“Where have you been?” finally demanded Hippy sternly.
“I—I’ve been up there,” pointing to the side of the mountain, at the same time getting to his feet.
“Sit down! Now out with it. The whole story, sir!”
“I was mad with you. I—I—I thought it would be fun to fool you all. There wasn’t anybody in sight, so I tipped over and—”
“Accidentally?” interrupted Hippy.
“No. On purpose. Then I shoved the canoe out and threw my hat into the water, climbed up the side of the mountain and watched you all hunting for me,” chuckled Stacy. “You all had been so hard on me that I didn’t care if I never came back.”
“I don’t understand how you could stand it to stay away at meal time,” wondered Emma.
“Oh, that was all right. I had some biscuit, then I found some dried venison in a cache in a cave up there. Somebody had been there. It was fine food, I tell you, but all the time I kept my eyes on the camp. I didn’t think you would go away and leave me, but I wasn’t taking chances. It was lots of fun watching you folks searching for Stacy Brown’s body, and I laughed when I saw Uncle Hip swimming out to look under the canoe. Say, you can swim some, can’t you?”
Hippy bristled. Stacy’s last words were the crowning ones. Lieutenant Wingate nodded to Tom.
“Come, Stacy. We wish you to go down by the lake with us. Fetch your paddle,” directed Hippy.