The Outdoor Chums by Quincy Allen

Author:Quincy Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781634215114
Publisher: Duke Classics

Chapter XIII - The Coming of the Storm

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Bluff came up spluttering.

"Help! help!" he shouted, involuntarily, as well as a mouth half full of water would permit.

But there was no one in sight. Whoever had shoved him into the lake had mysteriously vanished, though a movement in the bushes told the direction of his flight.

Recovering from the shock, Bluff found that he could clamber out without much difficulty, and he hastened to do so.

His cries had been heard, however, for presently the sound of some one running wildly came to his ears, and Will burst into view.

At sight of the dripping fisherman he broke into a shout.

"Caught a Tartar, did you, and he pulled you in? Oh! what wouldn't I have just given to have been here? A snapshot of you going over would have been the finest ever."

"Shut up! It wasn't a fish at all that yanked me overboard. Somebody gave me a shove!" snapped Bluff, beginning to shiver, in spite of the fact that the air seemed unusually warm, though the sun had disappeared behind dark clouds.

"What! you were pushed in?" stammered Will; and he gathered up his camera in his arms, casting a look of alarm around, as if afraid lest some hideous form dart into view, bent on snatching it away.

"That's the truth. I was just sitting here when I heard a step. Thought it was you, and asked how you had got on. Then the beggar laughed, gave me a shove, and over I went, 'ker chunk.' I let out a yell when I came up, for you see I didn't exactly know what he might mean to do," explained the dripping one.

"And I don't blame you a bit. But didn't you see him at all?"

"Never had a peep. He dodged back so that when I got the water out of my eyes he was gone. I saw those bushes over there moving, and knew he ran off that way."

Will walked over to the bushes, looking cautiously about, but seeing no one.

"Sure you didn't—er—go to sleep out on that log, and dream somebody gave you a push?" he queried, cautiously.

"Rats! I guess I ought to know. But see here, perhaps you can prove it," declared Bluff, indignantly.

"How?" demanded the other.

"Look down at your feet and see if he left any trail, that's how."

Will immediately did as he was told.

"Say, come here. There are tracks all right. Perhaps you're better up in that sort of thing than I am. It was a human being after all, and no dream," he called.

Bluff hastened to join him.

"Why, of course, just as I said. This is where he hurried away. You can see the mark of his feet easy. And looky there, one shoe, the right, has got a patch on it, a piece that runs to a point. Oh! I'd know that skunk any time from that. It's a sure clue, I tell you," he exclaimed.

"But you'd better get dried off as soon as you can. Why, you're shivering now.

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