“You said you were thinking up a plan, Frank?” suggested Will, turning eagerly to the chum upon whom the rest were accustomed to rely in emergencies.
“Well, I leave it to the rest of you whether we do it or not. The conditions are peculiar. We want to search for poor Jerry, and yet if we leave our camp unguarded, those savages may steal the whole outfit. Then again, Will naturally doesn’t want to stay here alone while Bluff and myself do the hunting. I can see only one way of fixing it.”
“All right. I’m willing to do anything you say,” remarked the one who had a cup of coffee up to his lips, and was drinking the contents with supreme pleasure.
“Ditto here, Frank,” from Will.
“This idea I had was to break up our camp, stow all the stuff in the canoes, and then have Will paddle far out on the lake with the whole outfit, where he could wait to see what happened. Nothing could reach him there, and we would be free to follow up our plan. How about that, fellows?” asked Frank.
Will glanced out on the lake.
“All right. It looks like it would be quiet enough, and if a big wind does come up, I can paddle the string over to the shore and get under the lee,” he said.
“Call it settled, then. And now, while Bluff is finishing his breakfast, you and I can be taking down the tents and stowing them away,” observed Frank.
“Oh! I’m about through now, but give me a little time to get my gun together, boys. It may come in handy, who knows,” remarked Bluff.
“This is kind of tough, taking down tents when our little outing is hardly half through with,” complained Will, as he labored pulling up tent pegs.