The Rival Campers; Or, The Adventures of Henry BurnsSmith, Ruel Perley
General
The Rival Campers; Or, The Adventures of Henry Burns
Smith, Ruel Perley
Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction; Camping -- Juvenile fiction
“Hooray!” cried Henry Burns, excitedly, for him. “There it is—the old and
the new. There’s where he rubbed against the ledge as he made fast, and
here’s the evidence all about on these rocks of his new disguise. And
there, right close to the bank, are the trees to which he fastened his
tackle. If it isn’t just as Miles Burton said, to the letter, then
there’s no trusting one’s eyes.”
Henry Burns lay flat on a shelving bit of rock, with his face close to
the water, and peered down to the bed below. The water was not very
clear, but he could discern distinctly a deep, narrow trench in the hard
sand, which might have been made by the keel of a boat, if the boat had
touched bottom at low water.
Any one observing Henry Burns at this moment would have been puzzled
indeed. He suddenly sprang up, tore off his jacket and trousers, bared
himself in the quickest possible time, and, poising for one brief moment
on the brink of the water, dived in. He swam to the bottom with two
strokes, clutched at something that lay on the bottom, grasped it in his
right hand, came to the surface, and, drawing himself out on land once
more, stuffed the object into his trousers pocket and scrambled into his
clothing again, as though his life depended on his haste. Then he started
on a run for the sand-bar, crossed it, paused never a moment for his
basket of fish and clams, and dashed back to the shanty as fast as his
legs could carry him.
It was not constitutional with Henry Burns, however, to continue long in
a state of excitement, and by the time he had regained his companions his
composure had returned. Still, they were familiar enough with him to
perceive that something unusual had happened.
“What’s the matter, Henry?” exclaimed George Warren. “We saw you running
along the beach up there as if somebody was after you. We didn’t know but
what you had found another burglar.”
“No,” replied Henry Burns, “it was the same one.”
It was their turn now to become excited.
“You don’t mean really——” began George Warren.
“Yes, I do,” interrupted Henry Burns. “Say, do you remember the strange
black yacht that came into the harbour at the foot of Grand Island the
other night, and that was in such a hurry to get out again when it saw
us? Well, that was Chambers, and the yacht was the _Eagle_.”
“Well, but she was black,” said George Warren, “and she had no topmast.
The _Eagle_ was white.”
“Yes, but don’t you recall what Burton said about Chambers, what a hand
he was for changing a yacht over so she’d look like a different craft?
Well, that’s what he has done, and I’ve found the place where he did it.
There’s the white paint back there on the edges of the rocks where the
yacht rubbed alongside, and the rock is all covered with spots of black
paint.”
Henry Burns rapidly recounted what he had discovered, including the end
of hawser made fast to the tree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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