The Outdoor Chums on the Lake: or, Lively Adventures on Wildcat Island

“Isn’t that the Peters tribe setting sail, Frank?”

“Why it is, as sure as you live. I wonder they stayed so late. They must be pretty hungry by this time if that educated ape got away with all they had. Perhaps we might have made a master stroke if we’d gone over this morning with an offering of some bacon, coffee and such things. Too bad neither of us thought of it before.”

Will looked strangely at his companion. He could not wholly understand the impulses that guided the actions of the other. His experience in the world had not been as varied as that of the boy from Maine, or he might have realized what was meant; though possibly the act of kindness might, after all, have been wasted on those tough young citizens.

“They’re going home, all right, and good riddance. If we could only get rid of the balance of undesirable people on this same island, there might be a chance for us to finish up our outing in peace,” he remarked bitterly.

“I hope they don’t give Bluff any trouble,” said Frank, as if musing.

“Bluff – is he in sight, then?” demanded his comrade, eagerly.

“Yes, over there, and coming,” replied Frank, pointing to the advancing canoe.

“Here are your glasses. Suppose you take a look and see.”

Will handed over the marine glasses as he spoke. As he adjusted them to his eyes, Frank swept one glance at the coming Bluff. Then he turned his attention to the departing disgusted campers.

“Something has been going on among those fellows, I declare,” he announced.

“What do you mean?” asked his companion, in surprise.

“They seem to have been up against it, or else having a fight among themselves. I can see a couple who have bandages about their heads, and one seems to be holding his arm mighty tenderly. I believe it is broken.”

“You don’t say? Well, come to think of it, I do remember hearing something of a commotion a while back, but thought they were only having their usual rough-house time. Please let me look, Frank.”

A minute later he uttered an exclamation.

“What now?” it was Frank’s turn to ask.

“Seems strange to me. I think there must be one of them lying down in the bottom of the boat,” returned Will.

“That would indicate something pretty serious. Perhaps they’ve had a fight with those hoboes, or it may have been our wild man. But what makes you think such a thing, Will?”

“I counted seven of them when they came, and so did Bluff. Now there are only six in sight, and as you say, three of them are fit for the hospital. Where can the seventh be?”

“Perhaps the hoboes got him, just as they did Jerry. If so, what under the sun can their scheme be? Why load down with a variety of Centerville’s leading citizens when they find it so hard to provide food for themselves?”

“I give it up. The conundrum is too much for me. But I think my idea is more apt to cover the truth, and that the seventh boy is laid out in the boat, wounded, or perhaps dead,” continued Will, in an awe-struck tone.

“Oh! I hope not the latter. They’re a rough bunch, but they’ve had little opportunity to learn better, and we mustn’t be too hard on them. Such fellows can do things that would be little short of a crime for those of us who have decent homes and indulgent parents. Bluff seems to be coming along rather slowly, don’t you think?”

As Frank said this his companion turned the glasses upon the canoe.

“Something has happened to him. Perhaps his paddle has broken; I remember it gave way while we were coming here, and he spliced it yesterday. Yes, that must be what ails him,” he exclaimed.

“That’s too bad,” observed Frank, looking at the other boats, as though wondering whether it might be worth while to launch one, and speed out on the lake to the assistance of the chum who was coming.

But the distance was too great, and he could not hope to reach the scene before whatever was fated to happen had occurred.

“Why do you say that Bluff could get here with only a piece of his paddle?” remarked Will.

“If those ugly chaps let him. See, they have already changed their course several points. They mean to intercept him.”

“You don’t think they’d bother with him, do you?” cried Will.

“I’m afraid they’re in a bad humor, and ready to tackle anything that offers a chance to work off old scores. If Bluff only had his paddle in decent order he could laugh at them. How foolish of him to take only his single blade along.”

Frank now clapped the glasses to his eyes again.

“Look at that, will you? Why, the breezy chap doesn’t even think it worth while to turn and run, or even try to slip past. He’s coming directly on, and in another minute will run slap into that rowboat, loaded with toughs. I’m afraid there’s going to be a bad spill for our headstrong chum,” he sighed.

