Chapter XIV: Trying to Figure It Out

Dick knew it would not come out that way. He seemed to “feel it in his bones” as he told Leslie afterwards, that the terrible mystery with which they had been confronted on their first night in camp, was closing around them with even a tighter grip.

When Mr. Holwell had left them to hasten back to his tent Dick and Dan looked at one another with blank expressions on their faces.

“Whew!” gasped the latter. “Say, Dick, this is what I call piling it on thick.”

“It begins to look like a bad business I must admit,” returned the other, trying to grasp the situation fully.

“All these things couldn’t just happen by _accident_, you see,” continued Dan, as if arguing with himself. “Mr. Holwell is a careful man, and wouldn’t be guilty of leaving so valuable a watch around loose, so it could be mixed up with the bed clothes in his tent. I tell you we’re up against a real old-fashioned mystery, and no mistake.”

“There’s something queer going on around this camp, for a fact,” said Dick, and taking advantage of the fact that they were alone for a brief time he confided to Dan what he had seen during the night on coming suddenly out of his tent.

The other was deeply impressed by the story. His eyes grew round with wonder and curiosity.

“Let’s go over to Mr. Holwell’s tent and see if we can help him hunt,” he proposed presently. “I used to be a master-hand at finding lost things, and mebbe my luck may hold good in this case.”

“I certainly hope it will, Dan. Nothing would tickle me more than to have you unearth that watch somewhere in his tent. All the same I don’t believe it can be done.”

“Well, there’s no use crying over spilt milk, anyhow,” said Dan with philosophy.

When the two boys reached the minister’s tent they met Mr. Holwell, accompanied by Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Rowland, coming out. The minister looked a little grave and deeply puzzled, though on seeing the expression of anxiety on the faces of the two lads he smiled encouragingly.

“We haven’t been able to find it so far, boys,” he remarked. “Suppose you step in and root around a bit. Young eyes are sharper than older ones. I hope it turns up, because I should very much dislike to lose anything that was endeared to me by so many precious memories.”

Although Dick and Dan turned everything upside-down, they failed to discover any sign of the lost watch. Breakfast was soon announced and they were forced to abandon the search.

Some of the other boys had noticed that something unusual had happened. The doings of Dick and Dan had struck them as suspicious, especially after their previous experience.

Accordingly, Harry Bartlett, knowing that there was no use of trying to keep things secret, announced the new catastrophe that had befallen Russabaga Camp. It came like a thunderbolt upon the assembled boys, who exchanged puzzled and anxious looks, as though a great fear had fallen upon them.

Conversation languished after that. It was as though a wet blanket had been suddenly cast upon them. Every one was busy with his own thoughts, wondering if it could be possible that the dreadful finger of suspicion pointed anywhere in his direction.

Mr. Holwell it was after all who, laughing as though he did not have a care in the world, started to raise their spirits.

“Come, this will never do,” he told them. “You look as if you had lost all interest in life. We mustn’t let a thing like this spoil the whole outing. Doubtless in good time the mystery will be cleared up. And now let’s talk of all our good friends here, Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Rowland, have planned to do to-day.”

By degrees he had the boys looking much more cheerful, though when they got together in clumps after the meal, the conversation was naturally almost wholly of the last strange happening.

Nat and his two cronies were seen talking earnestly. Some of the others could hazard a pretty good guess as to what must be troubling the trio. This was a time when a person’s past reputation was going to come back to haunt him. Nat, aided and abetted by Dit and Alonzo, had engineered numerous dubious enterprises in times that were gone, some of them of a questionable nature. And now being reproached by their consciences, they felt that the others must of a certainty be eyeing them with suspicion. Alonzo showed signs of wanting to desert the camp at once, being only restrained from doing so by the stronger wills of his companions, who realized that this action would look too much like guilt.

Altogether it was not a very happy lot that proceeded to take up the various duties laid out for that morning, and in doing which they had expected to enjoy themselves hugely.

