CHAPTER IX.
LUCKY BRUIN.
"Oh! murder! he's broke loose, and remembers about me!" Bumpus wasshouting close to the ear of Thad; and there was a great scurrying inthat quarter, as if the fat boy might be trying to hide himself underthe blankets.
Thad hurried outside as fast as he could; and in this he was closelyimitated by Bob White and Giraffe, who happened to be his other tentmates.
Already Thad had made a most important as well as surprising discovery.Those yells did not appear to be given by Allan, Step-hen, Davy Jones orSmithy. They were fashioned on another key from the well-known voices ofthese fellow scouts.
Of course, the first and most natural idea that flashed into Thad's mindlay in the direction of the two foreigners, whom Smithy seemed tobelieve must be Bohemians. Could they have followed the trail of theescaped bear, and entering the camp of the scouts by stealth, were nowengaged in administering the beating to the poor animal, as they thoughthe deserved for leaving them in the lurch?
In one way it sounded like that might be the case, for amidst all theclamor of shouts Thad could detect something like roars or grunts fromthe bear.
But no sooner was he outside the tent than he realized that this couldnot be the case at all. The voices were certainly not those of men, butrather sounded like cries falling from boys' tongues. And instead ofbeing raised in anger, they were frantic with _fright_!
An old moon had risen while the campers slept, so that it was no longerdark out on the lake near by.
The first thing Thad did was to look toward the tree where the bear hadbeen chained at the time Smithy took care of him so neatly. He wasstanding on his hind legs, and giving tongue to his feelings in deeprumbling roars that seemed to almost make the very air tremble.
"Just listen to 'em go, would you?" ejaculated a voice close to Thad'sshoulder, and he turned to find Allan there; while his three tent mateswere close behind, all worked up again over this new and excitingmystery of the first night in camp.
"Who in the wide world can it be?" asked Bob White.
"Don't know; but I'm sorry for one of them," remarked Thad; "because hesmashed into the trunk of that tree just then; and I rather guess he'llhave the marks to show for it a long while."
"And listen to that splash, boys!" exclaimed Step-hen.
"Just as like as not another of the lot slipped and fell into the lake;"spoke up Giraffe, "there he goes splashing like fun, and how he doesholler in the bargain!"
"Hark! what is he shouting?" asked Allan.
"Why, he's calling for help, because he thinks the old bear will get himnow, sure. I c'n see him near the shore there, kicking up the water likean old stern-wheel steamboat. Say, ain't he the worst scared fellow youever saw?"
"Don't forget there were a bunch about as bad off as that, a whileback," declared Thad; "but he seems to be calling for some one to comeback and help him."
"I got it then, and it was Brose!" exclaimed Bob White, who had veryacute hearing.
"That explains it all," declared Thad. "Now we know who we have to thankfor making all this racket. Brose Griffin and his two shadows, Hop, andEli Bangs were going to pay us a nice little surprise party visit.Perhaps when we woke up in the morning we'd have found all sorts ofthings gone, and have to hike back to town to-morrow. But they didn'tknow we had a bear in camp, did they, fellows?"
"Oh! my, and if they didn't stumble right on the beast!" exclaimedBumpus, who, not wanting to be left by himself in the tent, had crawledout, after taking a cautious look first. "What a rich joke on Brose andhis crowd. I can just see 'em scooting for home for all they're worth.Never catch any of that bunch around our camp again on this trip, that'ssure, boys."
"I hope," Thad went on to say as he stood listening; "the fellow in thelake don't go under; it must be Hop; because you know he does limp some,from that broken leg he got last winter."
"Oh! he got out all right," observed Allan.
"Sure thing," added Giraffe; "because I saw him climb up the bank; andthere, if you listen, you can hear the silly right now, going whimperingalong. Say, what a time we are having, eh, fellows?"
"Who'd ever think so much could be crowded inside a few hours?" declaredSmithy; who felt that he would have good reason to look back on thisremarkable experience as the crowning feature of his whole life, becausehe had certainly lived more in the last four hours than all the balanceof his years thrown together.
"And boys, don't forget we owe a lot to our guest--what was that youcalled him, Smithy--Bumpus?" Thad continued.
"Oh! let's change it to just plain Smith," suggested Bumpus.
"But we do owe the old fellow a whole lot of thanks," remarked BobWhite. "And in the morning, suh, I intend to see to it that he gets agood filling breakfast, even if I have to cut down my own allowance."
At that Giraffe groaned dismally.
