Sam and Egg tumbled to the ground right at our feet. The rest of the class and all the grown-ups rushed over.
“What is all the ruckus?” Mr. Spade asked.
“What were you two doing in the jungle?” Henry’s mom asked.
Anton and his two goons stepped to the front of the crowd. “I’ll handle this,” Anton said. He added to Mr. Spade, “Ranger Chavez deputized me for this canoe trip.”
Mr. Spade’s mouth fell open, but he didn’t reply. He probably couldn’t reply. Anton was just that ridiculous.
“So, Archer,” Anton said. That’s Sam’s last name.
Anton strode up to her, very confident. He wouldn’t have been so confident without his two giant goons behind him, believe me.
“What exactly were you two dorks up to in there?” he asked. He nodded toward the interior of the island. “Were you spying on Ranger Chavez?”
Sam crossed her arms and stared him down. She didn’t say anything.
Anton sneered. Then he turned to Egg. “Let me see that camera,” Anton said.
“No way,” Egg said, moving his body to shield his camera.
Anton elbowed one of his goons. “Take it,” he said. “That’s evidence that these two have been making trouble for the ranger. By the power vested in me —”
Just then, the ranger herself stepped out of the woods. She elbowed her way between Anton and my friends.
“Now,” the ranger said, “time to get back on our canoes and shove off.”
Mr. Spade stepped up to the ranger. “But we haven’t even explored the island,” he said.
“And we didn’t get a look under that cloth!” I whispered to Sam.
“Did you two find anything out?” Cat asked Sam and Egg.
Egg lifted his camera to show us his newest photos. They were mostly pretty boring pictures of plants and the ground.
A few showed Ranger Chavez, stooping on the ground or looking at a branch.
“What is she doing?” Cat asked.
Sam said, “I figure she’s looking for a poacher. She said poaching has been trouble for the park lately.”
“I don’t think a poacher would hide on a branch,” I pointed out, “or under a leaf on the ground.”
Egg laughed. “Tracks, silly,” he said. “Sam means Ranger Chavez was looking for tracks.”
I shrugged. “That makes sense, I guess,” I said. “But what’s so weird about that?”
The others shrugged too. By then, almost everyone else was on a canoe, so we climbed aboard ours, too. Maybe the ranger wasn’t a criminal.
Maybe she was just a mean ranger.