"An' it would jest suit me to have you do it. That's jest the kind uv a job you're fit fur, Jim Hart."
"Shet up, you two," said Ross. "You hurt my ears, a-buzzin' an' a-buzzin'."
Shif'less Sol sank back a little and closed his eyes. An expression of heavenly luxury and ease came over his face, but it could not last long because in a few minutes the boat reached the wooded island. Shif'less Sol opened his eyes, to find that the sun was almost gone, and that the shadows had come among the great trees.
"Cur'us kind o' place," he said. "Gives me a sort o' shiver."
Paul had felt the same sensation, but he said nothing. Before them lay the little island, a solid, black blot, its trees blended together, and behind them the lake shone somberly in the growing darkness.
"All out!" said Henry cheerfully. "This is home for a while, and we need rest."
They sprang upon the narrow beach, and Henry and Ross dragged the canoe into some thick bushes, where they hid it artfully. Paul meanwhile was looking about him, and trying to keep down the ghostly feeling that would assail him at times. The island, so far as he could judge, was perhaps two hundred yards long, half as broad, and thickly covered with forest. But he could see nothing of the interior.
"Come," said Henry Ware, in the same tone of cheerful confidence, as he led the way.
The others followed, stepping lightly among the great tree trunks, and Henry did not stop until he came to a small, open space in the very center of the island, where a spring bubbled up among some rocks, and flowed away in a tiny brook in a narrow channel to the lake. The open space was almost circular, and the great trees grew so thickly around that they looked like a wall.
"Here is the place to rest," said Henry. "There is no need for anybody to watch."