CHAPTER VIII--OLD ENEMIES APPEAR
"Bend your head a little. Now, look pleasant, as a fellow should afterslaying a couple of ferocious wildcats. Ready? Then here she goes!"
Snap!
Bluff had been posing, with Jerry's gun in his hands. At his feet,artistically stretched out, were the two defunct invaders of the nightcamp. Will had his camera in position, and was taking a snapshot of themighty Nimrod.
"After all it's only a big fake, for I never had a hand in the killingat all," declared Bluff, with a laugh.
"Fake? No more than most of the pictures you see, where some well-knownperson is photographed with a big bear at his feet, or perhaps it's amoose. I guess I know. But it gives me a picture, and neither Jerry norFrank would bother posing. You're really the only accommodating pard incamp, Bluff," remarked Will.
"Oh, rats! you only say that because you can smooth me over, and get meto consent to helping you out in these dreadful frauds of pictures. Ireckon I'll never hear the last of it if Mame Crosby ever learns how Istood for this, when others claimed the game," grunted Bluff.
"But I thank you ever so much, old fellow; you're so obliging," saidWill.
"Well, I'd like to get one of the boats out, and try the fish. What areyou going to do, now?" asked the other.
"I'll tell you. I've got some flashlight contrivances here that havebeen used successfully, they tell me, in making wild game photographthemselves. Just think how great that would be. The thing is set with asort of trigger, you see. As the 'coon or other beast creeps up alongthe log to get the piece of meat, he crosses a string that sets theflash afire. It's all over in a second, and there's your nice picture ofMr. Coon sitting up and looking startled."
"Huh! you believe you can do all that, do you?" asked Bluff, theskeptic.
"Why not, when others have met with great success. I've read up on thesubject, and think I've got it all down pat. Anyhow, no harm done intrying."
"Of course not. Well, I'm going to leave this gun of Jerry's in yourcharge, as I'll hardly need it out on the lake. First I expect to digsome worms, and then try for the perch, just to see if they've wakenedup from their winter's nap."
"You won't go far away, I hope?" remarked Will, a little nervously.
"See that point yonder? Well, off that I believe the perch are waitingfor me. I remember catching a bully mess there last Spring when severalof us came down here fishing. If you want me at any time just give acall and I'll be with you in a jiffy."
So Bluff went off to dig his worms in a promising spot, while Will beganto get things in readiness for the clever little trick he intended toplay upon B'rer 'Coon or Mr. 'Possum.
Half an hour later Bluff was anchored off the point. He found the perchravenous, as they usually are after a winter's sojourn under the ice;and it kept him busy right along pulling in the wriggling, barredpoachers, or baiting the hooks they denuded.
It was getting along toward noon when he fancied he detected the odor ofcooking in the air.
"Let him have a try at it; I guess it's up to Will to show how much hehas learned in the cooking line since last Fall. He's a green hand, andit's about time he took hold. I'm comfortable here. When grub's readyhe'll call me," was what the sly Bluff was saying to himself, as he kepthis back turned toward the camp, and continued to tempt the perch.
"Hey! you, Bluff!" came a shout just then.
"What d'ye want, bothering me in that way?" demanded the fisherman.
"For goodness' sake come ashore and give me a hand. I can't find anymore dishes, and the pesky thing still keeps bubbling over. Come quick,or we'll be smothered under a mountain of it!" shouted the one on shore.
"Now what under the sun has the fellow been up to?" said Bluff tohimself, as he pulled in his anchor, and used the paddle to urge thecanoe ashore.
When he strode into the camp a minute or so later he stared, and thenburst into a shout of laughter as he dropped upon the ground and rolledabout.
"Well, I don't see anything so funny about it," declared Will, in anaggrieved tone as he looked at the various kettles and dishes heapedhigh with boiled rice, and the kettle on the fire still pouring up itswhite contents like a miniature volcano in action. "I never knew ricewould expand like that. Why, it's dreadful the way it keeps boilingover. What can we do to hold the stuff?"
"Say, how much did you put in the kettle?" gasped Bluff, when he couldspeak.
"All there was, and even then I wondered if there would be any left forthe rest."
Bluff acted as though he would have a fit.
