“But I ain’t foolin’, I tell you,” he persisted. “I really and truly did see somethin’ that looked like a man’s face, peek in at that window!”
“Oh! hear him beginning to hedge, would you?” cried Davy, fiercely. “First it was a man, and a white man too. Now he says it just looked like a man. Pretty soon he’ll up and admit that he thought he saw something moving out there; and when we rush out to hunt around, I guess we’ll find only the limb of a tree that waves in the night wind. Oh! you Bumpus, we know you, all right!”
“Oh! very well, if you don’t believe me when I say so, and hold up my hand this way, why, I haven’t got another thing to say,” grumbled the fat boy. “But if I didn’t see a face there, why, I’ll, yes, I’ll eat my hat.”
“After all,” remarked Thad, whom the guides had been watching, to take their cue from his actions, “it ought to be easy to prove Bumpus’ statement one way or the other.”
“How’s that, Thad?” asked Step Hen.
“Why, all we have to do is to ask Sebattis here, or Eli, or Jim, to step outside and look for tracks!” remarked the patrol leader.
“Well what do you think of that for a bright lot of scouts?” laughed Giraffe. “That’s what we ought to have thought of the first thing. And the sooner they get busy, the quicker we’ll know whether Bumpus saw anything, or just thought he did.”
Thad turned on the guides, and smiling, nodded his head. With that signal, which they easily understood, both Eli and the Indian darted over to the fire; while the boys watched them curiously.
“Oh! it’s torches they’re after!” exclaimed Bumpus, seeing the guides picking out blazing brands that, to their practiced eyes, offered all the advantages which a lantern might supply.
Doubtless one of the three men would have hastened to the door and pushed out to investigate, as soon as Bumpus raised his racket; only, hearing Giraffe making fun of the fat boy, they suspected it was only a prank he might be playing; and none of them wished to be caught as the victim of a practical joke.