“I see!” he exclaimed. “You’re going to make holes in the boat, and then when they’re out fishing, it will sink!”
“Sure! You’re a regular detective,” said Spider, boring away while Beantoe watched.
“But won’t the water come in as soon as they start out, and won’t they get on to the trick,” asked the stumbling lad after thinking it over.
“That’s where the bread comes in,” explained his friend. “I’ll make a lot of holes, and stuff them up with bread. Then I’ll smear dirt over the bread and it won’t show. It will stay in the holes until Bill and the others get out in the middle of the river and then it will soak up, and come out. The boat will leak like a sieve, and they’ll have to swim ashore.”
Spider worked industrially, and soon had a number of holes in the bottom of the fishing skiff. The holes were well plugged with bread, and smeared over so that they did not show.
“Here they come!” suddenly warned Beantoe.
“Well, I’m done!”
Spider threw away what remained of the bread, put the auger under his coat, scattered to one side the pieces of wood that had resulted from the boring, and then he and his companion made a dash for the bushes, just as the three Smith brothers came in sight, with their fishing rods over their shoulders.
“Looks like a good day for bites,” remarked Pete, as he got in the stern of the boat.
“Sure,” agreed Bill, pausing on the bank to see if he had all his tackle.