“Well, what d’ye think of that, now?” Giraffe was saying, in his usual boisterous manner; “if they haven’t gone and done it, capturing the long-lost George as nice as you please! Yes, and there’s that old engineer’s army coat, too; mebbe the judge won’t be glad to get that keepsake back again!”
Thad was especially well pleased. Of course this was partly on account of having finally accomplished the task that had been set before him, because he always felt satisfied when he could look back to duty well done.
Besides, he fairly gloried in the fact that the two tenderfeet of the patrol, as they might still be called, had succeeded in covering themselves with honor in having captured the second desperate rascal.
The first thing Thad did was to stand the tramp up, remove his bonds, and make him strip off the blue coat that had once kept the judge’s son warm while serving Uncle Sam during our late war with Spain, after which he saw to it that George had his hands bound again.
Two of the boys were dispatched along the shore, where the walking was better, to bring back the other prisoner. To another pair was given the task of setting up a pole on an elevated part of the island, bearing a white flag, which, if seen by anyone on the distant shore, might be the means of bringing a boat to the rescue of the marooned ones.
Meanwhile Thad investigated, and found that apparently George had had no suspicion that there was anything sewed inside the red lining of the army coat given to him by Mrs. Whittaker. Feeling carefully along the sides, Thad discovered that at a certain place there seemed to be something nestled; and when he held the garment close to his ear he was able to catch a slight rustling sound when he bent it back and forth; so he concluded the paper must be safe.
There was enough of the bacon and other things left, it happened, to give them a scanty feed at noon; and they had high hopes that before another night came the conditions would be vastly improved.
This confidence proved well founded, for along about three o’clock Giraffe, who had set himself to be the lookout, came running into camp with the cheering news that two boats were coming from the shore, and that the period of their captivity on the island had reached its end.
It turned out that those rowing the boats were men who had been sent out by the authorities to look for any families in distress because of the flood in the Susquehanna region. There was ample room aboard for the eight scouts, as well as their two prisoners; and in due time they landed on the bank, overjoyed to know that not only were they free once more, but that their principal object in making this long hike had been handsomely accomplished.
Giraffe and Bumpus shook hands solemnly when the fact was mentioned that they had been invited to stay over at a neighboring farmhouse, where they could obtain a bountiful supper and sleep in the barn. That meant supreme happiness to the lengthy and the stout members of the patrol, the “fat and the lean of it,” as Giraffe himself would say.