Chapter XI: Buster Has a Shock

“What in the wide world’s that?” asked Buster Longfellow, as they came to a halt in order to listen.

“Sounds like somebody’s started a blacksmith shop over here on the island, that’s what!” remarked Josh.

“Mebbe they’re counting over the ducats they’ve stolen,” suggested George; but the idea of silver dollars making such a loud sound as this as they jingled in a heap, was really so ridiculous that even Buster chuckled in derision; whereupon George had to hastily add “joke!”

“Tell you what I think,” observed wise Herb. “You know they were having some engine trouble a while back; and I reckon that mechanic fellow has got busy fixing it up. The only thing that surprises me is that George here didn’t recognize something mighty familiar in the racket. He’s forever making it himself, so if I didn’t know he was alongside, I’d take my affidavy that was him right now.”

“Huh! think yourself smart to make fun of my twelve-horse power engine, don’t you, Herb?” he started to say, and would doubtless have delivered himself of considerably more along the same lines, only that Jack broke in by observing:

“All the same, Herb is right, there; for the man is aboard the boat and working away at the motor. He’s some machinist, believe me, from the way he goes about things. And there’s the other one going aboard too; wonder what that means?”

Watching they presently saw the younger fellow come in sight again, and step to the bank of the island from the power tied-up and anchored boat.

“Got an armful of blankets?” asserted Josh, immediately.

“That settles one thing, then,” came from George.

“Yes, they’re going to make camp ashore, and pass the night on firm ground,” Jack admitted. “Perhaps they like the change, as we do. Plenty of times when you just have to sleep aboard the boat, you know.”

“And p’raps,” George went on, “we’ll be trying out my little bit of a scheme, after all.”

“Nobody knows,” Jack assured them.

They made themselves as easy as possible, and took up their vigil, not knowing how long it might last.

Back and forth the younger fellow went, until he had carried a great lot of articles, calculated to induce a comfortable night’s rest ashore. Then he started in to fix things to suit him, taking a part of the blankets.

“That settles it,” whispered Jack, to Herb, who was next, “he’s a greenhorn, as far as camping goes.”

“Yep, guess he is,” assented the other, although, if put to the test, Herb might have found it difficult to explain on what he founded his belief.

“See where he’s gone and arranged his blankets,” Jack continued. “There, he’s trying to see how they feel; and would you look at his head toward the fire. No experienced camper ever does that, because it’s his feet that get cold in the night, so he always has them closest to the fire.”

“Sure!” agreed Herb, just as though he had always known that fact, when in truth it had never occurred to him before.

“He fetched some grub with him the last time he came!” whispered George, on the other side of Jack, “and if anybody asked me what that stood for I’d be likely to say it meant they were going to stay on dry land a little while, till they get that engine working that’s what.”

“Well, that isn’t going to be long,” remarked Josh in turn as there came a series of explosions from aboard the boat, that sounded as regularly as clockwork. “He’s got her working now, all right, I guess.”

“Then he must be a crack-a-jack of a mechanic,” observed George, thoughtfully, as though a vague idea had come into his head that it might pay him to get such a man to look over his engine, given the chance.

“But I haven’t seen any paint--yet,” remarked Buster, obstinately.

“Well, what would they want to get busy with that for at night time?” Josh asked him. “If they put in tomorrow hiding here on the island you’ll see enough of paint slingin’ to suit you, Buster, believe me. They’ll want to get the boat partly up out of the water on some skids, using block and tackle to drag her; and then so change her looks that nobody’ll recognize her as the same suspicious white boat that took the bank’s cash away.”

After that they fell silent for some time, meanwhile continuing to watch the two who were still objects of concern, not to say suspicion. The one ashore had crawled under his blankets as though bent on getting fixed cozy for the night. He came out and went back three separate times. Now it was to arrange his covering a little differently; and again it was to draw the blankets back and dig out a root that must have started to hurt his back while lying there, as roots have a failing for doing with campers, especially the big gnarly ones that have a knob on them--every boy knows that without being told.

About the time he finally seemed fixed comfortably with the fire burning low not very far from his head the second one came ashore.

“How is she now, Jenks; I heard you give her a trial spin?” came a voice from among the collected heap of blankets which the intended sleeper had drawn over him.

