CHAPTER XXVII
TAKEN UNAWARES, AFTER ALL
As there was no longer any necessity for their depending upon theshelter of the projecting ledge, since the sun was shining cheerily, thescouts set about changing camp.
This did not take any great while, because they had no tents to botherwith; and it was easy enough to gather up their blankets and the fewthings they had saved from the wreck of the Chippeway Belle.
As none of them ever saw the first sign of that ill-fated boat again, itwas always taken for granted that when the wind shifted in the night, atthe time Thad drew attention to the fact, the strain became so greatthat the anchor cable had to give way, allowing the still floating boatto be carried out into deep water before the end came.
They found the anchor where it had been placed, with the rope brokenpart way out, and this told the story as well as words could have.
And so camp was made close by the boat belonging to the fish poachers,which it must be their duty to guard, so that later on they could makeuse of the same in order to escape from the island.
The waves did not go down as rapidly as the boys would have liked, andwhen high noon came they were still rolling along in a way that wasdangerous to any small craft, especially on such a great inland sea asSuperior is, with harbors few and far between.
Thad admitted that the chances of their getting away that day did notlook good to him. Giraffe was the only real cheerful fellow in theparty, and as he superintended the cooking of the delicious white fishfor lunch he was heard to express his opinion several times.
"Well, one thing good about it is that there's enough fish on the icedown in that well to last us till Christmas; and it's to be hoped thatsomebody with a boat comes along before then, to take us off; or we canget this chunky craft of the poachers to working some. But let me tellyou, that same fish does smell grand to me. Needn't make a face,Bumpus, because you think you'll never eat fish again. It's either thator go hungry with this crowd."
"But the white fish, like all other delicate fish, is only at its bestwhen eaten on the spot where it's caught," Thad told them; "putting iton ice for days hurts the flavor, and sometimes it's just as tastelessas so much sawdust."
"Then this one was fresh caught," Giraffe affirmed, as he lookedhastily about, took up the last bit that was in the second pan, andasked: "anybody want this; if nobody else does, I'm Johnny on the spot."
"Well, I declare, I like that!" burst out Step Hen; "did you see himswing that pan around, and before a fellow could even open his mouth tosay yes, he had that last big piece in his tin dish. Oh! well, sinceyou've got to be filled up, or you get to growling, go ahead and bolt,it; only look out for bones. If one ever got fastened in that rubberneck of yours, Giraffe, nobody's fingers could ever reach it. And ashard luck would have it, I left my fish disgorger at home."
Giraffe never minded this sort of talk, for he was making away with thelast of the fish with his usual speed.
"Bones never trouble him at all," remarked Bumpus, who was alwaystelling about dreaming of choking to death on a fish-bone.
"That's where you're wrong," chuckled Step Hen; "they trouble him awhole lot, every time he sits down, I reckon, because Nature ain't beenso kind to our long friend as to you, Bumpus."
Joking in this style they finished their meal, and the afternoon staredthem in the face. It promised to be a long stretch, if they had to staythere until another morning.
Bumpus and Giraffe presently got their lines out, and finding a placenear by where it seemed safe to remain, they started to try and add totheir score.
"Let's call it off, Bumpus," suggested Giraffe, who was getting weary."What's the use of all this bother, when we've got a storehouse cram-fullof fine fresh fish close at hand, so we sure don't need this sortof a job for the sake of filling our stomachs. Anyhow, you can keep itup if you feel like it; I'm dead sleepy after passing such a night; andwe ought to get some rest."
"That's so," echoed Bumpus, just as if he had been on guard every minuteof the previous night, "and as like as not we'll have to be keeping oneeye open to-night again, who knows?"
"One?" cried Giraffe, looking sharply at him; and then shaking his headhe went on to add: "but I said I wasn't agoing to poke fun at you thiswhole day, Bumpus, after what you done. Course you can't help it if youget sleepy, any more'n I can about being hungry all the time. So let'scall it a draw, and quit kidding."
