"SAVING THE BACON!"
Phil reached for his gun. Luckily he had it close by, even though
hardly expecting to make use of it during the night.
He fancied he heard a low snarking sound; possibly it may have been
pure imagination; though so wary an animal as a wildcat might have
detected a movement down below, where its human enemies held forth, and
signified by this means its displeasure at being disturbed in a feast.
Now the gun was being carefully pushed forth, advantage being taken of
the opening under the canvas cover, where Phil had released a couple of
the grummets. He wondered just how he was to get the butt against his
shoulder, under such peculiar conditions; but where there's a will
there nearly always can be found a way; and in the end this difficulty
was bridged over.
Then he thought of Larry. What a fright the sudden roar of the gun in
the confined space under the canopy would give his chum. But Phil had
warned him against being alarmed in case of a shot during the night.
Was the cat still there?
Looking closely he could see a movement as though the animal might have
finally reached the meat through the covering, and was busily engaged
chewing at it.
"Think of the nerve of the thing!" Phil was saying under his breath, as
he got ready to fire.
The report quickly followed. Phil, once he was ready, began to have a
fear lest the animal take sudden alarm, and make a leap that would
carry it beyond his range of vision. And the more he thought over the
thing the greater became his desire to punish the beast for its
audacity.
"Thunder!" shouted Larry, as he came floundering off his made-up bed,
landing in a struggling heap in the bottom of the motor boat.
"Oh! no, not quite so bad as that," laughed Phil, himself gaining an
upright position; and trying the best he could to throw out the old
shell, so that he might have the pump-gun in serviceable shape again.
Tony seemed to be the least disturbed of the lot. Familiarity with
alarms had considerable to do with it, no doubt. He had started to
open the flap of the canvas cover nearest him, so that he could thrust
his head out.
"What happened, Phil?" asked Larry, as he sat up on the floor of the
boat.
"Why, I just saved our bacon; or to be plainer, our venison," laughed
the other.
"Oh! was something running away with it, then?" demanded Larry,
beginning to get upon his knees as the first step toward rising.
"Something was making way with it, which is about the same thing,"
replied Phil.
"W-was it a bobcat?" continued Larry.
"Listen!"
As Phil said this one word they could hear a fierce growling,
accompanied by a strange scurrying sound. It came from the shore close
to the boat.
"Will it come in here after us, Phil?" asked the more timid member of
the firm, as he tried to find the hatchet which he remembered seeing
somewhere close by at the time he lay down on his cot.
"How about that, Tony; do you think there's any danger of such a thing
happening?" queried Phil, turning to the swamp boy.
"Getting weaker all the time," came the ready reply. "I think yuh give
him all in the gun. Kick the bucket purty soon now."
Tony thrust the curtains more fully aside. Then he crept out and
reached the shore; nor was Phil far behind him. The latter, however,
not being quite so confident as Tony, insisted on carrying his Marlin
repeater along. If the dying cat gave evidence of a desire to attack
them, he wanted to be in shape to finish matters on the spot.
There was really no need. Even as he arrived on the scene the stricken
animal gave one last convulsive shudder, and stiffened out.
"Good shot that!" remarked Tony, admiringly, as he bent over to see
where Phil had struck the midnight marauder.
"Wow! what a savage looking pussy!" exclaimed Larry, joining the
others. "I'd everlastingly hate to run up against such a customer in
the pine woods. Say, if a fellow like that pounced down on my back
some time, what ought I to do?"
"Lie down, and roll," laughed Phil; who knew that down here in this
warm country, where food is plenty, no wildcat would be bold enough to
openly attack a human being without provocation.
Tony immediately started to shin up the tree, desirous of ascertaining
the extent of damage done. When he came down he announced that the
beast had just succeeded in tearing a way in to the venison; but had
eaten very little of it, thanks to Phil chancing to awaken when he did.
So, as the night air felt rather chilly, they soon bundled back into
the boat again, and sought to secure more sleep.
There was no further alarm that night, and Larry was glad when his chum
aroused him by saying that morning had arrived.
