"Just lay there watching the rest of you for several minutes, Allan. I could see him elevate his head at times, and then duck like a flash when he thought some one might be looking his way; which showed pretty plainly that he didn't want to be seen, and that he didn't mean to step forward and join the crowd."
"Then he went away, did he?" continued the other.
"Yes, backed off, and I lost track of him among the rocks and the bushes," Thad went on to say, impressively. "It struck me as a queer proceeding, and I didn't lose much time in getting you out here, so I could talk it over."
"Perhaps there's only one, all told, and he might be some fellow who's escaped from prison, and is in hiding away off here, where he thinks no one will ever take the trouble to look for him," Allan suggested.
The scout-master shook his head.
"I can't say just what he is, or whether there's a dozen here," he observed; "but I do know that all his actions were suspicious, for no honest fisherman would do what he did."
"We'll have to be on our guard, then, Thad?"
"That goes without saying, until we know more about who our neighbors are," the scout-master replied.
"It sort of complicates the situation some, too, don't it?" Allan asked.
"Yes, and perhaps we'd better not say anything to the rest until we learn something more about this thing," Thad told him.