“Of course,” Dick went on to explain, “that sort of thing is unusual, and will break in on some of the customary rules that govern all Y. M. C. A. camps. But Mr. Bartlett says that after all this is only a beginning, and on that account we can’t expect to do everything with perfect regularity.”
“Another year,” said Mr. Holwell, “it may perhaps be different. We will find some way whereby a score or two of the mill hands can spend a week or two up at a regularly organized camp. And when we get things to working smoothly, such an outing is bound to be of great benefit to everybody concerned. I’m in it heart and soul, and so is Mr. Nocker.”
“I want to talk with you a little more, sir,” said Dick, boldly, “about this queer disappearance of your watch. I wish now I had gone to Mr. Nocker and asked him to explain what he meant when just before leaving the meeting that night he warned us to beware of the thief up here in Bass Island.”
“Did he say that?” demanded Mr. Holwell, quickly. “Then there must have been a reason for it. Others who have camped here, fishing parties, perhaps, have lost things. And Dick, what you have told me actually raises my spirits considerably, even if it does not promise to bring back my missing property.”
Dick could understand. The kind-hearted minister must have been oppressed by some of the same dreadful thoughts that ever since the first raid had been tugging at his own heart-strings. He feared that one of the boys might be guilty, and the very suspicion caused him unhappiness. It would be so much easier to bear if in the end the culprit proved to be some outside person, possibly a crazy man who had escaped from his keepers, as Peg had suggested.
Long and earnestly did the minister and Dick converse while sitting there. Dick found much encouragement from what the gentleman told him. He even took occasion to mention the suspicions that had oppressed him concerning Asa Gardner; but Mr. Holwell shook his head as though determined not to harbor such himself.
“I have studied boy-nature for many years, Dick,” he said, with feeling; “and I know how hard a fight poor Asa is doubtless putting up against the strange weakness that used to dominate him. The memory of his dead mother will cause him to be victorious in the struggle, I fully believe; and just now he needs all the encouragement he can get. And you are the one best fitted to stand by him as a faithful friend.”
“I’ll willingly do everything I can to help him along,” said Dick, with a look of determination on his young face. “I’ve known times myself when I needed a friendly hand to help me along, but never one half so much as he does. There go Nat and his two chums into the woods. Mr. Bartlett must have given them permission to explore the island.”
“I wonder if they are thinking of hunting up Eddie’s crowd, and helping pick berries,” remarked Mr. Holwell. “It would be a kindly thing if some of the other boys would lend a helping hand. The berry pickers will find it no easy task to collect enough at a few cents a quart to pay their expenses.”
Although Dick did not say so, he was of the opinion that Nat and his cronies were hardly the kind of boys to be anxious about anything excepting their own welfare.