Up to then none of them had apparently
bothered about figuring how they would make themselves
comfortable, so that Elmer’s suggestion was like
a bomb thrown into the camp.
“I should think we had better
get busy if we want to have a place to sleep on,”
Landy exclaimed, for the hard ground did not appeal
very much to the fat scout, accustomed as he was to
a feather bed at home.
“We have no blankets, remember,”
said Elmer, “and that is one reason why I laid
out to keep the fire burning in a small way through
the night.”
“But luckily,” added Mark,
who apparently had been looking around more or less
since they came ashore, “there are plenty of
spruce and hemlock and fir trees close by. We
can make our beds like hunters always used to do,
away back in Daniel Boone’s time.”
“Every fellow will have to shift
for himself, then,” said Elmer; “so let’s
start in and lay a foundation for a soft and fragrant
bed.”
“Hay was good enough for me
last night, suh!” declared the Southern boy;
“but I’ve got a hunch I can sleep just
as sound on balsam.”
“Hemlock for mine every time!” announced
Lil Artha.
Then there was a bustling time as
the entire seven scouts started to break off small
branches and twigs from the adjacent trees, laying
them in piles until it looked as though they had secured
enough for their purpose.
The beds were arranged in something
like a circle around the fire, and acting on the advice
of Elmer, who had been on the cattle range and knew
what was right, each sleeper expected to keep his feet
toward the fire.
“Looks a heap like a big cart-wheel,”
observed Lil Artha.
“The fire is the hub, and each
scout a spoke, that’s right, suh,” Chatz
agreed.
Landy acted as though he would never
get enough of the fragrant browse. Long after
the others had stopped gathering it, he continued.
When they joked him about being greedy when there
was no price to pay, he had an answer ready.
“I’m a whole lot heavier
than anybody else, don’t you know?” he
told them. “And on that account I ought
to have a higher pile under me. Besides, I always
did like to gather things in.”
“We’ll remember that,
Landy,” threatened Lil Artha, “the next
time we need a big supply of firewood. You’ve
fixed it up good and tight, and you’ll find
us the most obliging lot of scouts east of the Rockies.”
After considerable fussing and joshing,
they managed finally to get “fixed.”
As none of them had slept too soundly on the preceding
night, owing to their strange environment, and the
wild alarm that sounded when Johnny’s chicken-thief
trap was sprung, the boys were both weary and drowsy.
Elmer was really the last to drop
off, and he smiled as he raised his head to glance
around at the stretched-out figures of his six chums.
Some were breathing pretty loud, but Elmer could forgive
that, and so he also gave himself up to indulging
in refreshing slumber.
He was awakened by a horrible crash
that made him instantly sit up. Other figures
were bobbing up all around the smouldering camp fire.
From the condition of this latter, Elmer knew that
he must have been asleep much more than an hour.
“What happened?” gasped
Landy the first thing, for he was digging his fat
knuckles into his heavy eyes as though trying to rout
the last atom of drowsiness from them.
“It was me,” replied Lil
Artha, promptly; “I fired my gun!”
“What at?” demanded Elmer, thrilled in
spite of himself.
“A creeping man!” came the astounding
answer.
“Wow! what’s all that,
Lil Artha?” Toby exclaimed; “you must have
been dreaming, and did it in your sleep. It’s
a good thing none of us happened to be in range of
your old Marlin scatter-gun, that’s all.”
“Rats! I tell you I was
wide awake, and sitting up when I fired,” insisted
the tall scout.
Of course, by this time all were on
their feet, for the excitement had gripped hold of
them. Elmer realized that Lil Artha was speaking
earnestly, and showing no symptoms of having played
a practical joke.
“Now tell us all about it, Lil Artha,”
he commanded.
“Why, it was about thisaway,”
said the other, obediently. “I happened
to wake up and felt a bit thirsty, so I sat up thinking
I’d crawl over to our big jug of fresh water
and take a swig. But just as I sat up I saw
something moving over in the bushes about twenty-five
feet away. Yes, sir, and the fire picked up just
then so I could make out what looked mighty like a
man peeking at me through the same bushes-fact
is, I know that’s what it was, and nothing
else.”
“Well, what did you do then?” asked the
patrol leader.
