anything else to shoot, ain'twe got a gun? And last of all, I reckon we'd find lots of mussels orfresh water clams in the sand at the end of the island where we landed."
Somehow, his hopeful spirit did a great deal to help buoy up the spiritsof the other scouts.
Even Bumpus volunteered to assist in getting supper ready; indeed, therewas no lack of cooks on this occasion, for every one seemed willing tolend a hand.
After all, youth is so hopeful, and filled with animal spirits, that ittakes more than ordinary backsets to dishearten a parcel of healthyboys.
By the time the supper was done they were talking like magpies, and itwould be difficult to imagine that these six happy-go-lucky fellows werenow actual Crusoes of the great lake, their boat a wreck, anddeliverance a very uncertain prospect of the future.
"That's the very last of the bacon, ain't it, Giraffe?" asked Step Hen,during the progress of the meal.
"Sorry to say it is," came the reply.
"And don't it taste finer than ever, though?" Bumpus wanted to know.
"That's always the way," laughed Thad.
"Yes," added Allan, "you never miss the water till the well runs dry.But how about our ham, is that gone, too!"
"Well, I should say, yes," declared Giraffe, an injured look on hisface, as if he felt accusing eyes fixed upon him, "s'pose you think onepoor lone ham with six hungry fellows to chaw away at it, could lastforever, but it won't. If you want to know what we've got left I'lltell you--two cans of Boston baked beans, one of tomatoes, somepotatoes, a package of rice, plenty of tea, sugar and coffee, three tinsof milk, some chocolate, and three packages of crackers."
"Is that all?" gasped Bumpus.
"So you see right away to-morrow we've got to get busy trying to lay insome sort of supplies," Giraffe went on to say. "How about that, Thad?"
"You never said truer words," was the scoutmaster's comment.
"Yum, yum, I don't know when I've enjoyed a supper like I have thisone," Step Hen acknowledged.
"I hope it ain't the last time I'll hear you say that," remarkedGiraffe.
"Hope so myself," returned the other, "because it'd be too bad if I hadto quit eating at my tender age."
"Thad, do you think this island could be inhabited?"
It was Davy who asked this question, but Bumpus must have been thinkingalong the same lines, for he nodded his head violently and smiled, asthough he awaited Thad's answer with interest.
"Of course I couldn't say," the scout-master observed. "It's only asmall rocky island, you know, and people wouldn't live here the year'through."
"But they might come here, ain't that so?" Step Hen insisted.
"Why, yes, to fish, or shoot wild fowl in the season," Thad went on tosay.
"Well, I sure do hope there may be some white fish netters here rightnow," Step Hen said.
"Or if their ain't, let's wish they'll be comin' along soon," Bumpusadded with a fervency that was certainly genuine.
"I wonder," Davy broke in with, "what we could do if our boat wascarried away, or we found we couldn't mend the same?"
"Huh! What did old Robinson do but build him a boat? Here are sixboys, wide-awake as they make 'em--and I'd like to know why we couldn'tdo as much as one man!"
Bumpus said this rather boastfully, not that he had so much confidencein his own ability to do things as he felt satisfied that Thad and Allanwould be equal to almost any emergency.
"Well, we might, under the same conditions," the former told him.
"Ain't the conditions the same," inquired Step Hen. "He was wrecked,and so are we, you might call it."
"Yes, but there's no tree on this rocky island big enough to make into aboat," Thad informed him.
"That's a fact, they do grow dwarf trees here," Step Hen admitted.
"And suppose there was, how could we ever chop one down with one littlecamp hatchet, and hollow out the log?" Thad asked.
"Might take a year," acknowledged the other.
"We'd freeze to death here in the winter time, because it gets awfulcold, they say," Step Hen continued.
"Why, we could walk over the ice, and get ashore," Davy suggested.
"Guess the old lake don't freeze over solid any time; it's too big,ain'
t it, Thad?" Giraffe went on to say.
"That's something I don't know," came the scout master's answer; "andwhat's more to the point I don't care, because we'll never stay herethat long."
"Glad to know it," said Bumpus. "P'raps now our friends'll be lookingus up, and come to the rescue."
"You mean Smithy and Bob White, don't you?" asked Step Hen.
"That's who."
And so they continued to discuss matters from every view-point possible,as only wide-awake boys may.
Meanwhile the scout-master, thinking that while the rain held off hemight as well step out and take a little look around, proceeded to doso.
Allan Hollister was sitting there, resting, and listening to thearguments of the other boys, when he saw the scout-master beckoning justoutside the full glow of light cast by the fire.
"What's up, Thad?" he asked, as he joined the other.
"I think I've made the discovery that we're not alone on the island,"came the answer.
Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island; or, Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers Page 17
