RECONNOITERING
The small guide steered the boat into the mouth of a tiny creek as skillfully as if it had been noonday, and when her bow grounded motioned for Jet to step ashore.
Then he followed the example and hauled her farther up to prevent any possibility of the craft's drifting away, after which he stood motionless as if awaiting orders.
"How far from here do you count on camping?" Jet asked, in a cautious whisper.
"A short bit straight back is a thick clump of cedars. We could stay there a month without being seen, no matter how many people might come on the lake."
"Take hold of the fellow's feet, and I'll carry his head. He'd better be taken care of first."
Jim obeyed, and thus loaded down led the way to the place he had described.
It was, indeed, just such a spot as Jet would have asked for.
The cedars, with their branches growing to the very ground, covered about fifty square feet of space, and through the center of this apparently impenetrable thickness ran the stream at whose mouth the boat had been brought.
It would not have been possible to put up a decently-sized shanty, because the trees were so near together; but there was ample opportunity for a hundred boys to find comfortable places in which to sleep, and the foliage would shelter them sufficiently well except in case of a rainstorm.