A LIVELY TIME IN THE DARK
Slowly but surely Snap got closer to the campfire, which was built in a little hollow and screened from the lake by a wall of rocks.
"They built the fire there so that we couldn"t see it from across the lake," reasoned the young hunter, and he was right.
Presently he was near enough to make out six forms around the fire. Then he recognized Ham Spink, Carl Dudder, Jack Voss, and some other of the lads of the town who usually went with Ham and Carl. One boy, named Ike Akley, was a ne"er-do-well, who had once set a barn on fire and burned up two cows. For this he had been locked up, but his father had procured his release by paying heavy damages.
The crowd around the campfire were eating supper and talking in such low tones that Snap could not make out what was said. They seemed to be in the best of spirits, as if something had happened to please them greatly.
Between the campfire and the lake a large tent had been erected.
Near the tent, on the ground, lay portions of a camping outfit, and Snap wondered if it could be the things belonging to himself and his friends.
Suddenly the idea struck Snap to take a look at what might be near the water, and he moved in that direction. He had to pa.s.s through a fringe of brushwood and then he gained a tiny cove, well screened from the lake proper by a number of overhanging trees. Here it was so dark he could see but little. He felt his way along and soon reached a fair-sized boat, tied to a tree.
The craft was not the one belonging to his party and he was a trifle disappointed. Then he saw another boat and his heart gave a bound.
"It must be the _Snapper_!" he murmured and hurried to the second craft. But this proved to be nothing but a canoe, and again his heart sank.
"Maybe we"ve made a mistake after all," he thought dismally, but continued to move around the cove. To reach one point he had to push through some more bushes, and in the midst of these he fairly tumbled over a third boat, piled high with various camping things. He gave a close look and almost uttered a cry of triumph.
"Our boat, and all of our things! Here"s luck at last!"
As well as he was able in the dark, he looked over the articles in the _Snapper_. The things were in great confusion, showing they had been thrown in in a hurry. But almost everything appeared to be there, and for this he was thankful.
Snap"s next thought was to go back and tell his chums of his discovery.
But then he reasoned that this would take time and in the meanwhile someone of the other crowd might come down to the boat and take away some of the things.
"I"ll take this boat around to where we left the raft," he told himself, and set to work to shove the _Snapper_ into deep water without delay. This was no light task, for the outfit on board was heavy, and Snap had to work like a Trojan to accomplish it.
The _Snapper_ safely floated, another idea popped into the young hunter"s mind and made him grin broadly.
"t.i.t for tat," he murmured, and set to work to float out the other rowboat and the canoe. Once they were free of the sh.o.r.e he tied both to the stern of the _Snapper_, and then settled down to row along the lake sh.o.r.e.
"Hi there!" came a sudden call out of the darkness. "Who are you?"
Snap was startled, but he did not drop his oars nor did he stop rowing. He was just rounding one of the points of the cove, and now he saw somebody running toward the point at top speed.
"I say, who are you?" continued the party on sh.o.r.e, and now Snap recognized Ham Spink"s voice.
"None of your business!" answered Snap gruffly and in as heavy a tone as he could command.
"You are running away with our boats!" continued Ham, in consternation.
"Hi, fellows, come here! Somebody is running away with all the boats!" he bawled.
His cries soon reached those around the campfire, and a grand rush was made to the water"s edge. By this time Snap had rounded the point of the cove and was rowing as rapidly as possible in the direction where the raft lay.
"Stop him!"
"He has all the boats!"
"Who can he be?"
"Must be somebody from that other camp!"
Such were some of the cries uttered. Then someone ran for a shotgun, but by this time Snap was out of sight around a fringe of brushwood.
He continued to row his best, and before very long gained the spot where the raft rested. Then he leaped ash.o.r.e and ran in the direction of the campfire.
"This way, fellows!" he cried. "I have the boat! Back to the raft! Back to the raft!" And he gave the well-known whistle.
In a few minutes he encountered Giant and Whopper and learned that Shep had gone forward, to find out what the cries at the lake front meant.
"We must get him to come back," he said. "You go down to the boats and the raft and get them ready to shove off on short notice." And he ran closer to the campfire.
The entire camp was now in wild commotion, for each lad present understood that all the boats were gone. Ham Spink and Carl Dudder were in a rage.
"We should have placed somebody on guard," cried Ham. "We were chumps not to do it."
"I didn"t think anybody would be over here so quick," answered Carl. "How could they do it without a boat?"
"Maybe they had another boat," put in Ike Akley. "We missed it by not looking around a little closer."
"Whoever he is, he isn"t rowing across the lake," said Ham. "Let us run along the sh.o.r.e and see if we can"t get at him some way."
As there seemed to be nothing else to do, this plan was carried out. The crowd, however, had only gone a short distance when they literally ran into Shep, who had gone forward as already mentioned.
"Here is one of "em now," shouted Carl Dudder, as he caught Shep by the arm. The next moment he received a blow in the chest that sent him reeling backward.
"Who is it?" asked several.
"Shep Reed. Stop him---he is running away!"
Carl was right, the doctor"s son was doing his best to escape. But before he had gone a dozen steps Ham Spink, Ike Akley and Jack Voss were on top of him and had borne him to the ground. They did not treat him any too gently and he was kicked in the side and the breath was literally knocked out of him.
"St---stop! Do---don"t ki---kill m---me!" he gasped, when he could speak.
"What are you doing here, Shep Reed?" demanded Ham, angrily.
"Came over after our things."
"How do you know we have your things?"
"Well, we thought you"d be just mean enough to take our outfit---you did something like that before, if you"ll remember."
"Humph!"
"Will you let me up?"