CHAPTER XXVI
THE SKIES BEGIN TO BRIGHTEN
It was not very light inside the cabin, so that the first thing Thad didin his customary energetic way was to take a lantern from a hook, andput a match to the wick. After that they could see better.
"Don't seem, to be much of anything around here now that we can seehalf-way decent," remarked Giraffe.
"Oh I ain't there?" said Bumpus, who was, pinching his nose between histhumb and forefinger, "now, it strikes me there's a whole lot, when youcome to think."
"However those men could sleep in here beats me?" ejaculated Step Hen,who was not looking very happy himself, as he sniffed around.
"Oh! mebbe you'll kinder get a little used to it after awhile," Bumpusassured him, in a tone meant to be comforting.
"I don't believe they did sleep in here at all," Thad remarked, after hehad been spying around a little longer. "You can't see a sign of a bed,or a blanket, or even leaves in a corner to tell where anybody laiddown."
"And outside of these few old oilskin rags that they use to wear intheir business," added Giraffe, "and hung up on nails along this wall,there ain't anything to tell that they stayed here. Say, Thad, whateverdo you think this shack could a been used for?"
"Where's your nose?" demanded Bumpus at that juncture.
"Yes," Thad went on to say, "that's about the only thing you need totell you, Giraffe. Seems like they must store their catch here untilthey get enough on hand to pay to stop work, and pack and ship the sameout. Let's look around. What d'ye call this but a kind of trap in thefloor?"
"It sure is, Thad," admitted the tall scout, promptly.
"Looks like it had been used a heap, in the bargain," advanced Step Hen.
"Why, of course, because there must be some sort of well underneath thehouse, where they keep ice all the while, and drop the fish in as theynet them. Perhaps one reason why they hate to leave here in a rush isthat they've got illegal nets out in different places right now, whichcost a heap of money, and they hate to let them go. Hand me that stripof iron, please, Davy. Looks to me as if they use this to pry up thetrap. There, what did I tell you?"
As the scout-master said this he managed to skillfully raise the squarethat was cut in the floor of the cabin. Underneath the old buildingthere must have been a natural well in among the rocks; for as Thad heldthe lantern over so that all of the boys could see, they discovered whatlooked like a cellar of solid stone, some fifteen feet deep, and with aladder at one side that was doubtless used as a means of passing up anddown.
"Well! I declare! look at the piles of fine fish, will you?" exclaimedStep Hen.
"All sorts too--trout, white fish, and even black bass, whoppers atthat!" added Davy, staring at such a remarkable sight.
"They must take these in some way that's against the law!" Thaddeclared. "Their suspicious actions prove that, plain enough."
"That's the greatest lot of game fish I ever saw together!" Giraffeventured, "and if such things keep going on, chances are even the GreatLakes'll be drained of decent sport before many years. It's a shame,that's what it is."
Bumpus was the only one who had made no remark; but all the same heseemed to be busy. They saw him dive into a pocket, and what should hefetch out brut a stout fish line wound around a bobbin, and with a hookattached. This he immediately began unrolling so that the end carryinghook and sinker fell down toward the bottom of the pit.
"Look at Bumpus, would you?" exclaimed Step Hen; "he's gone clean dippy,that's what? Thinks he's out on the lake, and these fish are swimmingdown there waitin' to bite at his bait! Poor old Bumpus, that knock onthe head was too much for him!"
"Was, hey?" snapped the object of this commiseration, as he went onunreeling his line; "you just wait and see whether I've lost my mind, orif I ain't as bright as a button. See that buster of a trout alyingthere on top? Well, that beats the record so far; and if I can only tipmy hook under his gill I'm meaning to yank him up here the quickest youever saw. Guess the rules and regulations of our watch only said afellow had to catch his fish with hook and line; it never told that theyhad to be alive, and swimming, not a word of it. You watch me win thatchampionship right here!"
"There's a fish pile down in the cellar," spoke up the rival of Bumpus,indignantly, "and what d'ye think, Bumpus here means to fetch up a lotof 'em with his hook and line, and count the same against me. Hey!guess two can play at that sort of game, if there's going to be anythingin it; so look out; because I'm after that same big trout myself."
Twice Bumpus managed to get his hook where it seemed to catch upon themonster trout's exposed gill, and with a cry of triumph he started topull in; but on one occasion the slender hold his hook had taken brokeaway; and the second time it chanced that Giraffe had managed to fastenhis barb somewhere about the dorsal fin of the fish, so that there wasan immediate struggle for supremacy, with the usual result in such casesthat the anticipated prize fell back, and was lost to both contestants.
"Tell them to let up on that silly business, and let's get out of here,Thad," said Step Hen, when this thing had gone on for some time, with noresult save a weariness to the two rivals.
"But seems to me," Dave put in just then, "that couple of them sametrout and white fish would be mighty tasty dish for a bunch of scouts Iknow of who always carry their appetites with them."
When Giraffe heard him say that, he suddenly seemed to lose all hisfierceness as a contestant for honors.
"Here, let's stop this business, Bumpus, because I ain't agoing to letyou grab up any fish that easy like; and I reckon you feel the same wayabout me. Anyhow, I leave it to Thad here if it's a sportsmanlike wayof scoring in our game? If he says no, why I'm willing to let you hookup some of the beauties for our dinner; or to make things more lively Iagree to climb down that greasy old ladder and put 'em on the hook foryou. How about it, Mr. Scout-master; is it fair?"
"Perhaps the letter of the law might favor such a course," he said,solemnly; "but we pretend to be sportsmen, all of us, and as such we gofarther than that. And Bumpus, you know very well that nothing of thiskind was thought of when you made your wager with Giraffe. As I wascounted on to be the umpire I say now and here that the fish taken haveto be alive at the time they are hooked, and swimming in the lake."
