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Of course, once Thad broke the ice, and started to tell what he had discovered, this was apt to give way to a bombardment of questions; for Giraffe and Bumpus could think up the greatest lot of "wants" imaginable; so that it would keep Thad busy explaining, until their ammunition ran out, or he had to throw up his hands in surrender through sheer exhaustion.
"That sounds like you think he took on all that dirt on purpose?" remarked Bumpus. "Perhaps he did," replied Thad; "perhaps the man is playing some sort of part, for a reason of his own." "Bunking with an ignorant foreigner just to get a chance to sneak into camps, and run off with the haversacks that have been carelessly left lying around loose?" suggested Step-hen, still harping on his wrongs.
"If you do come, the chances are three to one you'll trip on some vine, or stone, and take a header into the lake," remarked Giraffe. "Well, what if I did, I know how to swim, don't I?" burst out Bumpus, who seemed to be carrying "a chip on his shoulder," these days, as some of the boys declared.
That last seemed to worry him more than anything else, Thad noticed, with a little surprise; because he did not believe for a minute that Bumpus knew anything about the compass which Step-hen accused him of hiding. They looked across the wide stretch of water.
As to that wager between Giraffe and Bumpus, it kept dragging along during the balance of the cruise, sometimes one, and then the other being ahead.
Reaching the runaway he was seen to clamber aboard, after which he picked up the paddle, and started to urge the boat toward the shore again. Not until then did Bumpus seem to heave a sigh of relief. Evidently the poor fellow had really expected to see some dreadful enemy clasp Bob around the neck as he started to slip over the side of the boat.
Between them Thad and Allan confessed this much, but they did not think it good policy to say anything to the others, though anxious Bumpus watched their conference uneasily, and could be seen to carefully pick out a spot on the rail where he perched, and seemed inclined to stay it was handy to a quick getaway in case the worst happened, and the engine blew up, as he whispered to himself.
Dick was not so hard to be convinced as Corrie had feared. The glowing eulogiums of Bumpus, and the earnest pleadings of Alice, won him over very soon. He finally agreed to become one of the conspirators. "But how is the thing to be done?" asked Corrie in some perplexity. "Ah! that's the pint," observed Dick, looking profoundly wise.
Jo Bumpus, as he was fond of styling himself, said this with a serio-comic air of sarcasm, for he was an exception to the general rule of his fellows. He had little respect for, and no fear of, his commander. Although not quite so gigantic a man as his captain, he was nearly so, and, being a bold self-reliant fellow, he felt persuaded in his own mind that he could thrash him, if need were.
Meanwhile Insall had come up and seated himself below them on the edge of the platform. "Oh, Brooks, your friend Miss Bumpus is employed in the Strike Headquarters!" Mrs. Brocklehurst cried, and turning to Janet she went on. "I didn't realize you were a factory girl, I must say you don't look it."
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