Motor Boat Boys on the Great Lakes; or, Exploring the Mystic Isle of Mackinac

CHAPTER VIII
GEORGE WAITS FOR HIS CHUMS

“What is it?” Josh exclaimed, as he scrambled to his knees.

“Buster is on the rampage again! That’s what comes of eating too much supper. He’s got a bad case of indigestion, I bet!” declared George, grumblingly; for he had come very near falling over the side of his boat when Josh made that sudden move, and it startled him not a little.

“But he’s got hold of something, I tell you! Look at him grabbing around. Must be a wildcat or something like that,” Josh went on.

“Faith ye’re all wrong,” spoke up Jimmie. “Sure it’s a monkey he’s huggin’ till his breast, so he be.”

“A monkey!” cried Herb, as he appeared behind the fat boy, holding a fryingpan threateningly in his hand.

“Yes, that’s what!” gasped Nick. “Don’t you see, a tame monkey, and with a little red cap, and a coat on. He was going through my pockets, I tell you, when I woke up – that is when I first felt him. Give us a hand here and help me hold the little scratcher. My! but he’s strong, and he tries to bite my nose every time.”

“Because you’re hurting him,” said Herb. “Wait till I get hold of that bit of rope he’s trailing behind. Now let him loose, Buster, but keep him away from your face. He’d scratch your eyes out.”

The queer little visitor seemed to be willing to submit, once Nick stopped squeezing him; for he immediately took off his red cap, and made quite a bow. Then he snatched up a small tin cup that was attached to a belt he wore, with a tiny chain, and held it out to Herb.

“Give him a penny, Herb,” laughed Jack.

“Yes, he recognizes an old acquaintance; help a poor fellow in distress, Herb!” Josh hastened to add.

“Where under the sun d’ye suppose he came from?” asked George, suspiciously.

“Must belong to some Italian organgrinder, I should say, judging from the uniform, and the piece of broken rope. Perhaps he’s run away, and wanted to become a stowaway on board Herb’s boat,” Jack went on.

“All right,” the other remarked, promptly, “anyhow, he knew a good boat when he saw one. Give him credit for that. But did you hear what Buster said about him feeling in his pockets? Now, I’ve heard it said that often these monkeys are taught to steal, going up into second-story windows, and grabbing things. Perhaps he was sent aboard right now to pick up anything he could find.”

“I tell you he knew all about vest pockets, as sure as you live,” announced Nick.

“Looks to me as if he had got something in his pocketbook right now!” declared Herb.

“What’s that? A monkey have a pocketbook? You’re poking fun at us!” cried Josh.

“I am, eh? You observe me,” said Herb, as with a dextrous movement he seized upon the monkey, and by main strength forced him to eject something from his mouth.

“Say, it’s a real watch, fellows!” cried Nick, astonished; “he had it right in his cheek, sure he did.”

“And it’s my little dollar nickel watch,” said Herb. “Shows he searched me before trying Buster. All the same if it’d been a hundred dollar gold repeater. He’s a thief, sure enough. What’ll we do with him, fellows?”

“Tie him up, and if nobody comes after him, we’ll keep Jocko,” suggested Josh.

“Think he’d be lots of fun, I suppose,” grumbled Nick. “But if he stays it’s got to be on another boat than this. The little fiend would have it in for me. He’d worry the life out of me; and I just can’t afford to lose any flesh.”

“Changed your tune, eh?” taunted Josh. “Seems to me I’ve heard you trying all sorts of ways to get thin.”

“That was before I took notice of the horrible example we had along, of the living skeleton,” retorted Nick. “After that I just made up my mind to remain nice and plump. Some people look best when they’re fat, you know.”

“There, he’s thinking of Sallie again,” remarked Josh.

“But we haven’t seen a sign of the Mermaid,” remarked George; “and I reckon she’s left here for the Soo region ahead of us. But Herb, find some way to fasten the little rascal up for tonight, so he can’t do any mischief. If his owner comes for him in the morning we’ll give him a scare.”

Herb managed to do this, although Nick declared he would be afraid to take a wink of sleep for fear of being choked, or something else as dreadful. All the same when his time came to give up sentry duty, no one heard so much as a “peep” from Nick again until daylight arrived.

It was arranged on the following morning that they should explore the island, in order to see its wonders and beauties, in two detachments, each consisting of three. Jack learned that bicycles could be hired close by, and mounted on these he and Herb and Josh made the grand rounds, allowing nothing to escape them.