After the excitement had died down the six who had been selected to visit the farm went off in one of the two boats. And while the chosen fishermen were making deft use of the mosquito-net seine in order to secure minnows for bait, Dick found an opportunity to have a little talk with Mr. Holwell.

Eddie Grant, Ban Jansen and Cub Mannis, with tin pails in their hands, hurried past, looking as though they meant business.

“We have found where the blueberries are as thick as clover in a field,” called Ban. “It’ll be an easy job filling these pails by noon. Never saw such big berries as there are on this island. It’ll be a picnic getting stacks and stacks of ’em, and we can pay our way easily as we go.”

Mr. Holwell looked at Dick on hearing this, as though he did not quite understand. Accordingly, the boy hastened to explain that Mr. Nocker had proposed that boys belonging to the association who wanted to go on the camping trip and could not spare the ready money to pay for their share of the expenses should earn enough while on the island by picking the blueberries that found a ready market in Cliffwood.

“That’s a very good scheme,” declared the minister, smiling. “And it shows that our friend, Mr. Nocker, knows more about boys than some of us gave him credit for. Of course he could have offered to pay the way of Eddie and the rest, but after all it’s the wise thing to do to make boys feel that they have earned things, and are not objects of charity.”

“Of course,” Dick went on to explain, “that sort of thing is unusual, and will break in on some of the customary rules that govern all Y. M. C. A. camps. But Mr. Bartlett says that after all this is only a beginning, and on that account we can’t expect to do everything with perfect regularity.”

“Another year,” said Mr. Holwell, “it may perhaps be different. We will find some way whereby a score or two of the mill hands can spend a week or two up at a regularly organized camp. And when we get things to working smoothly, such an outing is bound to be of great benefit to everybody concerned. I’m in it heart and soul, and so is Mr. Nocker.”

“I want to talk with you a little more, sir,” said Dick, boldly, “about this queer disappearance of your watch. I wish now I had gone to Mr. Nocker and asked him to explain what he meant when just before leaving the meeting that night he warned us to beware of the thief up here in Bass Island.”

“Did he say that?” demanded Mr. Holwell, quickly. “Then there must have been a reason for it. Others who have camped here, fishing parties, perhaps, have lost things. And Dick, what you have told me actually raises my spirits considerably, even if it does not promise to bring back my missing property.”

Dick could understand. The kind-hearted minister must have been oppressed by some of the same dreadful thoughts that ever since the first raid had been tugging at his own heart-strings. He feared that one of the boys might be guilty, and the very suspicion caused him unhappiness. It would be so much easier to bear if in the end the culprit proved to be some outside person, possibly a crazy man who had escaped from his keepers, as Peg had suggested.

Long and earnestly did the minister and Dick converse while sitting there. Dick found much encouragement from what the gentleman told him. He even took occasion to mention the suspicions that had oppressed him concerning Asa Gardner; but Mr. Holwell shook his head as though determined not to harbor such himself.

“I have studied boy-nature for many years, Dick,” he said, with feeling; “and I know how hard a fight poor Asa is doubtless putting up against the strange weakness that used to dominate him. The memory of his dead mother will cause him to be victorious in the struggle, I fully believe; and just now he needs all the encouragement he can get. And you are the one best fitted to stand by him as a faithful friend.”

“I’ll willingly do everything I can to help him along,” said Dick, with a look of determination on his young face. “I’ve known times myself when I needed a friendly hand to help me along, but never one half so much as he does. There go Nat and his two chums into the woods. Mr. Bartlett must have given them permission to explore the island.”

“I wonder if they are thinking of hunting up Eddie’s crowd, and helping pick berries,” remarked Mr. Holwell. “It would be a kindly thing if some of the other boys would lend a helping hand. The berry pickers will find it no easy task to collect enough at a few cents a quart to pay their expenses.”

Although Dick did not say so, he was of the opinion that Nat and his cronies were hardly the kind of boys to be anxious about anything excepting their own welfare.