He aroused the boys again, before they had had time to get to sleep,
and quietly began his preparations.

"Make no noise," he said, "but put what provisions you have, and all
your things into the boat. _Don't forget the guns and the ammunition._
Sid! take our little water keg and run and fill it with fresh water."

The boys set about their preparations hurriedly, although they but
dimly guessed the meaning of Sam's singular orders.

At that moment Jake Elliott shuffled into the camp.

CHAPTER XXI.

JAKE ELLIOTT MAKES ANOTHER EFFORT TO GET EVEN.

As it is impossible to tell at one time the story of the doings of two
different sets of persons in two different places, it follows that, if
both are to be told, one must be told first and the other afterward.

For precisely this reason, I must leave Sam and his party for a time
now, while I tell where Jake Elliott had been, and what he had been
about.

When Sam let him off as easily as he could at the time of the compass
affair, and even went out of his way to prevent the boys from
referring to that transaction, he did so with the distinct purpose of
giving Jake an opportunity and a motive to redeem his reputation; and
he sincerely hoped that Jake would avail himself of the chance.

It is not easy for a man or boy of right impulses to imagine the
feelings, or to comprehend the acts of a person whose impulses are all
wrong, and so it was that Sam fell into the error of supposing that
his badly behaved follower would repent of his misconduct and do
better in future. This was what all the boys thought that Jake ought
to do, and what Sam thought he would do; but in truth he was disposed
to do nothing of the sort, and Sam was not very long in discovering
the fact. Instead of feeling grateful to Sam for shielding him against
the taunts of his companions, he hated Sam more cordially than ever,
when he found how completely he had failed in his attempt to embarrass
the expedition. He nursed his malice and brooded over it, determined
to seize the first opportunity of "getting even," as he expressed it,
and from that hour his thoughts were all of revenge, complete,
successful, merciless. He was willing enough, too, to include the
other boys in this wreaking of vengeance, as he included them now in
his malice.

His first attempt to accomplish his purpose, as we know already, was
an effort to wreck the boat in a drift pile, and that affair served
to open Sam's eyes