"Then that settles it, Thad," chuckled Bumpus, with a grin; "anyhow, Iwas only fooling, and wouldn't want to count honors won so cheap asthis. But drop down there, Giraffe, since you were so kind as topromise, and hook me on that gay fellow I nearly had two differenttimes. Let me feel how heavy he is? I'd go myself, but chances are I'dsure collapse down there, because already I'm feeling weak again, andthat's the truth."
Giraffe evidently did not mean to go back on his word; and accordinglyhe carefully climbed over the edge of the opening, found a resting placefor his feet on the top round of the ladder, and then began to slowlydescend.
First of all he hooked on the big trout, and gaily Bumpus pulled theprize up, remarking at the time that it felt as though he were lifting agrindstone. When he lowered his line again Giraffe had a splendid freshlooking white fish ready, and this he sent up, after the trout.
"I just can't stand this any longer," the boy below called up; "and I'macomin' right along with the next one, which ought to be a white fish, Ireckon. Oh! my! hope I don't keel over before I get to the top. If Ido, please, please don't run away and leave me to my fate, boys!"
Perhaps Giraffe was only joking, but it was noticed that when he hastilyclambered out of the fish pit he made a streak for outdoors, stillhanging on to his latest capture.
In fact, as they had had enough of that thing, all of them hastened tofollow the example set by the tall and lanky scout. Outside they foundAllan examining the prize with considerable interest, while Giraffe wasfanning himself, and making all sorts of grimaces as he raised first onehand and then the other to his nose.
"I'll step in and take a look now, while we're here," mentioned Allan;"because I may never get anoth
er chance to see what a fish poacher'sstorage place is like."
"Queer where they've gone and hidden themselves," Step Hen remarked, ashe looked all around as though half expecting to see a bearded facethrust out of the bushes, or above a pile of rocks near by.
"Well, just now they're in a sort of panic, and hardly know what to trynext," Thad told them. "Of course they must see that we're only boys,after all; but from the fact that we wear uniforms they suppose we areconnected in some way with the militia, and that perhaps a boatload ofsoldiers is even now on the way here, obeying some sort of wirelesssignal we've managed to transmit. They thought to seize Bumpus, andperhaps get us all, one by one; but when they found that he had renderedtheir boat helpless they just threw up the sponge and quit."
"Well, I kinder feel a mite sorry for the rascals," Step Hen observed;whereupon the usually gentle Bumpus, who could be depended on to forgivethe first one of all, fired up, and burst out with:
"Then I ain't, not one whit; and I guess you wouldn't either, Step HenBingham, if you had a lump as big as a hickory nut on top of your head,that felt as sore as a boil, and knew one of that crowd did it to you.Ain't they breaking the law of the land; and every fish they take intheir illegal nets or seines means one less for the fellow that fishesfor sport, or the man that does business according to the rules andregulations. Sorry, well I guess not! And when we move away with theirold boat we'll send somebody with brass buttons over to Sturgeon Islandto take off the marooners."
"Whew! listen to the savage monster, would you?" purred Step Hen; butBumpus had suffered too much to be in a forgiving humor, and hecontinued to shake his head ominously while he kept on breathing outthreatenings, like Saul of old.
"Now let's head for our camp," Thad gave the order, when Allan hadjoined them, and declared he had seen all he wanted of the fishpoachers' storehouse.
"I only hope they haven't stolen a march on us, and got away with ourtraps," Davy happened to remark, as they stepped out at a lively rate.
"What a job we'd have cookin' these fine fish, if we didn't have anyfrying-pan," was the first lament of Giraffe.
"And my blanket that I think so much of, I wouldn't like to lose that,"Bumpus told them; but Thad gave it as his opinion that after the men hadfled, upon hearing the voices of the boys near by, they must have falleninto such a panic that no doubt they were now in hiding away off at theother end of the island.
"Now don't forget to show us where you bid that crank belonging to theboat engine, Bumpus," Step, Hen cautioned, as they strode along.
"Good thing you spoke of it when you did, Step Hen," the fat scoutdeclared, "because here's the old stump right now. Feel down, and seeif it ain't there, somebody. Here, let me do it myself, because I knowjust where it lies."
In proof of his words Bumpus speedily drew out the crooked bit of steelin question.
"Here you are, Giraffe, like to like!" he sang out gaily, as he tossedhis find toward the tall scout.
"I s'pose that's as much as calling me a crank," muttered Giraffe; "butthen, we'd take anything from you, Bumpus, just now, we feel so goodafter your splendid work."
Of course upon receiving that fine compliment Bumpus became contrite atonce.
"Excuse me for saying that, Giraffe," he called out; "because I reckonnow you ain't one whit more a crank than some others in this crowd."And then noticing that Step Hen and Davy were looking daggers at him, hehurriedly added, "particularly a stout feller they call Bumpus for shortinstead of Cornelius Jasper Hawtree."
"My idea is about this," Thad went on to say; "as we are going to dependso much on using this boat to get away in, we'd better make our campright alongside; and in that way they won't have much chance to stealthe same from us."
"But ain't we going away soon?" asked Davy, looking around him again, asthough he still expected to see a party of furious poachers rush towardsthem, reinforcements having meanwhile arrived on the island.
"Not till that sea goes down a whole lot more," replied the scout-master;"and if that doesn't happen until late this afternoon I'm afraidwe'll have to spend one more night on Sturgeon Island," whichinformation the others did not hear with any degree of enthusiasm forthey were all heartily tired of the place.