“There she is, there’s the Emma!” cried Abel Fales, presently, and pointed out his craft, shoved in under some overhanging bushes. “Pretty well hidden, I must say! I would have had a hard job finding her if you hadn’t seen her being taken here,” he added to the Penwicks.
The Ritter crowd had done nothing to the launch but tow her off, and soon Able Fales was at work fixing his engine. With the cylinder repaired the machinery worked very well, and both craft started back to Butterfly Island, arriving there a little later.
“Some of you can come in my boat if you wish, it will make your run easier,” said Belle Penwick, and then it was arranged that Andy and Dale and Flossie should go with her. This divided up the weight of passengers pretty evenly, and when the two boats left the island they kept close beside each other.
“I’ve got a plan to scare the Ritter crowd,” said Jack, on the way home, and then he explained what it was.
The Fords were willing to let him carry out his idea, Rossmore Ford being especially anxious to make the boys who had taken the Emma suffer for the trick. Jack and his chums were landed at a distance up the lake shore from the encampment, and the Emma took care to keep out of sight as she swung down the lake.
“Tell ’em I’ll have ’em locked up if they don’t return my boat by to-morrow morning!” cried Able Fales, who, now that he had his boat back, entered into the spirit of the fun that was afloat.
Jack and his chums watched their opportunity and stole into camp without being noticed by anybody but one of the guards. They slipped to their tents and donned their regular uniforms, and the young major buckled on his sword.
As the cadets came out on the parade ground they saw Ritter, Coulter and Paxton directly ahead of them. They hurried on, and soon caught up to the trio, who were conversing earnestly.
“They won’t get away until morning, and I know it,” Ritter was saying.
“I’ll bet they were mad when they saw the hornets’ nest,” came from Coulter.