Then after lunch the others took wheel and carried out the same programme, even to visiting the old blockhouse on the hill, and viewing the charming marine spectacle from the top of the little bluff.

As they gathered around late in the afternoon to compare notes, and discuss the various matters that interested them, Jack noted first of all that the shrewd little monkey, which had been dubbed Jocko, was still aboard the Comfort.

Nobody had shown up to inquire about him. Nick was for going ashore and spreading the news of the find far and wide; but the others refused to allow him. They really believed that Jocko had been sent aboard by his master to steal; and that this party was afraid to claim him now.

“If we have to take him along he’ll give us lots of fun,” remarked Jack.

“Yes, Buster is only thinking that there’d be one more mouth to feed, and that might cut his share of the rations down a peg,” asserted Josh.

“Now that’s where you wrong me,” declared the fat boy, solemnly. “If you insist on hearing what I was thinking about, I’ll tell you. Suppose we should get stormbound somewhere up on the twisting St. Mary’s river, or on the biggest fresh water lake in the world – why, you see we could always turn to Jocko, and make a good meal. I remember reading that monkeys were just prime.”

“Oh! you cannibal!” cried the horrified Josh. “Why, that poor little innocent looks just like a baby.”

“Yes,” retorted Nick, “your mother showed me your picture when you were six months old, and there is a close resemblance.”

Night came on, and there was no claimant, so Jocko ate supper with the boys. He was already making good friends, and seemed very well satisfied with his new lot. Perhaps he missed the cuffing and beating he was accustomed to; but he could do without that very well; and the eating must have appealed to him strongly.

In the morning they left soon after breakfast. The day opened fair, and they knew there was a long trip before them if they hoped to cross the head of Lake Huron, and follow the winding channel of the St. Mary’s river so as to reach Sault Ste. Marie by night.

Fortunately the breeze, what little there was, chanced to be in the north for a change. This allowed them to keep close to the southern shore of the peninsula for some hours, following its contour and avoiding the pounding that heavy seas always brought in their train.

Finally they entered the narrow strait between the mainland and big Drummond Island. Here the bustling port of Detour was passed. Nick hinted about going ashore and doing a little marketing; but Jack vetoed that proposition.

“Plenty of time to do all that after we get to the Soo tonight,” he observed; and Nick knew there was no appeal from his decision.

“Is that Canada over yonder?” asked Josh, pointing to the island off their lee.

“No, Drummond belongs to Michigan,” Jack replied. “Further on though, we’ll strike St. Joseph’s Island, and that is a part of Canada. So we’ll all step ashore just to say we’ve been outside the U. S. for once.”

“And that Mud Lake you were telling us about is somewhere along there, ain’t it?” Herb asked.

“We’ll find it, I reckon,” replied the commodore, drily.

They did, and had reason to remember it too. Sometimes the waterway bearing the outlet of Lake Superior to the lower lakes was very wide and imposing. Then again it would narrow until Nick expressed his firm conviction that they had taken the wrong channel, and would be stopped, and have to return over their course.

But Jack kept his charts before him as he led, and was positive he had made no mistake of that sort. Occasionally George would be unable to restrain his impetuous nature. At such times he would shoot ahead of the others, to make a little rush of perhaps a mile, and then slow up to await their coming, being always careful not to lose sight of his chums.

But alas, George did this prank just once too often. He heard Jack say some time before that they were passing through Mud Lake, and must be careful; but thought this referred to getting lost in some side passage that looked promising.

“Wait up at the head yonder; you’re too slow for me!” he called out, as the Wireless left the bunch, and cut through the water like an arrow shot from an archer’s bow.

“Lookout!” warned Jack; but George who was quite confident concerning his own ability to manage his affairs, just waved a hand back, and continued to speed for all his racing boat was worth.

Jack was sitting there where he could manage the wheel and continue to study the chart spread in front of him, when he heard a wild whoop from Jimmie.

“Look! look yander!”

Jack was just in time to see poor Josh take a flying header into the water, when the speed boat came to an abrupt stop on a concealed mudbank.

The sound of the tremendous splash floated back to the ears of the others, causing Nick to roll over, and make the boat quiver with his riotous laughter; for that Josh should be the victim of this ridiculous accident gave the fat boy exceeding great joy.

CHAPTER IX
IN TERRIBLE PERIL

“Just what I expected!” exclaimed Jack, grimly.

“What was it?” demanded Herb; for at the moment it happened that the Tramp, being in front, obstructed the vision of those in the larger boat.

