I helped. It was about the only chance we had to fool Jiggins and Collins, and it wasn’t such a very good one, either. If there was water through those bushes, all right. Maybe they wouldn’t see we’d gone in that way. If there wasn’t water our goose was cooked, and no mistake about it.
But there was water. The bushes almost stopped us—almost. We pushed our paddles against the bottom and shoved our way through. Quick as a wink Mark turned the canoe again, for there was a sort of pond back there that gave a little room. He sent us splashing over to one side so we were out of sight of the opening we came through. After that there was nothing to do but wait.
We didn’t have to wait very long. In about a minnit we heard the other boat come floundering along. I thought it was going by, all right, and that we wouldn’t be discovered. Mark’s face looked disappointed, actually disappointed. But the boat stopped. Then its blunt end came nosing through the high grasses and bushes, and Jiggins’s round face came into sight. Mark sighed, and it really was a sigh of relief.
“I d-d-didn’t think we’d fool ’em this way,” he said. “I’d ’a’ been disappointed in Jiggins if we had.”
That was it. Mark had made up his mind Jiggins was a great man just because both of them were fat and looked something alike; and he would have been disappointed if Jiggins had been easy to bamboozle. I expect he had it all planned out he’d get a lot more credit for getting the best of a sharp man than of one that didn’t have many brains.
Jiggins saw us, and his eyes twinkled. “Hello, boys!” says he. “Glad to see you. Most p’ticularly glad to see you. You wouldn’t believe it, but we’ve been looking for you. Collins and myself, we’ve actually been trying to find you.”
Mark sort of grinned. “I didn’t f-f-figger on that boat,” says he, pointing to the scow Jiggins was in.
“You should always figure on everything. Better luck next time. Can’t always win.”
Collins stood up and looked over at us. “Quite considerable of a race for a few minnits,” he says. “For boys that don’t know much about paddling you’re pretty good paddlers.”
I will say they were good-natured men and pleasant company. If they hadn’t been the enemy we’d have liked them fine. I’m not sure we didn’t like them pretty average well as it was. It never occurred to us to be afraid of them; we knew they wouldn’t hurt us, whatever happened. All they would do was try to get to Uncle Hieronymous before we could and to keep us from giving them away. Somehow it seemed more like a game where you had to use your brains than an adventure out in the woods.