“What else could you expect of such fellows as they are?” demanded Egan. “Never mind. There is more than one flock of canvas-backs on the bay, and they can’t drive them all away from us, no matter how hard they try. Now, we will take a short sail, and then we will run back to Eph’s, and get our terrapin.”
As it happened, Hopkins and Egan were both mistaken in their opinions regarding the object the schooner’s company had in view when they followed the Sallie down to Powell’s Island. Enoch and Jones had an idea in their heads, but they did not know that Egan and his friends were after the ducks until they saw them rise from their hiding-places. They were acting as volunteer spies upon the movements of Egan and his guests, and if we step aboard the schooner, and listen to some of the conversation that took place between Enoch and his two companions, we may be able to understand why they did it.
It will be remembered that Egan and his guests had got into the way of spending a portion of their vacations at one another’s homes, the first being spent in Mississippi. When Lester Brigham saw how they enjoyed themselves at Don Gordon’s Shooting box, he proposed to his friends, Enoch and Jones, that they should pass their vacations in the same way; and so it came about that while Egan, Hopkins, and Don and Bert Gordon were hunting and fishing with Curtis in the wilds of Maine, Lester’s Maryland friends were visiting with him at his home near Rochdale. It was not accident that had brought them all together in Maryland during this particular vacation. Lester had come there with a fully developed plan in his head, and Enoch and Jones were ready and eager to help him carry it out. Lester and Jones had been at Enoch’s home two weeks, impatiently awaiting the arrival of Egan’s guests, who, as we have said, were sojourning with Hopkins, enjoying themselves in shooting quails and snipes. On the morning of which we write they went out for a sail on the bay before breakfast, and it was while they were on their way home that their eyes were gladdened by the sight of the Sallie under sail.
“There they are at last!” exclaimed Enoch, who was the first to discover Egan’s boat as she moved gracefully away from her anchorage. He was standing at the helm of his schooner, the Firefly, and Lester and Jones were sitting near him in the cock-pit.
“They? Who?” inquired the former, who, for a wonder, happened to be thinking about something besides his contemplated revenge on the boys who had unintentionally excited his jealousy.
“Why, your particular friends, the Gordon boys.”
“Good!” exclaimed Lester. “I wonder if they are all there.”
“If you will run down and get the spy-glass you can soon find out,” was the reply.
The glass was brought, passed rapidly from hand to hand, and then the three plotters looked at one another while a smile of triumph lighted up their faces. They saw the Sallie frighten away the ducks that were about to swing to the decoys that were anchored around the sink-boat, and Enoch and Jones were so delighted when they saw the occupant of the boat rise up and flourish his fists in the air, that they could scarcely refrain from shouting.
“They have got themselves into trouble already,” said Enoch, as he brought the glass to bear upon the angry gunner. “That man in the sink-boat is Amos Barr. They have made him mad by scaring away his ducks, and I am glad of it, for he is one of the most vindictive men on the bay.”