CHAPTER V.
THE JONES BOY COMES TO GRIEF AT LAST.
THERE was a rumbling sound, not unlike the roar of a heavy freight traincoming down the grade of a mountain. All of the scouts plainly felt thecabin quiver as though in the throes of an earthquake.
Then succeeded a crash, as the further end was knocked out. For a momentThad really feared they were done for, and his very heart seemed tostand still with dread. Then, as the awful sounds died away, save forthe patter of small stuff on the cabin roof, he breathed naturallyagain.
Whatever it was that had happened, no one had been hurt; and at leastthey could find consolation in this.
"It's an earthquake!" exclaimed Bumpus, being the very first to recoverthe use of his voice.
"A landslide, you mean!" echoed Giraffe, contrary minded.
"Thad, you say?" asked Step Hen; just as though the leader coulddetermine the nature of the calamity better than any one else.
"I think Giraffe struck it about right," Thad answered.
"You mean part of the hillside caved away?" further questioned Bumpus.
"Must have been the whole mountain top, by the racket it kicked up,"Davy Jones grumbled; "say, my heart turned upside down; and I'll have tostand on my head to get it to working again the right way."
"And look at what it did to our snug old cabin; tore the whole end off!"observed Step Hen, ruefully. "Now, if it happened to be a cold night,why, we'd just be freezing to death, that's what. Anybody seen my caparound; my hair stood up on end with the scare, and I must have droppedit? Thank you, Allan, for picking it up. I do have the worst luck aboutlosing my things you ever saw."
"Seems to me," remarked Allan, soberly, "that instead of complaining theway you fellows are doing, we ought to be mighty thankful it wasn't anyworse."
"Yes, that's what I was thinking," Smithy added, as he let go Allan'sarm, which he must have unconsciously gripped in his sudden fright;"what if we had run to that end of the cabin, things would look somewhatdifferent right now."
"Ugh! guess that's right," Giraffe admitted; "and for one I ain't goin'to make any more complaint. But what under the sun was it hit us?"
"A big rock must have dropped down from the side of the mountain, andtore out the end of the old cabin," Thad explained. "It came on thisnight of all nights, just when we happened to be camped here. And thecabin has stood unharmed for as much as thirty years, Bob White says."
"I call that queer, now," said Bumpus.
"It's more than that, Bumpus," Smithy remarked, in his most mysteriousmanner; "I'd call it highly significant, if you asked my opinion."
"Wow! listen to that, would you?" exclaimed Step Hen, shuddering again."He means that the rock was smashed down by somebody who wanted to chaseus out of this region. And that must be our old friend, Phin Dady, themoonshiner!"
Thad bent down, and proceeded to light a handy little lantern which oneof the boys had carried for emergencies.
"I'm going to take a look out, and see what struck us," he remarked.
"Be careful, Thad," warned Allan; "another rock might follow the first."
"And if you hear the least suspicious sound, jump for all that's out,"added Bumpus, ready to admire the nerve of one who could face danger soreadily, even though not capable of imitating Thad's example himself.
"Oh! I reckon there's little chance of anything like that happening,"the other sent back, with a little laugh, as though he wanted to cheerhis chums up; "you know, they say lightning never strikes in the sameplace twice. It's taken thirty years for a rock to hit this cabin,though plenty must have slid down the side of the mountain in that time.Be back in a jiffy, boys."
With that he stepped out of the door, which had been burst open when thelog structure received such a terrific jolt. The other boys clusteredthere by the revived fire, exchanging views, and waiting for the returnof those who had gone outside; for Bob White had silently followed Thad,as though he felt that since it was through his invitation that thescouts were placed in this predicament, he ought to do everything in hispower to ease the strain.
When they entered again in less than ten minutes, of course abombardment of eager questions saluted them.
"Slow up, fellows," Thad said, laughingly. "If I tried to answer youall, I'd be apt to get my tongue twisted some, and that's a fact. Yes,it _was_ a rock that did the damage, just as we guessed. It rolled downfrom somewhere above; but we could only guess at that, it's so dark outthere. And after taking a look at the size of the same, Bob and myselfmade up our minds we had reason to be mighty thankful that it onlytouched the end of the cabin, instead of hitting it square in thecenter."
"But whoever started it rolling?" demanded Bumpus; and it was evidentfrom the way the others waited to hear what Thad would say to this, thatthey laid great stress on the answer.
