WHEN EVEN A COMPASS FAILED THEM.
"What would you do, Bumpus," said Step Hen, after a while, "if you
couldn't find a creek to wade in, with the fire all around you?"
"Well, d'ye know, I was just athinkin' about that same thing," replied
the fat scout, who had thrown a blanket around him, and not bothered
dressing; and as he sat there on a log he looked somewhat like a lazy
Indian.
"I hope you came to some conclusion," observed Giraffe; "because, if we
happen to run across a conflagration to-morrow, when we're out hunting,
it'll be some comfort to me to know, when I'm spinning along, that
you're snug and safe behind, and not being devoured by the flames."
"Well, the only thing I could think of," Bumpus went on, soberly;
"seeing that a feller can't sprout wings right away when he needs the
same; nor hatch up an aeroplane to carry him out of the danger zone--the
only thing for me to do would be to hunt around for a woodchuck's hole,
and push in, feet first."
There was a laugh at that remark, which seemed to surprise Bumpus, for
he looked with elevated eyebrows at each of the others in turn.
"You seem to think I'm joking," he remarked, as if offended by the
levity.
"Well," continued Giraffe, "in the first place you'd possibly find a
heap of trouble discovering a woodchuck's hole in these Maine woods,
especially when you were in a big hurry; and then again, fancy the kind
of woodchuck that had a hole of a size to accommodate _you_, Bumpus
Hawtree!"
The fat boy sighed.
"That's what I get all along the line," he declared. "There ain't no
place in all this world for a feller that's nearly as round as he is
tall. I tell you I'm goin' to find _some_ way of getting rid of all
this superabundance of flesh, if I have to walk it off by taking
tremendous tramps. Some people tell me it c'n be done by going hungry a
week or two at a time; but what's the use of living if you can't eat,
that's what? So I'm in a peck of trouble. Won't somebody tell me what to
do?"
Of course, with such an open invitation, they hastened to accomodate
him; and if poor Bumpus tried even a part of the numerous joking plans
offered for his consideration, he would soon have no need for either
food or energy, since they would, as he declared, be "putting his wooden
overcoat on him."
Finally, however, the boys began to slip back once more into the tents,
all but Giraffe, who was to finish the night with Jim; although there
was hardly another hour now before daylight.
"Just suits me, boys!" declared the tall scout, as he prepared to sit
out his turn as sentry; "you see, I can be thinking over that knotty
problem I've just _got_ to figure out before we leave this part of
the country. And I've an idea that I'm getting mighty warm on that
proposition now. Would sure had it dead to rights, only for clumsy
Bumpus tumbling over me."
But no one paid much attention to what Giraffe was saying; they had by
now grown so accustomed to hearing him always promising great things by
"to-morrow" that it "went in one ear, and came out of the other," Davy
Jones said.
When the morning came, the camp became a scene of activity. While some
of the party were busily engaged cooking a good breakfast--and it needed
a lot to satisfy the healthy appetites of six growing boys, not to
mention two husky guides,--others were examining the tracks that had
been found after the fire.
And it was the universal opinion that two prowlers had indeed started
the fire with the idea that the inmates of the camp, rushing out to
fight its spread, might get so far away that it would leave the way open
for the thieves to make a sweep of any valuables left unguarded in that
exciting hour.
Bumpus and Giraffe were making all their preparations looking to their
"sallying forth," as the latter termed it, "like Don Quixote and Sancho
Panza of old, determined to do wonderful things." Thad saw that they
felt as if they knew it all; and he realized that in such a case advice
was not desired, so he said nothing about what they ought to take. If
they forgot anything, they must do without, and next time think again.
Presently the two waved their hands merrily to their chums, and started
forth. Bumpus looked like a well-laden, led animal as he trotted along
at the heels of the tall scout, who was to do the piloting of the
expedition.
"Don't keep supper for us if we're late," airily called back Bumpus. "We
may get further away than we can manage in one day, and have to camp
alone, like Thad and Step Hen did. And if some of them old wolves pay us
a visit, they'll wish they hadn't. Giraffe is toting his old heavy
weight rifle; and here I am with my new double-barreled gun, and fifty
shells. Ketch me gettin' caught like Step Hen did, with a few charges
for my trusty weapon. Good-bye, fellers! See you later!"
"Good-bye, and good luck!" called out Davy Jones, waving his cap three
times to represent his idea as to the right kind of a send-off.
The hunters got along very well for several miles, though Giraffe was
forever forging protests from Bumpus.
"What d'ye take me for, Giraffe?" he would exclaim, as he caught up with
the waiting leader, and wiped the perspiration from his brow, despite
the fact that the day was pretty cold. "You know I ain't built on the
same lines as you; and in a case of this kind, the one that c'n go
faster just has to accommodate himself to the pace of the slow one.
You're the hare, and I'm like the poor old tortoise; but please remember
that the turtle came in winner after all in the race. Not always to the
swift, you know, does the race go. I may beat you out in the long run,
with the endurance test. If I've got anything at all, it's grit."