“Workin’ tip-top, sir, right now,” replied the other; and somehow it seemed to the listening Jack that there was a vein of deference in his tones such as might hardly be expected to be disclosed when one cracksman addressed another, no matter if it was a Slim Jim, and a recognized master of the art of thievery.

“Then we’ve got that thing off our hands, Jenks,” the unseen one went on, every word reaching the ears of the listening boys, because he called out loudly, thinking his voice might be muffled by the blankets, “and we can take it easy tomorrow, with the other job, if we conclude to hide until darkness comes around again.”

“That’s right, sir, so we can,” assented the other, beginning to shift his blankets and make up his bed in the regulation way.

There was no more said.

Jack, watching Jenks, immediately decided that the man must have been in the open more or less, for he seemed to know just how to go about things; and his head was not toward the fire either, when he lay down. Still, he did not attempt to arrange the blaze so that it would keep up for many hours; perhaps he thought that since the other had incautiously placed his head that way it would be folly to keep the heat going, so as to roast him out.

And then at last both seemed to have successfully arranged themselves, for there was no longer any wriggling movements of the blankets that might stand for uneasiness.

“Think they’re asleep, Jack?” queried Herb, softly, as he touched the other gently on the arm.

“If they ain’t they’ll soon be,” muttered George, who had overheard the question and took it upon himself to answer.

“Wonder how much longer this game’s goin’ to keep up?” grumbled Josh; “my right leg’s nigh paralyzed as it is, and I’m gettin’ a crick in my back, Jack, what’s the best word?”

For reply he received a low warning hist that somehow thrilled Josh, and possibly some of the others as well. Immediately every one fastened his eyes on the two bundles of blankets near the dying fire, as though expecting to see some upheaval in that quarter; but nothing of the kind took place.

“What was it, Jack?” whispered Josh, wondering why the other had given that low warning, when there seemed to be no sign of trouble in the hostile camp.

“Something moving over yonder in the bushes; watch sharp, to the right, now!” was what came from the Commodore.

“Gee! mebbe a wild animal goin’ to raid the camp for grub!” Josh suggested.

“More’n likely the same hungry guy that carried off that ham of ours, that’s what,” Buster was just heard to say, deep down in his throat.

Then they lapsed into silence again; though all this talking had been conducted in such low tones, that a short distance away any one would have taken it for granted that it could only be the night wind whispering through the branches of the trees overhead, not yet fully covered with the fresh green leaves that came with the spring.

Yes, there certainly was something moving over there, in the quarter which Jack had indicated. They could see the bushes beginning to bend again, but very slowly, as though the intended intruder tried to exercise great care, not meaning to arouse the sleepers.

Man or animal, they could not say immediately, for even when they first caught sight of the moving figure it was crouched so low that it could pass for either one or the other, in that uncertain light.

Every eye was riveted on it, that can be set down as positive. In fact, just at that minute all of the watchers seemed to be holding their very breath, such was their natural condition of suspense, as well as deep interest.

“Is it a panther, Jack; and have you got your Marlin ready?” Josh whispered in the other’s ear.

The only answer Jack made was to kick Josh on the shins; with that unknown thing creeping forward it seemed no time to be asking foolish questions. Josh evidently understood, for he hushed up immediately.

But then that might have been because all of them saw about this time that it was a man and not an animal, for he had raised his head, in order to take a sharp look toward the spot where the fire glimmered and the two figures were huddled in the piles of blankets.

Possibly the low murmur of Josh’s voice had reached the ears of the intruder, so as to arouse a slight suspicion; but if so, this must have been lulled to sleep again immediately he found that neither of the inanimate figures had changed position.

But when the man thus partly arose it disclosed the fact that he was a heavyset sort of a fellow, wearing a cap and that his face was partly covered with a beard. It did something more than this. When he stretched his neck to see the better a portion of his body was exposed to view.

Now, it was nothing strange that this unknown prowler wore a sweater, or that this was a fine soft gray woolen sweater, of the kind used by automobile tourists in these days, buttoning down the front; but it certainly nearly gave Buster Longfellow heart disease when he discovered on the breast of that same garment the wonderful blue moon that he had so often described as marking his lost present, which he had been suspecting poor innocent Josh of having purloined!