“Perhaps he is only holding himself in reserve, and means to make a spurt for it at the very last second. Bluff is smart, I tell you. He knows what those boys are up to, and is far from being asleep. Tell me what he is doing, Frank. I can hear them shouting angrily at him now. Oh! I wish we were out there to help him.”

Will even forgot his natural timidity, and had the chance been given him, would doubtless have proven a hero in defense of his chum.

“He seems to have stopped paddling altogether. Now he reaches down into the bottom of his canoe after something. He is aiming it at them – it’s his paddle – no it isn’t either – as sure as you live, he’s got that repeating-gun of his!”

Even as the excited Frank spoke, over the water they heard a distant voice shout:

“Hands up! you sharks, or I’ll pepper you good and hard. Six shots I’ve got here, as fast as I can pump the lever. Hands up! I say, every one of you!”

CHAPTER XVI – SIGNS THAT SPELLED TROUBLE

“Look! they’re doing it, too, Frank! Oh! what luck! Good for Bluff!” ejaculated Will, hardly able to control himself in his excitement.

“Just as sure as you live, they are. They knew Bluff meant business when he said that. Why, even the wounded fellow has his one well arm raised. It’s great!”

Frank generously handed the glasses to his comrade, whose hands trembled so that he could hardly hold them to his eyes.

“What’s he doing now, Will?”

“Seems to be holding that blessed gun with one hand, and paddling softly with the other. Ain’t he the real thing, though? And once we doubted whether he would be just the right sort of fellow to be a member of the club. I’m proud of good old Bluff, and that’s a fact!” cried Will.

“So say we all of us. He must be past the other boat by now; isn’t he?”

“Yes, and has laid the gun down, but where he can grab it up in a hurry if necessary. Pet and his crowd have resumed rowing, too, as if going ashore. They don’t seem anxious to call out at Bluff just now. Jerry used to say that terrible gun would frighten game to death; but even Jerry would have to admit that it’s worth while, if he could only be here, to see this lovely sight. Oh! why didn’t I have my camera ready? What a good picture that would have been,” sighed the official photographer of the club.

“Too far away to make out what was going on, my boy. But I only wish Jerry could have been here to see it. That would relieve me of my anxiety,” said Frank.

The canoe kept moving straight toward them, while the heavily laden boat continued over the lake toward the western shore.

Not even a derisive howl was sent after Bluff. He seemed to have effectually cowed the rowdies. Perhaps it was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, and they had really gone through so much lately that the limit had been reached.

Bluff presently landed directly beside his chums.

“Well done, old fellow!” said Will, hastening to pat him on the back.

“It was as fine a piece of bluff as I ever put up,” grinned the paddler as he stepped ashore, holding the redoubtable gun in his hand.

“How so?” demanded Will, curious to know.

“Why, the gun isn’t in a condition to use. I had it at a locksmith’s, and thought I’d bring it along if he had mended it. Said he had, but didn’t have time to finish putting all the parts together again. I said I could do that easily enough in camp, and fetched it along,” replied the other, chuckling.

“Then it wasn’t loaded at all?” asked Will.

“Of course not; but then they didn’t know that, you see. It was a case of where ignorance was bliss. Answered the purpose all right. You noticed they let me alone.”

“Now I see where you got your name; but that was a time when bluffing was worth while. Come and sit down here and have some breakfast,” remarked Frank.

He was looking closely at the returned wanderer, as if trying to decide whether he brought good news or bad.

“Tell me first, have you heard anything from Jerry?” demanded the other.

“Not the least thing. But I’ve been making up a plan that it seems we will have to follow, since you come back alone,” observed Frank.

Of course this was an invitation for Bluff to unload, and tell what he had accomplished besides getting his gun just before starting back.

“Sheriff out hunting the hobo thieves, just as you feared. No one could say as to when he would return. Might be in an hour, and again, perhaps, it would not be for the balance of the day,” he began.

“You waited until you got tired and then left a note for him?” asked Frank.

“Just what I did, fellows. The whole community is aroused. Seems like these two hoboes must be yeggmen for keeps. At any rate several robberies occurred on the night following the affair on the steamer. A farmer reported that his place was entered and some money and other things taken. Then the thieves broke open the storage warehouse over in Newtonport, and rummaged through a lot of stuff. No one knows what they took there, but they left everything in a great upset. The local militia company in our town is out helping the sheriff hunt!”

