AN UNWELCOME DISCOVERY.


"Bully, they're still there, just like we left them!" shouted Steve; and
from the manner in which he said this, it was evident that he had shared
in some of the fears which beset his companions.

In fact, all of the boys experienced a singular relief when they
discovered that the canoes still lay there on the beach.

"Seems to be all hunky dory," Bandy-legs was heard to remark, as he came
puffing along in the rear, determined to keep up with the procession;
"if only now them tricky fellers ain't gone and bored more auger holes
in my little cedar dinky! You never can tell. 'Pearances are often
deceitful, remember, we used to write in our copybooks at school? Well,
they are, sometimes. I know it, because I never 'spected to have the
river come in on me; and it did, you just bet it did!"

But while Bandy-legs was amusing himself by this manner of talk, no one
was apparently paying the least attention to him. They had hurried
along, eager to get to the camp, and verify their first impression, to
the effect that all was well.

So far as they could see, as they drew near, things were just as they
had left them something like an hour and a half previously. The two
tents stood there, with the little burgees flapping idly in the morning
breeze. Possibly a wandering 'coon or a curious fox may have dropped in
to investigate conditions; but the food had all been placed far above
the reach of such hungry creatures, so no one need feel the least bit of