"What's that smoke over there mean?" asked Step Hen, a short time later;and even Giraffe, who was trying to get some sleep, sat up on hearingthis.
"Hurrah! mebbe it's a rescue boat coming out after us!" cried Davy,standing on his hands, and kicking his heels in the air, just as theordinary boy might clap his hands together.
"What do you say, Thad?" asked Giraffe, cautiously, having arisen to hisfeet, and stretched his long neck in the endeavor to see better than hischums.
"Well," remarked the scout-master, after he had made a mentalcalculation; "you notice, don't you, that it comes from toward the otherend of the island."
"Yes, that's a fact, Thad," slowly admitted Davy, who had now returnedto his normal condition, with his head higher than his heels; thoughsome of the boys often declared that the reverse was true, and that heseemed more natural when hanging head downward from the limb of a tree,like a giant bat or a monkey.
"And there isn't enough of it to make me think a boat could be coming,"Thad went on to say. "In fact, the chances are those men, as badlyfrightened as they are, have to eat, and I think they've lighted a fireto cook something."
"Oh! is that all?" grunted Giraffe, immediately dropping back upon hisblanket; "please don't wake me up again for such a silly thing as that;though of course I can feel for 'em if they are really hungry."
Acting on the advice of Thad the other boys managed to get some sleepfrom time to time, though they were very careful not to let the camp gounguarded.
"We're going to be kept here on the island another night, seems like,"he had told them, "and that means a constant watch. So far we'vemanaged to hold our own, and we can't afford to get careless, and loseout."
"I should say not," Step Hen had echoed, as he cuddled down to carry outthe suggestion of the scout-master.
Along about half an hour before evening set in an expedition wasarranged to pay another friendly visit to the fish preserves of thepoachers. They wanted to get enough supplies this time to cover severalmeals, so that they would be able to feel that they had food for thenext day, should they be able to make the start in the morning.
Now Bumpus would much rather have remained behind; but it was a choicebetween two evils with him. His recollections of the harsh methods bymeans of which the poachers tried to get him to give up his secret werestill fresh in his mind; so was his detestation of that fishy odor thatclung to the shack. But Thad would not let him have any choice in thematter, telling him that he must accompany the expedition, and carryhome his share of the spoils, though Giraffe had promised to again dropdown into the pit, and send up all they wanted.
They met with no adventure on the way, nor were they interrupted intheir task of securing a store of fish food for present necessities, andlooking into the near future a bit.
Giraffe managed his end of the labor manfully. He suffered a greatdeal, he admitted; but then, somebody had to take on the hard jobs; andas no one else volunteered he just had to be the "goat."
"Oh! as if we don't know the real reason," Step Hen declared,indignantly. "If you wasn't so crazy after eating all the time, I guessnow you'd be the last one to go down there of your own free will. Butthat ain't saying we ain't glad of it. 'Taint often we get a chance toharness that appetite of yours to something that pays. Go on down a fewmore times, Giraffe; we might toddle along under another fish apiece."
"Not much I will," grunted the other; "six trips is the limit foranybody with a weak stomach."
"Weak stomach-what, you?" cried Step Hen, scornfully throwing up hishands.
The tall
scout however did not want to be drawn into an argument justthen, since that would only delay their departure from the cabin and allthat it spoke of in such a distinct way. He darted in again, however,for a last visit, and vanished down the pit; to appear a minute laterholding the largest fish they had as yet run across.
"There, what d'ye think of that for a jim dandy, fellows?" he cried."And Bumpus, take a good look at him, because I'm bound to hook the mateto this next time we get out our lines. I'm not only a weather prophet,but there are times when I feel it in my bones that something is goingto happen."
He tripped just then, and took a header, whereupon Bumpus, withpretended sympathy, hurried to his side, and offered to help him get up,saying;
"Oh! Giraffe, that was the time your bones told you the truth, didn'tthey; and I reckon your knee joints are skinned some after that tumble,too?"
Giraffe may have been suffering all sorts of agonies at the time, but ofcourse he was not going to let the others see him wince; so he smiledsweetly as he once more gained his feet, and took up the big fish,saying at the same time:
"Don't mention it; I'm all right, Bumpus."
But they could see him limp more or less as they headed for the camp bythe captured motorboat of the fish poachers.
Of course, when they went off like this they made sure to carry thecrank belonging to the engine along with them, so that even if the enemydid enter the camp during their absence they could not run away with thecraft, which on account of the make of motor was practically helpless assoon as the crank was gone.
"Here we are, right-side up with care; plenty of grub, and no damagedone except that we've decreased the stock of fish supplies the poachershave laid by," Step Hen was heard to declare; and though Giraffe gavehim a pained look, and unconsciously rubbed his injured knee, he did notmake any remark to the contrary.
And when it came time to get supper ready he was apparently just as ableto move around as ever, barring a slight limp.
Of course they kept close watch all the while, not wishing to be takenby surprise, should the enemy muster up enough courage to attempt somedesperate trick, possibly looking to making the scouts prisoners, sothat they could once more secure the valuable crank, and go away onboard their boat.
Thad himself had managed to secure some rest during the day, because heknew that another hard night awaited him.
As on the previous occasion he told the others they could sit up if theychose, and keep both he and Allan company; and just as had happenedbefore all of them tried hard to accommodate; but before one hour passedpoor Bumpus had fallen by the wayside; and then soon afterward Davy,Giraffe and Step Hen all found themselves unable to hold out.
Since they had really undergone considerable in the way of privation andexcitement of late, Thad did not have the heart to blame them. Hebelieved that with the one faithful chum alongside, he could take asgood care of the camp as though the whole six were on duty.
The time dragged along until it must have been close on midnight; and sofar nothing out of the way had happened, though the sentries did notrelax their vigilance on that account, for they were too good woodsmento think of that.
As the boat had been secured with all the available ropes, and a part ofthe engine dismantled in the bargain, neither of the scouts dreamed thatthe enemy would aim to strike a blow at them in that quarter. Theycould not carry the boat off; and even granting that this were possible,it would be useless, since they had no means for running the same.
Still another hour had crept along, and Thad was just beginning tocongratulate himself on the way the night was passing, when without theleast, warning there came a sudden flash of light down in the rockyberth where the boat lay; immediately succeeded by a deafening crash.Up into the air arose burning fragments of the poacher's boat; and thiswas the startling spectacle that greeted the astonished eyes of theSilver Fox scouts who had been sweetly sleeping, as they sat up andstared around them.
CHAPTER XXVIII
GOOD-EYE TO STURGEON ISLAND--CONCLUSION
All sorts of loud cries and exclamations arose, as the startled boysbegan to dodge the falling pieces of the blown-up boat.
Thad, although almost stunned by the sudden catastrophe that had comeupon them, in spite of their vigilance, kept a bright lookout, for fearlest the next thing they knew the poachers would come dashing amongthem, hoping to take advantage of the confusion to disarm them.
But nothing of the sort occurred, and presently the six boys huddledthere in a heap, trying to figure out what had happened, and why thethree men had resorted to such desperate tactics rather than allow theseeming soldiers to sail away in the morning, and perhaps carry the newsto some place where the authorities would be sure to fit out anexpedition at once, looking to their capture.
After a great deal of talk, and many odd ideas being advanced, which itwould not profit us to mention here, they settled on what seemed to bethe most plausible theory. This was that the three poachers, believingthey could not make use of their boat so long as the boys in uniformheld the key, in the shape of that crank, had decided to blow it up.Their reason for this may have been that they would in this way compelthe others to remain marooned there on the island; and perhaps it wasexpected that another boat, with a fresh lot of poachers, would be alongafter a certain time.
This was the nearest they could ever come to it, for they did not have achance to make the personal acquaintance of the three hide-out men, andtherefore could not get information at first quarters.
