“Well,” admitted the other, “I guess I was near dozing that time. Thought somebody shot at me when you scratched that match. How loud everything sounds at this time of night. Wish that old bird would let up on that screeching, over on the Canada shore. He makes me tired, for a fact.”
“Depends on the way you look at things,” chuckled Jack. “Now, for my part I rather like to hear a whippoorwill call. Never yet kept me awake either, like some things would do. Have a bite of this gingerbread, Josh. Keeping watch is hungry work, after all, I find. Besides, while your jaws are working, you won’t get sleepy.”
Josh was nothing averse to a “snack,” and so they sat there, eating, and occasionally exchanging some remark, while the balance of the crowd slept on.
The boats were anchored far enough apart to avoid striking should a wind arise. But on account of his desire to keep in touch with Josh, Jack had seen to it that the stern of each craft was drawn toward the other. In this fashion then they could have shaken hands by leaning over the intervening foot or so of water.
It so happened that while Jack was devoting most of his attention to the watery expanse that stretched away toward the east, Josh on the other hand found the neighboring island more interesting.
Each acted on his own idea as to the nature of the danger that might come upon them. With Josh it was the peril that stalks during the middle of the night, and frightens men through its connection with spectral forms. Jack, on the other hand, suspected that Clarence and his crony, Bully Joe, might be planning some sort of a mean raid, that would spoil the pleasure of the motor boat club.
“Jack!” whispered the occupant of the Comfort in a hoarse voice.
“Well, what do you want?” replied the other lad, serenely.
“I am sure I heard a suspicious noise ashore just then!” Josh continued.
“Oh! rats! You’re always hearing things, Josh. Like as not it was only a poor old ’coon, hunting around on the beach for a fish that has been cast up. Get it off your mind. It’s only a little time longer, and then you to dreamland.”