A COOK STAMPEDE
“Why, it isn’t a deer at all!” cried Will.
“Looks like that boy on the train, what’s his name—Teddy!” exclaimed
the sharp-eyed Bluff. A minute later he saw that his guess was a good
one, as the bearers of the litter set it down before the cabin door.
“Whatever has happened to him; Jerry, I hope you didn’t mistake him
for a deer, and shoot him in the leg?” Bluff burst out, for he had
already discovered that the boy’s left limb was bound up in some rude
fashion.
At that Jerry hardly knew whether to look indignant, or laugh.
“Well, I hope I can tell a deer better than to take a boy for one,” he
remarked, “though I know lots of people are shot every year in the
woods all over the country, just because hunters will dress in brown
khaki or corduroy. But it happens that poor Teddy got his leg into a
bear trap, you see.”
Of course that aroused the curiosity of the two stay-at-homes more
than ever.
“Tell us about it, won’t you?” they pleaded.
“Hold on a bit, till we get Teddy settled in that rustic chair by the
fire. He’s nearly frozen, I want you to know,” Jerry announced.
Between them they carried the injured boy indoors.
“I hope I’ll be able to stand on both my feet in a day or two,” Teddy
said, as though he hated to put them to such trouble. “But it’s mighty
nice the way you’re treating me; and after Bill showed himself so
nasty mean.”
It was Frank’s intention to go at the wound again with warm water, and
then use some lotion he always carried for just such purposes. A cut
made by the jaws of that rusty old trap might bring on blood
poisoning, unless it were taken in hand properly, and thoroughly
cleansed.
Jerry was capable of doing all the talking necessary, while Frank set
to work at his task.
“We ran on Teddy by accident,” the former explained. “First thing we
knew we were listening to somebody calling for help. We followed it
up, and came on him. The old trap was set by a fur farmer that’s got a
place four miles from here—and for one I’m real glad it is that far,
because it’s skunks he raises.”
“Huh! that’s interesting!” commented Bluff.
“You’d think it was highly interesting, if ever you meandered that
way,” Jerry assured him. “Well, we took Teddy to the farm, where he
was heading at the time, having cleared out from his uncle’s camp, you
see.”
Jerry touched his cheek just under the right eye, and in that way
called the attention of Will and Bluff to the discolored mark the
other boy was carrying. They both nodded their heads, as though
understanding what he meant.
“How did it come that you thought best not to leave him there?” asked
Will.
“Nobody home,” Jerry chirped; “house shut up, and old man skipped to
town. Teddy said he hinted about going down to have some sort of an
operation performed. Don’t blame him for seizing the first chance he
got to clear out. You would too, if you ever visited there.”
“And does Frank mean to keep Teddy here with us?” asked Bluff, in a
low tone, so the wounded boy might not catch what he was saying.
“Don’t just know what we’ll have to do about it,” Jerry replied,
looking as though he felt of considerable importance, since he had
shared in the adventure. “A whole lot depends on how he feels
to-morrow. You see, he’s lit out from Nackerson’s camp, and don’t want
to go back; but he may have to yet, and stand the racket the best way
possible.”
All of them felt sorry for Teddy. At the same time that did not mean
to take him in with them, and have what Bluff said would be a “fifth
wheel to the wagon, when just four were needed to make it complete.”
If it came down to a necessity doubtless every one of the outdoor
chums would have voted to make room for the boy. That mark under his
eye told what a brute Nackerson must be. If once Teddy could get
safely back home, he would never be tempted to start out into the
woods to serve as a cook for a party of sportsmen.
There was plenty of time to get the partridges ready and a fire made
in the hole dug in the ground, as on that former occasion. The memory
of that delightful treat seemed to haunt all the boys, so that they
yearned for a second.
Of course during the afternoon the boys were in and out a great deal.
Teddy always seized the chance to have a few friendly words with
whoever came near him. He evinced the liveliest interest in all they
were doing, and pleased Will by asking many questions concerning his
method of taking night pictures with his flashlight.
“If I only get better soon, and you don’t chase me back to that camp
again,” Teddy said, with a sigh, “I’d like nothing better than to do
your cooking right along. And then maybe some night you’d let me go
with you into the woods where you set your picture trap. I’d be only
too glad to help you any way I might.”
That set Will to thinking. He tried to picture the discomforts which
the poor fellow must have been up against, forced to obey the
slightest whim of such a bad-tempered man as Bill Nackerson. If the
latter would sink so low as to strike the boy he might do even worse.
“I guess it’s up to us to house Teddy the rest of the time we’re
here,” Will said to Bluff, as they worked at getting more firewood
close to the cabin so as to always have a fair supply handy, in case a
snowstorm settled in.
Bluff frowned, and shook his head dubiously. Evidently he too had been
thinking about that same subject; and somehow it failed to appeal as
strongly to him as to the more tender-hearted Will.
