Part 21 (1/2)

”Leave it to us,” said Billy Long, grandly. ”We'll comb this island with a fine tooth comb----”

”You don't suppose we girls are going to let you fellows do it all, do you?” demanded Laura. ”Of course we shall help, Short and Long.”

”Aw! you'll tear your frocks and scratch yourself on the vines, and stub your toes and fall down, and make a mess generally,” declared Short and Long, loftily. ”Better stay here in camp and do your squealing.”

”Well! I like that!” quoth Jess, making a dive for the short boy. She was considerably bigger than he, and catching him from the rear she wound her long arms about him and so held him tight.

”Take that back, Short and Long,” she commanded, ”or I shall hold you prisoner.”

Short and Long found he could not get away from Jess, and finally stopped struggling. ”I didn't know you thought so much of me, Jess,”

he said, grinning. ”But it embarra.s.ses me dreadfully, to have you hug me in public.”

”Why!” laughed the big girl, ”I'd think no more of hugging you, than I would your brother, Tommy--and _he's_ a dear!”

”You'd think so if you had that kid around all the time,” grunted Short and Long, as Jess finally allowed him to wriggle loose. ”I think he's more of a terror than he is a dear.”

”He takes it from you, then,” laughed Bobby.

”Yep,” said Lance, grinning, ”it runs in Billy's family to be a cut-up--like wooden legs!”

”What's Tommy been doing now?” asked Dorothy Lockwood.

”Why, he is great chums with the kid next door, and they got into mischief of some kind the other day. The other kid's mother told them that if they did such things 'the bad man would get them.' 'Who's the bad man, Tommy?' our Sue asked him, and Tommy says:

”'Don't know. You'll hafter ask Charlie's mother. She's well acquainted with him.'”

”Come on, now!” exclaimed Lance. ”Who's going to take the _d.u.c.h.ess_ and go to Elberon Crossing for this bill of goods? We can't all go hunting for robbers.”

”I shall stay here to help defend the girls, doncher know,” stated Purt, swaggering about the camp. ”But any of you fellows can take my boat.”

”Spoken like a n.o.bleman, Purt!” declared Chet, laughing. ”Come on, now! Let's arrange how we shall sweep the island, from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e.”

But first it was agreed that Lance and Reddy should go with the _d.u.c.h.ess_ for the new supply of food for the girls. They set off at once.

The island was a quarter of a mile across at its widest point. Even if the whole party entered on the search they would have difficulty in making so strong a human barrier across the isle that a fugitive in the covert could not escape through the line.

But Chet occasionally had a bright idea as well as his sister. He sent Short and Long--who could climb like a squirrel--to the top of a tall tree on the knoll. From that height he could see every opening in the wood, to the upper point of the island--which was nearly two miles long.

”Now we'll all go and beat up the brush and see if we can start anything bigger than a rabbit,” Chet declared. ”Spread out and try to push through the woods as straight as possible.”

”We girls, too?” cried Nellie.

”Be a sport, Nell, and come along,” urged Jess Morse. ”We'll be in sight and call of each other all the time.”

Which was true enough, as they soon discovered. Lil said it was her turn to help do the camp work. And of course neither Mrs. Morse nor Liz could go.

”Don't you think,” Purt asked, seriously, ”that one of us ought to remain here and defend--er--the camp?”