CHAPTER XVI
THE HORN POINTS THE WAY
Stacy tried to play a tune on the horn, the result being a series ofsquawks and discords.
"For goodness' sake stop it!" begged Tad.
"Don't you like my music?"
"I like music, but not your music. It's awful."
"Huh! You haven't any ear for music," complained Chunky.
Tad concluded that their horn had been heard, and that the searchingparty was waiting for them rather than start out over the trail whichLilly had seen but had not as yet read. He thought of course thatthe boys had strayed away on the trail of a bear.
Some time later, guided by the guide's horn fully as much as by thetrail marks, Tad and Stacy neared their two companions. A twinklinglight, now appearing and then as suddenly disappearing, seen far downthe trail between the trees, told the guide that the missing boyswere almost home.
"Hurrah! There they are," shouted Rector.
Lilly uttered a long-drawn call, which Stacy answered with a shrillwhoop.
"I guess we have a surprise for them," chuckled the fat boy. "Won'ttheir noses be out of joint? I reckon they will."
"Boys, are you all right?" shouted the guide when they came withinhailing distance.
"Both right-side-up," answered Tad cheerily, while Stacy was markingtime with hoarse toots on the hunting horn.
As they drew near, Ned and Lilly rode forward at a gallop to meetthem. About this time they discovered that Tad was carryingsomething on his pony's back.
"What's that you have there?" called Lilly.
"Guess," shouted Chunky.
"A bear," ventured Ned.
"No. There aren't any bears in these woods--only snakes and owls,"replied the fat boy.
"We have a deer," Tad proudly informed the guide and Ned.
"Well, you are some hunters," remarked Lilly approvingly. "Did youget lost?"
Tad shook his head.
"Oh, no; we held closely to the trail. There is no fun in gettinglost, you know. Mr Lilly, did you find my double blaze?"
"I reckon I did. I knew, from that, that you had gone away aftersomething, and I saw you knew what you were about. How far did yougo?"
"'Bout a hundred miles," replied Stacy.
"Not quite so far as that, I guess," laughed Tad. "We went a longdistance, though, and it was the toughest traveling that I everexperienced."
"Shall I take the doe?" asked Billy.
"No, thank you, Mr. Lilly. My horse is tired, but I think he canstand it until we get home. Where are the Professor and Walter?"
"At the camp. No need to fetch the whole outfit along. I thought youboys were lost, and that we might have a long hike of it through thenight. I am mighty glad to see you safe and sound. Where did you getthe doe?"
"Just a few rods from here."
"Eh?"
"Yonder." Tad pointed.
Lilly regarded him with a puzzled expression.
"Then what in the world were you dragging him off into the swamp for?"
"I will tell you about that when we get home," replied Tad. "It is along story."
"And an exciting one, too," added Chunky, mysteriously.
"I'll bet you have been getting into fresh difficulties," jeeredRector.
"On the contrary, Ned, he has been helping me out of difficulties.Stacy showed himself to be the real man today. You will agree withme when you hear the story."
"Let's hear it, then," urged Ned.
"I couldn't think of telling it to you now. Stacy is famished; we areboth tired and anxious to get home."
"Yes, and we are going to have some venison steak when we get back tocamp. Oh, wow?" howled the fat boy.
The Professor and Walter heard them coming when later the partyneared the camp. Both were out watching with anxious eyes. Tadshouted that they were all right, to the great relief of ProfessorZepplin, and the Professor and Walter opened their eyes when they sawwhat Tad had shot.
"Help me get this animal strung up," requested Tad. "I have bled thedoe, but that was all I could find time to do. The carcass should bestrung up and dressed at once."
"Ichabod will attend to that," answered Lilly. "Here, Ichabod. Getthese young gentlemen something hot to drink and eat, then look afterthis carcass."
"Yes, sah." Ichabod was grinning broadly. He had not believed thatthe boys were such mighty hunters. They had not shot a bear, it istrue, but they had brought in what was better--a fine, tender doe,and the colored man was actually licking his chops in anticipation ofthe treat before him. Next to a 'possum stew Ichabod went silly overvenison steaks.
None of the party had eaten supper, so that all the appetites were onkeen edge. In a few moments there was a steaming pot of coffee readyfor them, with some hastily fried bacon. This, with a heaping plateof waffles which the colored man had baked earlier in the evening,made a most palatable meal. Stacy's voice was stilled. He beganbefore the others and ate so voraciously that his companions wereforced to eat more rapidly by way of self-protection.
"Let him eat. He has earned it," begged Tad in answer to theProfessor's protest.
"Suppose you tell us what happened," suggested Lilly.
"Shortly after we arrived at our station," began Tad, leaning back, aslice of bacon in one hand, a waffle in the other, both poised halfway to his mouth, "I heard something in the brake, and peering, Icaught sight of this doe. She saw me at the same instant, and leaped.I shot her while she was still in the air," murmured Tad modestly.
"Was she in the cane?" interrupted the guide.
"Yes, sir."
"Good shot!"
"It was a quick one, and lucky. I caught her just back of the leftshoulder. She went down in her tracks."
"Better than shooting bears," declared Rector.
"Having left Stacy with the horses some distance back I strung up thecarcass, then hurried back to get my horse. When we reached the placewhere I had left the deer, there was no deer there. It haddisappeared."
