"I could see right then and there," Jack continued, quietly, "that the gimp had been twisted until it was ready to break away. So I knew I didn't dare try to lift him aboard by the line; and I had no gaff hook along. So I just let my hand slide over his back until I reached his opening and closing gills. Then I suddenly inserted several of my fingers, and gave a quick fling. He came aboard all right; but the line parted. So you see, Nick, it was a close shave for our supper, all right."

Josh, having made sure the fierce-looking fish was actually dead, by pounding it on the head several times with a piece of wood, started to get it ready for the pan. It was really the first one of decent size that they had thus far hooked; though several meals had been made of small-mouth black ba.s.s, taken either by casting, or trolling with a spoon.

"It strikes me as rather queer," remarked Jack, as he lay there resting, "while Jimmie was starting to get supper for the two aboard the _Tramp_, that so far we've neither seen nor heard a thing of Clarence and Joe."

"And haven't we had a great old week of it though?" George remarked.

"Outside of one stormy day the weather has been just prime; and even my engine has given no trouble. I'm beginning to have hopes that it's entirely cured of those tantrums that used to bother me so. Or perhaps the Jonah has shifted to your boat, Herb."

"That ain't fair," called out Nick, from some unseen place, where he was wrestling with the cookery department, and slyly taking peeps in his notebook as to whether salt pork was used in frying fish, or b.u.t.ter.

"Tell the gentleman, Herb, that I never brought you the least bit of bad luck. Why, we've been getting along here in a perfectly harmonious way, haven't we?"

"Y-yes, I guess so," replied Herb, a little dubiously, "but I'd be a heap happier if only you could forget that business about who leaked, and let out our secret to the enemy. You ding-dong about that thing morning, noon and night. And then you turn around to Mr. Amos, and fret your head off because you're afraid some day you're going to be as much of a whopper as he is."

"Well," grunted Nick, without even taking the trouble to poke his head out, "you know right well this is a world full of trouble, fellows. If it wasn't for my worrying the way I do, just imagine how I'd be taking on flesh. I say, Josh, do you put the salt pork on first, and try it out, before dusting the fish in cracker crumbs and dropping it in the frying pan?"

It was not long before the appetizing odors that arose around the anchorage of the motor boat fleet announced that supper was well under way.

One thing pleased Nick; being the cook aboard the _Comfort_ he was in a position to prepare a sufficient quant.i.ty to suit his generous ideas of what const.i.tuted a meal for a healthy person's appet.i.te; and consequently there was no complaint about short rations. But when, as was inevitably the case, the _Comfort_ had to borrow from the other boats, the powerful effect of the fat boy's appet.i.te became very apparent.

"Say, Jack, did you have any particular reason in picking out this place for our next stop?" asked George presently.

"Why, yes, lots of them," laughed the one addressed. "In the first place it was an extra big island, and situated near the Canadian sh.o.r.e, you see. Then again, the place looked kind of fishy, don't you know; and I had an idea we might pick up some large muskies. From the fact that I did bring in a dandy, first start, it seems as if my guess. .h.i.t the mark."

"It sure did," George went on. "But you don't know anything out of the way about this heavily wooded island here, do you?"

"To be sure I don't, since I couldn't tell you right now what name it is known under," answered Jack, who knew the other had some object back of his questions, for George always led up to things, and never took delight in springing a surprise on his chums, as most of the others would invariably do.

"I just wondered if you could know any reason for it, that's all,"

George said.

"Reason for what? Now you've got me guessing; and that's probably just what you wanted to do," observed Jack. "Speak up, and tell me what you've noticed."

"Well, we seem to be objects of considerable curiosity to some people."

"Ash.o.r.e, do you mean?" and Jack turned his head, to glance at the frowning bank of the big island, the grim rocks of which were crowned with a dense growth of trees and underbrush, so that it certainly looked rather mysterious as the sun began to set.

"Well, no, I don't believe any of us have seen a living thing there, except a c.o.o.n, fishing on the edge; and a kingfisher flying from stump to stump along the rim of the water. But three separate times a boat has come along just out there, and the people in her would just stare at us without saying a single word."

"Three, you say-the same boat and the same people?" Jack asked.

