“Here’s tough luck, and more of it!” remarked Davy Jones; but while Smithy was looking excited, and rather white, the Jones boy was grinning, just as if the new condition of affairs, thrilling in the extreme, pleased him intensely.

Thad hastened to examine the ground, as a true scout always thinks of doing when he seeks information concerning the movements of others; for neither men nor boys can well move around without leaving some traces of their late presence; and when one knows how to use his eyes to advantage, it is possible to learn many valuable things after this fashion.

“Did they take it, Thad?” continued Davy, as the scout leader arose from his knees again, his face filled with all sorts of wild conjectures as to the meaning of this new mystery.

“They must have,” replied Thad; “because they’ve been around since we were. Fact is, as you can see for yourselves, boys; here’s where the imprint of that marked shoe has half covered Smithy’s track. And of course that could mean only one thing.”

“You’re right, it could,” admitted Davy, easily convinced.

Smithy looked around at the undergrowth, out of which they had just pushed. No doubt his imagination was working at full speed, and he could see a face leering out from behind every scrub bush. Smithy was at least a great reader, even if he had until lately never been allowed to associate with other boys; and likely enough he had spent many hours over Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” and kindred stories of adventure. And being of a nervous temperament, the consciousness of hovering peril acted on him to a much greater extent than it did in the cases of his fellow scouts.

“But where do you think they could have taken the boat, Thad?” Smithy now asked, as he stared out on the waves that were sweeping past so merrily, and could see no sign of any craft.

“Perhaps gone around the island, hiding it in some place they know about; or it might be they’ve just sunk the canoe out in deep water there,” replied Thad.

“Sunk their own boat!” remarked Smithy, in bewilderment; “now, please explain to me just why they would want to do so remarkable a thing as that, Thad?”

“So that we couldn’t have the use of it to get back ashore again; and our comrades over there mightn’t be able to come over,” was the reply of the young scout-master.

“Do you mean they’ve made up their minds to try and keep us prisoners on this terrible island?” asked the other.

“It looks a little that way to me right now, Smithy; fact is they’ve got me guessing good and hard what they do mean by that sort of thing. Perhaps they want a certain amount of time to make their escape, and expect to get it by keeping us cooped up here. The question now is, shall we let them carry that scheme out?”

“Not if we know it, we won’t,” Davy spoke up, and declared in his positive way. “Why, I think I could manage to get over to the mainland somehow, with that log there to help me. The wind and waves would carry me along, you see, Thad; and I could do my clothes up in a bundle and keep ’em dry. Seems to me that’s the kind of work for a scout to try, ain’t it?”

“A pretty good idea, Davy,” admitted the scout-master, readily enough; “there’s only one drawback to it, that I can see.”

“And what might that be?” asked the one who had conceived the brilliant thought, and who seemed to be disappointed because his chief had not immediately declared it to be a marvel of ingenuity.

“Well, you’re not much of a swimmer, and couldn’t make any headway against the wind and the waves. Consequently you’d just have to let them carry you along with them. That would take a lot of time; and even if you did get ashore safely it’d be at the far end of the lake. You know the country is pretty rough between there and the camp. By sticking to the beach, where there is any, you might make it in a couple of hours; but altogether it’d be well into afternoon before you got in touch with Allan and the rest.”

“All right, I’m willing to make the try, if only you give the word, Thad,” the Jones boy went on, with a vein of urgency in his voice. “Just the idea seems to tickle me more’n I c’n tell you. And if I kept on the other side of the log, why you see, these fellers wouldn’t know a thing about it. They’d think it was just an old log that had drifted around, and was going wherever the wind wanted.”

“Well, such talk would convince anybody, I guess,” laughed Thad.

“Then you’re goin’ to let me try it, I hope?” ventured Davy, joyfully.

“Perhaps I may a little later,” the other admitted. “After we’ve talked it over some more. And first of all, I think Smithy and myself had better arm ourselves in the same way you have, with a good stout club. If the worst comes, it’s a jolly good thing to have in your hand.”

“Well, I should say, yes,” Davy went on; “more’n once I’ve stood off a savage dog with a stick like this, and dared him to tackle me. But here, if I’m going to take that little swim with the log, I won’t need my club. S’pose I hand it over to Smithy?”

There was a method in his madness; and Thad, who could read between the lines, understood it easily enough. If allowed to give Smithy his weapon of offense and defense, such permission would really be setting the seal of approval on his proposition to swim ashore. And Davy was shrewd enough to figure on that.