“Say, things seem to be stewing at a great rate,” gasped Will.

“And to think that the nervy chaps responsible for it all are here on this very island near us. Yes, more than that, we’ve had experiences with them, and even now they undoubtedly are holding our poor chum for ransom, or some other purpose,” declared Frank, shaking his head.

“Do you think Mr. Dodd will come?” asked Will.

“He certainly will, as soon as he knows. Why wouldn’t he when the men he’s on the lookout for are here waiting for him?” replied Bluff, beginning to eat.

“You said you were thinking up a plan, Frank?” suggested Will, turning eagerly to the chum upon whom the rest were accustomed to rely in emergencies.

“Well, I leave it to the rest of you whether we do it or not. The conditions are peculiar. We want to search for poor Jerry, and yet if we leave our camp unguarded, those savages may steal the whole outfit. Then again, Will naturally doesn’t want to stay here alone while Bluff and myself do the hunting. I can see only one way of fixing it.”

“All right. I’m willing to do anything you say,” remarked the one who had a cup of coffee up to his lips, and was drinking the contents with supreme pleasure.

“Ditto here, Frank,” from Will.

“This idea I had was to break up our camp, stow all the stuff in the canoes, and then have Will paddle far out on the lake with the whole outfit, where he could wait to see what happened. Nothing could reach him there, and we would be free to follow up our plan. How about that, fellows?” asked Frank.

Will glanced out on the lake.

“All right. It looks like it would be quiet enough, and if a big wind does come up, I can paddle the string over to the shore and get under the lee,” he said.

“Call it settled, then. And now, while Bluff is finishing his breakfast, you and I can be taking down the tents and stowing them away,” observed Frank.

“Oh! I’m about through now, but give me a little time to get my gun together, boys. It may come in handy, who knows,” remarked Bluff.

“This is kind of tough, taking down tents when our little outing is hardly half through with,” complained Will, as he labored pulling up tent pegs.

“Oh! it may be only temporary. If Mr. Dodd comes and rounds up those hoboes as we expect, there’s nothing to prevent our pitching camp again right on the old spot, and enjoying another two days or so of this business,” came from Frank, who was under the falling canvas, working like a beaver.

Things were quickly accomplished. The more one camps the easier it is to stow things away in their proper places; and Frank was always particular about doing this, as a labor-saving device.

Hardly an hour after the coming of Bluff and the space was bare. All the “dunnage” had been snugly packed in two of the canoes, while Will was ready to enter the other and convoy the string out on the bosom of Lake Camalot.

They made him take Jerry’s gun as a means of protection. On his part, Will entrusted his precious camera to the tender mercies of Bluff, in hopes that the other might find some chance to snap off a few striking pictures while engaged in his search for Jerry.

“And it isn’t like your gun, remember, for it’s loaded,” he remarked.

“Well, my repeater is now. And perhaps when Jerry learns what a part it has had in his rescue he may stop sneering at it as a modern joke,” said Bluff.

After Will had started, and gone some little distance out on the lake, the two others left the deserted camping-ground.

“Where away first?” asked Bluff, willing to leave these matters to his friend, whose experience up in Maine was apt to prove valuable now.

“Let’s make along the beach for the place where those chaps were,” replied Frank.

“Oh! I see. You think we may find the trail of the wild man there?”

“I’m curious to see what it looks like, that’s all. After that, I think of making for the place where I lost Jerry. We’ve had no rain since, and it seems to me we ought to take up the trail at the place I lost it. I’ve since figured out how I came to go wrong that time, and if we have good luck, we ought to be able to follow it straight to the place they’re staying at.”

It took them but a short time to reach the late camp of Pet Peters and his cronies, which was full of signs of a hasty departure.

“I wonder what could have happened here?” mused Frank, as he looked around.

“Seems like they must have been having a high old time. There’s a remnant of a hat, and I declare if this isn’t piece of a coat sleeve. It was a fight, Frank, I tell you!” exclaimed Bluff, convincingly.

“Just as I suspected, but, of course, we may never know what caused it, and whether they were just indulging in a little racket among themselves or with the two hoboes. They had little left that would induce those rascals to attack them, seems to me,” remarked Frank.

