Jim led the way back to the boat, removed his shoes and stockings as a precaution against making a noise, Jet doing the same, and the two started, with the small guide paddling instead of rowing.
The faint glimmer of light served as a beacon, and toward it they advanced slowly until the boat's bow struck the shore.
Jim motioned for his companion to help him pull her up, and then stole through the woods as noiselessly as a shadow.
The gloom was so dense that it was necessary Jet should hold on to the leader's coat, otherwise they would speedily have been separated, and a watcher ten feet away could not have said a human being was passing.
Thanks to the fire-light, it was not a difficult matter for the two to go straight to the camp, and in a comparatively short time they were where it was possible not only to see the occupants, but to hear everything which was said.
Jet's spirits rose very high as he recognized the two he had followed so long, and now all previous discomforts and suffering were forgotten in the knowledge that he was once more carrying out Harvey's instructions to the letter.
The men had built quite a comfortable looking hut in the center of the island, where it would not be seen from the water, and near by was the boat, turned bottom-up as if they did not expect to use her for some time.
The fact that they allowed themselves a camp-fire at a time when it could be distinguished from a distance was probably owing to the fact that visitors seldom visited this particular lake after dark, since the absence of deer in the vicinity prevented hunters from scouring the banks with a jack light.
Both were ready for trouble, however, as could be told by the guns stacked within reach while they smoked and drank in front of the cheery blaze, and Jet was forced to admit to himself that these men could not be made prisoners with as much ease as in case of the other.
For some time the boys watched in silence, mentally jotting down all the details of the camp for future reference, and then Sam said, with a yawn: