CHAPTER X A Council of War
Somewhat startled at Mac's words, the others looked around the loft andthen at each other. The thought that some unknown person had been in thebuilding, perhaps at the same time that they were downstairs, was not acomforting one, and they felt the grip of excitement and uncertainty.Barry glanced up at the roof above them.
"No hole there for this snow to drop through, and we haven't any snow onour shoes," he murmured. "It surely looks like Mac is right."
"If somebody was here, how did he get out?" Tim asked, peering into thedark corners of the loft. "Think he slipped down the roof?"
"It would be easy for anyone to go out the front door while we were inthe kitchen," Barry reminded them. "If anybody was hiding in the lodge,he could probably hear us talking and then sneak down into the hall andoutdoors while we were in the rear."
"That's just what has happened," Kent exclaimed with conviction.
Barry crushed the snow under his fingers. "It hasn't been here verylong," he gave his opinion. "You didn't have any of it on your shoes,did you, Mac?"
The Ford twin shook his head. "No, and I discovered it before I hadwalked that far. I wasn't sure at first what it was, and I had to touchit to make sure. If that fell off of somebody's clothes, then somebodywas here just a few minutes ago."
"Right you are," Kent nodded. "We ought to go down and look through thehouse again."
"And the sooner the better," seconded Barry, rising from the floor. "Imust let Dad know about this."
Led by Kent, the boys went downstairs and made a hasty search throughthe lodge, but found nothing. It was with considerable excitement thatthey looked into each room, not at all certain as to what they wouldfind, but no one was in the place. At last they gathered on the frontporch and looked up and down the lake, but no one was in sight.
"Let's take a look around the grounds," Tim suggested, and they made atour of the place. In the rear, back of the kitchen and in a separatebuilding, they found a variety of garden tools and odds and ends, butthe shed itself was empty of all life.
The timber came close to the back of the lodge, and if anyone had beenbent on vanishing from sight in that direction, it would not have takenhim long to do so. Going around on the far side of the lodge, the boyssaw that it was more rugged land than that on their side. A series ofravines and gullies ran beside the lodge, and less than an eighth ofmile away rose the scarred side of the old abandoned quarry.
"Pretty wild country on this side," said Barry, as they halted under oneof the bedroom windows to look around.
Tim approached the gully closest to the house and gazed down into it."People who camp in this lodge don't want to go walking at night," hesaid. "Not in this direction, anyway. They had better----Well, I'll bejiggered!"
"What's the matter?" they asked him.
"Looks like our sled down there! It is!"
The others joined him at the edge of the gully. Down below them a fewfeet they could see the sled, partly turned over, the front runnersburied under some snow-laden bushes. Tim slipped down into thedepression and located the rope.
"So there is where he hid the sled!" Kent exclaimed.
"And we tramped for miles looking for it!" Barry shook his head.
Tim toiled up the slope, dragging the sled after him. "He did more thanhide it there," he informed them, handing the rope to Mac to pull."Whoever put it there just threw it in. One front runner is broken."
Barry helped Mac pull the sled up. It was a low flat wooden affair withsteel runners. Part of the wood over the front runner had been smashed.
"Some nerve on the part of whoever did it," growled Barry, as theyexamined it. "I'd like to knock the stuffing out of the man!"
"Provided a man did it," Kent said.
"Well, somebody did it, and I suppose it is the same one who has beenprowling around this lodge. I mean to find this ghost or whatever it isthat is making the trouble at this place."
"It looks as though we ought to do some watching at night," Macsuggested, as they made their way around to the front of the lodge.
"We'll talk it over a little later," Barry promised, locking the frontdoor of the lodge. "We've got to get our firewood in and prepare for thenight. These days are short."
Cutting wood and preparing for the night took them the rest of the briefwinter afternoon, and then supper followed. The sun had gone down a dulland misty red, and the wind was moaning through the trees. There wasevery indication of a storm, and the boys were hoping that they wouldnot be snowed in.
"I'll put a splice on that broken sled runner," Kent offered, as theysat at the supper table. He was the best carpenter of them all, and theywere willing to let him do the mending.
"All right," Barry agreed. "That will fix it so that we can use it onthe way home. Whoever took our sled didn't steal the canvas or thefrying pan and the long coffee-pot handle, so he must have taken it justto scare us off."
"He just gave the sled a polite boot into the gully," grumbled Mac.
"Yes, and that gets under my skin," cried Barry. "He came and stole oursled before he knew why we had come here to camp. I wouldn't think somuch of it if he had done that after we had been through the lodge, buthe didn't even give us that long. Something has got to be done, and wemight just as well decide what it will be right here at this council ofwar."
"Maybe we ought to take turns sitting up and looking out of the window,"Mac gave as his idea.
"A pretty cold, thankless job," Kent shook his head. "Hang it all, wedidn't do a thing today about making better beds, and so far I haven'tenjoyed my sleep."
"I'll tell you what I have been thinking," Barry said slowly. "I believethat we ought to move into the lodge."
There was a moment of silence as the others considered his words,slightly startled at the proposition. "But your Dad told you that hewanted us to stay in this cabin," Tim reminded.
"Yes, he did at that time," Barry agreed. "But the whole situation haschanged since then. If we are to get on the track of the mysteriousspook of the lodge, we won't do it from here. We ought to be rightinside of that hunting lodge."
Again the boys were silent, considering it. "I know that we will be awhole lot more comfortable on those beds over there than we are here,"Kent said.
"We'll be a lot better off in several ways," Barry pointed out. "It is abigger place, and we'll have more elbow room. Then we'll be closer tothe actual scene of His Majesty the Spook's activity."
"That spook gets snow on him, same as any human," grinned Mac.
"Of course," nodded Barry. "Because he is human. It's just some meanperson up to a slippery game, but who it is or why he is at it, nobodyknows. And if we are going to find out, we'll have to hustle, becauseour time here is going by fast."
"Let's move over there tonight!" Tim suggested.
For a moment they were swayed by the thought, and then Kent and Barryshook their heads together. "Too much of a job at this time of night,"Kent said.
"We haven't much to move," Tim protested.
"That's true," Barry agreed. "But the lodge is too cold. We'll have tospend a full day warming up the place. We have only two lanterns, andwhile I noticed some lamps over there, I don't know whether they haveany oil in them or not. We'll do better to wait until morning."
"Taking it by and large, I believe it is the best thing to do,"commented Mac. "This little cabin does very well as a shelter from thestorm, but it isn't very comfortable."
"It hasn't been well taken care of," answered Kent, looking around."Some of the chinking is out between the logs, and that lets the air in.This table is thick with grease and looks like it never was cleaned."
"Mr. Bronson has been renting it out for a long time," explained Barry.He got up from the table. "After we have washed the dishes I'll write aletter to my father and tell him that we have decided to move into thelodge--in fact, I'll tell him everything. He might even run up herehimself."
"I hope w
e know something more definite by the time he does," observedMac.
Later in the evening Barry wrote a letter to his father relating eventsin detail and informing him of their contemplated move. While he wasbusily engaged at this, the other three boys were working on the brokenrunner board. Kent had decided to cut out a new one from a piece ofboard which he had found in the kitchen, and with the aid of ax andknife he managed to carve out a fair section of runner board. With thehelp of the twins he fitted it into place, and before long the job hadbeen successfully completed.
Before they retired for the night Barry opened the door of the cabin andwas surprised to see the soft white flakes falling. "It's snowing," hetold his chums.
"Looks as though we are going to move into the lodge just in time," Kentpredicted.
"I hope that this doesn't turn into a blizzard," Barry thought.