When the morning came the scouts were not so merry as they had felt onthe previous evening when all things looked rather rosy. Still, it isdifficult to keep some fellows moping all the time; and even Giraffetried hard to look at the bright side; thought he often complained thathe had consider difficulty in making up his mind which side that was.
As long as the food supply held out, Giraffe was not going to give up todespair; even if fish as a steady diet might pall on the ordinaryappetite, Giraffe thought he could stand the bill of fare for a week ortwo, if they had to stick it out that long.
Thad kept them on the watch for some sort of vessel, steamer, sailingcraft, whaleboat barge or anything that would afford an asylum, if onlythey could by the greatest of good luck attract the attention of thoseon board.
As the morning got pretty well along the boys were beginning to feeldowncast once more, when all at once Step Hen, who had been using theglasses at the time, let out a joyous whoop.
"Would you believe it, fellows," he cried, "while we've been nearlybreaking our necks looking to the east and south for a sail, why, here'sa little buzzing motorboat acoming along an the same tack we carried;and ten chances to one now, it's carrying our two good Silver Fox pards,Smithy and Bob White!"
All of them had to take a look through the glasses, and the consensus ofopinion seemed to trend that way; though at first some of the moredubious were inclined to fear that it might only be another poachingboat, that was coming straight to the island to land a catch ofillegally taken fish.
"Get busy right away, and let them know where we are!" exclaimed Bumpus,all of a tremble with anxiety. "Goodness gracious! just think how we'dfeel if they went speeding past old Sturgeon Island, never heating usyell; because the breeze was wrong. Bang away with the gun, Thad, andmake 'em look! Do something that'll stir things up! Wish I could letout a whoop that'd carry ten miles, you'd hear me spreading myself some,I tell you."
But all Bumpus's fears were useless, for those aboard the littlemotorboat that had really come all the way from the Soo, startingearlier than Thad and his five companions, heard the combined shouts,and signaled that they would head in without delay.
"Say, couldn't you hold up a little while, and let me go back after afew more of those fine fish?" pleaded Giraffe, when the rescuing craftwas drawing close; and when the scout-master shook his head in thenegative the tall member went on: "you never know how much grub you needwhen on one of these here lake trips, with the chances in favor ofsomething happenin
g to knock the engine out. Besides, remember therewill be two more mouths to feed, Thad; and sure I could snatch up someof them fish in a jiffy. Say yes, won't you?"
"No need of it, Giraffe," the other assured the lean scout; "it's truethat we'll have a couple more with us, but don't forget that they areexpected to have a pretty good supply of food aboard as it is. Then whowants to live on fish diet."
"And we'll get to a place right soon," added Bumpus, "where we can layin all the stores we want."
"Yes," Step Hen thought fit to remark, "and then too, if we loaded downso with too much fish, what's ever going to become of that game you andBumpus are working? We expect to have the table supplied right alongnow with the product of your combined skills as anglers."
"Oh!" chuckled Giraffe, "after all that honey, I give up, and agree tolet things run as they are. But I want to warn the said Bumpus here andnow that I'm camping on his trail; and from this time out the fight isagoing to be just fierce!"
"Bah! who's afraid?" sang out the fat scout, with a shrug of hisshoulders.
"Everybody get their things together so we can climb aboard as soon asour comrades come close enough to shore. We may have to wade a little,for the landing places are few and far between, and we don't want totake any chances."
"Then I hope some kind friend will have the goodness to carry me on hisback; because I sure hate to get my footsies soaked again," remarkedBumpus, unabashed.
It turned out, however, that there was no need of this. The two boys inthe motorboat knew how to manage, and brought the little vessel in closeenough so that even clumsy Bumpus was able to clamber aboard, afterhanding up his possessions. And Thad smiled when he saw that the otherincluded among these the rusty crank belonging to the destroyed boatwhich the poachers had used in their illegal business, evidentlyromantic Bumpus meant to keep that as a reminder of his little adventureon Sturgeon Island.
