The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat Part 23

Several of the scouts picked up some of the ashes, and found that it was exactly as Paul stated. They were as dry as powder; and could certainly never have been rained upon.

"That means the forge has been used since the storm that helped us get through that muddy ca.n.a.l of Jackson's Creek; is that what you mean, Paul?" asked Bobolink.

"Nothing else," replied the other, still continuing his investigations, as if he hoped to make some further discovery, that might tell them what the field forge was intended for, when these unknown men carried it to this secluded island.

"Great governor, Paul!"

Bobolink had stooped, and picked something from the ground. This he was now holding in his hand, and staring at it, as though he could hardly believe his eyes.

The other scouts crowded around him, and their eyes, too, widened when they discovered what it was.

"A quarter of a dollar!" exclaimed Jack.

"And a s.h.i.+ning new one in the bargain," declared Tom Betts.

"What d'ye think of that, now?" said Phil.

Paul reached over, and took possession of the coin.

"Did you find that, Bobolink?" he asked, for sometimes the other was known to play tricks.

"I sure did, Paul, right like this," and stooping over, Bobolink was about to pretend to pick up something when he uttered a gasp.

"Another one!"

He was holding a second coin in his hand, the exact duplicate, so far as they could see, of the first one.

"Must grow here in flocks!" exclaimed Phil; "let's see if we can dig up a whole bunch of 'em, boys!" But although they all started digging with the toes of their shoes, no more s.h.i.+ning coins came to light; and it began to look as if Bobolink had been fortunate enough to pick up all there were.

Paul closely examined the two bright quarters.

"If those are queer ones then they'd fool me all right, let me tell you!"

declared Bobolink.

"I never saw better in my life," Paul admitted.

The boys were looking pretty serious by now. It began to seem as though that guess made by one of their number could not have been so wide of the mark as at the time some of them believed. Here was pretty strong evidence that these men were engaged in manufacturing spurious coins.

Ought they to consider they had gone far enough, and give up the exploration of the island, returning home to sound the alarm, and send word to the authorities, so that these men might be trapped as they worked?

Paul was tempted to consider that his duty lay that way. Still, there were some things that puzzled him, and made him hesitate before concluding to follow that idea.

Why should they keep the forge out here in the open, when some shelter would seem to be the proper thing, if, as the scouts now believed, they were using the fire to smelt metals, and blend them to the proper consistency for the bad coins?

That was something that puzzled Paul greatly. It caused him to look around in the neighborhood of the forge, in the hope that he might pick up some other clue.

The ground was pretty well trampled over, as though a number of men had been walking back and forth many times in their occupation, whatever it could have been. Paul also saw a number of indentations in the earth, which made him think some heavy object had rested in that open s.p.a.ce.

"Whatever they brought here," remarked Jack, presently, "it looks like they must have used some sort of vehicle to carry it; because these tracks have the appearance of ruts made by wheels."

"Rubber tires, too," added Phil. "I've seen too many of 'em not to know; for my father has a garage."

"Is that so?" exclaimed Bobolink, shaking his head, as if to say that with each discovery the mystery, instead of getting lighter, only grew more dense.

"And look how close together they seem to be, would you; a pretty narrow bed for a wagon, don't it seem?" asked Tom Betts.

"But they run off that way," observed Bobolink, "and there are so many of the tracks you can hardly tell which are mates. There's Paul followin'

'em up; reckon we'd better keep with him, boys. We don't want to get separated."

Paul soon came to a stop, and was joined by the others.

"Queer how the marks all seem to knock off about here," he remarked, pointing to the ground. "You can't find one further on. And it isn't that the ground suddenly gets hard, either. This looks the queerest thing of them all. What do they run that thing with wheels up and down here for?

Anybody know?"

But silence was the only answer he received, since every one of the six other scouts seemed to be scratching his head, and wrinkling his forehead, as though deep in thought, yet unable to see light.

So they went back to the field forge, to look around again, though their labor was all they had for their pains.

"Not even another lovely quarter to be picked up where it got spilled when they made 'em here, p'raps by the bushel," grumbled Bobolink, scratching the earth with his toe in vain.

He had recovered the coins from Paul, and jingled them in his pocket; though the envious Bluff warned him that they might get him into a peck of trouble, should he be caught by Secret Service men.

"Huh! guess you think you c'n scare me into droppin' them," declared Bobolink, thrusting out his chin at Bluff. "Let me know if you see me doin' it; will you? I c'n just see you falling all over yourself, tryin'

to grab these dandy coins, if I let 'em slip by me. Shoot a ball up another alley, Bluff. Go hunt a fortune for yourself, and don't want to grab mine. Hands off, see?"

"Do we go back now, Paul; or had we better keep on to the hill?" Jack asked, as though he knew the other must have been settling this important matter in his mind.

"I think as we've come this far, with the hill just ahead of us, it would be a disappointment not to get up to that cedar tree," Paul replied; at which every one of the other scouts nodded his head.

"W-w-want to s-s-see what the old p-p-place l-l-looks like," remarked Bluff, in his positive way.

"And there's no use in our staying around here any longer, either, I should think," ventured Phil. "How do we know but what some of the men may just happen to b.u.t.t in on us, while we're looking their old forge over? And if they did, I just guess they'd make things hum for us. So I say, into the woods again for me--the sooner the better."

"I hope we're doing the right thing by keeping on," Paul observed, looking at his companions in a way they took as an invitation to back him up.

"Who's got a better right to go where we feel like?" demanded Bobolink.

"Honest men wouldn't have any kick coming, just because a troop of Boy Scouts happened to camp on their island; and it only goes to show they're doing something shady, that's what. I say go on," Phil gave as his opinion.

Jack, Andy, Bluff and Tom were quick to declare themselves opposed to any change of plan, at least, until after they had reached their goal, which was the foot of the cedar on top of the hill.

This decision seemed to give Paul more heart, and when they left the open s.p.a.ce he cast a last glance back at it, as though still puzzled.

The trees grew even more dense as they drew nearer the foot of that peculiar rise in the ground which went to make up what they called a hill. Indeed, the boys were astonished to find such an almost impenetrable jungle.

"Isn't that some sort of shack you can see over yonder?" asked Phil, presently.

As the rest looked, they agreed that it looked like a rude shelter, made out of branches, and some boards fastened together in a crude way.