“But that bullet did whine, I tell you, fellers;” declared Davy, emphatically; “no other word would explain just how it sounded, when she went zipping past, so close to our heads that we all ducked without thinkin’.”
“And like as not,” remarked Allan, who thus far had taken no part in the discussion, “if we start taking up their trail in the morning, and come anywhere close to our birds, we’ll be apt to more than hear the whine of a bullet. They’re bad men, Sheriff Green told us, and if put in a hole, with a chance of spending some years in prison, wouldn’t mind wounding a few of us—perhaps worse than that, even.”
Thad looked serious.
“I’ve been considering that matter,” he announced, “and trying to make up my mind just what a party of Boy Scouts, caught in such a puzzle, ought to do. If our real scoutmaster, Dr. Philander Hobbs, was only here, that would be a question for him to decide. I wish we had him along with us right now.”
“And the rest of us are mighty glad business kept him tied down at home, just at the time we had this great chance to come up into the Maine woods,” chuckled Step Hen.
“You’re as able to settle anything as well as Dr. Philander,” declared Allan. “And so, please let us know what came of your thinking this subject over; because we all know you too well, Thad, to believe you’d ever drop it without hatching out some sort of a scheme.”
“That’s the ticket; we all want to know,” echoed Bumpus.
Of course this sort of talk must have been exceedingly pleasant to the young patrol leader. He would not have been a boy had he not been thrilled by this showing of confidence which his chums placed in his ability as a manager and scoutmaster; and so he hastened to oblige the eager demands of the others.
“While we were tramping along homeward,” Thad continued, “I got to figuring how best we ought to act. You see, somehow that thing of chasing after those toughs didn’t appeal to me very much, after hearing how a lump of lead can sound when it’s passing by so close to your head. And in the end I had an idea. If you think it’s worth anything, why, we might try the same out.”
“Sure we will!” declared Giraffe.