“Guess I will,” returned the other. “I may not be as crazy over fishing as you are, Dolph, but I always enjoy the feel of a two-pound fighter like that one you got. Didn’t he keep you hustling, though? I thought you were going to lose the sly dodger when he ran under the boat. But you didn’t. You were on to all his tricks, old fellow.”
So Teddy went out and had all the sport he wanted, up to the time the shades of evening began to gather, and Amos, beating a big spoon on a frying pan announced that supper was ready.
But Teddy brought in only one fish, which he had accidentally hooked so seriously that he thought best to knock it on the head, rather than return it to the water.
“Enough for breakfast, with that fine fellow,” Amos remarked, for he had not cooked all of Dolph’s catch.
They all united in declaring the fish gilt-edged. And it was decided while eating supper, to put in just one more day in this lake camp.
Then they would try and find the man who had the horse and wagon, and with whose assistance they hoped to make the long portage over to the railroad, and launch the canoes in the waters of the little Tahquamanon River shortly beyond.
Here at a place named McMillan, they expected to replenish their now diminished stores, so as to be ready for the long dash down to White Fish Bay, and then skirting the south shore of Lake Superior, bringing up finally at Sault Ste. Marie, where the Government owns the great canal and locks, through which much greater tonnage passes in a summer season than goes through the famous Suez Canal in a whole year.
That night the boys thought it best to keep watch.
They really did not anticipate any trouble in connection with Crawley and Big Gabe; but knowing the character of the two men they felt that it would not be advisable to take any chances.
Besides, Teddy was more than half inclined to suspect that the lumber combine to which his father’s company was so bitterly opposed, was partly responsible for the presence of the big and unscrupulous timber cruiser being in the vicinity.