Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/193

 woods or find him on the beach, for they set up a series of dismal whoops as soon as they reached the waters edge.

"Now for it," thought Tom, drawing his hand over his face and looking as innocent as though he had never been guilty of a mean act in his life. "I've got to meet them some time, and it might as well be now as an hour later. Whoop-pee!" he yelled in answer to the shouts that were sent up from the shore of the pond.

Tom's ears also told him when Joe Wayring first discovered that his canvas canoe was missing. The yells suddenly ceased, and Tom heard no more from Joe and his companions until he came out of the woods and halted on the beach a short distance from the place where they were standing. They were gathered in a group around Roy Sheldon, who was bent over with his hands on his knees, and his eyes fastened upon a foot-print in the mud. They were listening so eagerly to something Roy was saying, that Tom walked up within reach of them before any of the group knew that he was about.