“What’s the use?” he said to himself.  “There’s plenty of time before we need to start for home.”

He yawned and lay back again.  But now the desire for sleep had left him.  After a moment he sat up again.

“I haven’t tried the canoe yet,” he thought.  “I’ll take a little spin across to the island.  They’ll be awake by the time I get back.”

Noiselessly he walked down to the water’s edge, unfastened the canoe and took up the paddle.

There was scarcely a ripple on the lake except that made by the sharp bow of the canoe.  There was an exhilarating sense of flying as his light craft shot away from the shore.  Almost before he knew it he had covered the distance and was drawing up the canoe on the sloping beach of the island.

It was larger than he had thought, at a distance, and toward the center was heavily wooded.  There was a dense tangle of undergrowth, and in order to avoid this he skirted the shore, intending to make a complete circuit before returning to the canoe.

His surprise was great when on reaching the further side he found that it was not an island at all.  A narrow strip of land connected it with the mainland beyond.  It was not over a hundred feet in width, but he noticed that there was a very distinct path that had been beaten through the undergrowth.  The discovery for a moment startled him.  Then he realized that the woods were, of course, full of all sorts of harmless animals, who had to come down to the water to drink.  This would explain the beaten path, and in some measure it reassured him.

Still his gait was quicker as he sped along, intent on regaining the canoe.  It would have perhaps been just as well if he had put his rifle in when he started.  He listened attentively now as he hurried on, but not a sound broke the stillness of the woods.

And now his pulses began to drum with that subtle sixth sense of his that warned of danger.  Again and again in his adventurous career he had felt it, and it had never misled him.  It was something like the second sight of the Highlander.  His nature was so highly organized that like a sensitive camera it registered impressions that others overlooked.  Now some “coming event” was casting “its shadow before,” and the mysterious monitor warned him to be on his guard.

It was with a feeling of intense relief that he came again in sight of the canoe and saw that it was undisturbed.  He looked across and saw his friends waving at him.  He waved back and stooped to unfasten the canoe.

Then something that struck him as odd in their salutation caused him to look again.  It was not simply a friendly greeting.  There was terror, panic, wild anxiety.  And now they were shouting and pointing to something behind him.

He turned like a flash.  And what he saw made his heart almost leap from his body.

CHAPTER V