"Well," returned the other, soberly, "of course we couldn't make deadcertain, but after seeing the heft of that rock we believed that it wasnever started by any human hands. The rain and storm must haveundermined it."
Bumpus heaved a big sigh of relief.
"Well," said he, "I'm glad of that. It's bad enough to think you'rebein' bombarded by rocks that just take a silly notion to drop when wecome along; but it'd be a heap sight worse if the men of the Big Smokieswere throwing such pebbles at us, haphazard. Whew! I'm hungry, fellers;who says grub?"
That was just like a boy, to remember his natural appetite right on theheels of the greatest fright of his whole life. And as the othersadmitted to feeling somewhat the same way, there ensued a bustle to seehow soon supper could be gotten ready.
The members of the Silver Fox Patrol were no longer greenhorns, thoughone or two of them gave evidence that they had not yet graduated fromthe tenderfoot class. They had learned a great deal about the thingsthat are connected with a camp life, because they had spent some timeunder canvas on Lake Omega, which lay not many miles from their hometown.
And then again, Thad had belonged to a troop of scouts before coming toCranford; while, as for Allan, he had been through the mill so often upin Maine and elsewhere, that he was, as Bumpus declared, a "walkingedition of what to do, and what not to do when in the woods."
It is true that on this big hike through the mountains they werecompelled to travel very light, and would miss many of the things thathad added greatly to their comfort on that other occasion. But then itwas their desire to learn how to rough it, taking the knocks with thegood things.
By this time some of the lads were beginning to believe that they wouldrub up against plenty of the "knocks" all right; especially if thingskept on as they had commenced since striking this wonderful "Land of theSky."
The supper put them in something like their customary good humor.Indeed, as they sat around the fire afterwards, Bumpus was induced tosing several of their school songs, so that the whole of them might joinin the rollicking chorus. Strange sounds indeed to well up out of thatvalley, so lately the theater of a war between the elements, aslightning and rain vied with each other to produce a panic in thebreasts of these same boys who now sang and joked as though they had nota care in the world.
Only Bob White remained very quiet. Thad often glanced toward theSouthern lad, with sympathy in his look. He could easily understandthat, with their arrival in this mountainous region, where the other hadspent many of his earlier years, old memories must be revived, somepleasant, and possibly others of a disagreeable nature.
Finally they agreed that it would be wise to get some sleep, as anotherday lay before them. And accordingly, in the customary fashion, thebugler sounded "taps," and each scout tried to find a soft board, uponwhich he might rest his weary body during the hours that must elapsebefore dawn arrived.
A watch was kept up, one fellow taking an hour at a time, and thenarousing the next on the list; so that at no time was the cabinunguarded while the night slowly passed.
But nothing happened to disturb the scouts; and as morning came at lastthey began to get up and stretch, rubbing their limbs
as though the hardbed had not been the nicest thing possible. But there was littlegrumbling. They had learned to take things as they came; which is one ofthe finest results of Boy Scout experience. The philosophy of the woodsteaches that in the very start--try for the best results; but after youhave done your best, accept the situation with cheerfulness.
Again the notes of the bugle sounded the "assembly," as breakfast wasdeclared ready; and half an hour later they left their shelter of thenight.
"Good-bye old cabin!" sang out Bumpus, waving his fat hand back towardthe wrecked log house; "you treated us pretty decent after all, andwe'll never forget you. Long may you wave, and offer shelter to otherpilgrims storm chased!"
As the sun climbed above the rim of the encircling mountains the spiritsof the boys mounted in proportion. Davy Jones was up to his usualpranks, being hard to control. They would miss him for a short time,only to hear a whoop; and looking up, discover the acrobatic boy hangingby his knees, or it might be his toes, from the limb of a tree, thirtyfeet or more above the ground.
Thad knew from experience that it was next to impossible to restrain theJones boy; he must have his frolic out; and so they only laughed at hisantics, and wondered what next the daring Davy would attempt.
Ten minutes later he was seen standing on his head on the edge of whatappeared to be a deep ravine or gulch, and kicking his heels in the air.
All sorts of dire things had always been predicted as going to overtakeDavy sooner or later, unless he gave up these venturesome pranks; andthis time it actually looked as though they were about to be fulfilled.For even as the seven other scouts were watching his antics, the earthat the edge of the gully appeared to suddenly give way.
Davy vanished from their view, the last thing they saw of him being hisup tilted heels, waving what seemed to be a frantic farewell.
With cries of alarm the scouts rushed forward, fearful as to what theywould see.