The truth of the matter was that Ned had begun to notice certain signs going to tell him there was soon about to come a change in the conditions of the weather. He felt a slight puff of air on his cheek, and coming from the south at that. It was only a breath, but straws show which way the wind blows, they say; and when the next puff marked a slight increase, Ned knew what would happen before a great while.
Once the wind did rise, and the fog would be blown out to sea, so that in all probability they would be able to discover what manner of vessel it was that had sent a boat ashore, for some purpose or other.
But Ned knew that when this came to pass, the rain would also start in. It was his hope to discover some sort of retreat as they went along, such as might serve them as a shelter against the storm.
Once, when a gun was fired at some little distance away and further in shore, Jimmy ducked his head in a ludicrous fashion.
"Whee! that nearly got me!" he remarked, looking a little uneasy.
The others stared at him in bewilderment; but Ned quickly took him in hand.
"See here, Jimmy, are you saying that just to make us think you had a narrow escape, or did a bullet really swing past you?" he demanded.
The freckled-faced boy looked a little confused. When Ned took him to task, in this way, Jimmy could never hold out. He would first of all hedge, and then, if the accusation continued, his next step would be to throw out the white flag of complete surrender.
"Why, you see, I thought I sure heard the whine of something like a bullet, when I took the count," he started in to say.
"But was it a bullet passing that you heard?" persisted the patrol leader, who knew that this was the only sure way to pin Jimmy down to facts.