“All right, give it to Smithy,” said Thad; making up his mind that since one of them ought to make the effort to get in touch with the balance of the patrol, it were better to allow Davy to go than that he leave the two boys on the island; for that might look strange in a leader.

And so the delighted Davy hastened to comply; indeed the manner in which he thrust the stick into the willing hands of the other seemed to indicate a fear on his part lest the scout-master alter his mind. And once the club had changed hands he appeared to believe the thing was settled beyond recall.

“Do you think they might attack us, Thad?” asked Smithy, who was somewhat pale, but showing a resolute front in this crisis.

“I don’t know any more than you do, Smithy,” replied the other; “they had some scheme in view when they scooped the boat, and hid it from us. As I said before, I can’t make up my mind whether they only want to make time by cutting off all chances of pursuit; or else mean to come down on us.”

“What do you suppose they’d be apt to do to us for giving them so much trouble, and taking their boat?” continued Smithy.

“What Paddy gave the drum, perhaps,” remarked Davy; “a beating. But if you two fellers can only manage to keep out of their hands a little while, I ain’t afraid about my being able to reach shore, and the camp. Then what, Thad?”

“Just what I said have one of the boys, Giraffe perhaps, because he’s a good runner, start over to Rockford. I think from the rough map a charcoal burner made of this section of country for me, that town can be only about seven miles or so across country, though the going might be pretty rough. Here, take my little compass, in case he is afraid he may get lost in the woods,” and Thad detached the article in question from his silver watch chain.

“I’m glad you said Giraffe,” remarked Davy; “because if it had been Step-hen, who is also a clever long-distance runner, he’d have been sure to lose himself, because he says he’s going to take the first chance, just because somebody took his old compass. Then, when he gets to Rockford you want Giraffe to get Faversham the ’phone; is that it, Thad?”

“Yes, and tell his story to the Chief all about the queer things that have happened to us up here since we made camp, the coming of the bear; then our finding the boat; the tracks on the island; how we had a visit from the bear man, and what his companion told you to do in case you ever saw the imprint of a shoe that had a crooked patch across the sole. I reckon Mr. Malcolm Hotchkiss’ll know what to do when he gets all these facts in his head. And then Giraffe can rest up before he tries to come back to-morrow.”

“I got it all just as you stated it, Thad,” declared Davy, beginning to unfasten his shoes, as if anxious to be busy; “now, if you fellers would just roll that same log into the water while I’m doing up my duds in a little package that I c’n tie on top, so as to keep ’em dry, I’ll be ready in short order. Then you watch me paddle my own canoe for the shore. It’ll be just more fun than a circus for David, believe me.”

So Thad and Smithy took hold, and with the aid of the sticks in their hands it was found that the log could be readily turned over. Each time this was done it drew closer to the water’s edge, and presently splashed into the lake.

“See her float just like a duck, will you?” remarked the delighted Davy, who was by this time making a bundle of his shoes, hat and clothes, which he expected to secure somehow to the log, or thrust into a crevice, where the package might not be seen by watchful eyes ashore.

“Well, anyhow, if that boat did have to be captured by the enemy,” remarked Smithy, just then, as if remembering something; “I’m glad I found that stuff before it went, that’s a fact, boys.”

Thad turned on him in some surprise.

“Now you’ve got us both wondering what you mean, Smithy,” he remarked; “suppose you explain before Davy leaves us.”

“Oh! I forgot to say anything about it,” declared the other, in more or less confusion; “the fact of the matter is, Thad, when I found I was going to be your canoemate on this little adventure, I went down at once and turned the boat over to see that it was perfectly clean. You know it’s a hobby of mine to want everything just so; and I noticed that a little washing would improve the looks of our boat. So I took out the false bottom that keeps heavy shoes from cutting into the thin planking; and what do you suppose I found in the cracks below?”

He had thrust his fingers into one of his pockets, and now held up something at which both the others stared in surprise, that gradually deepened into dismay, on the part of Thad at least.

“Let me look at them, please, Smithy,” said the scout-master, quietly; and in response to his request the other placed in his outstretched hand two bright new silver half dollars!

A rather queer find, to say the least, to run across under the false bottom in a little canoe that had been secreted among the bushes bordering this lonely sheet of water known as Lake Omega!