Boy Scouts Along the Susquehanna; or, The Silver Fox Patrol Caught in a Flood

by Herbert Carter

  CHAPTER XVI. WHAT DAVY HEARD.

  "You guessed right, Thad!" said Giraffe, looking toward the patrolleader.

  "About what?" demanded Step Hen.

  "Why, that it'd be dangerous for us to try and stick to the old bug of ashanty boat, with all that wind blowing," came the reply.

  "Has she gone, Giraffe?" demanded Thad quickly, and the other noddedeagerly.

  "Cleaned out, as sure as anything, and not a sign of her around, as faras I could see," he went on to explain.

  "Then it must have been the great big blast that set her adrift," Davyadded, doing his best to explain the mystery. "It was enough to whip heroff the shore, with the water rising all the while. Well, that settles itfor us."

  "How does it, Davy?" pleaded Bumpus.

  "I mean we're Crusoes at last, and the last link binding us to ourbeloved home is swept away," the other continued, for the especialbenefit of Bumpus, who was apt to take things too literally.

  "Enough of that, Davy," Thad broke in with; "you know we didn't take somuch stock in that clumsy boat, after all. It's true we did talk aboutcutting some long setting-poles, and trying to make the shore when thewater went down, but there will be other ways to reach the mainland whenwe're ready, never you fear. Tell us about it, Giraffe."

  "Why, I took my time about getting there, you see, because I knew therewasn't any need of hurrying, as we couldn't do a thing to-day. Besides,Thad, I wanted to look around a little on the way, and find out if therewas any sort of game on _our_ little island. Well, there is, and Ireckon, what with our guns and snares, we could keep ourselves fromstarving to death for a long while."

  "Good!" muttered Bumpus, as though that important statement removed acertain dreadful fear that may have been haunting him for quite sometime.

  "Yes," continued the other scout glibly, "I saw two rabbits at differenttimes, and a number of nut-crackers of the gray order, fine big chapstoo, that would make a fine squirrel stew, let me tell you. They musthave come out here at some time in the summer, when the water was awfullow, and this island connected with the main shore on one side by anisthmus."

  "That's the explanation, I expect," assented Allan, who was always verymuch interested in all things concerning wild animal migration.

  "But about the boat, Giraffe?" reminded Thad.

  "Oh! yes, that's so. I started in to tell you how I found out she wasgone from that point where we left her a while back, didn't I? Well,after I got to the place where you come right out of the woods and sightthe point I began to rub my eyes, because I couldn't believe I was seeingstraight, for there wasn't any boat on that shore at all, not the firstsign of one. Of course I knew right away what had happened, and that itmust have been the extra big squall coming out of the northwest that haddriven her off."

  "Then you hurried back to bring us the news, didn't you?" continued Thad.

  "Say, I just _flew_, because I thought the sooner you knew about it thebetter. And so we're prisoners on the island now, without any kind of aboat to take us off. We may have to wade or swim after the tide goes downagain."

  "I don't suppose you stopped to take a look, and see if there were anytracks around?" the patrol leader continued.

  "Tracks--what of, the keel of the shanty boat?" asked Giraffe. "Oh! thesplash of the water would have washed all those out easy, so what was theuse? We know she's gone, and that covers the whole bill. By now, whatwith that wind and current, if she hasn't been stove in on some rock, theshanty boat must be five or ten miles down the river, and booming along,all the while spinning around like a top. Whee! I'm tickled to death toknow I'm not aboard her right now."

  "So say we all of us!" roared several of the scouts in unison, showinghow they felt about the matter.

  "How about making a shelter?" asked Giraffe, his woodsman spirit aroused;which remark proved that he must have been pondering over these thingswhile on the way to the upper end of the island and back.

  "We were talking that over while you were gone," said Thad, "and came tothe conclusion that while we might try and put up some little cover goodenough for one night, which would keep the dew off, even without the useof our ponchos, it would hardly pay us to go to any great trouble."

  "But what if we have to stay out here a long time?" continued Giraffe,whose whole manner told that he would not object in the least, as long asthe eating was fairly good; and that the Easter vacation could beindefinitely prolonged so far as he was concerned.

  "Well, we don't intend to, and that's all there is to it," Step Henassured him. "Of course we have to put in one night; but that ought to beall. The river will fall nearly as fast as it rose; and already Thad'sthinking up some scheme that's going to take us ashore."

  "Any wings to it, Thad?" asked Giraffe laughingly; "or shall we make aballoon, and go flying over Cranford, to make the folks' eyes stick outof their heads with wondering what those frisky Silver Fox scouts will bedoing next, to get themselves in the spotlight?"

  "Oh! I haven't had time enough yet to get to that," Thad told him; "justgive me a chance to sleep over it first. But Step Hen is perfectly rightwhen he says we haven't the least intention of being cooped up here manydays. Besides, unless we do get a move on us pretty soon, we'll have toturn back home and get ready to go to school, instead of recovering thejudge's treasured army coat for him."

