Presently he made another strange discovery.
"Well, I declare, if he didn't take my little Marlin gun along with him," he muttered, failing to find the weapon where he felt sure he had laid it down.
This gave him food for more serious thought. He remembered now how Jimmie had been impressed with that chance remark of his about the possibility of danger in the shape of concealed hoboes. Evidently, unable to resist the temptation, Jimmie had silently picked up the gun and crept away to make the rounds of their immediate neighborhood, his design being to learn whether there could be any hobo camp near by.
"Oh! well, I suppose I'll just have to sit here and wait for him to come back, after he's had his little turn. A queer boy Jimmie is, and inclined to be superstitious. Perhaps he's looking for a ghost right now, or one of those banshee's the Irish people believe in. Hello! I believe I hear something moving over there! Wonder if that's Jimmie now?"
Jack had arisen to his feet as he watched to discover what came in sight. Although he might not have confessed to the fact that he was excited, still his hand was trembling a little as he held back the branch of the tree to see better.
"Of course it's Jimmie. But what does he act that way for? Why is he beckoning to me and holding a finger on his lips, just as if he'd taken a turn to tell me not to call out. What has the boy discovered now, I wonder?"
Jack awaited the coming of his comrade, who was crawling along, looking back every little while as though fearful lest he had been followed.
"What under the sun ails you, Jimmie?" asked Jack, in a low tone, as the other reached his side. "Have you gone clean daffy, and are you seeing things that no decent, self-respecting boy ought to see?"
"H'sh!" whispered the other mysteriously; and then after another quick look in the direction from whence he had just come, he went on hurriedly: "They're roight over there, Jack, me bye, both of 'em as big as loife, wid the sassy little motor boat alongside in another cove; and Jack, they belaves us to be officers of the law, come to take thim till the bar of justice. I know it, becase I heard 'em talk!"