CHAPTER X
INTO THE WILDERNESS
But the lawyer and guardian of the runaway Birdsall twins was not soeasily convinced that Agnes had found the trail of the lost Ralph andRowena. It seemed preposterous that the twins should have joined theserough fisherfolk and lived with them in the ice-village.
The party from Milton waited at the village for an hour while thelawyer cross-questioned the inhabitants. It was not that any of thesepeople wished to hobble Mr. Howbridge's curiosity regarding the"stragglers," as they called the strangers who sometimes joined thecommunity; but nobody had considered it his or her business toquestion or examine in any way the two unknown girls (if they weregirls) who had occupied Manny Cox's shack for a week.
After all, the boy, Bob, and his mates, gave the most convincingtestimony regarding the strangers. He was positive that one of thestragglers had been a boy--a very sturdy and pugilistic one for atwelve-year-old lad.
"And that might fit young Ralph Birdsall's reputation, as I got itfrom Rodgers, the butler," said Mr. Howbridge. "Ralph has to bestirred by Rowena to fight; but, once stirred, Rodgers says he canfight like a wildcat."
"Why, what a horrid boy!" murmured Tess, who heard this. "I guess I'mglad those twins didn't come with us after all."
"But, Mr. Howbridge," asked Ruth, "does it seem possible that theycould get away up here alone?"
"That is difficult to say. Nobody knows how much money they had whenthey left Arlington. They might have come as far as this. If they hadwished to, I mean."
It was getting quite dark, now, and the children were tired andhungry. The party could spend no more time at the fishing village.They set out across the ice for Coxford.
Neale took Dot pick-a-pack and Luke shouldered Tess, although thelatter felt much embarrassed by this proceeding. Ruth had to urge herto remain upon the collegian's shoulder.
"Really, I'm quite too big to play this way," she objected.
But she was tired--she had to admit that. Sammy made no complaint; buthis short legs were weary enough before they reached the shore.
Oil lamps on posts lit the few streets of Coxford. Most of the slabhouses looked as though the wind, with a good puff, could blow themdown. The forest came down to the edge of the village. If there shouldbe a forest fire on this side of the mountain range, the slab-townwould surely be destroyed.
Hedden, Mr. Howbridge's man, had prepared things here for the party,as well as at Culberton. On the main street of the little town waswhat passed for a hotel. At this time of year it was but littlepatronized.
Therefore the lawyer's man had chartered the house, as well as thefamily that owned it, to make the holiday vacation party comfortableover one night.
Roaring fires, hot supper, feather beds, and plenty of woolen blanketsawaited the crowd from Milton at this backwoods hostelry. Mr. DanDurkin, who was the proprietor of the Coxford Hotel, and hishospitable wife and daughters, could not do too much for the comfortof Mr. Howbridge and his friends.
"We don't have enough strangers here in winter time to keep us in mindof what city folks are like," the hotel-keeper declared. "When Miz'Birdsall was alive, she and her man and the kids used to come throughhere three-four times 'twixt the first snow flurries an' the springbreak-up. They liked to see their camp up there in the hills durin'the winter. But after Miz' Birdsall died, he never came."
"And the children?" asked Mr. Howbridge, thoughtfully.
"They did come in summer," said Durkin; "but not in the winter."
"You haven't seen them of late, have you?" questioned the lawyer.
"Them twins? No. Nary hide nor hair of 'em. I tell you, ain'tnobody--scurcely--gets up here this time' o' year. 'Ceptin' a fewstragglers for the fishin', perhaps. But we don't see them here at thehotel. We don't take in stragglers."
But he and his family, as has been said, did their very best for theparty from Milton. The young folks slept soundly, and warmly, as well,and were really sorry to crawl out of the feather beds at seveno'clock the next morning when they were called to get ready forbreakfast.
The cold and the long ride of the day before seemed to have donenobody any harm. The balsam-laden air, when they went to the hotelporch for a breath of it before breakfast, seemed to search right downto the bottom of their lungs and invigorate them all. Surely, as Nealehad told Agnes, no tubercular germ could live in such an atmosphere.
"Just the same," said Ruth, wisely, when Agnes mentioned thisscientific statement fathered by the ex-circus boy, "you children keepwell wrapped up. What is one man's medicine is another man's poison,Mrs. Mac often says. And it is so with germs, I guess. What will killone germ, another germ thrives on. A bad cold up here will be almostsure to turn into pneumonia. So beware!"
"Don't keep talking about being sick," cried Cecile. "You are almostas bad as Neighbor." "Neighbor" Henry Northrup lived next door to theShepards and their Aunt Lorena, and was Luke's very good friend."Neighbor is forever talking about symptoms and diseases. After a halfhour visit with him I always go home feeling as though I needed tocall the doctor for some complaint."
They made a hearty and hilarious breakfast of country fare--fried porkand johnnycakes, with eggs and baked beans for "fillers." Mrs. MacCallshould not have tried to eat the crisply fried "crackling" as thefarmers call the pork-rind; but she did. And one of the teeth on herupper plate snapped right off!
"Oh, dear me, Mrs. Mac!" gasped Agnes. "And not a dentist for milesand miles, I suppose!"
"Oh, well, I can get along without that one tooth."
"My pop's got a new set of false teeth," Sammy said soberly. "He'sjust got 'em--all new and shiny."
"What did he do with the old ones he had?" asked Tess, interested.
"Huh! I dunno. Throwed 'em away, I hope. Anyway," said Sammy, who hadhad much experience in wearing made over clothing, "mom can't cut themdown and make me wear 'em!"
The jangling of sleighbells hurried the party through breakfast. Thelittle folks were first out upon the porch to look at the two pungs,filled with straw, and each drawn by a pair of heavy horses. Thelatter did not promise from their appearance a swift trip to Red DeerLodge; but they were undoubtedly able to draw a heavy load through thedeepest drifts in the forest.
They set out very gayly from the little lakeside town. It was not abrilliantly sunshiny day, for a haze wrapped the mountain tops aboutand was creeping down toward the ice-covered lake.
"There's a storm gathering," declared one of the men engaged to drivethe Milton party into the woods. "I reckon you folks will git aboutall the snow you want for Christmas."
"At any rate, it won't be a green Christmas up here," Agnes said toNeale, who sat beside her in the second sled. "I don't think it isnice at all not to have plenty of snow over Christmas and New Year's."
"I'm with you there," agreed the boy. "But I'm glad I haven't got toshovel paths through these drifts," he added, with a quick grin.
They found the tote-road, as the path was called, quite filled withsnow in some places. There were only the marks of the sleds that hadgone up two days before with the servants and baggage andreturned--these same two pungs in which the party now rode.
The drifts were packed so hard that the horses drew the sleds rightover the drifts, without breaking through more than an inch or twowith their big hoofs. In some places they could trot heavily, jerkingthe sleds along at rather a good pace; but for most of the way theroad was uphill, and the horses plodded slowly.
The boys got out now and then to stretch their legs. Agnes, too,demanded this privilege, and tramped along beside Neale after thesleds on the uphill grades. Mainly the party was warm and comfortable,and cheerful voices, laughter, and song rang through the spruce woodsas they traversed the forest-clad hills.
Red Deer Lodge, it proved, was a long day's journey from the lakesideinto the wilderness. Never before had the Corner House girls and theirfriends visited so wild a place. But they foresaw no trouble in storefor them--not even from the gathering storm.
"Of c
ourse," Agnes said, when she was tramping on one occasion withthe boys behind the second sled, "there must be bears, and wolves, andcatamounts, and all those, in these woods in summer. But they are allhidden away for the winter now, aren't they, Neale?"
"The bears are holed up," he granted. "But the other varmints--"
"What are those?"
"That is what Uncle Bill Sorber calls most carnivorous animals,"laughed Neale. "Creatures that prey--"
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" ejaculated the wide-eared Sammy. "You don't mean tosay wild animals pray, do you? I never knew they were that religious!"
"Good-_night_!" laughed Neale. "I mean those that prey on otheranimals--live on 'em, you know. _Prey_ on 'em."
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" murmured Sammy. "Just like the fleas on my bulldog,Buster?"
"That's enough! That's enough!" groaned Neale. "No use trying to teachthis boy anything."
"Huh!" grumbled Sammy Pinkney. "They make me learn enough in school.Don't you begin to pick on me out here in the woods, Neale O'Neil."
Just then Tom Jonah, who, his tongue hanging out, had been padding onahead, suddenly uttered a loud bark and leaped out of the path. Hewent tearing away across the tops of the drifts and through the openwood through which the tote-road then passed.
Out of a close-branched spruce just ahead of the big dog shot atawny-gray body, and a fearsome yowl drowned the barking of the dog.But the creature that had created Tom Jonah's excitement was runningaway.
"Call off that dog!" shouted the head driver. "Want him all chawedup?"
Tess stood up and began to scream for Tom Jonah to return. The old dogwould obey her voice if no other.
"Oh! What _is_ that?" cried Ruth.
"Link," said the driver, succinctly, as the beast uttered anotherangry howl which made the returning Tom Jonah turn to snarl in thestranger's direction.
"Oh!"
"He means _lynx_," said Mr. Howbridge.
"Don't, nuther," snorted the driver. "There's only one of him, so he'sa link. If they was two or more they'd be links."
"Oh! Ah!" chuckled Luke Shepard. "And that one is now the 'missinglink.' He was making tracks for the port of 'missing links' when hedisappeared."
"He's goin' some. That dog give him a scare," admitted the driver, asa third and more distant yowl floated back to them from the depths ofthe forest.
The whole party, however, was impressed by the incident. More than Dotwere disturbed by the thought of danger.
"Just the same," the smallest Corner House girl murmured in Tess' ear."I'm _not_ going to throw my Alice-doll overboard, either for wolfs orlinkses--so there!"