Читать книгу The Camp Fire Boys at Log Cabin Bend; Or, Four Chums Afoot in the Tall Timber - St. George Rathborne - Страница 4

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“Oh! what’s that?” gasped Perk.

“Stand perfectly still, everybody, or he may jump at us!” commanded the leader.

“A whopping big cat, for a fact!” muttered Wee Willie, fumbling about his waist, where he usually carried a homely so-called “hunting knife” in a leather sheath, when on the hike.

“See his yellow and green eyes, will you!” muttered Amos. “He acts as if as mad as hops because we came along. What ails him, do you think, Elmer?”

“I couldn’t say,” replied the other, softly, “unless this one happens to be a mother cat, with kits somewhere close by. They say such a varmint is always doubly dangerous to a man in the woods, especially after nightfall sets in.”

“What’ll we do about it—back out?” came in Perk’s quavering voice.

“I’d hate to do that, for fear of losing the trail,” said Elmer.

“But we’d get clawed up something fierce, wouldn’t we, if it came to a fight with the savage critter? Just listen to the snarls, will you?” the stout boy went on to say.

“Hold on!” suddenly remarked Amos; “leave it all to me, and I think I can do the business. Just keep quiet for a minute or so, and then see what’s going to happen.”

He was heard fumbling with some of the stuff he carried.

“You haven’t got a gun along now, have you, Amos?” asked Perk, with possible visions of a wounded wildcat charging them, and committing more or less scratching and biting before giving up the ghost.

“Something a heap better’n that,” panted Amos, himself excited for fear the enraged beast might leap before he got his plans ready for carrying out. “There, now I’ve got the thing loose; give me just time enough to put a cartridge in place. Don’t be startled, fellows, when I pull the trigger. It’s my camera flashlight I’m going to work on the old rascal. Steady now!”

“Oh!” gasped Perk, comprehendingly.

“A whopping big cat, for a fact!”

Even as he made this sound there came a dazzling flare that caused every one to blink as if half blinded; indeed, a flash of lightning could not have had a more startling effect.

“He jumped!” cried Perk, “but away from us! You certainly gave him the scare of his life, Amos, with your bully camera outfit. Let’s be pushing along, boys; somehow I don’t quite like this section of woods very much.”

No one made any objection, and so the march was resumed. It might have been noticed, however, that Perk made it a point not to lag behind. He was continually imagining he saw crouching figures on many a low hanging limb when Elmer’s light moved this way and that.

So they proceeded until finally Elmer announced that according to his belief they were close to their destination.

“Thank you for saying that, Elmer,” remarked Perk, whole-heartedly, as if he had never listened to more delightful words.

“Yes, here’s the river on our left,” added Wee Willie, encouragingly; “and it looks to me as if we might be rounding the bend right now.”

“Just what we are,” affirmed Amos. “A bit back we were heading due east, and now our course is almost north.”

“Well, there’s the old moon going peeking up on the right,” Perk commented, cheerily. “I can’t remember a time I felt happier to glimpse her smiling face. I’m tired of seeing things lying in wait for us. Ugh!”

Indeed, all of them felt somewhat the same way, so that when the moon was discovered through the aisles of the forest her appearance was greeted joyfully.

“Keep your eyes on the lookout for any signs of the old cabin,” Elmer warned his three chums. “It would be a joke on us if we went past without discovering it. But I’ve a notion this dim trail ought to lead straight to the door.”

Accordingly four pairs of eager eyes kept on the alert every minute of the time, and presently Wee Willie, who possessed remarkably keen vision, made an eager announcement.

“There, over a little to the left—I’m sure it must be a shack under that big tree!” he hastened to say.

“Something moved just then; didn’t you see it slip away?” Perk added in a thrilling whisper.

“You’re still dreaming of cats by the wholesale, Perk!” chided the tall chum, disdainfully.

“It was something that seemed to double over, and disappear back in the shadows!” sturdily declared the stout boy; “mebbe only a dog, though!”

“And what would any dog be doing away up here?” demanded Wee Willie.

“Well, I’ve heard of wild dogs, that have run away from some farm, and taken to living like their ancestors did by the chase,” Perk maintained.

“You only imagined you saw something, so forget it, please,” the other assured him. “Now, here’s the cabin, let’s see what she looks like, Elmer!”

By making good use of his little hand torch the leader was able to do as requested. They all stared eagerly, and then Wee Willie gave vent to a grunt of disappointment.

