"Nothing to equal the first dip of the season!" said the young man, half aloud. "I feel like a schoolboy in a pond!"
All at once his quick ear caught the faint splash of a paddle close at hand, and he sat motionless on the rock, and waited. The sound grew more distinct, and presently a canoe, manned by a solitary individual, came into sight around the shore of the island. Rawson uttered an exclamation of surprise, for the man was "Injun Joe."
Bareheaded and stripped to the waist, his thick blue-black hair tousled in the breeze, his lean, muscular, lithe torso gleaming like bronze in the sunlight, Joe paddled with a strong, swift stroke which sent the light craft dancing over the water. As he approached the rock on which George was seated he moderated his speed, and swerved toward a strip of beach. For a moment he hesitated, holding the canoe still by extending the paddle flat out on the water; then he headed straight for a safe landing between two boulders.
Five minutes passed—-ten. Still George waited, watching a little spiral of smoke curl up into the air. Then the canoe came into sight again, bobbing gently away from the island. Now it was empty.
"Hello! He's not in it!" Rawson exclaimed, shading his eyes with one hand. "The canoe has floated away with his clothes! He'll have to swim for it!"
In another moment he saw Joe scramble up on one of the boulders, fling off his remaining clothes, and dive into the water in pursuit of the flighty craft. Reaching it, the Indian did not climb aboard, but swam back to shore, pushing it in front of him. Then Rawson stepped down from his rock and slipped along the bank until he emerged from the undergrowth just where Joe was landing.
"Mighty careless of you, Joe," he said, laughing.
Startled, Joe looked around to see whence came the familiar voice. His eyes met Rawson's, and he grinned with pleasure, as soon as he had recovered from the surprise of seeing the unexpected apparition of a naked white man in those wilds. Red man and white man, children of the wild, in a state of nature, shook hands in friendly greeting. Then Rawson explained how they had been waiting for Joe to appear on the scene.
"What have you got there, Joe?" he finally asked, pointing to a brisk little fire and a pile of flat stones heating therein.
"Got heap plenty fine fish," answered Joe. "We have dinner here on island, what?"