CHAPTER XIX. THE "WHINE" OF A BULLET.
"Wow! and again I say, wow!" broke out Giraffe, although rather feebly;for the astounding admission made by Thad seemed to have almost taken hisbreath away.
"Fired--on--by--the--hobo burglars?" gasped Bumpus.
"Sounds kind of interestin', Thad; s'pose you tell us more about it?"suggested Step Hen; who, strange to say, appeared to treat the matter ina less serious vein than any of his companions.
Sebattis had raised his head at hearing what the newcomer said, and wasevidently taking note; Jim shut his teeth hard together, and assumed whathe no doubtless believed to be his "fighting face"; and he certainlylooked fierce enough, Bumpus thought, happening to glance that way.
"Well, let's have a bite to eat, first, and after that's done with, I'lltell you all there is to the story," declared Thad, who was evidently"some tired," as Giraffe liked to put it.
Then there _was_ a hustle, as every one tried to do something about thefire, so as to hurry things along; for it became evident that Thad was inno humor to talk until he had refreshed the inner man.
"Some of you fellers go back and sit down; there's quite too many cooksaround here, and it hinders things more than it helps. Jim and me c'n getalong faster if left alone," and with these words Giraffe "shooed" StepHen and Davy into the background.
Presently the coffee was boiling, and there was a scent of cooking foodin the air. While the three returned hunters were munching their supperthe others hovered around. Seconds seemed like minutes to them; while thelatter took on the shape of long hours, so impatient were the boys tohear what had happened.
But after a time Thad announced that he was satisfied; and assuming acomfortable attitude, he started in to talk, the others hanging on hisevery word, and frequently interrupting to ask questions, when a certainpoint was not wholly understood.
"We tramped all morning, and never started any game worth bagging," hebegan. "Of course, there were partridges, and if we hadn't been out afterdeer we might have brought in a good-sized bag of the birds. But you knowhow it is--when you've got your mind made up to have venison, these otherthings only annoy you."
"All the same," remarked Giraffe, "partridges are mighty fine eating; andI'm going to bring in a bunch some of these fine days, if Davy'll loan mehis gun."
As yet nothing had been said about the bee tree, or the black thiefGiraffe had bagged; and the boy was holding the news back, in order tospring it on the deer hunters, in order to show them that they were notthe only ones who had met with an adventure since sun-up that morning.
"At nooning," Thad went on to say, paying no attention to theinterruption, for he knew the failings of Giraffe only too well; "westopped to eat our snack, and figure out which way we wanted to trampbetween then and night. Eli had his mind set on getting a deer, and allof us were willing to stay out till we had dropped one, even if it tookall of to-morrow.
"Then once more we made a start, changing our course, and intending tocover a larger territory, by making a big sweep. And about three in theafternoon we managed to start up a nice fat young buck, which fell to ourrifles."
Davy was seen making motions with his hands just at this juncture, andthe others had little difficulty in reading the signs to mean that inreality the said fat young buck had fallen to the rifle of the speaker,Thad, himself; and if the others could claim any share in the glory, itwas small indeed.
"We hung the prize up," Thad went on, "intending to come back for him acouple of hours later; since Eli had an idea we might scare up anotherdeer in the country just beyond; and Davy was wild for a chance to tryhis buckshot cartridges on one."
"But it wasn't any use," broke in Davy just then. "We just tramped andtramped till even Eli said there didn't seem to be any more deer movingjust then. Besides, I complained of sore feet; and I guess that was onereason why the others determined to turn back, pick up our young buck,and strike for home."
"The place where we had left the deer was about seven miles from here,down the wind," Thad continued; "and we just knew that with that trampahead, carrying what we wanted of the deer, it would take us a good timeto get here. But no matter, we headed straight for the spot which Eli hadmarked down in his mind as being the big tree, to a limb of which we hadhoisted our game.
"On the way, Davy, who had changed his shells, knocked over a couple ofpartridges very neatly. They are in one of those bundles there. I onlymention this fact because Eli believes that the discharge of thedouble-barrel gun had something to do with what followed.
"Pretty soon we came in sight of the big tree; at least it looked mightylike the one we meant to find; but we had to rub our eyes, and lookagain; for do you know, there wasn't any deer at all hanging there? Elisaid he had made no mistake, and Davy was as sure as I was that it mustbe our tree all right.
"Just then one of us discovered that there was something lying at thefoot of the tree, that had the look of a deer, and we hurried forward.Davy hadn't forgotten about the wolves we heard howling, and was sayingthat they must have dragged the buck down in some way. But Eli knewbetter, and that it could not be the work of any wolf that ever trottedon four legs.
