“But, Thad, I ought to know a shout given by human lungs, hadn’t I?” pursued the puzzled Davy.
“We all think that, Davy, but you know for yourself that a loon for instance can laugh so much like a man that you’d be ready to take your affidavit there was a fellow out on the lake trying to make you mad. You think you heard a shout; but it may have been one of a lot of things.”
“Of course anybody could be mistaken, Thad,” the other went on to say; and it is an accepted fact that when your enemy begins to look over his shoulder he is getting ready to retreat.
“You may have heard what you think, Davy; perhaps a boat was being swept past the island, and someone in it, seeing the smoke of our fire, called out for help; though I should think if that was the case he’d keep the ball rolling. Come, let’s take a turn across to the shore, and see if anything is in sight down-river way.”
“All right, Thad; count on me to go along. No need of saying anything to the rest, is there?” Davy remarked, with eagerness stamped upon his face.
“Not a bit,” replied the other.
When the others saw them moving off, very naturally they felt more or less curiosity to know what was in the wind.
“Hello! there, what’s up?” called out Giraffe.
“Oh! we’re just going over to take a look around, boys,” replied Thad.
“Don’t get lost, and give us the bother of hunting you up, whatever you do,” they heard Bumpus say; and the audacity of the thing struck Thad as so comical that he could be heard chuckling as he went on.