The suggestion met with some favor, several of the boys agreeing that there might be a grain of truth in such a thing.
The two camp leaders were amused, as well as puzzled, by all this talk, and waited to see what would come of it.
“I’ve read a lot about the queer things people out of their minds keep on doing,” Andy Hale asserted. “But it seems to me if a crazy man were hanging around up here our grub would be the first thing he’d tackle.”
“Well,” Clint observed, sagaciously, “he might have done that if we hadn’t been wise enough to stack about all of the grub in the other cabin, and fasten the door.”
Dick said nothing, but did considerable thinking. For once he was ready to admit that the mystery of the night gave birth to unusually puzzling questions that would have to be solved if they hoped to enjoy their outing on Bass Island, and he resolved to talk the matter over with Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Rowland as soon as he had an opportunity.
“We might set some sort of trap for the rascal, and make him a prisoner,” suggested Andy Hale, thoughtfully. “Now I reckon I could manage to fix up a deadfall such as they trap bears with in the Maine woods.”
“But that’d be apt to hurt the poor fellow, or even kill him,” protested Clint Babbett.
“With a rope and a bent sapling I can show you how they trap alligators in some countries,” spoke up another boy eagerly. “I was reading about it only last week, and actually tried it on our dog. Why, when the sapling was released the noose in the rope tightened around both his hind legs, and the first thing I knew there was poor old Carlo hanging head down, and yelping to beat the band. I had to cut the rope in a big hurry because he acted like a wild thing.”
“How would that sort of thing go, Dick?” asked Leslie, with a wink at his chum.
“Well,” replied the other, with one of his smiles and a glance toward Mr. Bartlett, “I hardly think any of us would want to be so cruel as to hang a human being up by the legs, with his head down; and especially if, as we suspect, he should be one who was out of his mind and not responsible for what he did.”