The boys were all on their feet by this time, and several had even snatched up the stout staves which had proven so useful during their arduous tramp from home to this far-off region of Lake Omega.
"He's coming this way!" called out Step-hen, excitedly.
"Yes, suh, and on the full gallop, too, believe me!" added Bob White, actually taking a step forward, as if ready to meet the danger half way, should there any peril develop.
Thad did not give the order to advance because he had 'ere now discovered that there was no evidence of fright in the shouts of Bumpus. Rather could he detect a note triumph, as though the fat boy believed he had accomplished something worth while, and was deserving of congratulation.
And now all of them could make out what he was calling as he came stumbling along.
"Hey! fellers, what d'ye think, I've found—oh! that old vine nearly cut my neck in two, plague take it—a boat! Yes, a regular boat, hid away in the brush where I was looking for rabbits' tracks; meanin' to learn how to follow the same. And better still, it's got a paddle in it, too. Now we c'n go fishing, and have a bully old time exploring that island out yonder. Don't you think I ought to get a merit badge, Thad, for being so smart, hey?"
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.
Sure enough, when the others followed the proud Bumpus through the woods for a little distance, and then down close to the edge of the water, they found that he had really come upon a boat in a dense thicket, where it had evidently been hidden.