“Boys,” said Will, “if that wet and muddy fellow that I told you about, went back to the island, as he said he should, perhaps he has kept Steve from finding out that—”
“Pshaw! I tell you, Steve is all right!” Charles reiterated.
“Then, if the boy is all right, what is the use of our trick?” Will demanded. “We can’t scare him worthy a cent, if he’s all right.”
“I don’t make out what you’re driving at, Will. At first, you were eager to scare him; and now, you are talking in riddles.”
“I—I’m beginning to relent,” said Will, sheepishly.
“Well, we’ll see how he is, and settle that accordingly.”
“There they are!” said Marmaduke, sighting Steve and the ireful newspaper genius.
The boys recklessly waved their oars, and enthusiastically chorused a stentorian hollo.
Stephen, hearing his schoolfellows’ greeting, quickly turned round, and returned a faint, but joyous, hollo.
“How kind they are to come!” he said to himself. “Now, I guess it will be all serene; for they can soon tell me what to do. Well, the boys always were better to me than I deserved. I’ll tell them just how it is, and I don’t believe they’ll laugh at me a bit.”