It was past the middle of the afternoon when this talk occurred. Frank
and Jerry were busy elsewhere.
“I don’t know about that,” Bluff remarked. “In the first place we’ve
got just four bunks, which is one apiece. While I was willing to give
mine up to Mr. Darrel, I’d seriously object to being turned out by a
boy, and Nackerson’s boy at that.”
“No need of that,” Will rejoined; “if he stayed he’d be only too glad
to sleep on that floor cot you had. Besides, he says he’s a good cook,
and would take that job on his shoulders. You know some of us
sometimes hate to have to work at getting the grub ready.”
“Y-yes, I guess we do, Will,” admitted Bluff, who could remember lots
of occasions when he served only through a sense of duty, and not
because he was fond of getting meals.
“Then besides,” continued Will, seeing that his argument was beginning
to tell, as Bluff showed signs of cooling down, “what if we made him
go back to Nackerson, and anything happened to him, we wouldn’t ever
be able to forgive ourselves.”
“He certainly is in a bad box,” muttered Bluff.
“Put yourself in his place, if you can, Bluff; and see how you’d feel
about it, that’s all,” continued Will. “But then, I ought to know you
too well to think you’d send a chap adrift, when we could give him a
shelter and three square meals a day just as easy as say so.”
“Let Frank decide it,” Bluff said at last in desperation. “Whatever he
settles on the rest of us’ll agree to stand for. Frank knows best what
to do and there will be no kick coming, whatever he says.”
Will went away satisfied that Teddy would stay. Bluff was generally
the obstreperous one, and if he could be induced to shift all
responsibility on to Frank’s shoulders, there was little more to say.
It may have been half an hour after this talk that the boys heard a
shout off in the woods in the direction of Lumber Run Camp.
“Wonder what’s going to strike us now?” remarked Jerry, who had been
cleaning his gun and had just reloaded its magazine. At the time he
was sitting by the fire, but so warm did it feel inside the cabin that
they had left the door part way open.
Bluff was already reaching for his gun. There was a look on his face
that could hardly be called one of alarm; at the same time it seemed
to speak of excitement.
“Perhaps that crowd is coming over again to bulldoze us,” he
suggested.
“Oh! I hope not,” said Will, at the same time thinking it his duty to
look for his gun, which he had not fired since arriving in the Big
Woods.
“Come outdoors, fellows!” they heard Frank say; for at the time it
happened he was busying himself at something in the open, and had his
gun handy.
All of them came together not far from the door. This time there was
no lack of firearms in evidence. They had taken warning from that
other occasion when caught in an almost helpless condition by the
Nackerson crowd.
“Two men coming this way,” announced Frank presently.
“That must mean Bill, and one of his pals,” muttered Bluff, as he
began to fumble with his pump-gun, so as to make sure it was in
working order. “How had we better string out to receive ’em, Frank? It
won’t do to keep in a bunch here. Hadn’t I better slip along, and be
ready to come up on their right flank?”
“Better hold your horses a while, Bluff,” advised Frank, with a laugh,
“because after all it isn’t the Nackerson crowd.”
“But who else can they be?” the other demanded.
“Of course I don’t know for sure,” Frank informed him; “but it strikes
me one of the men looks like the cook they had at Lumber Run Camp.”
“Gee, whiz! but there seems to be an awful lot of cooks broken loose
lately,” Bluff complained, having in mind what Will had suggested with
reference to Teddy. “It must be catching, like the measles, this
running away from the stew-pans and flapjack fixings. But let ’em come
on; we can stand for nearly anything.”
The two men came up and Frank saw there was nothing to be feared from
that source. The idea had already flashed through his mind that
possibly Mr. Darrel may have sent a message by them; he hoped the
lumberman was not ill, or anything like that.
“I’m on my way out with the cook,” one of the men explained. “You see
his wife has sent word to him to come home right away. I expect to
fetch another mess cook along back with me, to stay the winter out.
And seein’ as we expected to come by not far from your place here, the
boss he says, says he: ‘Just drop in, and hand the boys this
communication from me.’ Reckon it ’splains itself, boys. So we’ll be
goin’, because the cook is fair wild to get home. Twins is an event in
his fambly that ain’t never happened before.”
The two men hurried away even while Frank was opening the paper that
had been placed in his hand.
“Read it out loud, please, Frank, so the whole of us can get a grip on
what he’s written to you,” suggested Jerry.
“Listen, then,” said Frank, who had shown signs of some little
excitement. “‘This is to inform you, dear boys, that last night a
sneaking incendiary tried to burn us out at Lumber Run Camp. The
damage didn’t amount to much; but I’m offering a hundred dollars
reward for information that will convict the miserable wretch who
started that fire. A word to the wise is sufficient. _Samuel
Darrel_.’”