"Oh! say, you don't think of going that far, I hope; and for only adancing bear; we ought to be able to feed him on the leavings, don't youthink?" he asked.
"He'd soon kick the bucket, then, Giraffe, if he waited for any leavingsfrom your platter," observed Davy Jones; "because I notice that you lickit clean every time."
"Listen, do you hear any more shouting?" asked Thad.
Though they strained their ears no one could catch a single sound.
"Guess they've got beyond earshot," remarked Step-hen.
"But you take it straight from me, suh, they're running yet; and Iwouldn't be afraid to say that they'll keep it up until they fairlydrop," Bob White gave as his opinion; and indeed, all of them agreedwith him there.
Then the funny side of the thing seemed to strike them. First onecommenced to laugh, and then, as the others looked at him they toostarted, until the merriment grew, and some of the scouts were holdingeach other up in their weakness. Bumpus even solemnly declared the bearjoined in the general hilarity; he did act a bit queerly, and made aseries of sounds that might be construed into bear laughter.
Smithy remarked that the old fellow deserved another feed after suchsplendid service in guarding the camp.
"There's that heavy cake Step-hen fetched along; might try him on that;and if he likes it, we'll be saved more'n one stomach ache," Davyproposed.
"Why, I didn't think it was so _very_ bad," spoke up Giraffe; and then,seeing the others frowning at him, he hastened to add; "but if you thinkhe ought to be fed again, to keep him quiet, why break off a piece,Smithy."
"A piece!" cried Step-hen, "he gets the whole cake, understand. Talkabout base ingratitude, some persons can never feel anything but theempty state of their stomach. Why, that bear saved us the whole of ourgrub, mebbe, by giving the alarm; and Besides, he scared that bunch sobad they'll let us alone after this. The bear takes the cake, don't he,Thad?"
"He certainly does," replied the scout-master, laughing again.
Smithy found that the chained visitor was perfectly agreeable, for theway he took that heavy cake and devoured, it was a caution.
"Watch him eat, Giraffe," suggested Davy Jones; "he can give you somevaluable pointers on how to stow the grub away. You see, his neck ain'tlike yours, and it takes less time to navigate the channel."
"Huh! I only hope it gives him a cramp, and doubles him up," gruntedthe other, in more or less disgust.
"Now you're getting one off on me, you think," remarked Davy; for he hadbeen subject to cramps a long time, and never knew when one would attackhim, making him perfectly helpless for the time being; and the boys werebeginning to notice how accommodating the said "cramps" seemed to be,visiting Davy just when some hard work loomed up in which the victim wassupposed to have a part.
"And now what?" demanded Step-hen, yawning, and stretching his longfigure.
"Do we go back to our downy couch again, fellows; or is it so nearmorning that we'd better stay awake?" asked Davy Jones.
"Do you know what time it is?" asked Thad, who had been inside toconsult the little nickel watch he carried: "just ten minutes aftertwo!"
"W
ow! me to get seven more winks!" exclaimed Giraffe; "and please don'twake me so suddenly again, boys. My eyelids popped open with a bang. Ifthey hadn't been fastened on as tight as they were, I'd have lost one,sure."
"That's the way you wake up, eh?" remarked Step-hen. "Remember theIrishman who heard the cannon fired when the flag went down, and askedwhat it was. When they told him it meant sunset he said----"
"'Sure, the sun niver goes down in ould Ireland wid a bang loike thot!'"called out Giraffe from the interior of the tent, spoiling the tellingof Step-hen's little story, which no doubt every one of the boys knew.
Soon the camp was wrapped in silence again, even the contented bearlying down, better satisfied than ever with his new friends. And thatwish of Giraffe's could not have borne fruit, for there was nothingheard to indicate that the bear suffered the least bit of indigestionfrom devouring the whole heavy cake that would have lain like lead ineven a boy's strong stomach.
The rising moon sailed higher in the heavens, and looked down upon thepeaceful camp of the Silver Fox Patrol. The little wavelets washed up onthe shore with a sweet musical tinkle that must have been like a lullabyto the boys, seeing that even Thad failed to awaken again, while nightlasted; and the smouldering camp-fire had to take care of itself fromthe time of that second alarm.
Some of them would very likely have imitated their habits when at home,and tried to sleep until long after sunrise; only that they were undermilitary rules while in camp.
And so it was the clear notes of the bugle, blown by the now recoveredBumpus, as he alone could blow it, that rang out over the water, tellingthe sleepers that they must make their appearance for the early morningdip in the clear lake, after which the various duties of the day couldbe taken up, beginning with the first camp breakfast.