“Oh! tell me, was that really poor old clumsy Josh?” demanded Nick, poking his red face over the side of the Comfort. “I saw a pair of legs up in the air, and remembered some fellow down at Mackinac telling us what big frogs they found up here along the St. Mary’s. The bass just love them, he said, and the bigger the frog the larger bass you get. That one would take in a whale, I guess, eh?”

“It was Josh all right, for I can see George trying to get him with his boat hook right now,” said Jack, hardly knowing whether to laugh, or feel provoked on account of the possible delay.

“But why did Josh jump? Was he practicing stunts?” Nick went on innocently.

“Well,” replied the commodore, “I imagine George made him squat up in the extreme bow, to sing out if he saw a shallow place ahead. And evidently Josh was looking all around, for he failed to discover a mudbank that was just hidden under the surface of the water.”

“But George found it,” asserted Herb.

“Trust George for findin’ annything at all, at all,” grinned Jimmie.

“Hope he didn’t go to busting his old engine again. My! what a terrible time we did have with that cranky thing on the Mississippi,” observed Nick; who had been on board the speed boat during that memorable cruise down to New Orleans, and hence passed through an experience he would never, never forget.

“I hope not,” echoed Jack. “Perhaps the worst is yet to come. Perhaps he ran on that old mudbank so hard, going at top speed as he was, that he won’t find it an easy job to work off again.”

“That might delay us, be the powers, so we wouldn’t be able to pull into the ould Soo short of tomorry, bad cess till hasty George!” remarked Jimmie.

“Well,” remarked Nick, with a contented sigh, “at the worst we’ve got Jocko, you remember, boys. Baked or stewed he’d make a meal for the crowd.”

Meanwhile they were rapidly drawing closer to the stuck Wireless. Apparently the skipper of the stranded craft had succeeded in dragging his crew out of the mire, for there was a dripping figure on the forward deck, scraping the mud away, and evidently more or less bubbling over with various remarks.

Jack cautioned Herb to slow down as they drew near.

“Bad enough to have one held fast,” he said. “If the whole bunch got stuck, why, we’d have to take to the dinkies, and go ashore on Canada soil. How does your engine work, George? Nothing broken I hope?”

“I don’t think so,” came the reply from George who looked somewhat humiliated, as does every sailor when held up on a mudbank.

“Give it a try, and see. Reverse, and perhaps you’ll glide off backwards, the same way you went on,” Jack suggested.

At any rate the engine worked apparently as well as ever; but though George put it at its “best licks,” as he declared, there was not a sign of anything going.

Josh tried to use the setting pole, and came very near taking another header.

“Say, this mud goes right along down to China, I reckon; leastways there ain’t any bottom to it!” he cried, as he recovered himself just in time.

“We’ll take your word for it, Josh,” said Nick, sweetly; “because you know you’ve been over to see for yourself. But I wouldn’t try it again. Next time perhaps you might stick your head in and smother. Then what would I do for any fun at all?”

George kept trying every way he could think of, in the effort to work his boat off the bank of sticky mud. It was in vain. Apparently many unseen hands held it tight, as though unwilling to let the reckless skipper have another chance.

When an hour had passed, with several false alarms, as George thought success was coming, he turned to Jack with a blank face, upon which disgust was plainly written.

“You’ll have to get me out of this, commodore,” he said. “I own up that I don’t seem able to budge her a bit. Even with Josh in the dinky, pulling like all get-out, and her engine rattling away at full speed astern, she won’t move an inch. And already we’ve lost enough time to make it impossible to get to the Soo by night.”

George was apparently penitent, so Jack did not have the heart to rub it in at that time. Later on perhaps he might force the reckless one to promise about turning over a new leaf.

“All right; we’ll soon yank you out of that, George. I didn’t want to propose anything until you had tried every scheme you could think of. Herb, throw George your painter, and let him make fast to the stern of the Wireless. Then I’ll do the same by you. In that way we’ll be able to get both boats working. If George starts his engine at the same time, she’s just got to come off, or go to pieces. Get what I mean?”

“Sure I do, and it’s a good idea,” replied the pilot of the Comfort, readily.

Of course George was willing enough to accept any sort of assistance now. And he readily made the painter fast to a ringbolt at the stern of the speed boat.

When all things were ready, Jack asked him to get his engine moving.

