Deliberately Toby raised his rifle to his shoulder, so deliberately that
Charley was sure the lynx would spring upon them before Toby could fire.
Charley held his breath, and then Toby's rifle rang out. The lynx gave a
feeble lunge, and the next instant lay crumpled in a heap.
"We got un! I knocked un over!" cried Toby exultantly as the two ran
forward to the prostrate animal.
"That was a fine shot!" Charley shouted, quite beside himself with
excitement, and now breathing freely again.
"He'll be a fine surprise for Dad!" exclaimed Toby, surveying the
carcass with vast pride. "Won't he and Mother be glad of un! The fur's
not prime, but 'twill be fair, and 'tis the first fur we gets this
year!"
"He won't kill any more of our rabbits!" Charley boasted, touching the
furry coat of the dead animal.
"The one he kills back there where we sees un, were the last un for
he," agreed Toby.
"How'll we carry it?" asked Charley.
"'Twill be easy to carry he," assured Toby. "I'll show you how easy
'tis."
Now that the lynx was harmless to attack, and lay quiet and motionless
at their feet, Charley discovered that it was a much smaller animal than
he had thought when he saw its eyes and its crouching form in the
shadows. Still he had no desire to meet a lynx alone in the forest,
though Toby still insisted that the animal would have made no attack,
and would have slipped away from them had he failed in his aim.
Toby drew the twine from his pocket, and tied together the front legs,
just above the padded feet, wrapping the twine around the legs several
times, and tying it in a secure knot. The hind legs were tied in similar
manner. Then cutting a stiff pole, and trimming off the branches with
the ax, he ran the pole between the front and hind legs, with the two
ends protruding.
"Now," said Toby, "and you takes one end of the pole on your shoulder,
I'll take the other on mine and we'll carry he in between us."
"I never would have thought of doing it that way," said Charley
admiringly. "That's dead easy!"
It was dusk when they reached the cabin, and the lynx was growing heavy
to Charley's unaccustomed shoulder, and both boys were tired and happy
with the day's adventure.
"Well, now!" boomed Skipper Zeb in his biggest voice, when the boys
appeared at the door. "A lynx! And a fine big un, too! And the fur's not
so bad for this early in the season. You're startin' in fine as a
Labradorman!" and he slapped Charley on the shoulder. "Day before
yesterday a castaway! Yesterday shipwrecked! To-day settin' rabbit
snares and helpin' Toby knock over a lynx! Aye, and gettin' the lynx!
That's two bad fixes you gets out of yourself, and one you gets the lynx
in that he don't get out of!"
"Toby shot the lynx," said Charley modestly. "He'd have got away from me
if I'd been alone, or eaten me up."
"Charley helped," Toby broke in. "He helped to trail he, though I did
the shootin', and he helped to carry he home."
"Both of you gets un, though only one does the shootin'," agreed Skipper
Zeb with a hearty "haw! haw! haw!" slapping the two boys on the
shoulder with vast approval. "Only one would be doin' the shootin'
whatever. We'll be makin' a hunter o' you before the ship comes back in
July month, lad! You'll be a true Labradorman by then. Now we'll have
roast lynx for dinner to-morrow, and 'tis a fine fat un too."
Supper was not ready, and while they waited Skipper Zeb and Toby skinned
the lynx, beginning at the hind feet, and drawing the skin whole and
inside out over the carcass. It was then pulled snugly over a board
shaped for the purpose, with the fur next the board and the fleshy side
out, drawn taut and secured. Now, with a sheath knife, Skipper Zeb
scraped it carefully, removing every particle of fat or flesh that
adhered, and when this was completed to his satisfaction he hung the
board with the pelt upon it from a peg to dry.
"It seems like a month instead of three days since I came," said Charley
when supper was eaten and Skipper Zeb had lighted his pipe. "A lot has
happened in three days."
"Things has happened, now! Yes, sir!" observed Skipper Zeb, puffing at
his pipe. "We had a bit of a hard time yesterday, but here we are
to-day all snug and safe and well. Not one of us in a fix, and all goin'
fine."
"I wonder how Mr. Wise felt when he missed me," Charley chuckled. "I can
just see him running around the ship looking for me. I guess he thinks
he's in a fix! Serves him right if he is worried. But," and Charley
sobered, "it makes me feel badly to think of Dad and Mother when they
hear I'm missing."
"Don't be thinkin' o' that now," cautioned Skipper Zeb. "'Twill do you
no good and 'twill do they no good. Just be thinkin' how joyful they'll
be when you goes home in July month. What a fine surprise 'twill be for
un!" And then to change the line of thought, he suggested: "You'll be
needin' a fit out o' clothes for the winter."
"I have some money," volunteered Charley. "I could buy things if there
was a store to go to."
"There's no store this side o' Skipper Blink's shop at Deer Harbour, and
that's a bit down north from Pinch-In Tickle, and we'll not be gettin'
there for two months whatever," explained Skipper Zeb. "Mother, how can
we fit out the lad for clothes?"
"We has a bolt o' moleskin and a bolt o' kersey cloth," said Mrs. Twig.
"I'll make the adikeys from that, and a pair o' moleskin trousers. We're
a bit short o' underclothes. We gets Toby new ones this year, and I can
mend up his old ones to do he for a bit until you goes to Deer Harbour,
and Charley can wear the new ones."
"I'll wear the old ones," objected Charley. "Let Toby have the new ones.
I have the suit I'm wearing, too."
"You have one of the new ones," suggested Toby by way of compromise,
"and with the suit you has 'twill make two. I'll be havin' the other two
suits of new uns, and we'll both be wearin' the old uns if we needs un
till you gets new."
"All right, I'll go you on that," agreed Charley. "That's a good way to
fix it. And when there's a chance to go to the store at Deer Harbour
I'll get some new things there."
"We has some fine skins for boots," said Mrs. Twig. "I gets un all
tanned in the spring, and I'll be makin' up some boots."
"Well, now! We're gettin' out o' that fix easy," and Skipper Zeb beamed
delightedly. "We're gettin' out o' _that_ fix! And has you duffle for
sox? And is there plenty o' deerskin on hand for moccasins?"
"Aye, plenty o' duffle and plenty of deerskins," smiled Mrs. Twig,
amused at the Skipper's enthusiasm. "I'll soon be havin' a plenty o'
sox and moccasins made up."
"The lynx fur the lads gets this evenin' not bein' prime for trade, but
fine for caps, I thinks the lads might have caps made out of un, and the
hoods of their adikeys trimmed with un," suggested Skipper Twig. "Then
both our lads will be dressed alike."
"'_Twould_ be fine, now," assented Mrs. Twig, who usually agreed with
Skipper Zeb's suggestions.
"Now that's settled, and we has you lads togged out to the king's taste
for winter." Skipper Zeb stroked his beard contentedly. "No fix there to
bother, and we'll talk up our plans. First thing, Mother's been fussin'
about the trap boat, and feelin' bad about un ever since we leaves un at
the Duck's Head. She's thinkin' if we pulls un out o' the water, we'll
find the bottom not so bad we can't fix un. I'm not doubtin' myself the
bottom's all stove in, the way she struck. But we'll go over to the
Duck's Head in the marnin' to pull she out and make sure of un, and
'twill make Mother feel better if we tries, whatever."
"That's fine," agreed Toby. "I were thinkin' maybe she's just got a
busted plank, and her timbers are sound."
"Now what does you think o' the plan, Charley?" asked Skipper Zeb.
"You're one o' the partners, and must have a say about un."
"It sounds good to me," agreed Charley, feeling that responsibility was
being thrust upon him, and rather pleased that it was. "I think the boat
should be looked at."
"There, now, that's good judgment," boomed the Skipper. "I were sure you
were a lad o' judgment from the minute I sees you, and that proves un.
We'll go in the marnin' to the Duck's Head to see the trap boat, after
you lads come back from your rabbit snares."
As Toby had planned, Charley and he shared the bed in the living-room,
and so soundly did Charley sleep that Mrs. Twig had breakfast nearly
ready before he awoke the following morning. They ate by candle-light,
and at the first break of dawn the two boys set out eagerly to look at
the rabbit snares, and within an hour returned with three big snowshoe
rabbits.
Skipper Twig was ready with his boat, in which he had stowed block and
fall rigging, hammer, nails, pieces of plank and an ax, and without
delay the three were off for the Duck's Head.
With the block and fall they were able to haul the boat out of the
water, and to their satisfaction, and the amazement of Skipper Zeb,
discovered that no serious damage had been done. A plank had been
broken, but ribs and timbers were uncracked. The boat was soon mended
and the new section of plank caulked with oakum, and shortly after
midday the trap boat was again afloat, and quite as serviceable as
before the accident.