"Not at all," George replied. "That would not have seemed so queer, you know; for I could believe that they happened to have an interest in this cove, and disliked seeing us stop here; or else that the Canadian authorities thought Yankees had no right to be fishing over on their side of the broad river. It was the same boat."

"Three different boats, eh?" Jack mused. "And they looked unhappy at seeing our fleet quartered here?"

"I thought they looked mad," Josh put in right then, popping his head up like a jack-in-the-box; for he still persisted in wearing that white cap while engaged in his department of the pots and pans.

"Were there any women or children aboard the boats?" Jack continued.

"How about that, fellows?" asked George.

"One boat had two men, another three, and the last one five," Herb remarked, in his positive way.

"And they all stood off some distance, just looking at us. Perhaps there are thieves in these waters, just as we found down on the Mississippi,"

Josh added.

"Maybe we'd better change our anchorage after supper, and hunt a new place. There's going to be a bully moon tonight, fellows," from Nick, still unseen.

"Oh! I don't think there's any call for us to run away-yet," Jack laughed. "No doubt the men were from the Canada side, and there was some reason why they looked at our little fleet so queerly."

"Well," Josh said, as if he had been worried more or less about the matter, "I only hope one thing; that this blessed old island ain't haunted, that's all!"

Jack laughed at that, it put such a new aspect on affairs. At the same time he could not help thinking that superst.i.tious Josh certainly had some ground for allowing such an idea to seize hold of his mind; for the island, with its dense vegetation, and its rough sh.o.r.e line, did look out of the common. No doubt, when night dropped her blanket over the broad river with its myriad of islands, both large and small, this spooky place could easily be believed to shelter uncanny things.

"Don't give yourself any more uneasiness on that score, Josh," Jack urged. "If there ever was a ghost anywhere near this place it took wings long ago, when the thousands of summer tourists began coming here for their vacations. What with the big hotels, and the hundreds of cottages perched on the islands, small chance a poor spirit would have today."

While he said nothing more about the three boats with their unfriendly crews, Jack did not entirely forget them. Perhaps there might have been some deep reason for the strange actions of these men. Perhaps-but then, without any foundation for a theory, what was the use bothering himself forming any such?

The night came on; but even while they were eating supper a change had begun to take place in the weather conditions. Nick's prediction of a beautiful moonlight night gave promise of being far from the actual fact; for clouds had drifted over the heavens, some of them dark and threatening, though as yet broken.

"We may get a storm before morning," observed George, looking up.

"And I wager Jack foresaw that same thing when he picked out this cove for our anchorage," declared Herb. "You notice that it is to the eastward of the island; and don't you see about all the storms up here come out of the west. In that way we will be protected against a heavy blow."

Jack might have kept still, and allowed his chums to heap honors on his unworthy head; but that was not his style.

"Hold on, you're doing me too much credit, boys," he observed frankly.

"I took to this cove just because it looked good to me, and never for a minute thinking how it would serve us in case of a blow. But just as Herb says, we are protected here, and that's another reason for not changing, as Nick hinted we should do."

They ate supper before the dusk turned into night, and the whippoorwills were calling from back on the wooded island, to be answered from the further Canada sh.o.r.e.

The three boats were close enough together to allow the boys a chance to exchange any remarks they wished.

"Better get ready in case we have a downpour tonight," remarked Jack, as he cast a look upward to where the moon was just starting to peep out from behind a threatening bank of clouds.

"For one I'm glad I got that hole in my tent mended in time," observed Herb.

"Me too," spoke up Buster, "because, you see, it was so nicely fixed right over my poor head. Think of a stream turned on while you slept!

Ugh! when I take my cold baths I'll choose my time."

"I've known when you didn't all the same," ventured George, chuckling.

"That's mean of you," Buster replied, reproachfully, "bringing up old happenings. Yes, I did fall overboard into the river; but who wouldn't, in that cranky speedy boat of yours, shivering and jumping to beat the band. Why, h.e.l.lo! what ails Josh there?"

"Yes, what are you staring so hard at, Josh?" demanded George, turning his head.

"Didn't any of the rest of you see it?" asked the other, eagerly.

"See what? Are you beginning on that ghost racket already?" insinuated Herb.