“The boys will want to know what’s going on, and the dog can be found at some other time,” he reasoned. “It would serve the beast good and right to leave him in a place where he’d get hungry enough to devour his own shadow!”
When Alex reached the spot where the boat had been left it was nowhere to be seen. He got away from the locality in quick time.
The place was probably being watched. The men who had found the boat would know very well that it couldn’t walk there.
The boy slipped back in the bushes, where he was protected from observation by a rocky elevation, and waited. Presently there was the murmur of hushed voices, and then a man’s form appeared, outlined against the sky, which was now showing the first faint traces of daylight.
“Wonder if the fellow who went ashore in the boat intends to make his permanent home there?” said a voice. “He certainly stays long enough to give one that impression.”
“He’s got to come back here after his boat, and we’ll be right here, waiting for him,” said another voice. “The thing that puzzles me is why the boys didn’t get the motor boat upstream.”
There was silence for a time, during which the three men waited for the return of the boy, who was listening to most of their talk. Directly Alex felt a cold nose thrust into the palm of his hand, he knew that Captain Joe had returned.
“You’re a bad dog, going off like this!” exclaimed the boy. “What have you to say for yourself?”
The dog stretched himself at Alex’s feet and offered no explanation. The matter ended, as all such matters usually did, by the boy taking the dog’s head into his lap and pulling his stubby ears.
Daylight was now coming on rapidly, and Alex realized that something must be done. The least of his troubles concerned the manner of getting back to the Rambler.