Bob peered in the direction indicated, and said, hesitatingly, “I—I guess it’s somebody else.”
“Now how mean!” George growled. “I can’t land till that fellow goes away; and here I am in a great hurry to get my clothes on, for fear a crowd should gather round us! Bob, did you ever moralize how it is crowds gather? Let anything happen, and a crowd is sure to come along to see how it will end.”
“No, I never morry-lice,” Bob replied, good-humoredly.
“Well,” said the Sage, fetching a great sigh, “I don’t know but that you are just as well off.”
One by one the five were now coming along the bank, each one looking pleased, yet crest-fallen.
“C-can we help you in any way, George?” Marmaduke asked.
George looked his indignation. However, he soon recovered his equilibrium, and said, frigidly, “If one or two of you would bring my clothes down here, and if the rest of you would stay up there with that man, to keep him from coming here, I should be very much obliged to you all.”
This was done, and George brought the raft to the bank and dressed, screened by three of his doughty school-fellows.
“I’ll see you all again,” shouted the law-abiding rustic. And he walked away, muttering learnedly about “burglarious incendiarism.”