"There she be, fine and shipshape as ever!" Skipper Zeb boomed. "Mother
were worryin' and stewin' herself half sick about she. That's the way
'tis with most worries, when you goes to the bottom of un. Nothin' to
worry about. There's another fix we gets out of."
"Fine and dandy!" exclaimed Charley. "I was sure you'd lost her, and I'm
so glad she's all right after all."
"Well, now," said Skipper Zeb, "this was once Mother was right when she
pesters me to come and look at un. I thinks we'd lost she sure, but I
says, 'That's the way o' things,' and I don't worry. Though we'd have
missed she at the fishin', we'd be gettin' on, and 'twasn't worth a
worry, whatever."
There was great rejoicing when Skipper Zeb and the boys arrived at
Double Up Cove early in the afternoon with the big trap boat, and the
small boat in tow. Mrs. Twig and Violet saw them coming, and were at the
beach to meet them, and Mrs. Twig actually shed tears of joy.
"Snug and tight as ever!" announced Skipper Zeb, as the prow touched the
shore. "We gets she all fixed up, Mother. I'm thinkin' you knows more
about boats than I does."
"I'm _so_ glad!" and Mrs. Twig's round face was wreathed in smiles while
glad tears glistened in her eyes. "Now you and the lads must be
wonderful hungry, for 'tis near two hours after dinner time, and
dinner's been waitin' this long while."
"Aye, hungry as seven bears and as happy and perky as a cock pa'tridge,"
boomed Skipper Zeb. "We'll make the boats fast, and be right up."
What an appetite Charley had! And when he learned that the delicious
roast meat was a cut of the lynx that he and Toby had killed the night
before, his natural prejudice against unaccustomed food did not prevent
him from taking a second helping.
Charley scarce had time to think of home. Skipper Zeb was quite aware
that the best antidote for homesickness is work, with little time to
ruminate, and he kept Charley busy from morning till night with himself
and Toby doing the most interesting things imaginable, and, with all the
other work, the boys visited their rabbit snares each day and set new
ones. The week passed quickly, and on Saturday evening, when they sat
down to supper, Skipper Zeb announced:
"Well, now, here 'tis time to go to the path and set up the traps. We'll
be leavin' Monday marnin', lads."
This was an adventure to which Charley had looked forward with keen
anticipation since Skipper Zeb had first announced that he and Toby were
to accompany him. Reaching away for countless miles in every direction
from the water's edge lay the vast primordial, boundless wilderness.
What unfathomed mysteries it held! There it slept as it had slept
through the silence of unnumbered ages since the world was formed,
untrod by the white man's foot, known only to wild Indian hunters, as
primitive as the wilderness itself. What strange beasts lived in its far
fastnesses! What marvelous lakes, what great rivers, what mountain peaks
waited there to be discovered! What a wonderful sensation it would be to
penetrate the hem of its outer edge beyond the sight and reach of even
Skipper Zeb's frontier cabin.
This was what Charley was thinking, as they talked of the going on
Monday morning, though he could not, perhaps, have put his thoughts or
emotions into words that would express them.
"'Tis a late start," Skipper Zeb continued. "I never goes in quite so
late to set up my path. But I has two fine helpers, whatever, and I
never has they before."
Everything was made ready on Sunday night, and a full two hours before
daybreak on Monday morning Skipper Zeb's small boat was laden with a
cargo of flour, pork, molasses, tea and steel traps, with extra clothing
for the trail. Two pairs of snowshoes were taken for himself, in case of
accident to one of them, and also a pair for Toby and a pair for
Charley.
"'Tis never safe to go without snowshoes at this season," explained
Skipper Zeb. "If snow comes now, there'll be no gettin' about without
un."
"I never had a pair of snowshoes on in my life," said Charley. "I don't
see how you can walk with them, they're so wide and must be clumsy."
"Never has snowshoes on!" explained Skipper Zeb in astonishment. "Well,
now! And how does you ever get about in winter without un?"
"The streets are kept clear of snow," explained Charley, "and we don't
have so much snow anyhow. Even in the country there isn't enough snow to
use them."
"Well, now!" said Skipper Zeb in wonderment. "It must be strange to be
livin' in a place where you're not needin' snowshoes to get about in
winter. You'll learn to use un. 'Twill be easy enough, once you finds
the way o' swingin' your feet."
Mrs. Twig and Violet went down to the landing to see them off, and to
wish them Godspeed as they pulled away with Skipper Zeb and Toby at the
oars and Charley settled snugly in the stern.
X