“Some of the fellows are ahead of us,” said Dan. “It’s Carter’s canoe and they’ll want to know how the dickens it got down here. If Clint hears of it he will put two and two together——”
“And make we three,” finished Tom.
“Come on,” said Bob. “You can say you paddled down a little while ago and left it there.”
“Which would be a silly lie,” said Dan. “Besides, they know we haven’t had time. We’ll see who it is and ask them not to say anything about it.”
So they went on and emerged from the woods just in time to see two boys in the white jerseys and trunks of Camp Wickasaw climb into the canoe and start to paddle away to where, a little ways out, the Wickasaw launch, manned by three other fellows was waiting.
“Here, that’s our canoe!” shouted Dan.
The two stopped paddling and looked doubtfully at the new arrivals.
“Come on, Jack!” called a voice from the launch. “Don’t mind them!” Whereupon the pair in the canoe dug the paddles again.
“Drop those paddles and let that canoe alone, I tell you,” commanded Dan again. “That canoe belongs to us and you know it.”
“We found it,” said one of the fellows. They stopped paddling again and would undoubtedly have relinquished the craft then and there had not their companions in the launch encouraged them to keep on.