The sun was beginning to gild the eastern heavens when they started to
get breakfast. Larry took a look all around, after what he fancied
would be the manner of an old sea dog; and then gravely announced his
opinion as to the weather.
"Guess we're going to have another fine day of it. No sign of red in
that sunrise; and the few fleecy white clouds don't whisper rain. You
know, Phil, I'm taking considerable interest in weather predictions
these days. Got an old almanac along, to compare notes. I hazard a
guess first, and then look up what old Jerold says we're going to have."
"Well, how do his predictions pan out?" asked Phil.
"Oh! nine times out of ten it happens just the opposite to what he
says. That's the fun of the thing. He knows how to tell what the
weather ain't going to be; and to my mind that's going some. Now, what
shall we eat this morning?"
"Any of those fresh eggs left we bought from that old cracker just
outside the town limits?" asked the head of the expedition. "Half a
dozen, you say? Good! Suppose you give us an omelet for a change.
They might get broken, anyway; and we'd better have the use of 'em."
"What will you do with that awful beast out there, Phil?"
"Tony is going to look after him for me," replied the one who had shot
the bobcat thief. "He says it is a very fine skin, and that sometime
I'll be glad to have it made into a little door mat. He knows how to
take it off, and stretch it on a contrivance he expects to make. You
see, he's handy at all such things. Necessity is a great teacher. If
you just had to go hungry for two whole days, Larry, I really believe
you could do it."
"Perhaps I could," sighed the other; "but thank goodness, just at
present there's no need of fasting, while we've got all these bully
stores aboard, and that haunch of prime venison hanging up there.
Suppose you drop it down, Tony, if you don't mind climbing the tree
again. Two eggs apiece ain't going to fill the bill; and the taste I
had of that venison last night haunts me still."
At that Phil chuckled.
"Seems to me, just before we went to bed I saw you getting away with
the surplus we put in that pan," he remarked.
"Oh! that was only a little snack," replied the unabashed Larry. "This
air seems to tone up a fellow's appetite some. Given a week or two of
the open life, and I have hopes that my usual appetite will come back
to me again."
Of course the breakfast was a success. Larry could cook, even if he
did lack many of the qualities that should be found in a woodsman; and
was woefully ignorant as to the thousand and one things connected with
the great outdoors.
Still, Phil had hopes of him. From time to time he kept dinning
certain facts into the ears of his chum. These concerned the secrets
of the open, and which at times are so important to any one who dares
venture into the woods.
He explained for instance, to his boat mate, just how to learn the
direction of the compass from the sun, the marks on the trees, and even
his watch, if put to it. He showed him how to make a fire without a
match, by the use of friction, after the manner of savage tribes who
never knew flint and steel, or a brimstone stick. He explained to
Larry how easy it was to cook game, by making a fire in a hole until it
had become very hot, and then placing the meat therein; sealing the
oven until hours had elapsed; which backwoods method of cooking was
really the first fireless cooker known.
In these and dozens of other ways Phil daily taught his chum. Larry
evinced considerable interest in the matter so long as his comrade was
speaking; but that was about as far as it went. He did not have the
spirit in him; and the seed fell on barren ground. Larry would never
in all his life make a genuine woodsman. But if he kept on, he might
in time get a job in a restaurant over the grill, so Phil assured him,
as he complimented Larry on the fine omelet.
An hour later they left the place which Larry called "Wildcat Camp" in
his log of the motor boat cruise.
Larry was full of high spirits. Indeed, it was hard for him to keep
from showing his bubbling good nature at any and all times. Phil too
seemed quite contented with the way things were moving along. Only the
swamp boy gave evidence of increasing uneasiness.
Tony would sit there as if lost in thought, his eyes fastened on the
frank face of the young fellow for whom he had come to entertain such a
lively sense of friendship in the short time he had known him. Then he
would sigh, and shake his head dolefully, as though he foresaw troubles
arising which he would fain ward off, if only Phil would accept his
earnest advice, and turn around before it was too late.
But Phil believed he had that on his person which would change the
terrible McGee from a bitter enemy into a good friend; and confident in
his own honorable intentions he never dreamed of turning back.