I picked up a good-sized stone from the beach and heaved it. It didn’t land more than two feet from the Jap, and it made an awful splash. You can bet he quit paddling sudden and stuck up his head to see what was going on. At that Plunk let a rock fly. It hit the log just ahead of Mr. Jap and bounded off. Down went his head so nothing but his nose showed, and he began to back away.
Well, sir! For three or four minutes we had enough fun with that fellow to last us a week. We heaved rocks on every side of him, and some of them close enough to make it pretty uncomfortable. We could have hit him if we’d wanted to, but we didn’t. In the first place, Mark Tidd wouldn’t have liked it, and in the second place we wouldn’t have liked it ourselves. War’s war, but there’s no use doing more damage than you have to do to get results. And we got them, all right. That Jap had enough swimming on a log to last him.
When he got to shore he floundered out, and the way he skinned for shelter was enough to get a laugh out of a man that had just hit his thumb with a hammer. We whizzed a couple more stones past him and then gave the order to stop firing.
Mark said the scheme was to sneak a man on the island who would creep around and cut the rope that held the bridge.
Well, that was the first skirmish, and we had come out on top. It made us all feel pretty good, but all the same we realized there hadn’t been much to it. We knew that before very long we’d have more to do than shy rocks at a man in the water who couldn’t shy back again.
All at once I remembered the canoe Binney had tipped over in. I looked, and there it was, floating bottom side up, about thirty feet from shore and in shallow water where anybody could wade out to it. I didn’t wait for anybody to tell me, but just took a header off the dock, clothes and all, and swam out into the lake. I knew better than to swim right for that canoe, because that would attract attention to it. But as soon as I thought it was safe I turned and swam for it faster than I ever swam before in my life. When I was about twenty feet from it I heard a yell and saw a Jap racing down from the hotel to get to the canoe first. At the same time I heard another yell from the citadel, and a rock whizzed past Mr. Jap. It didn’t stop him a bit, though; he came right on. So did the rocks; and I shouldn’t be surprised if this time Plunk and Binney were really trying to hit.
The Jap rushed into the water, and about that time I got my toe on the bottom and splashed toward the canoe. He got to one end just as I got to the other. I jerked and he jerked, but he was strongest. For myself I wasn’t afraid, for whenever I wanted to I could turn tail and swim to safety, but I didn’t want those men to have that canoe, so I set my heels and tugged like a good one.
It wasn’t any good. Little by little he jerked me toward the shore, and I was about ready to give up when I heard a sharp little spat, and the Jap let out a squeal. Right after came another spat, and I saw Mark Tidd taking aim with his slingshot. Now Mark was about the best shot with a sling in Michigan. He let go the pebble, and, mister, but it was a good shot! It plunked the Jap right on the hand. He yelped and let go, and in that second I snatched the canoe away from him and gave it a push toward deep water.
LITTLE BY LITTLE HE JERKED ME TOWARD THE SHORE