As there had been no invitation on the part of the patrol leader to the others to come along, they realized that they were not wanted.
“A case of two’s company, three a crowd, I reckon, suh!” remarked Bob White, as he tossed a little more wood on the fire, which felt pretty cheerful, since the air was still cool after the storm.
“Who cares?” said Bumpus, stretching himself out again at full length on his comfortable blanket.
Meanwhile Thad and Davy were engaged in making their way through the brush, and heading for the shore on the eastern side of the island that stood in the middle of the flooded Susquehanna.
They found it more difficult work than they had expected. The island could not have been used for any purpose, since under the trees it was a perfect snarl of bushes and creeping vines, some of the latter as thick as one’s ankle. Unless the person who was pushing his way through this wilderness of growth kept constantly on the alert he was very apt to catch his foot in a snake-like vine, and measure his full length on the ground.
Davy, indeed, uttered several little ejaculations when his hands came in contact with thorns growing on some of the bushes.
“This isn’t what it seemed cracked up to be, eh, Thad?” he muttered. “I guess there’s a sample of everything that grows around this region right here on this island, and then some. And seems like I’m finding the same out one after the other. There, that stub of a branch tried to poke my left eye out, and did bring blood on my cheek. I don’t see how you manage to get along without any accidents.”
“You’re not as experienced as I am in passing through places like this, that’s all, Davy. You move too quick, and don’t use your eyes enough. If you think I can take the cake at it you ought to see an Indian work, and after that you’d say I wasn’t in the same class. He’d like as not glide along like a snake; and try as hard as you pleased, you wouldn’t hear so much as a twig break under his feet.”
“Then I’m pretty sure I’ll never make a first-class scout,” commented Davy, “for I seem to be too clumsy. There, I thought that stick would bear my weight; but it broke under me with a sharp snap that would have told the enemy somebody was trying to sneak up on the camp. I guess it must run in the blood, Thad, and I haven’t got any of it in me. Yet I had an uncle who was said to be one of the greatest big game hunters that ever went out to South Africa after elephants and lions and all such things. They skipped me when it came to inheriting the instincts of a still-hunter.”
By degrees they forced their way through all these obstacles, and Davy seemed to improve as he went along, as Thad took occasion to tell him.