“Good!” muttered Bumpus, as though that important statement removed a certain dreadful fear that may have been haunting him for quite some time.
“Yes,” continued the other scout glibly, “I saw two rabbits at different times, and a number of nut-crackers of the gray order, fine big chaps too, that would make a fine squirrel stew, let me tell you. They must have come out here at some time in the summer, when the water was awful low, and this island connected with the main shore on one side by an isthmus.”
“That’s the explanation, I expect,” assented Allan, who was always very much interested in all things concerning wild animal migration.
“But about the boat, Giraffe?” reminded Thad.
“Oh! yes, that’s so. I started in to tell you how I found out she was gone from that point where we left her a while back, didn’t I? Well, after I got to the place where you come right out of the woods and sight the point I began to rub my eyes, because I couldn’t believe I was seeing straight, for there wasn’t any boat on that shore at all, not the first sign of one. Of course I knew right away what had happened, and that it must have been the extra big squall coming out of the northwest that had driven her off.”
“Then you hurried back to bring us the news, didn’t you?” continued Thad.
“Say, I just flew, because I thought the sooner you knew about it the better. And so we’re prisoners on the island now, without any kind of a boat to take us off. We may have to wade or swim after the tide goes down again.”
“I don’t suppose you stopped to take a look, and see if there were any tracks around?” the patrol leader continued.
“Tracks—what of, the keel of the shanty boat?” asked Giraffe. “Oh! the splash of the water would have washed all those out easy, so what was the use? We know she’s gone, and that covers the whole bill. By now, what with that wind and current, if she hasn’t been stove in on some rock, the shanty boat must be five or ten miles down the river, and booming along, all the while spinning around like a top. Whee! I’m tickled to death to know I’m not aboard her right now.”
“So say we all of us!” roared several of the scouts in unison, showing how they felt about the matter.