For a long, long time our friends behind the bushes and the uprooted tree, as well as those in the boat, waited and waited for the appearance of the panther.
It was now as dark as it would be, but the stars were out, and, with eyes accustomed to the gloom, objects could be easily seen upon the beach or on the water.
But, so far, nothing moved from the woods toward the little pier.
“I might just as well have had another cup of coffee,” whispered Adam, “for there was plenty in the pot, and have smoked my pipe. I knowed he’d be a long time comin’.”
“You mustn’t talk so much,” said Mr. Pitman, from his post near by, “for painters have mighty sharp ears. And mind, I don’t want any of you to fire till he’s out on the pier, for if you crack at him while he’s on the beach, you might send a ball into the house. That ’ud make it lively for mother and the girls. I put us all here close together, so that we shouldn’t fire into one another.”
“Who’s talking now?” thought Phil, but he said nothing.
“Phœnix,” said Chap, after the two had watched and watched and watched, “I don’t believe much in this panther business, after all. I move that you and I take regular watches like the sailors on a ship. First, one of us can take a nap for half an hour, and then he can wake up and let the other one have a snooze for the same time. In this way each of us can get half a night’s sleep in broken dozes. As for that panther, he’s badly behind time; most likely switched off on a siding to let a down train, such as a couple of bears, pass him.”
Phœnix agreed to this proposal, and kindly allowed Chap to take the first nap.
At the end of what he supposed was a good half-hour, but which was, in reality, only twenty minutes, Phœnix tried to wake up his companion; but it was of no use. Chap slept as sound as a log, and he could not be aroused, unless more noise and confusion were made than would be proper on such an occasion. So Phœnix determined to watch a little longer, and if nothing turned up, to go to sleep himself.
Just about the time this resolution was made, Mr. Pitman remarked, in a very audible whisper, that if he had had a puppy dog, that he did not care much about, he would have tied it to the end of the pier, and then its yelping would have attracted the panther’s attention, and he would have been certain to go out there to get it.