“Now, start yours up slowly, Herb,” Jack went on; “not too fast to begin with; but gradually increase until you’re applying two-thirds of your power. Stop there, and if she refuses to budge, I’ll come in. We’ll get her yet. She’s got to come, I tell you.”

And she did, after the Tramp added her drawing facilities to those of the others.

“Hurrah!” shrilled Josh, when the speed boat started to move backwards out of her muddy berth; he had almost plunged over again, and saved himself by a quick clutch at a cleat near by.

“What next?” asked Herb, after they had become disentangled again, and were in a condition to proceed.

“No use thinking of making the Soo today,” remarked Jack. “Too dangerous along the upper reaches of this river to try it in the night. We can move along to the upper end of this island, and camp on Canadian land tonight, for a change.”

“That sounds good to me,” observed Nick; but only suspicious looks were cast in his direction; for well they knew that the word “camp” with Buster was another way of spelling “eat.”

“How far would we be from the city at the rapids, then?” asked Herb, as they once more started.

“Oh, we could make it in a few hours,” Jack replied, “if all went well. Keep to the right of that smaller island. That belongs to Michigan. Some use the other channel; but we’ll take this one. You see, St. Joseph’s Island is all of fifteen miles long, and pretty wild in parts. Ought to be good hunting here in season.”

“Don’t I wish it was in season, then,” said Nick, smacking his lips. “Always have wanted to eat some venison from Canada right in camp. Say, fellows, if a silly old deer just went and committed suicide before our very eyes, by jumping over a precipice, wouldn’t we have a right to get a haunch from his bally old carcase?”

“Well,” laughed Jack, “if a Canadian game warden found you in possession he’d take you in. So just forget all you’ve ever heard about juicy venison. It’s dry and tough stuff at the best, and couldn’t compare with that Mackinac steak you bought.”

Nick sighed.

“And we have to wait till tomorrow noon before we are in touch with a market, do we? I don’t ever see how we’re going to pull through. Tell you what, somebody ought to try for fish here when we stop. Looks like bass might hang around waiting for a chance to jump into the pan. How about that, Jack?”

“Just what I had made my mind to try,” smiled the other, who liked nothing better than bringing his rod into play when there was a chance for game fish.

After a while George announced that he could see what looked like the end of the big island ahead.

“And here’s a pretty decent place to pull in,” declared Herb.

As they had nothing to fear from storms or hoboes in such a retired nook, the boys, having secured their boats in proper fashion against the shore, where they could not rub or get into trouble, amused themselves as they saw fit.

Jack, true to his promise, got out his fishing tackle, and proceeded to try all sorts of lures in the hope of tempting a bass to bite. Finally he took his little dinky, and began to troll, using a phantom minnow. Almost immediately he had a vicious strike, and after a struggle pulled up a fine fish.

“Do it some more!” called out Herb, who was lying on the shore, watching him at the sport.

Five minutes afterward Jack duplicated his feat, only this was even a larger fish than the first. So the time passed. Josh was busily engaged near the tents which he, Herb and George had erected; while Jimmie was doing something aboard the Tramp.

“Where’s Nick?” asked Herb, after a long time had elapsed. “I hope the silly fellow hasn’t gone and lost himself now. A fine time we’d have hunting that fat elephant through all that bush.”

“He was here only a little while ago,” remarked George, looking up.

“Looky yander, an’ ye’ll see him!” exclaimed Jimmie; “over beyant that dead three. Sure, he do be sneakin’ up on something or other, and thryin’ till coax it till kim till him. I say the baste now. Oh! murdher! by all the powers, somebody call out till him to sthop it!”

“Why, what’s the matter with him?” asked Josh, coming to life at the prospect of perhaps seeing his rival for high honors in the farce line duplicate his ridiculous feat of taking a header into the mud and water.

“Look at him, would ye, the crazy wan!” gasped Jimmie, “thryin’ till coax a baste loike that!”

“Is it Jocko?” queried Josh, unable to catch sight of the other just then.

“The little monk ye mane?” replied Jimmie. “Och! that would be aisy now. It’s tin times worse than that. Call till him, Herb; I’m that wake I can hardly spake above a whisper. ’Tis a terrible danger he be in, for the animal is a white and black skunk; and poor innocent Nick, I do belave he thinks it be a pretty pussycat!”

CHAPTER X
MAROONED

“Leave it alone, you Buster!”

“Get behind a tree, quick!”

“Run, Buster, run for your life! It’ll get you!”

