The two searched all around on both sides of the hedge, but finding no trace of anything human, returned to the scene of their conspiracy.
“But certainly there ees somebody has been here, and he have hear what we have say,” said Jacques, uneasily.
“If it was anybody, it, was thim B’y Scouts, bad cess to thim!” grumbled Larry; and then, as if thinking aloud, he went on:
“If it was thim measly Scouts, they’ll blab from a ‘sinse of juty,’ as I heard wan of thim say oncet, just as soon as they reach camp, and the nixt thing they’ll do ‘from a sinse of juty’ will be to warn Flannigan. But let thim thry it! Jist let thim thry it!” he sputtered, full of rage at the thought that the Boy Scouts, whom he despised, might, by warning the logging camp, be the means of bringing to naught their carefully thought out plans.
“But zey shall not,” said Jacques. “We—you, Larry O’Brien, and I, Jacques Lavine—we will stop zem! Eet ees that we shall find a way.”
“We will that!” the Irishman said. “And Oi’ll tell yez how we’ll do it. From the first minnit the Scouts are out in the mornin’ till they are in camp agin at noight, we’ll lie along the road to the loggin’ camp and watch, and the first Scout spalpeen that shows his face anint it, we grab him. Oncet we git our hands upon him, Oi’ll bet yez any amount yez want that he’ll wish he’d niver been born! His own mither won’t know him when she sees him!”
“Varmint!” said the “son of the great French republic.” “Zat makes me ver’ glad—ver’ happy! Zat ees what we shall do!”
So they talked; and, having arranged all to their wicked satisfaction, went their way.
As soon as the Scouts reached camp, they made a full report to the Scout-Master of their adventures. When he heard the details of their encounter with the bear, his hearty words of praise for Jack’s heroic act found an echo in the heart of every Scout in camp.
Jack modestly insisted that it was no more than any Scout would have done if he had been given the same opportunity. While the boys tried to tell themselves that this was true, they admired Jack none the less. They might have done it, but Jack had done it, and that made all the difference in the world.