CHAPTER XIX
NEWS OF BIG GAME
"Faith and would ye mind tillin' me how that same might be done?"asked Tolly Tip, showing considerable interest. "I niver knowed thatye could shoot a bear with a shmall contraption like that black box."
Some of the boys snickered, but Paul frowned on them.
"When we speak that way," he went on to explain, "we mean getting anobject in the proper focus, and then clicking the trigger of thecamera. We are really just taking a picture."
"Oh! now I say what ye mane," admitted the woodsman; "but I niverowned a camera in all me life, so I'm what ye'd call grane at it. Sure'tis a harmless way av shootin' anything I should say."
"But it gives a fellow just as much pleasure to get a cracking goodpicture of a wild animal at home as it does a hunter to kill," PhilTowns hastened to remark. Tolly Tip, however, shook his head in thenegative, as though to declare that for the life of him he could notsee it that way.
"If you can show me a place that the black bear is using," Paulcontinued, "I'll fix my camera in such a way that when Bruin pulls ata bait attached to a cord he'll ignite the flashlight cartridge, andtake his own photograph."
At that the woodsman laughed aloud, so novel did the scheme strikehim.
"I'll do that same and without delay, me lad," he declared. "I've gota notion this very minute that I know where I might find my bear; andafter nightfall I'll bait the ground wid some ould combs av wildhoney."
"Wild honey did you say?" asked Jud, licking his lips in anticipation,for if there was one thing to eat in all the wide world Jud likedbetter than another it was the sweets from the hive.
"Och! 'tis mesilf that has stacks av the same laid away, and I promiseye all ye kin eat while ye stay here," the woodsman told them, atwhich Jud executed a pigeon-wing to express his satisfaction.
"And did you gather it yourself around here, Tolly Tip?" he inquired.
"Nawthin' else," acknowledged the old trapper. "Ye say, whin MisterGarrity do be staying down in town it's small work I have to do; andto locate a bee tree is a rale pleasure. Some time I'll till ye howwe go about the thrick. Av course there's no use tryin' it aftherwinter sets in, for the bees stick in the hive."
"And bears just dote on honey, do they, the same as Jud here does?"asked Frank.
"A bear kin smell honey a mile away," the woodsman declared. "In fact,the very last time I glimpsed the ould varmint we've been spakin'about 'twas at the bee tree I'd chopped down. I wint home to sacuresome pails, and whin I got back to the spot there the ould beast was alickin' up the stuff in big gobs. Sure I could have shot him aisyenough, but I had made up me mind to take him in a trap or not at all,so I lit him go."
"So he got his share of the honey, did he?" asked Jud.
"Oh! I lift him all I didn't want, and set a trap to nab him, but byme word he was too smart for Tolly Tip."
"Then I hope you salt the ground to-night," remarked Paul, "and that Ican set my camera to-morrow evening and see what comes of it."
It was not long before they were sitting down to the first real gamesupper of the excursion. Everybody spoke of it as "Bobolink's venisontreat," and that individual's boyish heart swelled with pride fromtime to time until Spider Sexton called out:
"Next thing you know we'll have a real tragedy hereabouts."
"What do you mean?" demanded Phil Towns.
"Why," explained Spider, "Bobolink keeps on swelling out his chestlike a pouter pigeon every time somebody happens to mention his deer,and I'm afraid he'll burst with vanity soon."
"And when the day's doings are written up," Bluff put in, "be sure andput in that another of our gallant band came within an ace of beingterribly bitten by a savage wild beast."
"Please explain what it's all about," begged Tom. "You see Jack and Iwere away pretty much all day. You and Sandy went off with Tolly Tip,didn't you, to see how he managed his traps? Was it then the terriblething happened?"
"It was," said Bluff, with a chuckle. "You see Tolly Tip kept onexplaining everything as we went from trap to trap, and both of uslearned heaps this morning. Finally, we came to the marsh and there amuskrat trap held a big, ferocious animal by the hind leg."
"You see," Sandy broke in, as though anxious to show off his knowledgeof the art of trapping, "as a rule the rat is drowned, which saves theskin from being mangled. But this one stayed up on the bank instead ofjumping off when caught in the trap. Now go on, Bluff."
"Sandy accidentally got a mite too close to the beast," continued theother. "First thing I knew I heard a snarl, and then Sandy jumpedback, with the teeth of the muskrat clinging to the elbow of his coatsleeve. An inch further and our chum'd have been badly bitten. It wasa mighty narrow escape, let me tell you."
"Another thing that would interest you, Paul," Bluff went on to say,"was the beaver house we saw in the pond the animals had made whenthey built a dam across the creek, a mile above here."
"Beavers around this section too!" exclaimed Jud, as though it almosttook his breath away.
"Only wan little colony," explained Tolly Tip.
"I'd give something to get a picture of real, live beavers, at theirwork," Paul remarked.
"Thin ye'll have till come up this way nixt spring time, whin they dobe friskin' around like young lambs," the woodsman told him. "Jist nowthey do be snug in their winter quarters, and ye'll not see a speck avthim. If it's the house ye want to take a picture av, the chance isyours any day ye see fit."
After supper was over Jack and Tom took a look at the new bunks.
"A bully job, fellows!" declared the latter, "and one that does youcredit. Why, every one of us is now fitted with a coffin. And I see wecan sleep without danger of rolling out, since you've fixed a slatacross the front of each bunk."
"Taken as a whole," Frank announced, "I think the scouts have donepretty well for their first day at Camp Garrity. Don't you, fellows?Plenty of fish and venison in the locker, all these bunks built, lotsof valuable information picked up, and last but not least, coals offire poured on the head of the enemy."
They sat around again and talked as the evening advanced, for therewas an endless list of interesting things to be considered. Later Paulaccompanied the old woodsman on his walk to the place where hebelieved the bear would pass. Here they set out the honey comb thathad been carried along, to serve as an attractive bait.
"Ye understand," explained Tolly Tip, as they wended their wayhomeward again in the silvery moonlight that made the scene look likefairyland, "that once the ould rascal finds a trate like that he'llcome a sniffin' around ivery night for a week av Sundays, hopin'fortune wull be kind till him ag'in."
As the boys were very tired after such a strenuous day, they did notsit up very late.
Every lad slept soundly on this, the second night in camp. In fact,most of them knew not a single thing five minutes after they lay downuntil the odor of coffee brought them to their senses to find that itwas broad daylight, and that breakfast was well under way.
Paul and Jud left the camp immediately after breakfast intending to goto the place where the honey comb had been left as bait. Tolly Tip,before they went, explained further.
"Most times, ye say, bears go into their winter quarters with thefirst hard cold spell, and hibernate till spring comes. This s'ason ithas been so queer I don't know but what the bear is still at large,because I saw his tracks just the day before ye arrived in camp."
When the pair came back the others met them with eager questions.
"How about it, Paul?"
"Any chance of getting that flashlight?"
"Did you find the honey gone?"
"See any tracks around?"
Paul held up his hand.
"I'll tell you everything in a jiffy, fellows, if you give me half achance," he said. "Yes, we found that the honeycomb had been carriedoff; and there in the snow were some pretty big tracks left by Bruin,the bear!"
"Good!" exclaimed Frank Savage, "then he'll be back to-night. It'salready settled that you
'll coax him to snap off his own picture."