George, Herb and Josh sent these warning cries at the top of their voices. As to whether the object of their combined concern heard, there could be no reasonable doubt; for Nick immediately waved one of his fat hands disdainfully toward them. Evidently he imagined that his chums were envious of his great good luck in finding so splendid a chance to annex a beautifully striped real Canadian pussy cat.

“Oh! murdher!” ejaculated Jimmie, “look at the rickless fellow, would ye? Sure, he manes to grab it, so he do!”

“But he won’t, all the same!” cried George, grimly.

Since shouting and gesturing seemed to have no effect upon the imperiled youth, all the four boys could do was to stand there, holding their breath, and watching the dreadful developments. Nor was that the first time or the last that they found occasion to hold their breath.

Nick by now believed that he had wheedled enough, and was within proper striking distance. They saw him make a sudden forward swoop, with extended arms, as if bent upon giving the intended victim no possible chance of escape.

“Wow!” yelled George, as he saw Nick stop short, throw up his arms, and almost fall to the ground.

One terrified look Buster gave the object of his recent admiration. Then turning, he ran as well as he could toward camp, gripping his nose with both hands.

“Keep off!”

“Don’t you dare come near us, do you hear!”

“Now you’ve gone and done it, Buster! That’s what you get for wanting to bake poor little Jocko!”

George, as if in desperation, jumped over and picked up his gun.

“Stop where you are!” he cried. “We’re willing to talk this thing over; but at a proper distance, do you hear, Buster?”

Poor Nick was aghast. Almost overpowered by the terrible fumes as he was, it looked like adding insult to injury when his own chums turned against him, and refused to let him enter the camp.

He did come to a halt some thirty feet away, and with one hand, clung to a sapling; while the other was trying to keep the powerful scent from smothering him.

“What can I do, fellows?” he asked, pitifully.

George was almost bursting with laughter, but pretended to look as stern as his father when serving in his capacity as judge of the court.

“First promise that you won’t attempt to enter the camp without permission!” he demanded.

“I promise you, sure I do,” groaned Nick swaying weakly alongside his support.

“Jimmie,” went on George, “you go and call Jack in, if he isn’t on the way here already, after all this racket. We want everybody to have a hand in deciding Buster’s fate.”

“Good gracious!” cried the wretched Nick, “what d’ye mean, George? Do I have to be shot, because I made a little mistake? I give you my word I really thought it was a Canada species of cat. And if we had to have a menagerie along with us, I was going to match her against your monkey. Oh! why didn’t I think? I ought to have known better. It was awful, fellows; shocking I tell you!”

“I agree with you, Buster,” remarked George, putting his fingers up to his nose, “please go a little farther away. We can talk better then.”

Jimmie had hardly reached the shore before he started back. And Jack was seen following close behind. Evidently, then, the fisherman must have heard the loud outcries, and speeded his little boat for the landing, anxious to know what could have happened to Nick.

He had no need to be told. One hardly required to be within sixty feet of poor Buster to understand the entire story. Jack did not laugh though doubtless later on the incident would afford him more or less merriment. It was a serious matter, as he well knew, and must affect every one in the party.

“Jack,” called out Nick, looking beseechingly at the commodore of the fleet, “take my part, won’t you? They want to shoot me, or do something as bad, just because I didn’t know the gun was loaded. Please take that thing away from George. He looks so fierce I’m afraid of him!”

So Jack, to ease the mind of the fat boy, who was really shivering with anticipation of dire results springing from his blunder, did take George’s gun from his unresisting hands, and laid it aside.

“But Jack!” exclaimed Herb, “something’s just got to be done. We can’t bear to have him in camp with us, you know, after this. And think of me having to stand for that dreadful smell day after day. Wow! it would knock me out. I’d want to jump over in the deepest part of Lake Superior.”

“I don’t see what can be done,” said George, “except to maroon him here on this foreign island until we come back again. By that time perhaps it won’t be so very bad. Herb can keep him in the dinky towing behind, and stand it.”

At that poor Nick set up a fresh howl.

“Don’t you dare think of doing that,” he cried, shaking his fat fist at the author of the suggestion. “Why, I’d starve to death in no time; not to speak of being devoured by the wild beasts. Think up some other way, won’t you, please, Jack? Don’t listen to George. He’s got it in for me because I gave him so much bother on that Mississippi cruise. I want you to fix it up, Jack. You’ll know how.”

Jack still looked very grave.

“Well, you understand that in a case of this kind only desperate remedies will do, Buster?” he began.

