“Tell you what I think,” observed wise Herb. “You know they were having some engine trouble a while back; and I reckon that mechanic fellow has got busy fixing it up. The only thing that surprises me is that George here didn’t recognize something mighty familiar in the racket. He’s forever making it himself, so if I didn’t know he was alongside, I’d take my affidavy that was him right now.”
“Huh! think yourself smart to make fun of my twelve-horse power engine, don’t you, Herb?” he started to say, and would doubtless have delivered himself of considerably more along the same lines, only that Jack broke in by observing:
“All the same, Herb is right, there; for the man is aboard the boat and working away at the motor. He’s some machinist, believe me, from the way he goes about things. And there’s the other one going aboard too; wonder what that means?”
Watching they presently saw the younger fellow come in sight again, and step to the bank of the island from the power tied-up and anchored boat.
“Got an armful of blankets?” asserted Josh, immediately.
“That settles one thing, then,” came from George.
“Yes, they’re going to make camp ashore, and pass the night on firm ground,” Jack admitted. “Perhaps they like the change, as we do. Plenty of times when you just have to sleep aboard the boat, you know.”
“And p’raps,” George went on, “we’ll be trying out my little bit of a scheme, after all.”
“Nobody knows,” Jack assured them.
They made themselves as easy as possible, and took up their vigil, not knowing how long it might last.