“Smithy,” he said, with a grand air, as became a conqueror, “use your rope, and tie his wrists behind his back. If there’s enough left, give a turn around his ankles, will you, please? And whatever you do, let it be thorough. That’s what scouts are taught to always be, you know.”
Under the immediate eye of Bumpus the tramp was triced up, after which the two boys dragged him behind a screen of bushes. Bumpus was in constant apprehension lest the second hobo appear on the scene, and managed to keep his eyes turned this way and that as the minutes passed on.
It seemed as though the morning must be wearing away when finally the barking of a fox, so excellently done that it would have deceived an old hunter, announced the near presence of Allan and Thad, and likely the others besides.
When they entered the camp they seemed to be laboring under some excitement; but Bumpus had warned Smithy not to give their secret away immediately.
“Well, what luck did you have, boys?” asked the stout lad, as one and then another of the six filed past him to the vicinity of the fire.
“We cornered one of the precious pair down at the extreme end of the island,” acknowledged Giraffe; “but George gave us the slip somehow. We figured he must have hid in a hemlock top, and after we passed come on up here; and since we ran across his trail not far from camp some of us began to get cold feet for fear that you two might have been surprised and taken prisoner. We’re all as glad as hops to see that was a false alarm, Bumpus and Smithy.”
“But have you seen anything of George?” asked Thad, who believed there was something decidedly odd about the way the features of the two guards were working, as though they might be doing everything in their power to conceal some secret.
Of course Bumpus had by that time reached the limit of his endurance, especially since Smithy gave a big yell, unable to hold in any further.
“Go and take a look back of the bushes there; that’s the answer, boys!” Bumpus remarked, trying to look indifferent, though really trembling all over with the joyful excitement.
There was an immediate rush in the quarter pointed out; and then shouts that might have easily been heard at the lower end of the island.