“Hear! hear!” cried George; “that is a good illustration, Herb. You see, fellows, he means that we ain’t going to be chased away by hard knocks and bluffing; but if some one would come and ask us politely to vacate, and give us a good reason why we ought to move along, we’d do it willingly. That’s the Yankee policy.”
“Then, as we’re going to be here for another day, anyhow, suppose Jimmie and me take a turn after the muskies?” suggested Nick.
“It’s only fair you should have a chance,” Jack observed; “but you can see what risk there always is in one of the clumsy little punkin-seed boats, when handling a big fish.”
“You forget that I can swim like a duck, Jack!” observed Buster, proudly.
“All the same,” Jack went on, seriously, “you know you’re not quite as spry as some of us; and I hope you will keep that life preserver on all the time. This water is deep, and the current makes it treacherous.”
“Oh! I promise that, sure,” Nick assented. “Between us, believe me, I meant to carry that bally old cork life preserver along, anyway. Jimmie might take a crab while rowing, and upset. There’s no telling, you know. All right, us for the grand sport today, Jimmie. And now, post us about the place, Jack, and just how you do the business.”
“Wouldn’t I just give a cookie to see Buster fast to a hustler like I had on yesterday,” chuckled Herb.
“Well,” remarked the fat boy, coolly, “it would do you good, I guess. You’d know how to manage, after that, so as not to let a measly fish upset your boat. It takes brains to be a successful fisherman, Herb, real brains.”
Jack went ashore again a little later, but none of the others seemed to care to accompany him, being satisfied to lie around, taking things easy, and talking of their future plans; for a new idea had been broached which had to do with an extended cruise up through the great lakes, rather than knock around here on the St. Lawrence for two full months; and all of them were full of suppressed excitement over it.
If Jack made any further discoveries during the time he was on the island, he did not think to take the others into his confidence when he came back; but that may have been because just then a noisy little motor boat was heading straight toward the cove, and every one was guessing what new developments were about to be sprung upon them.