“I always keep my faithful Marlin
handy when I sleep out in the woods, you remember,
Elmer,” continued the other, with a touch of
boyish pride in his voice; “so all I had to
do was to grab up the gun and blaze away as quick
as I could throw the same to my shoulder.”
Elmer caught his arm in a fast grip.
“Not aiming at a man in the
bushes only twenty-five feet away, Lil Artha-don’t
tell me you were silly enough to do that?” he
asked, somewhat hoarsely.
The tall scout chuckled, and Elmer’s
fears were instantly dissipated.
“I’m not a fool, Elmer,”
he said, loftily. “I aimed away up in the
air, and shot to scare not to hurt!”
“Good enough, Lil Artha,”
the scout master went on to say in a relieved tone;
“I couldn’t believe you’d be so reckless.
A charge of bird shot at that distance goes like
a bullet, because it hasn’t a chance to scatter.”
It was apparently Toby’s turn to appear skeptical
now.
“Huh! I s’pose he
lit out then like a streak, after you’d wasted
a good charge of shot in the air, and knocked leaves
from the branches of trees-is that what
you want us to believe, Lil Artha?”
“Didn’t you hear the row
he made rushing away?” demanded the other, severely;
“but then all of you started talking at once,
and I guess you didn’t take much notice.”
“I heard some sort of noise
off that way,” asserted Elmer, pointing.
“Correct, Elmer, for that’s
where he was kneeling, right over there in those thick
bushes. You see I mightn’t have noticed
him at all only he happened to move just when a little
flame shot up along that piece of partly burned wood.”
“Oh! I admit that you
may have seen something,” persisted Toby;
“but the chances are ten to one it was a white-faced
heifer that had hit on our camp, and was looking to
see who and what we were. We happen to know
there’s a stock farm not a great ways off, and
I reckon their cows get into the swamp once in so
often.”
“Think you’ve laid it
down pretty pat, don’t you?” sneered Lil
Artha; “but I’m going to show you where
you’re away off your base. Guess I’ve
got eyes, and know a human from a white-faced heifer.
Watch my smoke, that’s all.”
With that the indignant scout handed
his gun to Chatz, and stepping over to the fire picked
up the half-burned brand which he had mentioned before.
This Lil Artha whirled briskly around his head several
times until he had it crackling and taking fire afresh,
so that it promised to make a very fair torch, if
used for only a brief time.
Elmer made no objections to the programme.
Indeed, he was deeply interested in the outcome,
whatever it might prove to be.
After having made sure of sufficient
light, Lil Artha boldly strode directly toward the
spot he had indicated as the scene of the near-tragedy.
“Go slow, Lil Artha,”
warned cautious Landy; “he might be laying for
you there. Keep him covered, Chatz, with the
gun, won’t you?”
“Oh! give us a rest, Landy;
didn’t I tell you he hoofed it like fun after
that shot gave him a scare? Who’s afraid?”
With that Lil Artha reached the bushes
indicated, and the others were close on his heels,
every fellow eager to find out whether what he had
told them was in fact true, or if the apparition had
only been a figment of Lil Artha’s imagination,
the tail-end, as it were, of a stirring dream.
Bending down, the long-legged scout
began to scan the ground. His discoveries started
almost immediately, as his excited words announced:
“Here’s where he pushed
back the brush, as you c’n see for yourselves.
Yes, and there’s aplenty of footprints besides.
Looky where he knelt down, because here’s the
mark of his knees as plain as anything. Now
what do you say, Toby Jones? Is the laugh on
me, after all?”
Toby had to confess that it did not look that way.
“Oh! I’m ready to
own up you did see a man snooping around our camp,
Lil Artha,” he confessed, frankly; “and
when you let fly with that load he lit out like all
possessed. Elmer, of course the chances are it
was that man, don’t you think?”
“We know of no other in this
region,” said the patrol leader. “He
must have discovered our fire, and was creeping up
when our vigilant comrade saw him, meaning to steal
part of our food supply. We happen to know they’re
short of grub, and now that the country is being roused
against them this man is beginning to be more or less
afraid to venture out of the swamp to secure another
lot of fowls, or anything else along the eating line.”
“But it looks as if he came
here alone, Elmer, seeing we can find only one set
of footprints,” remarked Lil Artha.
“Oh! mercy! I certainly
hope now he hasn’t done anything terrible
to our chum, Hen Condit,” quavered Landy, in
a panic.
