CHAPTER XXIII

STILL FL0UNDERING IN THE MIRE

"Whee!"

It was, of course, Bobolink who gave utterance to this characteristicexclamation.

Like most of the others, he had been so stunned by the messageread by Paul, that for the moment he failed to find words toexpress his feelings.

An aeroplane had passed over the camp! And heading south, which wouldtake it toward the quarter where Stanhope lay!

Here they had thought themselves so far removed from civilization thatthe only persons within a range of miles might be set down as a ferocious manand some lawless counterfeiters, who had chosen this region because ofits inaccessibility.

And now they had learned that one of the latest inventions of the day hadbeen moving above the island, with the pilot actually looking down on thecamp, and so discovering the fact of the Boy Scouts having returned aftertheir banishment from the place.