“Hulloa, there,” said Harvey, as they approached. “That’s a fine canoe you’ve got there. Guess I’ll have to get the governor to buy me one. I saw your tent yesterday, but didn’t have a chance to come around. You fellows got ahead of me, by coming over last night—with the crowd.”
“Yes,” answered Bob. “We expected to find you all blown into the sea. What was the matter over at your camp?”
“Why, between you and me,” replied Harvey, eying them cautiously as he spoke, “I think some one of the crew did it, as a joke. They’re up to that sort of thing, you know. They’d just as lieve do it as not, any one of them. Like as not that young Tim Reardon did it, because I make him lug water, and don’t let up on him when he has lazy spells. To tell you the truth, we had a little powder stored away in a hole under a tree, and I guess one of them touched it off.”
Harvey tried to speak carelessly; but there was an angry light in his eyes and an expression around his mouth which would not be concealed, and which boded no good for somebody, and this was not lost on Tom and Bob.
“Come up to the camp, won’t you?” asked Tom. Harvey first declined, as though it had not been his intention to stop, and then accepted, and the three went toward the tent. On the way there Tom found a chance to say to Bob, “I guess Henry Burns was right, wasn’t he, Bob?” And Bob answered, “Yes.”
“Snug quarters you have here,” said Harvey, as they entered the tent. “Tight and dry,—and bunks, too. We can’t beat these accommodations aboard the Surprise. And here’s camp-chairs, like a steam-yacht or a cottage. You’ll be having pictures on the walls next, and a carpet on the floor,—and then you won’t allow each other to have mud on your boots.”
Harvey was still watching them sharply as he spoke, and may have made the last remark with a purpose, inasmuch as the boots of both Tom and Bob were begrimed and smeared with the clay from the bank near Harvey’s camp, and their clothes, for that matter, were muddy in spots.
“Sure enough,” answered Tom, “we have things as shipshape as we can. We’ve got a camp-kit here that can’t be beaten on the island. Maybe you would be interested to have a look at it.” So saying, Tom deliberately unlocked the big packing-case and threw back the cover.
“There,” cried Tom, pointing to the box that had been stolen, “what do you think of that?”
Harvey drew back quickly, and looked as though he were about to strike Tom a blow, while his face flushed angrily. Bob sprang quickly from his seat on one of the bunks, and he and Tom stood confronting Harvey. If the latter had intended to strike a blow, he changed his mind and did not do it. Instead, he gave a half-laugh and said: