CHAPTER VIII
A PRIZE IN THE TRAP
"HOW'S the wood supply?" asked Elmer, while preparations were going onlooking to their having a generous supply of fresh venison for supper.
"Not so good as last night," replied Toby; "it's twice as hard to get,you see; but then, George has agreed to start in again later on, andpile up more stock. He certainly does swing that little hand-ax of yoursto beat the band, Elmer."
"Did any of your people come from the South of Ireland, Toby?" demandedthe said George; "because you've got the gift of gab down to a finepoint, and know how to blarney a fellow first-class."
"But you did say you would chop a whole lot more wood," protested Toby.
"Sure I did," continued the other scout, "but it was agreed at the sametime I'd spell you in the job, and bring in as much as you did. Now,since Elmer and Lil Artha have tramped so far, and lugged this splendidyoung buck all the way into the camp, the least the rest of us can do isto make sure of the fuel supply. And, Toby, I'm going to hold you toyour word."
"Well, after we've dined perhaps I won't feel so weak as I do now, andthen we'll see what's to be done," Toby acknowledged.
Elmer had made a pretty good job of cutting up the deer. It was not thefirst time he had had to undertake such a task; and besides, he hadwatched other hunters accomplish it frequently, up there in Canada onthe farm and cattle range.
Before a great while the four chums were all busily engaged in cookingmeat after various styles. Some choice pieces had been thrust into thefryingpan, with a couple of slices of bacon which Toby managed toresurrect from some hiding place or other, and from the appetizing odorthat soon began to rise it was evident that they were going to have agreat feast. Other "chunks" of meat were thrust on the ends of long andstout splinters of wood, and these were held out near the red ashes incertain places, where they would get in contact with the fierce heat,and begin to brown, hunter-style.
It might as well be confessed right here that in the end this lastmethod of cookery did not appeal to the boys as much as the fryingpanstyle. Perhaps they did not know just how to go about it, as experienceis needed to get the best results from anything; but in spite of theirlabor they found that while the meat cooked, and even burned on theoutside, it was almost raw within. Still, hunger causes a camper toforgive such small faults as this; and as they started on the poorersupply to finish with that cooked in the skillet, there were fewcomplaints.
All of them gorged so much that it became necessary for them to liearound and rest for some little time after the meal was over. IndeedToby showed a desire to hug his blanket, and doze in the warmth of thefire, so that George had to urge him to remember the bargain they hadmade with each other, and start to collecting more wood.
Elmer soon joined in the labor, for he knew they would need all theywere able to gather; and besides, he was so constituted that he couldnot bear to lie around when others were working, no matter how tired hemight feel.
So Lil Artha, although he really believed he had earned his rest, not tobe shamed by all this honest toil on the part of his three mates, alsostrolled forth, to return several times dragging some branch he hadmanaged to break loose.
The collection of firewood was not near so formidable as on thepreceding night but then as there was no storm in progress now theymight get along fairly comfortably on what they managed to haul in.
"Lucky thing you put such a fine edge on the camp hatchet beforestarting on this trip, Elmer," George remarked, pausing in his choppingto recover his breath.
"I wouldn't think of starting anywhere without getting everythingready," replied the scout master. "If you look ahead, and be prepared,you'll ease things a whole lot most of the time. As there are no nailsto strike in this wood, and every chopper is warned to keep clear ofstones, that edge ought to hold good through the whole vacation time.And it's a great joy to see the steel eat into the wood like that camphatchet does. Let me take a whirl at it again, George; you've done yourshare of the work in great shape."
So it would seem that despite George's failings he had many good pointsabout him, and often expressed a desire to relieve a comrade who hadbegun to show evident signs of weariness. Perhaps by slow degrees hemight be weaned from that exasperating habit of complaining, and foreverdoubting things.
All was quiet around them, not even the whispering of the night wind inthe snow-laden branches of the pines being heard. Toby declared itseemed as solemn as a funeral to him, and that he did love the good oldsummer-time to be outdoors, while the crickets, katydids, frogs, andeverything else kept up a friendly chorus, that helped a fellow tosleep. Now it was so "awfully still that you could almost hear yourselfthink!" he told the others, as they began to get their blankets readyfor a night's rest.
Already one experience in bunking amidst the snow piles had given theboys a number of useful suggestions from which they meant to profit onthis second occasion. The rubber ponchos were used, not as a curtain toshield them from the air, but under their blankets to separate them fromthe ground, and serve to keep the dampness away. The heat of the firewas apt to melt the surrounding snow to some extent; and the warmth oftheir bodies acted after a fashion in the same way; so those waterproofrubber blankets proved invaluable. They should always be taken by thosewho go to the woods, and will be found to be worth their weight insilver every time.
Taken in all that was not such a bad night for the boys. There was nowind, and Elmer managed to awaken frequently enough to keep the firefrom going out; so that with the blessing of their warm blankets, whichthey wrapped closely about them, the scouts did not really suffer.
