"That would be the greatest thing ever. Oh! I hope that if not to-day it will come to-morrow, or the day after! I'm growing nervous waiting, Frank."
"There's the island above. Wonder if we'll find Bill still on deck?" remarked the other, wishing to change the subject; for he saw that Ralph was really showing signs of the long-continued strain.
Presently Ralph cried out:
"There's somebody fishing there at the place you said. Is that Bill?"
"It looks like him. Yes, there he's waving his hand. I guess he knows me better than I do him. We'll stop a few minutes to chat. Lanky has got me all worked up about the fellow, too, and I'm wondering if I could ever have met him before. But I'm not going to ask him point blank. Lanky would say I was interfering in his preserves. Let him think it out if he prefers."
The lone fisherman was apparently glad to see Frank.
He seemed a little more cheerful than before. Perhaps things were looking up in hoboland. At any rate he grinned, and when Frank held out his hand he wiped his own palm on his trousers before accepting it.
"I want to thank you for doing us that little favor Saturday morning," said the boy, and the other acted as though a bit confused.
"Oh! you mean about that Lef Seller gang. That's all right. I just happened to hear 'em talkin', and thought I'd like to tell Lanky about it. You fellers acted square toward me the other day; but they talked as if they'd like to jump me if they just dared. I wish they had. I was just achin' for trouble then. Feel a little better now. They's times, you know, when you just seem like nawthin' could fix you up but a scrap; and I ain't a fighter naturally, either," went on Bill, who had resumed the tending of several fish lines he had dropped through holes chopped in the ice.
"But perhaps you know something about telephones?" suggested Frank, casually.