“And never had a peep from Josh, that’s a fact,” declared Nick, whose cheeks had lost some of their customary color, in the face of this mystery; for he was very fond of the absent chum.
“Whatever could have happened to the lad?” asked Jimmy.
“It seems hard to believe that he could have lost himself, and wandered so far away that he couldn’t fire his gun, or hear us yell,” Herb observed, frowning.
George plucked at the sleeve of Jack, as he remarked in a low, nervous tone:
“Now, you don’t believe they could have had anything to do with our chum’s disappearance, do you?”
“What in the wide world are you speaking about?” demanded the other, startled for the moment by the grave way in which George said this.
“Why, you know, that queer lot in the boat that was a ringer for the Tramp,” was what George added, quickly.
“Oh! come now, what put that silly notion in your head?” asked Jack; though at the same time he could not but weigh the startling proposition advanced by George in his mind, and find himself impressed more or less by its possibility.
“I suppose,” George went on, “because, for the life of me, I just can’t imagine any other reason why the fellow wouldn’t do something to let us know he was alive. If he discovered that he was lost, I’m dead sure Josh would have sense enough to holler, and fire his gun several times in succession.”