"Oh, you can't fool me! If you do it, I'll never go hunting with you again."
"Then I'll not do it, of course; but I don't know what you mean all the same. Now, as we have nothing else to do, let's draw these birds. Our shooting is over for the day."
And so it proved. The boys remained behind their blind until it was three o'clock by Sam's watch, but not another duck showed himself. They heard them splashing in the water on both sides of the island, but the mist shut them out from view.
The rain having by this time put out their fire, and the birds having been cleaned and made ready for the market, the skiff was launched, the ducks were packed away in the bows, the guns and empty game-bags were stowed in the stern, and, after the decoys had been picked up, the boys pulled through the fog toward the village.
When they came alongside the wharf, they found Mr. Peck and Mr. Hall there, as before.
The former was hard at work upon the wreck of his sail-boat, which he had found near the foot of the island, and towed home after infinite trouble, and Mr. Hall stood by, with his hands in his pockets, looking at him.
"Well, boys," said the miller, "your crazy man is all right. He stayed by my stove until he was warmed and dried, and then he started for his hotel."
"There!" exclaimed Sam, turning to Oscar with a triumphant air. "What did I tell you? Didn't I say he was cracked?"
"That accounts for his upsetting the boat," remarked Mr. Peck. "I knew well enough that no man, who had any sense into his head, could capsize in such a breeze as he did."