Lilly had forgotten to eat. He was leaning forward with eager face.
"Not there?"
"I examined the ground and found the tracks of a man," continuedButler. "Then I found horse tracks. I found also a trail on theground where the carcass had been dragged over it to a tree and bloodat the foot of a tree where the doe had been thrown down. From thatpoint the dragging was not found. Instead, were the hoofprints of ahorse. These hoofprints sunk into the soft ground deeper now,showing that the animal was carrying a heavier load."
"Indeed?" wondered Professor Zepplin.
"Well, to make a long story short, we determined to get that doe.The trail was an easy one to follow, for the fellow who had stolenthe carcass had to cut his way through over most of the trail. Ablind man could have followed him."
Tad then went on to explain how they had eventually come up with thestranger, engaged him in conversation, repeating what the man hadsaid about having seen a hunter with a buck, then proceeding torelate how the carcass had been discovered behind a fallen cypress.
"Then what?" asked Lilly in a low, tense voice, tugging violently athis long moustache.
"I went over to fetch the deer."
"A--a--a--and the fellow shot him. He shot Tad's hat right off,"cried Stacy, forgetting to eat for the moment. Tad embraced theopportunity to take a bite of the crisp bacon.
"No, he didn't shoot again. Stacy leveled his rifle at the man andmade him drop his revolver. Then Stacy made the fellow give up hisrifle. There isn't much more to tell except that we got our doe,after which I returned the fellow's weapons to him and sent him on hisway at a lively clip. That's all. You know the rest. We followedour trail home and here we are. How many bear did you get?"
"Not a smell," answered Rector. "But tell us some more."
"Did you find out what the fellow's name is?" questioned Lilly.
"We didn't ask him. But I tripped him into an admission that he knewyou. Still, I don't know as that is of m
uch consequence. Everyonedown this way appears to know you."
"Pretty much all of them do," answered the guide. "What did thefellow look like?"
"He looked like some sort of a man to me," spoke up Chunky. "I reckonhe was some sort of a man, but not much of a one at that. I'm sorryhe didn't give me an excuse to plug him."
"Stacy!" warned the Professor reprovingly.
"Yes, Stacy is developing into a blood-thirsty young man," smiled Tad."Still, he proved himself the genuine thing today. He was as cool ascould be. I wish you might have seen the way in which he handled thefellow."
"What did he look like?" repeated Lilly.
"I beg your pardon. He was about your height, I should say, butsomewhat thinner. He wore a long beard and his face was weazened.He had blue eyes and light hair. His horse was white, something likethe one I am using now. Does that give you any idea, Mr. Lilly?"
The guide's face had contracted into a scowl.
"I reckon I've seen that hound before," growled Billy.
"Who do you think he is?"
"I wouldn't want to say, not knowing for sure. But if it's the fellowI think, you will most likely hear from him again."
"But what was his motive?" insisted Tad.
"Eh? Motive? Why, I reckon he wanted some steak for his supper,"grinned Billy.
"That's what I told him," piped the fat boy.
Tad shook his head.
"That wasn't his only reason. He had another," declared the boy withemphasis.
"What makes you think so?" questioned Lilly, peering keenly at thebrown-faced Pony Rider Boy.
"He saw that deer before I did. He must have. Why didn't he shootif he wanted it?"
"You're a sharp one," chuckled Lilly. "I reckon Pete will have toget up before daylight if he thinks to get ahead of my boys."
"Pete?" repeated Butler.
"I was just thinkin' out loud," explained Billy.
"Do I understand you to say that he tried to shoot you, Tad?"questioned Professor Zepplin.
"I wouldn't say that exactly. I don't think that at first heintended to hit me. Later on he was so mad that he would have doneso had not Chunky held him in check."
"Stacy, I am pleased beyond words to know that you have in a measureredeemed yourself," declared the Professor with glowing face.
"Oh, I am always in my element when there is danger about. Yes, sir,I am a hummer when it comes to danger."
"Especially when a 'gator is chasing you," reminded Ned Rector.
"That isn't danger, that's just plain murder," answered the fat boy,rolling his eyes and showing the whites.
"Well, don't have a fit about it," chuckled Ned. "I will admit thatyou were a hero in this instance, but you will have to play the heroa lot more times before we even up for the cold feet you have shownin the past."
"You're jealous--that's what is the matter with you," retorted thefat boy.
"You are under the impression that you know the man, Mr. Lilly?"asked the Professor.
"I may," was the evasive answer.
"What do you propose to do about it?"
"Nothing just now. I reckon I'll think the matter over. I shallcome up with the moccasin one of these days, then we'll have areckoning that _will_ be a reckoning."
"I sincerely hope there will be no bloodshed," said the Professoranxiously.
"There came pretty near being bloodshed today," replied Stacy."Br-r-r-r!"
After supper Lilly went away by himself and sat down on the bank ofthe river, where he tugged at first one end of his moustache, thenthe other, while he pondered over the story told by Tad Butler andStacy Brown.
"The copperhead!" grunted Lilly. "I reckon I don't want to see him.I'm afraid I couldn't hold myself. But we shall see, we shall see."
In saying this Lilly was a prophet, for before long they did see.