“Time those two fellows were showing up, don’t you think, Jack?” asked Josh, as the noon hour came around.
“Oh! I don’t know,” replied the other. “I noticed that Nick carried a bundle with him, and guessed it might be a little snack to keep off starvation, in case they were detained. Sometimes it’s hard to give up, when you are fishing, you know.”
“Snack!” echoed Josh, with a sniff of scorn. “Well, I wish you’d seen just what that elephant did roll up in that paper. Herb wasn’t looking, but I kept an eye on Buster. Snack! Say, take it from me, that he had as much as I would eat in a week of Sundays.”
“Well,” laughed Jack, “you’re prejudiced against poor Buster, you know, Josh. Just because you have a bird’s appetite, and he that of a hog, you pick on him. His greed is his only weak spot. His heart is as big as a bushel basket; and he’d go out of his way any time to do you a good turn.”
“Oh! I know it, all right, Jack,” returned the other. “You mustn’t take everything I say for what it stands. But listen, fellows. Talk of the angel, and you hear the rustle of its wings. Unless I miss my guess, that’s the tuneful voice of Buster right now. What in the dickens can he be shouting that way for?”
All of them were on their feet by now, and listening to the yells.
“They seem to be coming from around the island,” said Jack.
“I bet you it’s Jimmie having some fun with poor Pudding. He does like to hear him put up a howl,” chuckled Herb.
“Well, I don’t know about that, fellows. Just listen, and hear what he seems to be saying. Perhaps, after all, there may be something crooked about it. We seem to be up to our necks in all sorts of queer mysteries, you know.”
George was not smiling when he said this; indeed, all of them could now realize that there was something of appeal and alarm in connection with the lusty yells Buster was letting loose.