Quincy Allen

“ At his feet, artistically stretched out, were the two defunct invaders of the night camp. Will had his camera in position, and was taking a snapshot of the mighty Nimrod.
“After all it’s only a big fake, for I never had a hand in the killing at all,” declared Bluff, with a laugh.
“Fake? No more than most of the pictures you see, where some well-known person is photographed with a big bear at his feet, or perhaps it’s a moose. I guess I know. But it gives me a picture, and neither Jerry nor Frank would bother posing. You’re really the only accommodating pard in camp, Bluff,” remarked Will. ”

“ Where is your camp, boys? It looks as though everything is done up just as you left home,” said Mame Crosby, as she eyed the many packages which the others were now busily gathering together.
At that they all looked at each other and burst into roars of laughter.
“It’s a long story, girls, and we’ll spin it while we sit around the fire having dinner. As it’s now long past noon, and there’s a heap to do getting the camp fixed again, you must excuse us. Bluff, start the fire going, and the girls can help us out by taking charge of dinner while we build our camp,” said Frank. ”

“ He was a bluff chap, not much older than Frank, a very good steamboatman, only that he seemed apt to lose his head in a crisis, which after all, must be a grave fault.
“Bully for you, Frank! Your coming saved the boat, I believe. I’ll never forget it, I tell you. Was just about to lay hold of those fire extinguishers when your crowd forestalled me. It was a rough deal all around. With those women shrieking, and holding on to me, begging me to save them, a fellow might be excused for being a little slow to do the right thing. And you, too, Jerry and Bluff—shake hands!” ”

“ When he had allowed it to gain what headway he deemed sufficient, Bluff began to cover the fire with the green weeds brought for the purpose.
“Wow!” shouted Jerry, as a wavering breeze carried some of the dense smoke over to his station. “That’s the limit! Ought to be a State’s prison offense for any one to make such a smudge as that. You’ll suffocate the poor guys—that’s what!”
But Bluff only grinned, and labored on. He had a long pole in his hands, with which he was shoving the smoldering mass over so that it would pass under a certain part of the cabin. ”

“ Say, we’re a husky lot of tenderfeet. Why, some night a thief will come and steal the blankets off us, and no one be the wiser until morning,” declared Bluff, in disgust.
After a while the second kettle of stew was pronounced ready. It was laughable to see how those four crowded around to protect it against an invading force; and what suspicious looks they cast upward at the brow of the innocent little bluff. ”

“ There was the biggest wildcat Bluff had ever seen in all his life squatted on the low limb of a tree, growling angrily, and with it claws digging into the bark after the manner of a cat that is getting ready to jump, and will not be stopped! ”

“ And Pet Peters had no scruples on the score of delicacy. He was accustomed to rough methods of carrying his point. A blow on the head usually concluded any argument in which he might be engaged.
“Keep back, you!” he yelled.
Frank saw that he was now standing rather unsteadily in the canoe. He smiled grimly, for he knew that the game was in his hands. Any fellow who is so foolish as to stand upright in so frail a vessel places himself in a position where he is apt to receive a sudden and unexpected bath. ”

“ Bluff is smart, I tell you. He knows what those boys are up to, and is far from being asleep. Tell me what he is doing, Frank. I can hear them shouting angrily at him now. Oh! I wish we were out there to help him.”
Will even forgot his natural timidity, and had the chance been given him, would doubtless have proven a hero in defense of his chum.
“He seems to have stopped paddling altogether. Now he reaches down into the bottom of his canoe after something. He is aiming it at them—it’s his paddle—no it isn’t either—as sure as you live, he’s got that repeating-gun of his!” ”

“ Bluff Masters turned upon the other indignantly, as he exclaimed:
“Wait and see who turns white first when that wild man bobs up. My lungs are in better shape than yours, and I can prove it any old day. There goes Will off, and I’m for following him. Bring a print of each picture around to-night, old chap.”
“Sure. And let’s hope they turn out decent,” answered the other, waving a hand as he moved away in the direction of town, leaving it to Frank to paddle the big canoe to the landing where they kept the cedar craft when not in the boathouse of the club. ”

“ Rounding the bluff, he now headed straight for the camp.
Perhaps he found himself entertaining a desolate hope that, after all, Jerry might have played a little trick on him, running off, and making camp while he lingered. Frank knew about the old game of “holding the bag,” where boys coax a green comrade to go out into the dark woods far from home, and leave him holding a sack over the end of a hollow log while they pretend to scare up the rabbits or other game, but in reality go home; but he did not think Jerry would play such a lark when things looked so serious around them. ”

“ What with the wild man, those two thievish tramps, the wildcats that live on the island, and now, last but not least, the Pet Peters crowd that used to train with Andy Lasher. Can we ever go anywhere and be let alone?” complained Will, who loved peace above all things.
“Well, I don’t mind it much. We came out for some excitement, and it looks as if we were going to get our fill,” said Bluff, who was built more upon the adventurous model than his companion. ”

“ Frank’s logic carries the day. I’m going to take it for granted that we are entertaining angels unawares on this blessed old island,” cried Will.
“Angels?” snorted Jerry. “Talk to me about that, will you? They must have had their wings singed, then, or else they’d have flown down and scooped our grub instead of using a measly old string. Angels! Wow! Will’s turning poet as well as artist.”
“I know one thing, boys, and that is we’ll have to keep watch and watch every night from now on. If the tramps are here they’ll steal everything we own, given half a chance,” from Bluff. ”

