“Same here!” echoed Smithy; while the others contented themselves with giving sundry nods, as though their minds ran along the same channels.
So the swamp guide again started ahead, picking his way through intricate channels that none of the scouts believed they could ever recognize again; though it was plain to be seen from the manner in which Thad and Allan kept keenly observing all their surroundings that they were trying to impress the general run of things upon their minds, so that in case it became necessary for them to take the lead, through losing their guide in some fashion, they might not be wholly unprepared.
And it was in this manner that the scout-master constantly showed those who were under his charge the necessity for constant watchfulness at all times, when in the open. The boy who is “prepared” has a great advantage over the one who never takes note of what is transpiring around him. Not only that, but he discovers a thousand splendid things in the woods and waters about him that remain unknown forever to the lad who will not arouse himself, and do his own thinking.
They had been going for some little time in this fashion, and already there were heard slight murmurs from the place where Giraffe was seated concerning what a light breakfast they had taken, and that it must surely be getting on toward noon, when Thad began to notice that the guide was acting queerly.
“Watch Tom Smith, Allan!” he remarked to the other, as the canoes were close together; and of course every one of the other six scouts immediately sat up and began to take notice.
“You’re right, Thad, there is something bothering him,” admitted Allan, after he had used his eyes for a brief time to observe what the guide was doing.
The alligator-hide hunter had stopped paddling, although his canoe still continued to glide along under the impetus it had received from his last few vigorous strokes. He had raised his head, and cocked it on side, as though listening to some sound that caught his ear.
“Maybe after all the old moonshiner didn’t get your message, Thad,” suggested Step Hen; and immediately Bumpus ceased trying to stretch his thick neck in the endeavor to see over the heads of those nearest him, and who were more or less interfering with his view; “p’raps right now he’s atrailing after us, and meaning to give us heaps and heaps of trouble?”
Step Hen often made remarks like this that proved how he failed to use a due regard for reason. And the scout-master immediately showed him how unlikely his suggestion was.
“In the first place, Step Hen,” Thad remarked, “if you look closer you’ll see how he keeps looking away ahead of us, and not behind. If old Ricky had followed us, the chances are we’d hear of him back there somewhere, and not in advance.”