Things began to assume the old-time air in less than half an hour. Of course, the girls chattered like magpies as they worked, but all their appeals for information fell on deaf ears until they were sitting around, in picnic style, enjoying the splendid dinner, which was helped out by the delicious things brought from home.
“And to think how near we came to feeding the fishes with these, too,” said Susie Prescott, as she helped Will to a second portion.
“Now please take pity on us, and explain what has happened. We’re just dying by inches to know. What was that tug doing down here, with all those men? And unless I’m mistaken, I saw Mr. Dodd, the sheriff, aboard. He was out hunting those two bad tramps who robbed the steamboat. Oh, boys! Do you mean to say you have had anything to do with them?”
Nellie had brought it to the point where explanations must be in order. So the story was told in detail. Sometimes one of the campers related a certain part, and then another took it up from where he left off.
“And with what views Bluff took for me, I’ll have enough to illustrate the whole performance. A few I’ve missed, and they will always haunt me. Altogether it’s been a remarkable series of adventures,” declared Will enthusiastically.
“The most astonishing that will ever come our way, I reckon,” said Jerry with emphasis.
But though they did not dream of it at that time, there were still stranger things fated to befall the four chums ere many months had passed. These happenings of vacation time will appear in the next volume of this series, to be entitled “The Outdoor Chums in the Forest; or, Laying the Ghost of Oak Ridge,” which will tell of the weird experiences our friends met with while investigating the greatest mystery that ever troubled the neighborhood of Centerville.
The merry party had just about finished their dinner when Bluff once again began to take his comrades to task for not thinking to rout the wild man out of his hole in the tree while they had the help of the sheriff’s posse.
“It’s a chance we’ll never have again, and no doubt the poor old fellow would be better off if turned over to Mr. Smithers, at the asylum. Have any of you girls heard of a lunatic at large since winter?” he kept on, until both Frank and Jerry could stand it no longer.
“It’s a shame to keep you in the dark any longer, Bluff. To tell you the truth, we captured that wild man,” said Frank as soon as he could control his face.