“Yes, yes, I know;” whimpered the other, “and I’m willing to do anything you say, Jack; but don’t leave me here over in a Canadian wilderness. It ain’t human, that’s what!”

“All right,” Jack proceeded, solemnly, “if you give me your solemn promise to obey. First of all you must strip off every bit of clothes you have on.”

Nick began at once, and with eagerness.

“Will it wash out, then? Oh! I can rub like a good fellow, I promise you; only give me a chance!” he exclaimed.

“All the washing in the world wouldn’t take that scent out,” George declared.

“There’s only one way, and that is to bury the clothes!” said Jack.

“What?” gasped the astonished Nick; “and me go naked? Good gracious! Jack, I just can’t do that! Make it easier for me, won’t you? Why, I’d get my death of cold. Besides, what would I do when we got to the Soo? Please tell me something else.”

At that the boys could hold in no longer, and a shout told that they were beginning to see the comical side. But Jack waved his hands.

“Be still!” he said, sternly. “This is no laughing matter. Never fear Buster, but you’ll be able to rake up enough clothes to last till we get to the Soo, where you can buy a new outfit. Off with every stitch, now. Then you must dig a hole and bury them; or else carry the lot deep into the bush here, as you choose.”

“Is that all?” asked Nick, tremulously, as he hastily tore the last remnant of his garments from his stout person.

“Not quite,” replied Jack. “Get rid of the stuff next. Then come back to where you are now. I’ll be waiting for you with a pair of short scissors I happen to have along with me; for you see I’ve just got to cut all your hair off!”

“Oh! what a guy I’ll be, Jack,” moaned poor Nick. “I’ll sure never hear the last of this thing.”

“Think of us!” said George, sternly, “how we must remember it for days and days. You’re getting off dirt cheap, Buster, let me tell you. I’ve heard of fellows who had to live like hermits in the woods for weeks.”

“Now get busy,” observed Jack. “The boys will be rooting out your bag, and I’ll fetch what clothes we can gather to you. We must do all we can to smother this perfumery factory.”

“Yes, be off wid ye!” said Jimmie, bent on having a hand in the game.

Nick stared mournfully at the clothes on the ground. Then he slowly gathered them up in his arms. They noticed that as he walked away he looked around with exceeding care at every step he took, as though not for worlds would he want to renew his acquaintance with that pretty striped Canadian pussy cat.

Jack was as good as his word. When George and Herb had collected an outfit calculated to serve poor Nick until they reached a land of plenty, and clothing establishments, he carried the lot to the place appointed.

Here came Nick presently with a most dejected air; and groaning in spirit the fat boy allowed the other to shear off all his abundant locks.

He certainly did look like a guy when the job was completed, for Jack made no pretentions towards being a barber, and there were places that had the appearance of being “chopped with an axe,” as George privately declared later, when viewing the work of the commodore.

After that they made Nick take a long bath. Indeed he thought he would never get out of the water, and his teeth were chattering before the embargo was finally raised.

Fortunately that wonderful red sweater which had attracted the bull toward the wearer not so very long since, had been safe aboard at the time of his recent mishap, so that Nick could depend on its warmth. He was grateful for small favors just then; and quite subdued for a whole day; though nothing could keep a buoyant nature like his in subjection long.

Of course he would never hear the last of the joke, and must stand for all manner of scoffing remarks, as well as uplifted noses when he came around. But Nick would live it down in time.

And no doubt, when the account of the cruise was read over during the next winter, Nick would join in the general laugh when he discovered that Jack had called this temporary stopping place on Canadian soil “Kitty Kamp.”

It was night before Nick was allowed to come into camp; and even then they made him do penance by sitting off in a corner by himself, “just like I was a leper,” as he declared, though bound to submit to the indignity.

But “it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good,” and at least Nick escaped guard duty that night, for nobody wanted to sit up with him.

George declared that the very first thing he meant to purchase when he arrived at the city at the rapids was a bottle of violet water, with which he could saturate himself for a season.

But by morning the terrible effect had in part died away; though possibly familiarity bringing about contempt may have had considerable to do with their noticing the disagreeable scent less.

Of course all of them were glad to get away from that camp. To Nick in particular its memory would always evoke a shiver. When brought to book in connection with the adventure he always declared that it was what a fellow got for wanting to invade foreign countries, and meddle with unfamiliar animals belonging there.

But Jack and the others felt sure that Buster from that day forth would know the great American skunk a mile off, and shy at a closer acquaintance.