  "School!" repeated Bumpus; "my goodness! is there really such a place?Why, seems to me it's been an _age_ since I recited a lesson. Just thethought of it makes me feel sad. But if we did have to camp out here fora couple of weeks we'd miss some hunky-dory good times in Cranford. Thebarn dance comes off next week, you know. And every one of us, I reckon,has promised to take somebody. Oh! we've just got to be home before then,Thad. Think what Sadie Bradley'd do if you gave her the mitten; and thenhow about Giraffe's roly-poly sister, Polly, Allan; are you ready toforsake her? Perish the thought; the boys of the Silver Fox Patrol neverwere quitters, were they?"

  Giraffe, whatever he may have thought about staying on the island as longas they could stand it, seeing that popular sentiment was against him,showed enough wisdom to quiet down. Possibly he may not have beenone-half as bent on such a course himself as he made out; for Giraffe wasnotoriously shrewd, and fond of playing all manner of jokes.

  They lounged around, some of them engaged in accomplishing certainthings, but in the main content to lie on their blankets, with a ponchounderneath to keep the dampness off. This was on account of the fact thatthey had been cheated out of considerable sleep lately, and felt the needof it.

  Later on Thad commenced to make a bough shelter, with the assistance ofseveral of the others. In summer time this is readily done, but when theleaves are off most of the trees it is not so easy a task.

  By selecting hemlock and other trees that would afford a dense coveringthey managed by degrees to build up quite a shelter, under which theymight lie without running much risk of being wet by the dews. And afterthe recent heavy storm all of the weather prophets seemed fully agreedthat the air had surely been cleared, so that another rain was not apt tocome along for some time at least.

  Noon came and went.

  They cooked a warm meal, thus reducing the amount of provisions on hand;but the result was worth all the sacrifice, Giraffe and Bumpus declared,as they lay on the ground afterward, hardly able to move on account ofthe full dinner of which they had partaken.

  "Three more meals like that, and then the deluge!" said Giraffe; "but whocares for expenses? Gimme two cents' worth of gingersnaps, as the countryboy said when he wanted the girls in the store to see what a high rollerhe could be. If our plans turn out O. K. we hope to be where we can buy adinner for hard cash by that time. No need of worrying any; keep a doin'the smile-that-won't-come-off business. We belong to the Little SunshineClub, don't we, boys?"

  Most of them were there in the bunch, and as usual all trying to talk atonce. Davy alone sat off to one side, and seemed to be trying to shut outthe chatt
er, while he wrote in his private log book an account of theirrecent adventures.

  "How did the grits go, Bob?" asked Bumpus, who, in order to please theSouthern boy, had prepared a kettle of fine hominy, to which the otherhad certainly done full justice, if his three helpings counted foranything.

  "Simply immense, suh, and no mistake about it," came the hearty reply;"some of you wonder how it is every Southerner loves that good old dish,and I confess that I'm unable to supply the explanation. I only know itfo' a fact; and that somehow they all say it seems to bring befo' theirminds' eye a picture of hanging moss, orange trees, cotton in the field,magnolias in bloom on the green trees, and all sorts of other thingsconnected with the South they love."

  "I don't think there's a part of this Union one-half so fond of theirsection of the country as you Southerners are, Bob," Allan asserted.

  "I reckon you're about right, suh, when you say that. It's always beenthat way with us befo' the war and since. But Davy's beckoning to you,Thad."

  "Well, I declare, what do you think of that for pure nerve?" mutteredGiraffe, as he saw the scout in question crooking his finger, and noddingto the patrol leader, as though asking him to come over; "if the mountainwon't come to Mahomet, he has to go to the mountain. But whatever d'yeimagine ails Davy now? He don't look sick, and in need of medicine,because he ate nearly as big a dinner as--well, as Bumpus here did."

  "Speak for yourself, John Alden," retorted the stout boy scornfully.

  Thad understood that Davy wished to say something privately, and on thisaccount he did not hesitate to get up and move over to where the otherwas sitting with his log book in his hand.

  He saw that Davy had a puzzled expression on his face, and from thisjudged he had run across some sort of enigma which he wanted the patrolleader to help him solve. As Thad was accustomed to this sort of thing,he did not think it strange, though naturally feeling some curiosityconcerning the matter.

  "Want to see me, Davy?" he asked, as he carelessly dropped alongside theother.

  "Why, we're all here, ain't we, Thad, the whole patrol I mean?" Davybegan.

  "Count noses, and you'll find there are just eight of us, which coversthe bill," Thad told him.

  "While you-all were talking there did you hear anything queer?" continuedDavy.

  "Not that could be noticed," Thad told him. "There were times when theboys made so much noise that it was hard for me to hear anything besides.Did you catch any suspicious sound, Davy?"

  The other immediately nodded, and went on to say, at the same timecasting a quick look all around him:

  "Thad, I sure did. I was sitting here writing, and paying no attention towhat the fellows were squabbling about, when all at once it came, asplain as anything, and right from over yonder," with which he pointedacross the island.

  "Was it the bark of a dog, the mewing of a cat, the bray of a donkey, orthe neighing of a horse, Davy?" asked Thad, smiling.

  "Nixey, not any of those, Thad," replied the other solemnly; "but as sureas I'm sitting here it sounded like a shout in a human voice!"