They all saw a hideous face framed among the branches and twigs of the thicket close by. One second only was it in view, hardly long enough for them to make out that it was human rather than that of an immense ape. Then the ugly face vanished from their sight, leaving the four canoeists gaping at each other as though unable to positively decide whether they had really seen the mysterious wild man of the island, or something which their imaginations had conjured up instead.
CHAPTER V—A STRANGE HAPPENING
“Did you see him, boys?” exclaimed Will, who was shivering as if he had just run across a ghost.
“Why, to be sure,” replied Frank, laughing a little forcedly; for the sight of that hideous face had given him a shock.
“Then it was so, after all. I began to believe I was just imagining things. Oh! what a magnificent opportunity I missed. How can I ever forgive myself?” groaned Will, showing signs of disgust.
“Opportunity for what—capturing the terrible wild man?” cried Bluff, aghast at what seemed the audacity of his ordinarily peaceable chum.
“Certainly not. But if I had only been ready I could have taken his picture to show the folks at home. My stars! what a great feat that would have been,” sighed the disappointed photographer, shaking his head.
“Tell me about that, will you? There was my uncle laughing at me when I mentioned about this same wild man of the island. He declared it was only some innocent animal, or else an old woman’s tale. But every one of us saw him, and we’ve not been ashore five minutes, either,” declared Jerry.
“I foresee some stirring times for us here, what with the snakes, if they are to be found, the ferocious wildcats they tell about, and now this mysterious wild man,” remarked Frank, soberly, as he began to take the bundles out of his canoe and place them high and dry up on the shore.
“Are we going to stay?” asked Bluff.