DID TEDDY KNOW?
“Well, wouldn’t that jar you?” remarked Bluff, as he heard what was
contained in the brief communication from the lumberman.
“Tried to burn down the camp at Lumber Run, did they?” burst out
Jerry. “Well, if you asked me my opinion, I’d have to admit that I
didn’t like the looks of a few of those lumberjacks.”
“But nobody has accused any of the loggers of the crime,” remarked
Frank, and at that the head projecting from the opening at the door
came a little further into view; which was pretty good evidence, Frank
thought, that the wounded boy must take considerable interest in the
discussion.
“Why, who else would try to turn on Mr. Darrel that way, and burn his
shanties down just when winter is setting in?” asked Bluff.
“We can only give a guess at that,” Frank told him.
“Whew!” exclaimed Bluff, as he grasped the meaning back of those few
words. “After all, I wouldn’t put it past him, Frank.”
“Who—what—where—how?” demanded Will, apparently confused, and not
able to understand what all these strange hints portended.
“We had a specimen of his nasty temper, you know,” continued Bluff.
“Yes, twice now we’ve heard him tear around like a bull in a china
shop.”
“Oh! now I tumble to what you mean,” cried Will, who did not often use
any sort of slang, and must therefore have been unusually excited to
fall into the habit. “It’s Bill—Bill Nackerson!”
Frank nodded his head.
“He’s the only party around that we know of who would be mean enough
to try to set buildings on fire, just to get even with a man he
disliked,” he observed.
“Yes, and didn’t we hear him threaten to do something before long, so
as to hit back at Mr. Darrel?” Jerry wanted to know, as if he had all
along been suspicious of the big sportsman.
“That’s what we did,” asserted Will. “To think of him trying to burn
Lumber Run Camp; and as like as not it was when all the men were sound
asleep! Why, he might have been the death of some of them!”
“Whoever started the fire didn’t care a hoot whether it hurt or not, I
think,” Bluff gave as his opinion.
Frank noticed that the head had disappeared from alongside the open
door. Evidently Teddy had heard enough. He must have limped from his
chair to the doorway upon hearing strange voices outside. Perhaps he
had suspected that the others brought news of some startling
character.
Frank did not tell all of his chums about what he had seen. At the
same time it gave him food for much serious thought.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Teddy knew something about that
fire business,” he mentioned to Bluff, a short time later, when they
walked together down to the spot where the mink tracks had been seen,
as the latter had shown more or less interest in the habits of these
little animals.
“Do you really think so?” said the other, with a frown.
“He heard strangers talking outside when those two loggers came up,”
Frank continued, “and even dragged himself to the door to listen. I
saw his head, though after a bit, when we had talked matters over, he
went back to the fire again.”
“See here, Frank, you don’t think Teddy could have set that fire, I
hope?” demanded Bluff, uneasily.
“Oh! no, it isn’t so bad as that,” he was assured. “Teddy is telling
us the truth when he says he ran away from the camp last night, after
Nackerson had knocked him down.”
“The big coward!” muttered Bluff, clenching his fists and shaking his
head, as though he would like nothing better than to get in a blow at
the bully.
“My opinion, as far as I have any, is about like this,” Frank
continued. “After Nackerson struck Teddy the boy happened to overhear
him boasting about what he meant to do to the camp at Lumber Run.”
“Oh! I see now what you mean, Frank; when he found that Bill was
getting in deeper and deeper, Teddy just made up his mind that was no
place for a decent fellow to stay, and so he skipped out.”
“You’ve got it about straight, Bluff,” Frank admitted. “Of course, I’m
only guessing all this, remember. Don’t say one word of it to Teddy.
Let him worry over it, and perhaps after a bit he’ll understand that
there’s no reason why he should keep a still tongue in his head, to
shield a rascal who didn’t hesitate to strike him a cowardly blow.”
Bluff was not slow of comprehension. He saw what Frank’s plan was, and
while he may not have entirely agreed with such a course, there was no
disposition to interfere.
“You know best how to work it, Frank,” he said simply. “I’ll keep as
mum as an oyster till you give me the tip that it’s time to speak.
Just as you say, Teddy couldn’t have been the one to put the match to
the camp over at Lumber Run. When Nackerson had gone away, perhaps
with one of his pals who agreed to stand back of him, that’s the time
Teddy lit out.”
“He struck it pretty hard at first, getting caught in that trap,”
Frank mused; “but when you come right down to facts I guess it was
just as well that it happened to him.”
“Huh! that’s a queer thing to say,” remonstrated Bluff. “Getting hung
up in an old bear trap a blessing in disguise, was it? I’d like to
know how you figure that out, Frank.”
“This way,” explained the other. “If he had missed connections with
that trap Teddy would have reached the skunk farm only to meet with
disappointment.”
“Sure he would, because Old Joe, as he called the fur farmer, had
pulled up stakes and gone to town for some weeks,” Bluff admitted.
“As Teddy didn’t know where we hung out, and couldn’t find his way to
Lumber Run Camp, you can see that he would have had to choose between
going back to Nackerson, or losing himself in the Big Woods.”
“Whew! it does take you to see through things,” Bluff declared, with a
laugh. “I can understand now that it _was_ a big streak of luck
for Ted when he met with that bear trap. We never know when we’re well
off, do we? But show me what you were telling about this mink, Frank;
and how the old chap visits around in and out of these holes in the
bank during the winter and early spring.”
Frank was always accommodating, especially when anything connected
with his knowledge of nature was concerned. He loved to watch the
small woods folk when they did not suspect his presence, and learn
more and more of their interesting habits.
So that day passed. Another, and yet a third found the boys enjoying
themselves to the limit. Teddy was showing decided signs of
improvement. He could get around fairly well by now, Jerry having cut
him a walking-stick, with a crook at the end. He was beginning to get
over the nervousness that had shown itself for a whole day following
his advent in the new camp.
Perhaps the boy had feared that Nackerson might come storming along,
and insist on his returning to his duties as cook. He feared the
brutal sportsman more than ever, now that he had found such a fine
harbor of refuge with the outdoor chums. To go back to that other
drudgery would have been torture.
As soon as he was able to get around he insisted on taking charge of
the cooking. And the boys soon learned that Teddy could manage
splendidly. He had to be shown very little so as to suit their tastes;
and none of them regretted in the least that they had extended a
helping hand toward one in distress.
A new life was opening up to Teddy. He had never before come in
contact with such an agreeable lot of companions and every hour of the
day he tried to prove himself grateful.
Still, he did not mention a word about what he might possibly know of
the dastardly deed, when some one attempted to fire the logging camp.
Frank often saw a worried expression come over the boy’s face, and at
such times he suspected that Teddy was puzzling his brain as to just
what his duty might be. He did not like to betray his kinsman, and yet
felt that it was not right to refrain from taking someone into his
confidence.
“He may speak sooner or later,” Frank told himself; “and if he does,
it will not be the reward of a hundred dollars for information that
will make him tell.”
On the second day, about noon, some of the boys were busy near the
cabin, laying in an extra supply of firewood. Frank had an idea they
would be visited by a big snowfall before twenty-four hours had
passed.
“Of course that’s only a hazard, fellows,” he told Bluff and Jerry,
who were helping him add to the handy heap close to the door of the
cabin, “but there does seem to be a feeling of dampness in the air,
for all it’s so cold; and the sun, you notice, shines through a sort
of hazy curtain.”
“I think just the same way you do, Frank,” Jerry remarked; “and if you
asked me to say when, I’d guess it was going to strike us before
night.”
“We’ve got off pretty fortunately so far about storms,” Bluff went on,
as he threw another armful of fuel on the already huge pile.
“If it does come down on us,” Frank continued, “we’ll not lack for
fresh meat, anyway. That was a lucky shot you made yesterday, Bluff.
The buckshot shell did the business, too, for after you fired both
barrels the buck went down with a crash.”
“And to think it happened so near our camp that we managed to tote the
whole carcass to the cabin,” and Bluff looked with pride in his eyes
toward a deer that was hanging, in real sportsman style, from a limb,
head downward.
“If we don’t get another while we’re up here in the Big Woods,” said
Jerry, suppressing the natural twinge of jealousy he felt, “we ought
to be satisfied with our bag. And Will is just wild over the bully
pictures he’s accumulating every day and night.”
“It does seem as though he had met with nothing but success, so far,”
Frank admitted. “I hope he gets that prize the railroads are offering.
So far as I can tell he has a dandy collection already, and we’ve got
some time ahead of us still.”
“By the way, where is Will now?” asked Bluff,
“About half an hour ago he told me he was going off to the place where
we discovered that comical colony of squirrels that amused us
yesterday,” Frank explained. “He hoped by keeping as still as a mouse
to get a snap at them when they were carrying on that way. I think
myself it would be a fine woods picture, and add to his collection.”
“Speaking of angels, and you’re most sure to hear their wings,”
chuckled Jerry; “for there’s Will coming this way now.”
“And on the run, too!” added Frank. “He looks excited, fellows. I
wonder what he’s run across now?”
Will was almost out of breath. They could see that his face was red
from his exertions, but filled with excitement as well; while his eyes
were, as Bluff expressed it, “sticking out of his head!”
“Oh! what a whopper!” he gasped, as he drew near the spot where they
stood.
“What’s that?” demanded Frank, wondering what was coming now.
“And such _tre_-mendous horns, too!” continued Will,
involuntarily stretching out both hands until he had them wide apart.
“Horns, Will?” Bluff fired at him; “cows have horns, deer carry
antlers!”
“I said _horns_, didn’t I?” asserted the other with
determination. “That’s what they were, sticking away up over his head
that was like a mule’s. But I snapped him before he turned and trotted
off!”
“What trotted off?” shrilled Bluff.
“The biggest old bull moose that ever lived in the State of Maine,”
Will replied.