CHAPTER XX.

SOLVING A MYSTERY.

"What's that you say?" burst out Davy, looking as startled as though, to use the words of Giraffe, he "had seen his great grandfather's spook!"

"Wandering George! Out here on our island, too!" gasped Bumpus, just as though they had a permanent right to the strip of land in the middle of the river--"our" island he called it.

Of course all of them turned toward Thad, as usual, expecting him to give the answer to the question that puzzled them. The patrol leader laughed as he pointed down once more to that tell-tale track.

"No going behind the returns, is there, boys?" he said. "Every one of you knows that footprint by heart, because we took the pains to study it. And the man whose old battered shoe is being held on with a rag we know is Wandering George. He is responsible for taking our provisions. Right now you can imagine how much he's enjoying that cheese and crackers we expected to last us out to-day."

Giraffe groaned.

"And that fine strip of bacon we lifted at the time we left the shanty-boat!" added Step Hen, with a dismal look toward Bob White, who raised his eyes as if in horror at the idea of such desecration.

"It's easy to understand that the hobo's on the island, but how in the wide world could he get here without wings? That's what I want to know," Allan observed; which at least went to show that so far no one had been able to figure it out, for if anybody could, surely the Maine boy, who had followed many a difficult trail in his time, ought to be able to.

"Mebbe he crossed over to the island when the water was low?" suggested Step Hen, but the idea was instantly scorned by Giraffe.

"You forget that the river's been on the boom for some little while," he said loftily; "and we happen to know that George wasn't far ahead of us just yesterday. Now, you're wondering if I've got a theory of my own, and I'll tell you what I think. Somehow or other George must have been in a boat, and came that way. How do we know but what he was trying to cross over, and the current swept him down stream? Then, again, he might have been in some house or barn that was carried away by the flood, and managed to get ashore here."

"Say, Thad, don't you remember what I told you last night, when the rest were making so much noise, and I was dead sure I heard a shout?" interrupted Davy, with considerable excitement.

"Is that so?" demanded Giraffe; "well, that might have been the time he landed here, and discovering that we wore uniforms, he was afraid to break in, so like as not he just hung around and watched us, till he got a chance to sneak all our bully grub."

"Thad, you haven't told us what _you_ think yet," remarked Smithy, who had been listening to all this excited talk, and hearing so many wonderful suggestions made that he was quite bewildered; "did this tramp fly over here; was he washed up on the island by the flood; or did he find himself castaway on some floating cabin, and manage to get ashore by good luck?"

Thad must have been using his head to some advantage during this time, for he appeared to have made up his mind decisively.

"To tell you the truth," he remarked, "I don't take any stock in either the flying scheme or the one that brings in a floating hencoop or cabin to account for Wandering George's being here. I feel pretty sure he came on board a boat."

"Is that so, Thad?" Giraffe went on to remark; "what kind of a boat would you say it was, now?"

"Oh! something in the shape of a shanty-boat!" continued the other.

"You mean like the one that brought us here?" demanded Step Hen.

"_The same one!_" Thad shot back, with an emphasis that staggered his hearers, since all sorts of exclamations burst from their lips.

"Thad, do you really mean that?"

"It wouldn't be like you to crack a joke, when we're all mixed up like this."

"A passenger aboard _our_ boat, and none of us ever dream of it; well, I must say you've got me guessing, Thad. However could that be?" and Bumpus plucked at the sleeve of the patrol leader, as though thrilled through and through by the staggering announcement just made.

"Well, you see, it's just dawned on me," Thad commenced to say, "and I haven't had much time to figure it out myself, but the more I think it over the stronger my belief grows. Look back a bit, and you'll remember that we found a light in the cabin when we boarded the boat."

"Yes, that's so, Thad," assented Giraffe.

"And supper cooking, too," added Bumpus.

"With not a soul in sight, which we thought mighty queer," Step Hen went on to say, as his contribution.

"And all the while we stayed there, up to the time the cable broke, there was never a sign of the man that owned the boat, either," Davy reminded them.

"You remember," Thad continued, "that we figured out at first the owner of the boat must have seen us coming, and hid himself somewhere ashore, hoping we'd take a look about and pass on. We even guessed he must have some reason to fear arrest, and thought we were connected with the state militia. But after learning of Wandering George's being here on the island I've hatched up another idea, and I'll tell you just what it runs like."

"Good for you, Thad; we're listening like everything," muttered Bumpus, at the elbow of the chief scout.

"I've come to the conclusion," Thad began, "that the two tramps must have chased the owner of the shanty-boat away some time before we struck in. Now that I'm on the track I can remember there were certain signs of confusion aboard when we first entered; things seemed tossed around, as if someone had been looking in places for hidden valuables. That would be just what these two yeggmen were apt to do, you see. And while one began to cook some supper, the other may have started in to ransack the place."

