Thad drew them together at this point.
“From here on we’ll be much closer,” he told them all, “because it looks as though the end of the island must be just a little ways off, and it seems to come to a point like the upper end. Look over there, what do you call that?” and he pointed directly ahead as he spoke.
“Smoke!” announced Old Eagle Eye instantly.
Everyone was ready to confirm his announcement, after they had taken a look.
“And as there couldn’t be smoke without a fire, and no fire unless some human hand had started it,” the scout master continued, in his logical way, “it looks as if we might be closing in on those we’re hunting for, Wandering George and his pal.”
“Well, since they’ve had a fire that means the finish of our grub,” commented Giraffe; “but then, it’s only what we expected; and, Thad, there’s a great big hog on this island—no, don’t laugh, because I’m not referring to Bumpus now. I mean a real porker, a whopper of several hundred pounds weight. Davy stepped on him, and I could have knocked the beast over as easy as turning my hand. So we don’t need to have any fear of being starved out, if it gets to the worst.”
“That sounds good to me, Giraffe, and I can see that you’re not joking,” Thad told him. “We heard some sort of a row over your way, but thought it was only one of you tripping over those creepers. A hog may not seem like very fine company, but that depends on conditions. Just now we’ll be glad to know him, and to offer him the warmest seat close by our fire. Fact is, we’ll take him as a companion, and let him be one of us. Now, let’s make our line again, for we want to push down toward that fire below.”
“There’s another patch of scrub ahead, before we get to the point of the island, and we might lose our game in that if we didn’t keep the net drawn across, for a fact,” admitted Allan, who of course recognized the wisdom shown by the leader in continuing the carrying out of his plan.
Once more they separated, but this time it was not necessary to put much ground between them. When the line had formed all eyes were turned toward Thad. He waved his hat, which was the signal to begin the advance; so again each scout moved on as before, examining every possible cover for signs of the enemy.
They had thus made a clean sweep of the island. Rabbits may have escaped them by hiding in crannies among the rocks; and squirrels could have remained aloft in their nests inside hollow limbs of trees, or secreted amidst the foliage of the evergreen hemlocks; but certainly no larger object had evaded them.