“ This trip would be by water, and in a canoe,” replied Frank.
“Oh! I catch on, all right. You think some one ought to go back to town and let the sheriff know that his game can be found here on Wildcat Island?” said Bluff.
“Just so, but please lower your voice; there’s no telling who may be hiding in the bushes around here. Those hoboes want something we’ve got, and they mean to have it if possible. Perhaps it may be food, and, again, I’ve thought, they may envy us the possession of guns.”
“Well, I think the idea is a good one; somebody ought to go,” pursued Bluff. ”

“ You are too good a guesser,” laughed Frank.
“Then that was it? You think the tramps have come over here to Wildcat Island to hide while the sheriff is hunting the woods high and low for them? I declare, if that’s so it means warm times in store for us,” exclaimed Will.
“Talk to me about your war scares, what could equal that? Why, we’ll capture the blooming 54 hoboes, and let Mr. Dodd know there are others besides himself who can do things.” ”

“ Man alive, there may be no end of stirring times coming, with that same old hermit figuring in the circus. Perhaps the scent of our coffee and bacon will bring him back into touch with civilization; why, he may even walk into our camp, and try to make friends, when he gets a whiff of onions frying,” and Frank slapped his chum on the back as he spoke along this line. ”

“ You two fellows are so evenly matched it’s hard to decide which is the better.”
“All but our lung capacity; there I’ve got him beaten every time,” insisted Bluff.
“You have, eh? Wait until the opportunity comes, and you’ll just see how easy I put you on the mat. Ashore it is, my hearties! We’re castaway sailors for a week!” exclaimed Jerry, suiting the action to the word, and dragging his canoe up on the little shelving beach, beyond which lay the bristling thickets, hiding all the mysteries of Wildcat Island. ”

“ One good thing, it will make them get out in the morning, and for that we’re obliged to the wild man. If only Jerry were here, now, I’d be feeling first-class,” resumed Frank, with a sigh.
“But I don’t understand why he’d enter their camp when he could have gotten a lot of much better grub right here in ours,” said Bluff, shaking his head.
“Well, you see, he’s evidently afraid of our guns; and, perhaps, he happened to know that they had none over yonder,” explained Frank.
“But is that reasonable? Would a crazy man stop for such a little thing as that? ”

“ I saw something moving up in that big tree—the one that is half dead,” came from Tom just then.
“Where at in the tree?” demanded Frank, ready to examine into anything that happened to come before their attention, no matter how odd.
“Say just where that gaping hole lies—about ten feet up. The blame thing’s hollow, that’s a cinch, and some critter’s got a nest in it. Maybe an owl, but I’d rather believe ’twas a cat, or perhaps a real b’ar. Looky, there she is again!”
Each of them had his eyes glued upon the spot indicated in his low-toned communication by the ex-cowboy. ”

“ Never was there a cleaner, brighter, more manly boy than Frank Allen, the hero of this series of boys’ tales, and never was there a better crowd of lads to associate with than the students of the School. All boys will read these stories with deep interest. The rivalry between the towns along the river was of the keenest, and plots and counterplots to win the championships, at baseball, at football, at boat racing, at track athletics, and at ice hockey, were without number. ”

“ The merry party had just about finished their dinner when Bluff once again began to take his comrades to task for not thinking to rout the wild man out of his hole in the tree while they had the help of the sheriff’s posse.
“It’s a chance we’ll never have again, and no doubt the poor old fellow would be better off if turned over to Mr. Smithers, at the asylum. Have any of you girls heard of a lunatic at large since winter?” he kept on, until both Frank and Jerry could stand it no longer.
“It’s a shame to keep you in the dark any longer, Bluff. ”

“ Bluff made a dive for Frank’s gun. His own repeating shotgun was at home, out of commission, for which Jerry, who hated the modern arm as the devil is said to hate holy water, never ceased to give thanks.
But Frank caught his arm. 50
“No, I wouldn’t do that, Bluff. We can afford to lose our stew, for we’ve got plenty more behind it. We can even let the little kettle go, if necessary; but we should hate to have any man’s life on our hands, no matter if he is a crazy being.” ”

“ Jerry worked just as hard as the rest, although every now and then pretending to laugh at all this fuss, when a humble shack of branches ought to serve any fellow who called himself a true sportsman.
By the time the fireplace had been built of stones, over which several stout steel bars rested, upon which the cooking utensils would set, the Spring afternoon was drawing to a close.
“What will we have for our first supper?” Bluff asked; for he did not mean to let Jerry carry off all the honors in the cooking line this trip. ”

“ Dodd will come?” asked Will.
“He certainly will, as soon as he knows. Why wouldn’t he when the men he’s on the lookout for are here waiting for him?” replied Bluff, beginning to eat.
“You said you were thinking up a plan, Frank?” suggested Will, turning eagerly to the chum upon whom the rest were accustomed to rely in emergencies.
“Well, I leave it to the rest of you whether we do it or not. The conditions are peculiar. We want to search for poor Jerry, and yet if we leave our camp unguarded, those savages may steal the whole outfit. ”

“ He looked longingly toward the lonely cabin, as though he yearned to have a shy at that ricketty door. According to his mind, once it was down those tramps would be only too glad to throw up their hands, just as Pet Peters and his crowd had done when he covered them on the lake.
Frank himself hardly knew what action to take.
“If I only thought they wouldn’t take it out on poor Jerry, I’d be tempted to let Bluff work his bold little trick. But I’m afraid. I know what such men can do, with a long prison term staring them in the face. ”

“ What’s to hinder our letting them do the work, and then when they go to reap the results we can just step up and take the plum away,” cautioned his comrade.
“I see. Like the monkey that got the cat to pull his hot chestnuts out of the fire, eh? Talk about Jerry being a lawyer, he ain’t in the same class with you, Frank.” ”