“Listen! what was that?” suddenly asked Bluff.

Both boys stood motionless, with heads cocked on one side, straining their ears to catch a repetition of the sound that had come to them.

Quickly they heard it again.

“Say, it seems like a groan to me,” whispered Bluff, with eyes aglow.

“Just what I thought. There! that time I located it, Bluff. Come over here. Good gracious! what do you think of that?”

CHAPTER XVII – DEEPER INTO THE JUNGLE

“Why, it’s a boy!” exclaimed the horrified Bluff, as he stared at the object from which the sounds proceeded.

“And tied to a tree, too! You know him, Bluff; look again!” remarked Frank.

“Say, it’s sure Tom Somers, one of Pet Peters’ crowd. What under the sun does it mean, Frank?” exclaimed the other, startled and mystified.

“Just what I said. They must have had a monkey-and-parrot time among themselves, and the Tom Somers’ section got the worst of it. You see the result – they’ve gone off and left this fellow fastened here as a punishment for his rebellion.”

“But – this ain’t out West, or in the Cannibal Islands. Wake me up and tell me if I’m seeing things. What! do you mean to say those savages would leave Tom here to starve to death?” gasped Bluff.

“Oh! no, some of them would come back by to-night or to-morrow to let him off. I imagine this is only some of Pet’s miserable work. He’s a cruel monster. I thought Andy Lasher bad enough, but it turned out that he had a speck of good in him, and Jerry touched it when he saved his life that stormy night. But Pet is mean and revengeful, a sneak, and a coward at heart.”

“There. I believe he has just discovered us,” said Bluff.

The boy who was fastened to the tree gave a groan, and then called out:

“Say, fellers, you wouldn’t go and leave me here like this would you? Set me free anyway, and I kin shift for myself somehow; but it’s tough to be tied up like a dog, an’ all because I knocked Pet down when he called me a name I won’t take off any man or boy. Jest slice a knife over these ropes, won’t you, please?”

He did not whine, but asked the favor in a fairly decent way.

“Of course we will, Tom Somers. You’ve always been an enemy of mine, but that’s no reason we should leave you like this. There you are!”

Frank purposely allowed his chum to do the cutting. He knew that there had in the past been more or less bad blood between these two lads, and he had in mind a possible repetition of the singular friendship that had sprung up between Jerry and Andy Lasher after the time when the former saved the life of the town bully.

“That’s ‘white’ of you, Bluff, and I ain’t the feller to forget it, neither,” was what the late prisoner said as his bonds fell away.

“You look bruised more or less, so I take it there must have been quite a fight here before they went away?” remarked Frank, questioningly.

The other grinned, though the effort must have pained him not a little, on account of the many scratches and gouges on his face.

“Did they? Well, I should smile, pardner. I only had one husky chap to stand by me, against five; but we pretty nigh cinched things. Pet Peters said he’d get even with me by leavin’ me here a spell, to tempt that wild man. But I had hopes some of you fellers might top the rise and give me a helpin’ hand.”

“Oh! I remember now, you’re the chap who was out West for a year herding cattle. I notice it in your speech,” said Frank, smiling.

“It gets in the blood, when you mingle some with them gents. I try to break off when the fellers kid me, but it crops out when I ain’t thinkin’. But say, it was ‘white’ of you to do this, an’ I ain’t got any call to ask favors of your crowd either.”

A sudden thought struck Frank.

“See here, you say you’re grateful; will you prove it?” he asked.

Tom Somers thrust out his chest as he immediately replied:

“I’m a maverick if I don’t; try me!”

“Then listen. You heard me say that our chum Jerry had strangely vanished yesterday while we were in the woods. I have good reason to believe those two hoboes laid hold of him, for some reason or other,” Frank started.

“Ransom – the old, old game, perhaps?” suggested the other, quickly.

“Well, I hardly think it is quite so bad as that; but they wanted to hold him as a sort of hostage, perhaps, threatening us if we didn’t get off this island. No matter what their reason, they’ve got our chum, and now we mean to try and release him. That’s why we’re here.”

“And you want me to help? ’Course I will, and only too glad to have the chance. If it’s a trail to foller, why I picked up lots of points out there on the Texas plains, and just you set me on the track,” said Tom, pulling on a tattered coat that had been taken from him ere he was fastened to the tree.