"Yes, you will," sneered Giraffe; but after the third stop he did
moderate his speed considerably; perhaps he was beginning to get a
little tired himself, and did not feel unwilling to draw in a peg or
two.
At noon they ate a cold lunch, for they had come upon certain tracks
that told Giraffe there had been an animal of some kind there--he wished
he knew how to tell what species it belonged to, and just how long ago
the tracks had been made.
"And mark me, Bumpus," he said impressively, "I'm going to learn all
those kind of things right away, as soon as I can take my mind off this
pesky fire puzzle. I c'n see how handy it is to be able to read signs
when you're off huntin'. Why, when we start to follerin' these here
tracks, after we've eaten our grub, how on earth do we know whether they
were made a week ago; or if some cow broke loose from a backwoods home
up here, and wandered this way. A nice pair of chumps we'd be, wouldn't
we, if we went and shot up a pet cow, and had to pay damages? I reckon
the boys'd never got over the joke."
"That's just what I was thinking myself, Giraffe," agreed the other, as
he sat down beside the tall scout on a fallen tree, and took out the
lunch from his haversack, for he had carried it all morning, and Giraffe
had let him, too; "if we're going in for this scouting business, we
ought to swallow the whole business. Now, as for learning things
connected with the woods, where could you find any fellers better
qualified to put us straight than we've got in Thad and Allan? What one
don't know, the other sure does. I'm bound to learn the game. Owning
this dandy gun has given me a new idea. I used to say 'oh! what's the
use of bothering, when you've got somebody else to do your thinking for
you?' But now I begin to see that you can't always depend on others.
Right here is a case in point."
As their minds ran about in the same channel the two boys managed to get
along splendidly. Their little differences of the past were, for the
time being at least, quite forgotten; and they seemed drawn toward each
other as two comrades should be.
But both began to complain because thus far neither of them had had
occasion to make use of their gun. If this was a game country, why was
it two such industrious hunters did not get a crack at something,
whether a deer, a moose, or even a fox--anything would have been welcome
as a change from the monotony.
Perhaps Giraffe would have been surprised if told that he and the
puffing Bumpus made quite too much noise to prevent any wary and timid
deer from staying within a quarter of a mile of them. And also that
often they were doing their hunting "down the wind," so that their scent
at such times was carried to the nostrils of the suspicious game long
before the hunters came in sight.
Finally they came across some partridges, and Bumpus managed to bag a
couple with two shots from his new gun. He was greatly elated by the
success attending his efforts, even though Giraffe did mention something
about the birds insisting on remaining on the branch of that tree so
long that they must either have been frozen there, or else wanted to
commit suicide.
"Well, they came to the right place, then," said Bumpus, sturdily, as he
crammed new shells in his gun; "I'm the feller to help every partridge
and deer pass over the divide, that feels like going. Bring on your
game; now we're going some!"
But as the afternoon began to wane they had a shot at nothing else,
though once Giraffe became excited, and declared he had caught a glimpse
of a deer making off in the distance.
"Now, ain't it a shame," he went on to say, "how that deer just knew we
were coming? Seems like somebody went ahead with a trumpet, and
announced that two hunters were on the trail. After that they all hike
out. But seems to me it's getting some cold right now, Bumpus. My
fingers begin to tingle."
"Told you to wear the old mitts Step Hen offered you, but you sneered at
the idea. I'm feeling pretty cold myself, considerin' that I'm on the
move all the time. Say, where are we anyhow, and how far from the camp?"
Giraffe looked blankly at Bumpus.
"Here's the compass, and we c'n see which way is north, all right. Then
east is off that way on the right, south around yonder, and west here.
But where in the dickens is that camp, south, north or east? Honest,
Bumpus, I don't know!"
"No more do I, Giraffe," replied the other. "And d'ye know, this makes
me think of that Injun that got lost, and was found, half starved, by
some white men; but he was too proud to admit his little shortcoming; so
when they asked him if he hadn't kinder managed to get twisted in his
bearings, he slaps his breast with his hand, take a pose like this, and
says he: 'Injun not lost; wigwam lost; Injun _here_!' And we're
like that Injun, Giraffe; oh! no, we're not lost one little bit, because
we know we're here. But I just can't amble on any longer. Suppose we
stop and camp. These partridges will taste prime. Yum! yum, can't get at
'em too soon to please me. Get busy, and light a fire, Giraffe; that's
your part of the contract always."
"I sure will, if you give me a few matches, Bumpus," replied the other,
wearily dropping his heavy rifle, that began to feel like a ton of lead.
"Matches! Why, you're the fire-maker; and I thought you'd take care of
that part of the business!" exclaimed Bumpus, looking a little alarmed.
"Why, what a silly you can be, Bumpus; don't you know I promised Thad
never to carry a single match around with me? And now, look what a fix
we're in, lost in the Maine woods, with night coming on, and gettin'
colder every minute; and not a single match to start a fire with. I see
our finish all right. When they find us some days from now, we'll be
just frozen stiff, that's what!"
The two tenderfeet looked at each other, but there was no smile on
either face now; for affairs had assumed too serious a phase to admit of
merriment.