"All there was," he shouted, "that beats anything I ever heard. AndFrank said the grocery-man had doubled his order, and put up _fourpounds_! Say, we'll have rice every way under the sun up to the day wepull up stakes and get out of here. Still she boils! If you don't takecare the blooming thing'll put the fire out."
Finally he condescended to help poor Will, and some of the rice wasscooped out of the kettle, relieving the congestion. Still, what to dowith the vast quantity of half-cooked rice was a question calculated toappall Will during the balance of the day.
He finally compromised by secretly burying a large portion where hecalculated none of his chums would find it again.
Bluff assisted in getting some lunch ready, and Will was very meek afterthat experience. He grimly determined that he would pay more attentionto what the others were doing when preparing meals, and by degrees learnthe secret of cooking.
"Did you get your little game trap set?" asked Bluff after they hadeaten, and lay around taking it easy.
"Everything is ready for the coming of the night. I'll expect to findthe cheap little camera which I brought along for that especial purpose,doing its work. No matter, it's worth a trial, anyway. Nothing ventured,nothing gained," remarked Will.
"Rice, for instance," ventured Bluff, turning his head to look at thegreat snow-white heap that covered a spread-out newspaper nearby, sincethey had to empty the cooking utensils which Will had filled one afterthe other.
"Oh! I admit that was a fine joke on me, all right, and I suppose I'llhave to just stand the digs of the boys for a while. But it's spurred meon, and sooner or later I'm bound to be a _chef_ worth mentioning. Iguess they haven't found any sort of game on their trip around theisland, do you?"
"I heard no shot to tell of it," admitted Bluff. He was lying on hisback and apparently ready for a nap.
"It was some hot out there on the water, son, and I'm inclined to bedopy. Please keep on guard while I take a dozen winks," he said, pullinghis hat over his face.
His dozen winks stretched out for some two hours. During this time Willbusied himself in reading a little book on camp cookery which he hadbrought along. It looked as though he were about to study up on thesubject in earnest.
Finally Bluff gave a grunt, began to move and stretch himself, and thensat up.
"Hello! I guess I must have been asleep," he remarked.
Will drew out his little nickel watch and surveyed it.
"Two hours and thirteen minutes to the dot. A few winks, eh? When am Igoing to get my chance to indulge?" he demanded, sternly.
"Now, if the spirit moves. But I see you have been busy 'conning' thatvolume of camp recipes. Any dishes that call for rice there, becausewe've got it and to spare. I always liked boiled rice, with sugar andmilk, even the condensed kind; but there can be too much of a goodthing. I'll be like the old dominie soon whose people fed him on rabbitevery place he went."
"How was that?" asked Will.
"Never heard that story? Well, you see, they knew he liked rabbit, soevery place he ate, his host made sure to have his favorite dish. Ofcourse the good man hated to tell them that he was getting sick of thetaste of rabbit; so what d'ye think he finally hit on as a delicate wayof getting a change?"
"I give it up; now tell me," declared Will.
"When he found it before him the next time he bowed his head and thiswas the grace he said: 'Of rabbits young, of rabbits old; of rabbitshot, of rabbits cold; of rabbits te
nder and rabbits tough, I thank theLord we've had enough!'"
"That must have fetched them, all right. Now, if any one puts up a howlhere about rice, I'm going to bury the balance of it, mark my words.What ails you, Bluff?" demanded Will, as his companion started half tohis knees, and crouching there stared through the leaves of thelow-growing trees that concealed the camp from the lake.
"Look yonder, and see! H'sh! not another word!" he murmured.
Will crept to a place beside him, and, finding an opening, also used hiseyes to advantage. What he saw would have annoyed any of the boys,considering the fact that they had hoped for a period of peace whilecamping on Wildcat Island.
A large rowboat was just passing that side of the island. It had comefrom up the lake somewhere, and was filled with a crowd of rough-lookingboys.
"Pet Peters and his crowd again. They gave us all the trouble they couldlast Fall when we were in camp above the lumber docks, and now they'vehunted us up again to annoy us," breathed Will, as soon as he saw whooccupied the rowboat. "But Andy Lasher isn't with them--he's away on avisit, somebody told me."
Bluff had reached out and picked up Jerry's shotgun.
"They seem to be looking in here pretty hard," continued Will.
"I guess they know we're here, and they've got some mean trick up theirsleeve; but possession's nine points of the law, and we don't get out toplease those rowdies," said Bluff between set teeth.