Everybody was very glad when dawn came along, dreary as the aspect mightbe. It made a wonderful difference in their feelings just to know thatthere was no longer any possibility of immediate starvation. George musthave dreamed that some trouble had descended upon them, because the veryfirst thing he did after crawling out of his blanket was to hurry overto where they had fastened the balance of the precious venison, encasedin the hide of the deer, to the limb of a tree, and closely examine thepack; Elmer, who was watching him, with a smile on his face, heard thedoubter say in a relieved tone:
"Shucks! it must have been a bad dream, after all; we _did_ get a buck,and had a bully old supper last night, because here's the rest of themeat, as plain as anything. Must have eaten too much, and had thenightmare; but I'm glad it was only a dream, that's right. Yes, this isfrozen fresh venison, as sure as my name's--"
"Doubting George!" sang out Lil Artha, who it seemed had also beenwatching and listening from behind the folds of his blanket; and evenToby thrust his grinning face in sight to add to the confusion ofGeorge.
They bustled around without any more delay, because the air was nippingcold, and of course they were furiously hungry again; boys always arewhen they wake up, especially when camping out, and during frostyweather.
Breakfast was cooked in great shape. It was a duplicate of the previousnight's meal, but then what did that matter, when there was an abundancefor all? Quantity and not so much quality was what pleased those fouroutdoor chums just then. There was a horrid vacuum to be filled, andthey were more concerned about how this was to be accomplished than in alengthy bill of fare.
After that came a consultation--Lil Artha called it a "council of war."They sat around the fire, which felt so good no one was in any greathurry to abandon it, and talked the matter dry from all sides. Every onegave expression to his opinion, and Elmer, acting as master ofceremonies, tried to extract all that was good and worth preserving fromeach proposition.
It was determined first of all to try firing their guns several times,to see if they could get any answer. Should Professor Caleb hear theshots he would be very apt to reply, and in that case they would have nodifficulty in deciding as to what course to pursue.
Should this fail to bring about any result, they must make a start; andin the end it was determined to keep along the border of the marsh. Thatwas most likely to be one of the places where
the old trapper and wildanimal photographer was apt to conduct most of his operations, and theywould stand a chance of running across some sign of his presence.
So Lil Artha fired both barrels of his gun, with about five secondscoming in between; and then Elmer discharged one of the loads in hisweapon, after waiting a like interval. In this way the required threeshots were sent forth; and Elmer assured his comrades that this hadalways been reckoned a call for help everywhere, in the Far West, amongAfrican tangles, and even down in South American wilds; so that if UncleCaleb were within hearing distance they would surely get a response.
All of them listened intently after the last shot. The wind had come upagain with the sun, and was making various queer noises among thetreetops; but still it would have been possible for them to have caughta shot, if such had sounded from any quarter near by.
"Nothing doing, seems like!" remarked George, dejectedly, for of coursehe was the very first one to get what Lil Artha called "cold feet,"because there appeared to be no immediate response to their effort.
"Shall we try it once more, Elmer?" asked Lil Artha.
"Just a sheer waste of ammunition, and p'raps we'll need every bitwe've fetched along," grumbled George.
The scout master, however, decided that it would be only right to givethe scheme one more trial before utterly condemning it; so havingreplaced the empty shells he and the tall boy again sent out the threeshots that would tell any who heard the signal that some one was in needof assistance.
There was no answer, though they listened eagerly, and once Tobystarted, under the impression that he had caught a faint hello; but asit was not repeated he concluded it may have been some distant owlgiving vent to its disappointment at not getting a full meal during theperiod of darkness just passed.
"One thing we might take for granted after this," Elmer went on to say;"wind's in the wrong quarter to carry the sound of the shots to him. Sowe could judge from that our best course is to make against the wind. Itwould seem that we might have two chances of finding him that way, toone the other."
The others agreed with Elmer, for they could easily grasp his meaning;George was seen to shake his head, however, and it was evident that hedid not have very much faith in such a thing as success coming to them.And yet if it did, George could be counted on to be one of the first tosay that he always did believe they were bound to run across UncleCaleb, sooner or later.
"Scouts are supposed always to be sure their fire is dead out beforethey leave a camp," remarked Lil Artha, as they trudged laboriouslyalong, "but in this case I took notice that none of us seemed to botherour heads even a little bit over it, and in fact we left it cracklingaway right cheerily."
"Well, with a blanket of snow two feet deep on the ground," observedToby, "I'd like to know how the woods could ever get afire this day. Andthat blaze was such a good friend to us I didn't have the heart to throwsnow on the same. It'd seemed too much like calling a dog to you,patting him on the head after he came, wagging his tail in a friendlyway, and then tying a tinpan to him, after which you gave him a nastykick to start him yelping and running. But here's hoping we meet up withmy uncle before the third night comes."
