“He wouldn’t hab got me.”
“How would you have escaped him?”
“I’d crawled under de canoe and stuck my nose up on toder side where he couldn’t see me, and breeved so soft he’d thought I was drownded.”
“That idea is as brilliant as most of the others you have formed.”
“Gee! if I’d knowed he was crazy I’d knocked his head off and den run like blazes for hum,” said Bunk, anxious to placate his friends whom he had so grievously offended. They understood his feelings and did not press him. Dick motioned for the lad to take his place in the boat and the two followed, the elder picking up the paddle and heading for the tent where Val Hunter and Fred Wadsworth were awaiting them with much curiosity.
“We saw the monoplane,” said the Southerner, “and wondered what was going on. So this is Bunk, is it?” he added, gravely extending his hand to the abashed youth, who mumbled something unintelligible. He was made welcome and the brothers withheld all criticism in his presence. Dick went so far as to remark that if Bunk had had any suspicion of the lunacy of the man, events would have turned out very differently. This delighted the fellow, who began to appreciate the invaluable kindness that had been done him by Dick and Harvey.
He was eager to show his good will toward all by doing the chores in camp. There was always more or less work of that nature, such as gathering wood for the oven or furnace or whatever it might be called, the dressing and cooking of fish, and the preparation of other articles for dinner. While the lad was busy with these duties, the four young men gathered in front of the tent, most of them smoking, and held a conversation that was destined to have important results.
“Why did the Professor resent so fiercely your keeping Bunk from him?” asked Wadsworth, “he couldn’t have placed much value on so slow-witted a lad.”
“It was one of the idiosyncrasies of a disordered brain. Had he been perfectly sane he would have cared little about him,” replied Dick.
“I have been thinking,” remarked Hunter, “that something ought to be done to prevent that poor genius from committing suicide.”