We proceeded, therefore, through the wood, sweet in the dew of
morning, among many twittering birds, and so came, presently, to the
end of my path, where the little gate shuts it off from my mowing
meadow; at the upper end of which, it may be remembered, the good ship
Sea Rover lay anchored. The grass stood waist-high and wet in the
dew as we turned along the meadow side, and L'Olonnois flinched a bit,
although Lafitte waded along carelessly.
I observed that each boy had now thrust into his hat band a turkey
feather, picked up, en route, along my field's edge. Jimmy was not
sure of the correctness of this; and admitted that, sometimes, he had
read literature having to do with Indian fighting, as well as
piratical enterprises. I suggested that, to my mind, nothing quite
took the place of the regulation red kerchief bound about the head;
whereat, gravely, both L'Olonnois and Lafitte discarded their hats and
feathers, for the bandannas which I proffered them. Having bound these
about their foreheads, a great courage and confidence came to them.
L'Olonnois drew his sword, and with some care placed the blade
between his teeth. "Hist!" exclaimed Lafitte, himself swept by his
friend's imagination, and preparing to place his cutlass in his mouth
also. "Let us approach the vessel with care, lest the enemy be about."
So saying, each pirate with a mouthful of cold steel, and a hand
shading his red-kerchiefed brow, stole through my clump of birches
toward the bend, where the boat had first surprised me; myself
following, somewhat put to it to refrain from laughter, although one
rarely laughs in the young hours of the day, and myself rarely, at
all.
We were greeted by no hostile shot, and found our vessel quite as we
had left her, as I could see at a glance when we neared the bank; but,
none the less, something stirred in the bushes. A growl and a sudden
barking, greeted Hiroshimi as he approached the boat in advance.
"You, Tige!" called out Lafitte. The dog--a dog none too beautiful,
and now just a bit forlorn--approached us, alternately wagging in
friendship and retreating in alarm.
"Well, what do you think of that!" said Jimmy. "We left him back at
the lake--sent him home half a dozen times. How'd he get here, and
how'd he know where we was?"
"He couldn't a-swum the lake," assented John. "And it was more'n ten
miles around; and how could he smell where we went, on the water? Come
here, Tige, you blame fool!"
"Nay," said I, "he is no fool, this dog, but a creature of great
reason, else he never could have found you. And I'll be bound he is as
keen for adventure as any of us."
"He is coming here last night two ow-wore after dinner," said the
omniscient Hiroshimi. "Also he bite me on leg. He, also, is
malefactor."