"Then we came closer, and saw a sight that made us furious," Thad wenton, a frown on his usually placid brow. "There was our lovely littlebuck, all carved up as fine as you please, and by one who knew just howto do the business, too. The best pieces had been carried away, and wewere left only what might have done for the foxes or wolves!"
"Whew!" burst out the impulsive Giraffe, "say, that was enough to makeanybody as mad as hops. I can just see Davy here jumping around like fun.Of course you looked for a trail, didn't you, Thad?"
"That was the very first thing we did," resumed the other; "and therewasn't any trouble about finding one either; for Eli said they had jumpedoff in such a big hurry he just knew they must have heard Davy's shots,and expected that we were coming back for our game. Well, there wasn'tany use crying over spilt milk, boys. But we were so much upset by ourmisfortune, and so mad at those fellows, that we just started off ontheir trail."
"Meaning to hold them up, if only you overtook the bunch?" suggestedBumpus, who was listening with all eagerness, his eyes round withinterest.
"Oh! well, none of us hardly knew what we meant to do," Thad answered; "Irather guess our only thought just then was to try and recover the finevenison those two rascals had robbed us of."
"Then there wasn't three of them again?" asked Giraffe, quickly; and Thadsmiled as he turned toward the tall scout, saying:
"I was just wondering whether any of you would notice that, when I saidit; but the fact is, there were only a pair of 'em; and Eli's about cometo the conclusion the third man must be sick, or badly wounded. Well, wedid start off at a hot pace, Eli of course doing most of the trailing."
"But just hold on there, Thad," interrupted Davy Jones; "you know wellenough that three separate times you found the tracks when Eli had lostthe trail; and didn't he say prompt enough that, for a boy, you certainlydid show a heap of smartness?"
"I think we must have followed that trail about a mile;" Thad went on,giving Davy a smile for his compliment; "and it was beginning to get duska little, when all of a sudden a gun banged away, somewhere ahead, and weheard the whine of a bullet passing over close above our heads."
"Say," and again Davy broke in to express his own individual feelings inthe matter, "none of you fellers ever was shot at, and I just guess nowyou can't understand the queer feeling it gives you. I felt like the pitof my stomach had kind of caved in, and there was a gnawing just like youhave when you're _awful_ hungry. And when Thad says that there bullet'whined' over our heads, he hits the mark all right, for that's what itsounded like. I dropped flat on my face in the scrub, and lay as still asa 'possum playing dead."
"We all dodged some, I imagine," remarked Thad, with a smile at Davy'swords. "I know I found myself behind a tree in pretty short order. Elibegan to creep up, and it seemed
rather exciting about that time. EvenDavy and myself started to advance. And pretty soon there was Eli,calling to us to come on, because there was no longer any danger, for thebirds had flown."
"Skipped out, just like that," and Davy, snapped his fingerscontemptuously; "all the while we kept laying low, and trying to see ifwe could glimpse anything to bang away at. It was bad luck."
"Well," Thad resumed his story by saying, "with the night at hand, andthe two venison thieves a good half mile away by that time, even Eli sawthat it was useless trying to overhaul 'em. So we concluded to make ourway back to where our buck had lain, take what we could get of theremains, and then start by slow stages for the cabin here. But we hadlittle to say on the way, for it seemed more like a funeral processionthan the return of a victorious hunting party."
"And I'll own up I was pretty nigh tuckered out," admitted Davy. "That'sone reason why Eli and Thad decided to come along home. Been limpin' thebetter part of the way, and I guess I've got a stone bruise on my heelthat don't feel any too fine. But I'll be all right to-morrow, fellers;and then just see what we do to them that would take the bread away fromyour mouth, if they had the chance."
The others looked to Thad, as though what Davy had just said gave them acue.
"Is that the game, to go back there in the mornin', an' take up thetrail?" asked Giraffe, excitedly.
"This here seems to be the real thing, all wool, and a yard wide,"muttered Bumpus; and then brightening up, he continued, with increasingearnestness: "and then, if we should find a chance to capture thoseslippery rascals, just think what we could do with all the nice moneythat's offered for their apprehension? Didn't our friend the sheriff sayit was a whole thousand, and might be twice that by now? Count me in,Thad, I want you to know, if we're going to round up these bank burglars.You may wonder why I'm so fierce about it; but you forget that my dad isthe president of our bank at Cranford; and who knows but what it might abeen that institution these hoboes looted. I've got a personal interestin this matter, and I ain't going to be left out of any deal either, justremember that!"