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Nobody was paying any particular attention to the fat youth, however, unless it might have been Step-hen, who turned his head to see what was going on; and even he joined in the laugh when Davy Jones performed one of his comical antics, jumping up, and hanging from the lower limb of a tree by his toes, so that he swung to and fro like a big pendulum.
"Huh!" said Step-hen, "he got the bulge on us right in the beginning by filling his old cup, at that little spring right here, instead of running to the lake like all the rest of us did. Don't seem fair to me, Mr. Scout-Master." "Why not?" demanded Thad, while the victor smiled serenely, knowing what was coming. "You all had the same chance to look around that Giraffe was given.
Of course I could swim over and see what the island is like, but that wouldn't do us any good without a boat." "A boat up here is something nobody ever saw, I reckon, suh," said Bob White. "It certainly does look cool and fine across the water there; and I suppose the bear could swim it if we chose to go; unless we made up our minds to turn the old rascal loose," Step-hen put in.
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.
"Must a belonged to some of them game keepers that rich man hired to watch his property up here," declared Step-hen, as he examined the craft, while they all crowded around. "Looky here, got a bully old paddle under the seats too!" called out Giraffe, holding up the article in question, admiringly, after they had turned the canoe over.
"Well, I hope he don't choose you, for one, Davy," said Step-hen, jealously. "Why not?" demanded Davy, showing resentment at once.
Scout-Master?" asked Allan. "Yes, I was just hanging in the balance, when this new thing happened, and settled it for me," replied Thad. "Then we don't go?" asked Step-hen, guessing the way things were moving from the expression he saw on the other's face. "It would hardly pay us," answered Thad. "In the first place we're nicely fixed where we are.
"A fine idea, Thad," observed Allan; "I'll go and get it for you, as I happen to know just where Bumpus keeps it inside the tent here. He's just the opposite of Step-hen, and never leaves his things scattered around."
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that," declared Bumpus, dolefully; "because I just know they'll want to ferry over Allan because he's ready to do anything you say; Step-hen, for he wants to meet up with all sorts of adventures, and says he means to get away out in the Rockies some of these days; Smithy because he's afraid you'll all think him weak and girlish if he draws back; and Giraffe too when he gets the idea that mebbe we'll be leaving the bear behind; because it'll mean just so much more left for him to eat.
"Wow! me to get seven more winks!" exclaimed Giraffe; "and please don't wake me so suddenly again, boys. My eyelids popped open with a bang. If they hadn't been fastened on as tight as they were, I'd have lost one, sure." "That's the way you wake up, eh?" remarked Step-hen. "Remember the Irishman who heard the cannon fired when the flag went down, and asked what it was.
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