"I should say, yes," added Lil Artha; "if this sort of thing keeps onwe'll be likely to spend all our midwinter vacation roaming around uphere, and getting nowhere."
"And," Toby further complained, with a sad shake of the head, "we'd laidout to have such a bully good time at his cabin, learning all abouttrapping, and p'raps going out with him nights to use his flashlightcontrivance, and get pictures of the little fur-bearing animals in theirnative haunts."
"Oh! it's going to be all right," announced Elmer, who as usual saw thebright side of the situation. "Something's sure to turn up to-day; andbefore another night we'll be toasting our feet in front of a fireindoors, with a bunk to crawl into when we're sleepy, and something elsebesides dry venison at meal times."
"Here, don't say a word against that same venison!" exclaimed Lil Artha;"it's been a life-saver, let me tell you. And to think I was ready toown up I'd missed my deer, only for you, Elmer. That taught me a lessonI'll never forget, believe me. After this I'll always look for signswhen I've shot at game, and never just guess at things."
"Nothing like making sure, every time," remarked George.
"Guess you go by that motto, old fellow," Toby told him. "They don'tfool you very often, do they; and never twice on the same racket?"
Along about the middle of the morning, after they had been making ratherslow progress, and laboring heavily, Elmer was seen to betray suddeninterest, and to quicken his footsteps. Then he turned, and beckonedwildly to them. As the other toilers reached his side the scout masterpointed ahead of him, and remarked:
"There's something moving in the snow yonder, boys; look and see if youcan make out what it is!"
At that they all stared very hard, and Lil Artha was the first toexclaim:
"Seems to be some sort of small animal switching around like it might becaught in a trap, Elmer!"
"Yes," added Toby, "I saw it jump up then, and whatever it is the thinglooks a sort of silver gray or black. There, didn't you see again?Elmer, do you know what it can be?"
"Somebody, and perhaps Uncle Caleb, has planted a trap right here, and afox is caught in the same by its leg!" came the ready reply.
"A fox, did you say!" echoed Lil Artha; "why, Elmer, none of us ever sawa fox of that color before. Every one I've ever set eyes on was eithergray or red."
"Let's step up closer," the scout master remarked, "and we'll be able totell more about it."
As the four boys continued to advance the little animal struggled harderthan ever to break away, but without success. It was undoubtedly agood-sized fox, for they could not mistake that bushy tail, and thesharp nose as well as shrewd face. It showed its white teeth quitesavagely as they drew nearer.
"Well, it is a fox all right," Lil Artha admitted, "though differentfrom any I ever saw in the woods, or even in a menagerie."
"A good reason for that," Elmer told him, quietly; "such a silver fox israre, and too costly for showmen to keep, as a rule. A red fox may beworth all the way from five to thirty dollars, but from what I've readabout the value of furs, the pelt of a genuine silver fox sometimesbrings more than fifteen hundred dollars, even in its raw state."
"Gee whiz! you don't tell me?" exclaimed George, looking astounded; andof course he did not believe what Elmer was saying, because it soundedtoo incredible for him to swallow.
"Oh! I've read something about these black foxes, come to think of it,"Lil Artha admitted, "and so this is one, is it? Well, Uncle Caleb musthave known he was around, and set this trap on purpose to get him."
"Yes, that's about the size of it," added Toby, "because I happen toknow that as a rule he never bothers trying to trap any of the littleanimals up around this section. He used to, just to pass the wintersaway, but when he got interested in photography he said he found tentimes as much pleasure in creeping up on them, and shooting with acamera, to anything he had ever done before with a gun. Fact is, heseldom uses his gun except to get an occasional deer, some partridge ora rabbit to serve him as fresh meat."
Elmer bent over a little closer, and examined the condition of affairs.
"We'll have to knock that fox gently on the head, I guess," he remarked."You can see that the trap has cut deeply into his leg, and if he waslet alone another hour or two he would be likely to gnaw that paw off inorder to get free. They often do this. You see the cruel jaws of thetrap mutilate their leg, and pain so much when they struggle that indesperation they bite at it until they get away; and after that athree-legged fox is found roaming the woods. Besides, it would be ashame for Uncle Caleb to lose that splendid prize."
"I guess you're about right, Elmer," Lil Artha observed, "and so weleave it to you to put the poor little fellow out of his misery. It'sbeen a tough thing on him because Nature gave him a silver black coat.If he'd been an ordinary red fox Uncle Caleb might never have bothere
dsetting this trap, and he could have gone right along making his suppersoff partridges and such nice things, or else chickens belonging to anyfarmers inside of twenty miles, if there are any. I'll hold your gunwhile you do the job, Elmer, because I don't reckon you'd want to spoila fifteen hundred dollar pelt by riddling the same with bird shot."