The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island Part 16

The calf let out a tremendous bellow, and scampered off into the woods, whereat the boys laughed harder than ever till the tears fairly ran down their cheeks.

"That's a good one on Billy who is all the time getting off jokes on other folks," said Percival. "That is too good to keep."

"d.i.c.k Percival," said Billy, laughing in spite of himself, "if you say a word about it I'll cut you dead."

"I can't help it," chuckled d.i.c.k; "it's too good to keep, and I won't keep it, no matter what are the consequences. Think of a boy who has spent the biggest part of his life in the country not knowing the difference between a little three months' old heifer calf and a wild bull. Billy, my boy, you have neglected your opportunities."

Billy got down from the tree, and all hands laughed again, but Jack said thoughtfully:

"That was not a wild calf, and the question naturally arises, what is a domesticated calf doing on a supposedly uninhabited island? If there is a calf there must be a cow and if a cow, then people who own and take care of her. There must be people on the island after all, although we have never seen them."

"We have not been all over the island," said Percival, "and it is likely that in the very parts where we have not been we shall find the people who own the calf."

"They are probably negroes or halfbreeds," added Jack, "and seldom visit the sh.o.r.e. Suppose we keep on. We may find a village, or, at any rate, one or two houses occupied by them. Come on, Billy, you are safer with us in case we come across another wild bull."

"Get out!" said Billy, half laughing, half in disgust. "How much will you take to keep quiet on that subject?"

"I could not think of making a bargain, Billy," chuckled Jack, "and then I am afraid it would cost you too much. Remember, there are myself and d.i.c.k, Jesse W. Smith, Bucephalus Johnson and Ben Bowline to be bought off, and the prices might go up."

"All right," muttered Billy with a wry face, "but don't rub it in too much, that's all."

"All right, I won't, but remember when you feel like playing jokes on the boys that I may say something about it."

"All right, but I say, what about it, that calf is not wild?"

"Not a bit of it, she is just as tame as any barn-yard calf along the Hudson valley. Calves are the same the world over."

"And Billy was one not to know it," said Percival with a grin. "Remember, William, you have not bought me off yet. I have made no promises, and neither has Jesse W. Smith."

"Oh, I don't care anything about it," said the smaller boy. "I won't say anything about it no matter how much Billy jokes, I am interested in the other matter. If there are tame calves here there must be more or less civilized people living on the island."

"Well, we have made two or three very good discoveries on our island,"

observed Percival. "We have found treasure, and we have found calves, and probably inhabitants."

"And the next thing is to find a way through the reefs," said Jack.

"If we found the others why should we not find that?" asked Percival. "We did not expect to find anything, and we have found a lot."

"But we won't find our way home," said Billy, "if we don't start pretty soon, for it will be dark in a little while."

"The funny fellow grows serious once in a while," chuckled d.i.c.k, "but I think he is right for all that."

"I think we had better be going myself," said Jack. "Ben Bowline?"

"Sir to you, sir," said the seaman.

"Steer south, and go on a free wind at four miles."

"Aye-aye, sir!" said Ben, and they all set out for home, as they called the yacht.

"Talkin' about calves," said Ben Bowline as they were walking on in a body through the woods, "there was another adventure of mine which----"

"You're a liar!" suddenly interrupted a strident voice speaking in Spanish and then some bad language in the same tongue followed.

"Mah goodness, dat am fightin' talk!" exclaimed Bucephalus. "Ah wouldn'

stan' dat, Sailorman."

"Jus' wait till I get my mudhooks onto him," growled Ben, "an' I'll let Trim know whether I'll stan' it or not."

"There are people on the island besides ourselves," muttered young Smith, getting close to Jack and d.i.c.k. "Maybe they own the calf."

"If you tell them anything about me," sputtered Billy, "I won't speak to you again in a week."

Then there was more talk in Spanish and Bucephalus put his hands over his ears and whistled.

"Mah wo'd! Ah done hear disreputable language in mah days, but nothin' to compaiah with that!" he declared emphatically. "It ain't respectable. Ef Ah meet de fellah wha' talk lak dat Ah's gwan to tell him wha' Ah done thought ob him."

There was still more of the talk, and Ben Bowline doubled his fists and said angrily:

"It's as bad to be told you're a liar in Spanish as it is in English or French or Dutch or any other lingo, an' I'm not goin' to take it from n.o.body. Just wait till I get hold----"

d.i.c.k and Jack were both laughing heartily now, much to young Smith's amazement, Billy's surprise and the disgust of Ben Bowline, Bucephalus looking on and wondering what had come over his "young gentlemen" as he was accustomed to call them.

"What are you two fellows laughing at?" asked Billy.

"I don't see anything funny in it!" sputtered Ben.

"I think it's awful!" murmured Jesse W.

"Why, those are not men talking," laughed d.i.c.k.

"They aren't!" exclaimed Billy.

"Mebby dat am all imagination, sah!" added Bucephalus.

"What is it if it isn't men!" asked Ben.

"Parrots!" laughed Jack. "Don't you remember, you fellows, what we told you happened to us the other day when we were ash.o.r.e together, d.i.c.k and I?"

"H'm! and I forgot all about it," chuckled Billy.

"Oh, that's different!" said J.W., greatly relieved.

"Parrots?" asked Ben. "Poll parrots? Well, I'll be keelhauled!"

"Mah we 'd! Ah knowed parrots could talk an' use de mos' obstreperous vocabulary at dat," declared the negro cook, "but Ah done suspected dat dey was men, fo' shuah Ah did."

The parrots, for such indeed they were, as all the party now realized, continued to talk and scream and chatter, and in a short time the boys and their companions caught sight of a number of them as they came out into a more open bit of woods.