Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/402

 The rowers obeyed, without much confidence as to the result, it must be confessed, and when Mr. Swan and his party arrived, having all turned back to see what it was that had attracted the attention of the boys, neither they nor their boat were in sight. There was something on the bank, however, that instantly caught the sharp eye of one of the guides, who at once proceeded to take himself to task in a way that would have excited his ire if any one else had done it.

"Hit me over the head with a paddle, somebody," said he. "I'm going to throw up my position when I get back to the lake, and quit guiding. I ain't no good any more. I come along here not ten minutes ago, and didn't see what them boys saw at once. Look at them bushes, and then look at that," he added, pulling his boat closer to the bank, and placing the blade of his oar in a little depression in the edge of the water. "Matt Coyle shoved that scow of his'n over them bushes, and that's what barked them and made them bend over that way. He suspicioned that some of us would see it, so he come back and stood right