The leader grappled with the freezer. Brick turned to his chopping once more, and at the sound of his ax, McNulty looked over toward the wood-pile and saw him.
“Oh, Brick! I guess you’ve served your time. Do me a favor, will you?”
“Sure, Sax. What do you want?” replied Brick, sinking the ax blade into the chopping block.
“Chase down to the lake and head off that bunch of runaways. Tell ’em to come right back and finish what they started, before playing around with canoes and things.”
Brick needed no urging. He wanted to see what would happen at the lake shore. By this time, the canoe was no doubt already in the water. He ran off down the hillside in a bee-line for the dock. Behind the lower row of tents he sped, across the stone wall, and cut across the edge of the baseball field to the grove of trees that fringed the rocky lake shore. Here he almost tumbled over the bent backs of Wally Rawn, director of water sports and captain of the camp life-saving crew, and the seven boys who made up his tent-group. Rawn had chosen as his squad duty the task of repairing the steps that led down the steep bank to the dock; and Brick had to circle around the busy group to gain the edge of the lake where the boat dock jutted out from the shore.
Here, in the shallows of the bathing beach, the Sachem was already afloat, riding high above the rippling, shadowed waters of Lenape. She was held at one end by the proud Dirk, while the other boys gazed admiringly at her daintiness, that made the moored string of round-bottomed steel rowboats of the camp fleet look like clumsy craft indeed.
“Watch me get in her!” Dirk was shouting in a high voice. “Let me paddle her around a bit, and then maybe I’ll take you all for a ride!”
He drew the light vessel close beside the flooring of the dock, and balancing the paddles in one hand, started to step into the bow. Brick clattered on to the end of the pier.
“Say, you fellows!” he began. “Sax says to come back on the job right away. He’s pretty mad, too—you’re not supposed to sneak off squad duty.”
Dirk turned upon him coldly. “Don’t be foolish, Ryan. Can’t you see we’re busy christening the Sachem? If you don’t make a fuss, I’ll take you for a little spin after a while.”