Smithy and Bob White were two of the Silver Fox Patrol whom many readerswill remember figuring largely in previous books of this series of BoyScout tales.
They were instantly almost consumed with eagerness to know what hadhappened to maroon their chums on the island; but until they had passedsome distance out Thad would not attempt to relate the stirringcircumstances.
"Looky, there they are, ashaking their fists after us; and I reckonthey're letting out a few remarks that might burn our ears if we heardthe same, which the breeze keeps us from doing," and Giraffe, as hespoke, pointed to where the trio of lawless poachers stood on a rocknear the other end of the island.
That was the last they were fated to see of the men. Later on theyhappened to enter a Canadian port in search of supplies, and of courseThad made it an object to narrate their adventure to some person inauthority. The boys heard afterwards that an expedition was at oncestarted out by the Canadian people, looking to the capture of thepoacher crowd, and the breaking up of their illegal business; butapparently the other boat must have arrived before them; for while theyfound the ice pit, just as the boys had described to them, the fish wereall gone, nor did a search of the entire island reveal any sign of humanoccupation.
Of course it did not matter at all to Thad And his chums whether thethree men were ever apprehended, as they did not expect to cruise inthis region again and consequently there was no chance of their evermeeting any of them afterwards.
They would never be apt to forget the strange things that had come tothem however, while marooned on Sturgeon Island; and often when theypored over the Government charts that Thad kept, they could see again inmemory many of those adventures looming up along the mental horizon thewreck of the boat; the lively time they had getting ashore; thediscovery of the fish packing cabin; the mysterious disappearance ofBumpus; how he was found again under such remarkable conditions; theblowing up of the poachers' boat; and last but not least the opportunearrival of their mates with the other craft.
No doubt many a time the very odor of fish would carry the thoughts ofthose boys away back to this period in their adventurous careers. Notthat it marked the culmination of the good times fortune had in storefor them; because before many months passed a splendid chance was goingto come along that would give the members of the Silver Fox Patrol anopportunity to enjoy another outing, this time while the North, wheretheir home town lay, was swathed in snow and ice. The title of thisnext book will be "The Boy Scouts Down in Dixie; or, The Strange Secretsof Alligator Swamp." And the reader of this volume may rest assuredthat the adventure's befalling Thad and his jolly mates, Allan, Giraffe,Bumpus, Davy, Smithy, Step Hen and the Southern boy, Bob White, willafford them as rich a treat in the new story as anything that haspreceded it.
As to that wager between Giraffe and Bumpus, it kept dragging alongduring the balance of the cruise, sometimes one, and then the otherbeing ahead. But luck finally favored Giraffe, as on the very last day,with the score a tie, he happened to be trailing a stout line out, whenhis hook became fast to the tail of a big fish that came near pullinghim overboard before he succeeded in landing the same, after the enginewas hurriedly stopped.
After that Bumpus threw up his hands, and said he would wait on thecrowd when they had their dinner upon arriving home; which he certainlydid, and with such success that the boys voted he continue to accept"tips" in that vocation whenever they were in camp, Bumpus vigorouslydissenting, of course.
Thad learned later an that the poor old Chippeway Belle was fullyinsured, and no word of complaint ever reached them after they hadfurnished the owner with all the evidence he needed in order to collectthe amount; so there may have been a little truth in what several of thescouts hinted among themselves, that the sinking of the powerboatcleared the air, and allowed the gentleman to replace her with a newermodel. "Blessings often come, in disguise," Bumpus says, as he looks upat that rusty crank, tied with a red bow of ribbon, and hanging from thewall of his den at home; and then feeling of his head to ascertainwhether that lump has fully subsided, he is apt to go on to remark thatsometimes they even drop down from trees, and give a fellow the queerestkind of a thump; for if he had not conceived that little plan of hidinga part of the machinery belonging to the poachers' boat, things mighthave turned out vastly different from what they did.
The End
Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island; or, Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers Page 27