“Huh! a rickety old shack it is, believe me, boys!” he grumbled. “The door hangs on one rusty hinge; and it looks to me as if the roof might be as full of holes as a housewife’s sieve. Say, just imagine a bally storm hitting us when cooped up in this rotten crib! We’d get soaked to the bone, chances are. I think we’d be sensible to make a brush shanty. Besides, now, I wouldn’t be surprised if the old cabin was haunted.”

“Oh! what makes you believe so?” demanded the thrilled Perk, his thoughts possibly flying back to the flitting shadow he believed he had detected at the time of their arrival on the scene.

“Never mind what he says, Perk,” soothed Elmer. “Here’s the cabin, and if it is rather dilapidated, what’s to hinder our mending the roof to-morrow, I’d like to know? Not much sign of rain to-night, as far as I can see.”

“It’s all right, boys,” Amos now went on to say, cheerily; “let’s go inside and get shut of these pesky packs. My shoulders feel raw from carrying such a load for miles and miles. Mine must weigh twice as much as when we started out.”

“Oh, easily four times that,” chanted Perk, eagerly. “There’s one good thing, though, they’ll be heaps and heaps lighter going back home.”

“Sure thing, if your appetite is what it’s usually been, Perk,” chuckled Wee Willie, as he pushed after Elmer, who had started to enter the abandoned cabin.

“Drop the things here, and let’s get a fire started as soon as we can,” suggested Elmer.

“Indoors or out?” demanded Wee Willie, as though by rights he took that order on his shoulders; for it happened that he had long been known as a veritable “crank” when it came to building fires, and could manage to accomplish this result without the use of matches in half a dozen different ways, some of them really wonderful.

“Outside for this time might be better, as the night is so warm, and we don’t want to take chances of burning our shelter down about our ears,” he was told.

That was enough for the tall chum, who tossing down his pack borrowed Elmer’s hand torch so as to be able to gather some wood, and passing out, proceeded to business. Perk pulled out a fragment of a candle, purloined from home, which he lighted, and set on the gaping hearth.

“It isn’t much of a glim, but better than nothing at all,” he hastened to say in apology. “I always carry some fag-ends of candles when I’m out camping; you never know when you’ll need such things in a hurry. Whew! so this is the shack that gave the place the name of Log Cabin Bend? You c’n see the stars through the holes in the roof, for a fact.”

“We’ll mend that in the morning, Perk, so quit poking fun at our palatial abode,” chided Amos. “And if you asked me, I’d say there’s no apparent reason why we shouldn’t make ourselves mighty comfy here, given a little time, and some elbow grease.”

Already had the fire-maker managed to start his blaze, though likely enough he did not scorn to make use of a plain every-day match on this special occasion, knowing it was hardly the time for any “fiddling” with tedious methods of inducing a spark, coaxed into being by means of flint and steel, or some other aboriginal method of procedure.

As the flames leaped up, seizing on the dry wood Wee Willie had arranged so cleverly, the glow attracted the others, who came trooping out, showing by their actions how pleased they were to be finally free from their burdens.

“The first campfire for this outing!” remarked Perk, his round face aglow, while his eyes sparkled with satisfaction. “And how long will it be before your fire is fit for cooking over, Wee Willie?”

The other gave him a queer look, and seemed on the point of saying something sharp, but restrained himself.

“Right soon, so you might as well be getting the ham and eggs and coffee out of the packs, fellows. Say, I’m as hungry as a homeless dog; so be sure you cook double rations, Perk.”

“Leave that to me,” chuckled the other, ambling back inside the cabin in order to round up the necessary cooking implements and then root out the ingredients of the first meal in camp.

Elmer walked about meanwhile as though investigating the surroundings, so as to figure on what they would find it necessary to do in order to make the old shack habitable. Several times Wee Willie glanced toward the other as though he might have something on his mind. Finally he arose from his knees and joined Elmer.

“Noticed you sniffing like you suspected there might be a skunk in the offing?” he finally remarked. “Fact is, I thought myself there was a queer kind of odor around here, inside the cabin in particular.”

“That’s the idea I had,” assented Elmer, softly, “but this isn’t anything in the line of a polecat; if you asked me I’d say it was some sort of villainous tobacco, such as a tramp might pick up in a wayside field, and smoke in his pipe as he lay around after his supper!”

“By George, fellows! there goes somebody now! I’m sure I saw him this time!” said Perk excitedly, coming through the door and pointing through a dusky lane of trees. “Now tell me again that I am only imagining things!”