“And they all stood off some distance, just looking at us. Perhaps there are thieves in these waters, just as we found down on the Mississippi,” Josh added.
“Maybe we’d better change our anchorage after supper, and hunt a new place. There’s going to be a bully moon tonight, fellows,” from Nick, still unseen.
“Oh! I don’t think there’s any call for us to run away—yet,” Jack laughed. “No doubt the men were from the Canada side, and there was some reason why they looked at our little fleet so queerly.”
“Well,” Josh said, as if he had been worried more or less about the matter, “I only hope one thing; that this blessed old island ain’t haunted, that’s all!”
Jack laughed at that, it put such a new aspect on affairs. At the same time he could not help thinking that superstitious Josh certainly had some ground for allowing such an idea to seize hold of his mind; for the island, with its dense vegetation, and its rough shore line, did look out of the common. No doubt, when night dropped her blanket over the broad river with its myriad of islands, both large and small, this spooky place could easily be believed to shelter uncanny things.
“Don’t give yourself any more uneasiness on that score, Josh,” Jack urged. “If there ever was a ghost anywhere near this place it took wings long ago, when the thousands of summer tourists began coming here for their vacations. What with the big hotels, and the hundreds of cottages perched on the islands, small chance a poor spirit would have today.”
While he said nothing more about the three boats with their unfriendly crews, Jack did not entirely forget them. Perhaps there might have been some deep reason for the strange actions of these men. Perhaps—but then, without any foundation for a theory, what was the use bothering himself forming any such?
The night came on; but even while they were eating supper a change had begun to take place in the weather conditions. Nick’s prediction of a beautiful moonlight night gave promise of being far from the actual fact; for clouds had drifted over the heavens, some of them dark and threatening, though as yet broken.
“We may get a storm before morning,” observed George, looking up.
“And I wager Jack foresaw that same thing when he picked out this cove for our anchorage,” declared Herb. “You notice that it is to the eastward of the island; and don’t you see about all the storms up here come out of the west. In that way we will be protected against a heavy blow.”