“There’s no reason why
we should believe such a thing,” announced Elmer,
decidedly; “we’ve already agreed that he
possesses some sort of strange power over poor Hen,
and I suppose the boy is waiting in their camp away
from here, for the man to come back with provisions.”
They walked back and the fire was
revived, for since no one felt just like trying to
sleep again they concluded to sit up a while and talk
it all over. This attempted visit on the part
of the unknown man had apparently put a new face on
the whole matter. It might change their plans
considerably, too, some of the scouts feared.
“I don’t see why that
should be,” Elmer explained. “Of
course, after this we’ll have to keep a watch
every night, so as to hold him up if he tries to get
away with any of our stuff. It may hurry things
along in the end. If they have little to eat,
and the man is really afraid to go outside of the
swamp thinking the police are waiting to arrest him,
he may make up his mind to surrender to us.”
“Then you believe he knows why
we’re here, do you, Elmer?” demanded Toby.
“It seems possible, although,
of course, we have to jump at conclusions, because
we really don’t know,” came the answer.
“Whew! but this is all a dark
mystery,” confessed Landy; “and I never
was much account at guessing the answer to riddles.
Who is this man; what is he holding over Hen Condit’s
head; why should our chum do that awful thing, and
then leave such a silly letter behind to convict himself?
I’m all in a whirl, and if anybody can straighten
me out I’d be a heap obliged.”
Apparently, nobody could, at least
there was no effort made in that direction.
In fact, to tell the truth, all the boys felt that
they were groping in the gloom, and even their best
guesses had only a slender foundation.
“We’ve enlisted in the
war, though,” said Lil Artha, grimly, “and
we won’t be kept back by any little thing.
If that chap comes snooping around any more he stands
a mighty good chance of getting hurt, that’s
all I’m going to say about it.”
“And we’ll run across
Hen, sooner or later, you can put that in your pipe
and smoke it,” asserted Toby Jones, firmly.
When they had discussed the subject
from every side, without picking up much additional
information worth while, the boys began to feel sleepy
again. So Elmer told them off in watches, two
scouts being assigned to duty at a time. Landy
was left out, because he was the odd fellow, and perhaps
for other obvious reasons.
He pretended to be quite indignant
over the slight, and vowed that he would certainly
sit up through one of the watches with the pair whose
turn it happened to be. But none of them took
his threats seriously, because they knew full well
when Landy Smith once got asleep it required something
like a young earthquake to arouse him. Elmer
hardly anticipated another visit from the mysterious
unknown that night. He fancied the fellow must
have imagined Lil Artha really shot point-blank at
him, and that it was only his good luck which enabled
him to escape disaster.
Being too good a scout to take unnecessary
chances, and not wishing to lose the main part of
such supplies as they had fetched along for several
days’ use, the patrol leader took all due precautions.
The fire was kept up the balance of
the night in the bargain, for they felt as though
the illumination helped to guard them. Complete
darkness might have tempted a raiding thief to try
again, while he would be afraid to attempt such a
risky move while the flames crackled and lighted up
the immediate surroundings.
After all, nothing happened to disturb
them. The sentries stuck diligently to their
duties, and changed at the time appointed. This
had been laid out by Elmer, as the sky had cleared
and the stars could be plainly seen in places.
He figured time from the position of certain bright
planets, and their setting would mean the different
changes in guard mount. Scouts who have been
in camp have learned these methods of telling time
by the use of the heavenly watch, and few of them
after once mastering the interesting method find a
need for Ingersols.
When daylight sifted in through the
treetops overhead, the boys gave signs of arousing.
Landy, of course, was the last to awaken, and he
professed to be quite heart-broken because no one had
called him in time to help stand out that watch.
The gleam of humor in his eyes, however, told Elmer
that the fat boy was not quite so much disappointed
as he made out to be. In fact, the patrol leader
was beginning to fear that Landy had latterly shown
signs of developing a new trait in his composition,
and started to play the part of a deceiver, in return
for constant badgering on the part of his fun-loving
mates.
It was while they were eating breakfast
that Elmer propounded a new scheme, and after placing
it before his comrades asked them what their opinions
were.
“The question now is,”
was what he said, seriously, “whether we mean
to keep on poling our skiff along the waterways; or
shouldering our packs take the shore from now on;
and as our rule always has been, majority votes carry
the day.”