"Yes, and about that time they glimpsed us coming along; is that the way you figure it out, Thad?" asked Allan eagerly; for this explanation on the part of his chum appealed strongly to him.

"Yes, they saw a bunch of fellows in khaki running toward the boat," pursued the scout master; "and as it was too late for them to make a safe getaway, they just lifted a trap in the floor of the cabin, and dropped into the hold of the boat."

"Je-ru-sa-lem!" gasped Giraffe, "now, what d'ye think of that? All the time we were aboard the old boat George and his pal were hiding in the hold, and waiting for us to vacate the ranch! Thad, I honestly believe you've struck oil."

"But," interposed Step Hen, who on this occasion seemed disposed to be the only doubter, "why wouldn't they have made some attempt to escape while we slept, before the flood got so bad that the boat broke away from her moorings?"

"There must have been some reason," Thad told him; "and we may be able to give a stab at it, even if we never know the real truth. If you look back again, Step Hen, to how we were sprawled about on the floor of that little cabin, trying to get some sleep, and wrapped in our blankets, you'll likely remember that the eight of us managed to cover about all the limited space there was around."

"Every foot of the floor, for a fact, Thad," Davy admitted; "and I even threatened to hang by my toes from a hook, and sleep like a bat does, only Giraffe told me all the blood would run to my head, because that was the only empty place in my makeup."

"Well, somebody must have been lying on that trap door, and whenever the men below tried to raise it they understood there was nothing doing," Thad explained.

"Yes, that carries it up to the time we broke loose, and started on our wild ride down the flood," Step Hen admitted; "but you'd think they'd have let us know about having passengers aboard. Whenever we bucked up against a rock, and the bally old tub threatened to turn upside-down, think how scared George and his pal must 'a' been. Whew! it was bad enough above-decks, let alone being shut down there, and not knowing what was happening."

"Of course I can't tell you what they thought, and why they didn't try to communicate with us," Thad went on. "It might be they felt that if they had to choose between giving themselves up or staying down in the hold and taking their chances they'd prefer the last. But when we left the boat I honestly believe they were aboard still."

"Yes, and they'd guess she had struck shore, from the steady way she hung there," Giraffe continued, taking up the story in his turn, "and of course they knew that we were clearing out. So, what did they do but follow suit, as soon as they thought the coast was clear."

"How about it now. Step Hen; any more objections?" asked the patrol leader.

"I guess I'm through, Thad," acknowledged the other slowly, as though still unable to fully grasp the strange thing; "you've made out a pretty strong case, and I don't glimpse a break in the chain. That's the way you always hammer it in. If that hobo is here, then chances are he did come along with us, even if we never smelled a rat."

"In the excitement of getting away," Thad resumed, "I forgot I'd noticed cracks in the cabin floor that looked like a trap leading down into the hold of the boat. That was partly why I had Giraffe go back to where we left the shanty-boat. You remember he came and told us it had been driven off the point by that big squall."

"I'm wondering what would have happened if you'd thought about the hold under the cabin before we ever quitted our old craft?" Giraffe remarked.

"Oh! we'd have found what was down there, and with guns in our hands could have easily cowed the hoboes," Allan told him.

"Fight or no fight, that's what we would have done!" declared Bumpus vigorously.

"Listen to him, will you?" chuckled Step Hen; "isn't he just the fierce Cossack, though? I can see that tramp army wilting when they sighted Bumpus threatening to jump down on 'em. Who'd blame anybody for throwing up the sponge rather'n be mashed flat by such a hippo?"

"Well," remarked Giraffe, as he rubbed his hands together in a satisfied fashion, "one thing sure, our old luck's still hanging on."

"How do you make that out, Giraffe?" inquired Smithy.

"We started on this hike with the idea of overtaking the tramp who was wearing the coat the judge's wife gave away by mistake, didn't we?" the lengthy scout demanded. "Well, stop and think for a minute, will you, what's happened to us? Here we are, marooned on an island, from which nobody can get away right at present unless he swims, and none of us feel like trying that in such cold water, do we? Did you ever know a hobo who would willingly take a bath? Well, put things together, and what do you get? Wandering George, coat and all let's hope, is shut up here on this strip of ground with us; and all we've got to do is to round him up to-day. Now, do you see, Smithy?"

Somehow this plain way of putting the case appealed to every one of them; for immediately Bumpus was shaking hands with Step Hen, and as if to show their satisfaction over the way things were turning out some of the rest did likewise.

"Course," said Giraffe, as he gave Davy's digits a squeeze that made the other fairly wince, "we can't say just how we'll corner the slippery rat, but there'll be a way, make up your mind to that, boys."