“Then let’s begin right here and see if there is any trail where your grub basket went off last night!” remarked Frank.

At that Tom started and turned a little pale.

“You said the hoboes, pard, and not that man-monkey,” he stammered.

Plainly he had conceived a great fear regarding the mysterious object that had appeared in the camp, and vanished with their provisions.

Frank laughed.

“Make your mind easy, I’m not intending to follow him. We expect to go to the place where my pard vanished yesterday, and take up the trail there. I followed it a while, but night was coming on and I lost it. You may do better, Tom,” he said.

“But you mentioned that hairy monster, didn’t you?” queried the other, uneasily.

“I only want to examine the track he left, so as to settle in my mind whether it was really a crazy human being or a big ape. Come over here and let’s see.”

“Huh! none of our fellers ever thought of lookin’ around. A snake-whip couldn’t a-coaxed ’em over this way. Like as not they expected the varmint was lyin’ in the bushes, waitin’ to jump out again. But I don’t pull leather when I give my word.”

He threw himself prostrate on the ground. In less than three minutes an exclamation announced that he had found what he sought. Frank dropped beside him.

“There she is, and a jim-dandy of a track, too, plain as the hoof marks of a cayuse around a snubbing post!” he exclaimed, pointing.

“Just as I thought, a man’s shoe, and an unusually big one. That settles one thing in my mind. It is no escaped ape that runs wild on this island. It may be a lunatic that has got away from the asylum over at Merrick, or – ”

Frank did not finish his sentence, but nodded his head as though the thought that had flashed into his mind pleased him.

“That all here?” asked the other, a little nervously, although apparently relieved to learn that it was not a wild animal he had seen on the preceding night.

“Yes, I’m entirely satisfied. Now let us find the place where those Indian mounds are, and we can get on the trail without delay,” answered Frank, leading the way.

It took him fully an hour to accomplish this. First they had to return to the spot at the foot of the bluff where the canoeists’ camp had lately stood. Here his own trail was taken up, and Tom Somers proved to the satisfaction of the others that he did know considerable about following tracks through thickets and woods, for he led them unerringly until finally Frank saw the two mounds.

“There they are,” he said, in a low voice.

Bluff pushed his gun forward menacingly.

“Where?” he demanded in a hoarse whisper.

“Oh! I mean the two Indian mounds, not the hoboes. Come over here and see the trail made as they went away,” replied his chum, quickly.

When the boy who had spent a year on a Texas ranch punching cattle saw the marks, he announced it as his opinion that they had been made by two parties besides Jerry.

“I reckon your chum was snoozing some when they jumped his claim. He kicked and put up a right husky fight, but they was too much for him, and choked him off. I reckon one of them must a-been a boy, and the other a big man, judgin’ from the marks. Then, when they had reduced him to quiet they just snaked him off.”

“That’s what I thought – the big brute carried Jerry on his back, for there are no signs of my chum’s footprints around. Now, let’s start off. I’m anxious to know the worst, no matter what it is!” cried Frank.

Bluff brought up the rear. It was anything but light under the dense growth of trees and clinging vines. At times the tracker had to get down close to the ground in order to see what he wanted.

Bluff had slung his gun over his shoulder by the strap, and was holding Will’s camera in his hands, wondering if he had not been foolish to bring such a silly thing along with him on so serious an errand.

The deeper they penetrated into the interior of the island the denser the undergrowth seemed to become, until at times it was only with the utmost difficulty they pushed their way through. Others having gone ahead of them made it a trifle easier, perhaps; at least Tom Somers said so in a whisper.

“Perhaps we’re gettin’ clost to the place, now, pardners; so we’d better take our time an’ not hustle too much. Don’t speak above a whisper, either,” he said, as he parted the bushes in front.

Even as he did so Frank heard him utter a low exclamation, not of fear so much as of disgust. One look told the other what it meant, and he, too, feared that their plans would all be disarranged through an accidental meeting with a resident of the jungle, who seemed disposed to dispute their further progress.

There was the biggest wildcat Bluff had ever seen in all his life squatted on the low limb of a tree, growling angrily, and with it claws digging into the bark after the manner of a cat that is getting ready to jump, and will not be stopped!