THE FAT BOY'S REVENGE
The Pony Rider Boys had never had so interesting a guide as Cale
Vaughn proved himself to be. He always had something new to explain
to them, and his explanations were put in a most attractive form.
It was late that night when the boys turned in, and early on the
following morning they were on their way to the next camping place
where they might remain for a few days, taking short exploration
trips from that central base.
This day's riding was the hardest of all they ever had experienced.
It is true they followed a small watercourse, but the going was
terrific. Not only did the trees stand so close together as to make
riding a terror, but saplings and thick underbrush, together with
occasional rocks, hidden fallen trunks, and other obstacles, made
traveling a perilous proceeding. There was danger to the boys, and
there was danger of the ponies breaking their legs. To add to their
troubles, the mosquitoes got busy quite early in the forenoon, and
smacks of open palms against irritated cheeks were heard on all
sides.
Stacy Brown's red face was the most conspicuous thing in the outfit.
Cale Vaughn walked and led his horse, as did some of the others,
but Stacy refused to walk so long as he had a horse that would hold
him up. As a result, the fat boy suffered more than all the others.
The Indian, having been told where they would make camp, had
shouldered his pack and strode off through the forest, soon
disappearing under the giant trees of the Maine Wilderness.
Ponies were irritable and rebellious by the time the party halted for
the noonday rest and luncheon. The boys by this time did not know
where they were. Tad knew that the guide was laying his course by
the little stream which came into view now and then, but the lad saw
no signs of a trail. He was glad his was not the responsibility of
finding the way for the party, for this was surely a primeval forest.
"Some woods, eh?" was Stacy Brown's way of describing it. "A fine
place to hide, in case someone were after us," he added.
"In that event we shouldn't be looking for a hiding place, young
man!"
"Maybe you wouldn't," retorted Stacy.
"Nor would you. You are simply talking to make conversation,"
answered Tad.
The argument was ended by the voice of the guide ordering the party
to be on the move again. Cale knew that they would have to make time
in order to reach before dark the place he had decided upon for the
night's camp. The Indian, no doubt, was already there. So the boys
tore their way through the thickets, here and there making wide
detours to avoid an unusually rough piece of going. Twilight was
upon them ere they halted to make camp in a dense thicket of spruce,
the tops of which they could not see in the faint light, but later on
the moon came up, silvering the tops of the pines. With it came the
voices of the night, the voices of the deep forest. Birds twittered
here and there, a crow croaked hoarsely in a tree near at hand, and
something went scudding away from the outskirts of the camp as Cale
shied a stone in that direction. He was the only one who had heard
anything at that point.
Suddenly there came the sound of what appeared to be human beings
talking in low tones. The boys started up, looking first at each
other, then at the guide. Vaughn lay before the fire, his head
supported by his arms. He was undisturbed. It was all too familiar
to him, who had spent so many hundred nights in this same
impenetrable forest.
"Wha--what was that?" stammered Chunky.
"Didn't you hear someone talking, Mr. Vaughn?" asked Tad.
The guide twisted his head from side to side two times.
"Didn't you hear it?" insisted Ned.
"I heard several things," answered Cale.
"Yes, so did I," spoke up the Professor. "I am quite sure it was
persons speaking."
"There it goes again," cried Tad.
"Didn't you boys ever hear that before?" smiled Cale.
The lads confessed that they never had.
"Why, that is the 'coons talking to each other."
"The 'coons?" exclaimed Chunky, opening his eyes wide. "This is a
funny place for 'coons up in this wilderness. What do they live
on?"
"They browse for a living. I mean the four-legged kind. Animals!"
"Oh! I thought you meant--"
"Is it possible that that noise is made by 'coons?" interrupted
Professor Zepplin.
Cale nodded.
"Yes; they are conversational little gentlemen. Probably are trying
to decide upon the best way of getting a meal out of our camp.
Boys, tomorrow morning we shall have to busy ourselves at daylight.
We are going to have a lesson in permanent camp building, you know."
"Yes, sir," chorused the lads.
"Afterward, if you are agreeable, we will take a tramp over the
mountain to a place where a ranger friend of mine lives."
"Rangers?" questioned Stacy. "I didn't know they had Texas Rangers in
Maine."
"Stacy, you are silly," rebuked Tad.
"Nor do they," answered the guide. "The kind I speak of is a forest
ranger."
"What do they range?" asked Walter.
"The forest," answered Rector. "That's all there is to range up
here."
"The forest rangers watch the forests," explained Vaughn. "It is
their business to see that no timber is cut unlawfully and to watch
out for fires and warn campers and hunters to be careful. It is a
fine life."
"I should think it would be," agreed the fat boy. "But better for
them than for me, with the talking 'coons and other things that you
can hear but don't see. I'll get another ghost scare if this keeps
on. I wish it were morning."
"Morning will come soon enough," answered the guide.
Morning did. With it came work, and plenty of it. Vaughn let the
boys do the work of making permanent camp, he instructing them in the
work as they went along, applying some of the theories he had
expounded to them on the previous day.
"Woodcraft, boys," explained the guide, "is, as perhaps you may know,
the art of getting along in the wilderness with just what Nature has
placed within your reach. When you are able to find your way through
an uncharted wilderness like this one, when you know the trees and
the plants, the animal life, when you know how to live comfortably,
then you may call yourselves good woodsmen. I might say that there
are few of them in this day and age. And as a matter of fact, there
are not very many places in America where woodcraft is called for.
This is one of the places where it is needed unless you expect to get
lost and starve to death. From what I have seen of you boys I should
say you might easily get lost, but you all possess natural
resourcefulness. You would manage to live and keep going, though you
might have a hard time of it."
By eight o'clock the immediate work was finished. Cale announced
that they would start off for a hike, as he had suggested the day
before. When Stacy learned that they were going to walk, and that
they would tramp ten or fifteen miles before they returned, he
balked.
"Not for me!" announced the fat boy firmly, sitting down on a
lichen-covered rock. "This cold rock shall jump out of his pit sooner
than I, and don't you forget that for a moment!"
"Oh, come along," begged Tad.
"No, sir. I'll ride, if the rest do."
"You can't ride where we are going," replied Cale.
"Then I don't go."
No amount of urging would induce the lad to change his mind, so they
decided to go on without him. Charlie John would be in the camp all
day, so Cale said it would be all right for Chunky to remain. He
warned the half-breed to see to it that Master Stacy did not stray
from camp, knowing full well that the fat boy would lose himself were
he to get ten rods from the camp.
Stacy did. Not once, but six times before noon did he lose himself.
Fortunately he had not strayed far. His yells reached the ears of
the Indian, who, with many grunts of disapproval, stalked out and
brought the lost boy back to camp, sternly ordering him to remain
there. But Chunky was stubborn. He was determined to go out and
back freely and try to find his way. That was why he became lost so
many times. The noonday meal was the only thing that caused him to
change his mind.
After dinner, while Charlie John was washing the dishes and stowing
the food, Stacy began rummaging about the camp.
All too soon this occupation proved uninteresting to one who
possessed Chunky's energy in finding useless things to do with all
his might.
"Even sleeping will be more fun," decided the fat boy. So he
vanished behind the flap of his tent and lay down. His snoring,
however, soon proved altogether too much for even the placid nerves
of an Indian to endure. Charlie John stole in soft-footed, shaking
the youngster, then drawing him to his feet.
"What are you trying to do to me?" indignantly demanded Chunky.
"Too much saw-mill noise--no good," declared the Indian. "Make that
noise again, then me show you something Indians do to stop noise."
Stolidly Charlie John departed from the tent, but there was nothing
stolid about the fat boy's quivering rage.
"If Mr. Copper Face can't let me alone, I'll make him wish he had,"
growled Stacy, shaking angry fists at the retreating Indian. In his
rummaging about the camp young Brown had discovered a ten-ounce bottle
of anise-seed oil, and as Chunky now gazed at this bottle the light
of new mischief began to dawn in his eyes. Charlie John would have
done well to watch him.
"Heap big fun!" muttered the fat boy, choking down too visible
evidences of glee. "I'll scatter this around the camp and bring a
million-billion bees here. Then I'll hide in my tent, and, as the
bees won't know where to find me, they'll devote all their time to
Charlie. When he gets it too bad I'll holler to him to come into the
tent and hear me snore. Wow!"
In a short time, while the Indian was at a little distance, Stacy had
sprinkled considerable of the oil on the ground. Charlie John,
returning, sniffed suspiciously, but Chunky had the bottle out of
sight. Charlie, however, had a keen nose, so he watched in silence.
Stacy's innocent face betrayed nothing, and the boy kept on
sprinkling a ring of oil clear around the camp. He was chuckling to
himself all the time, congratulating himself on the happy idea that
had come to him with the finding of the anise oil. Stacy was
confident that he was going to have the time of his life.
In this the fat boy was right, though he did not realize fully to
just what that fun would lead. Had he realized, no doubt he would
have replaced the stopper in the oil bottle without the loss of a
second.
The buzzing of a bee recalled him to the peril of his position. The
buzz was very businesslike, too. Stacy made a vicious strike at the
sound, then dived for the protection of his tent. Reaching that, he
jerked the flap shut and peered out, red-faced, big-eyed. Charlie
John, who had been bending over a garbage hole that he had just dug,
suddenly leaped straight up into the air, clapping a hand to the back
of his neck. A busy bee had momentarily alighted there, and, before
leaving, the bee had pricked the tough hide of the half-breed.
Ere Charlie had recovered from his surprise he got another sting.
Stacy was about to yell again, but catching a glimpse of the Indian's
face, convulsed with anger, Stacy quickly withdrew into the tent,
prudently closing the flap and tying it on the inside. The boy then
sat down and, with arms clasped about his knees, rocked back and
forth, fairly choking with laughter. He could hear the Indian
thrashing about on the outside. The sound was sweet music to the
ears of the fat boy. Then a new sound was heard. It was a yell, and
the yell was pitched in a new key. Stacy stepped out to see what was
going on, then he, too, uttered a yell, louder and more piercing than
that of the Indian.