AT THE FROZEN-UP SPRING
On and on went the boxsled carrying the Rovers and their chums, deeper
and deeper into the woods. Occasionally the road was so narrow that they
brushed the snow-laden bushes on one side or the other.
"Hi there, Gif, look out!" cried Randy presently. A bush had been turned
aside by those ahead, and now it slipped back, covering Randy's face
with loose snow.
"I'm sorry, Randy," returned Gif. "But we've got to take this road as it
comes. You'll have to watch out, just as the others are doing."
There was a smoky lantern dangling from the front of the boxsled, but
this gave little light. The moon was down beyond the trees, and only the
diamond-like stars glittered overhead.
"How much further have we got to go?" questioned Jack presently, after
they had passed a crossroads and kept to the right, as Jed Wallop had
directed.
"I think we have covered about half the distance, Jack," was the reply
of the young driver. "Still, I'm not sure. You know a boxsled isn't like
an auto--it doesn't carry a speedometer."
"Gee! an auto would have been there and back two or three times since we
started," was Fred's comment.
"Not in this snow," came from Spouter. "I think you'd get stuck in some
of these deep places."
"They do use a few cars up here in the winter, but not many," said Gif.
"It's too uncertain."
To make the time pass more quickly, Jack started one of the old school
songs, and the others joined him. Then they ended with the well-known
Colby Hall cry:
"Who are we?
Can't you see?
Colby Hall!
Dum! Dum! Dum, dum, dum!
Here we come with fife and drum!
Colby! Colby! Colby Hall!"
"I wonder what the neighbors will think if they hear us," remarked
Randy.
"I don't think there are any neighbors very close," answered Gif. "There
was a house some distance back, but I don't know of any others between
here and Cedar Lodge. The other places are beyond the point where we
turn off to go down to the bungalow."
They had now to make several sharp turns, and at these spots the road
was unusually rough. One runner of the boxsled went up on some rocks,
and for a moment it looked as if the turnout would upset.
"Look out there, Gif!"
"You'll have us in the snow with the sled on top of us!"
"Git along there, Mary and John!" cried the young driver. "Git along!"
and he cracked his whip, and soon the team had pulled the boxsled from
the rocks, and then going became better.
"We ought to be coming to a signboard soon," declared Gif a few minutes
later. "I remember there used to be one on the road, pointing to a
number of camps north of this place."
In a few minutes they came to the spot he had mentioned, but to his
disappointment there was no signboard to be seen.
"Someone must have taken it down, or else it fell of itself," he
remarked.
"Are you quite sure you're on the right road?" questioned Andy.
"It would be fierce to have to turn back this time of night," added his
twin.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure this is the right road," answered their chum.
Nevertheless, his face showed a doubtful look. Not to find the signboard
which had been a landmark in that vicinity for many years puzzled him.
A little later they came to where the road branched out in three
directions, the road on the right being narrow and running directly into
a thick patch of woods.
"Whoa!" cried Gif to the team, and then he looked around more puzzled
than ever, and shook his head.
"What's wrong now?" asked Jack.
"I guess I'm stumped," was the slow reply. "I can't remember this spot
at all."
"Oh, Gif, don't tell us we're on the wrong road after all!" exclaimed
Andy.
"Jed Wallop told us to keep to the right," announced Spouter. "We've
been doing that, and we might as well do it now."
"But that road doesn't look as if it leads to anywhere," declared Fred.
"It's a mighty narrow road, too," returned Gif. "We might get down in
among the trees and be unable to turn around, and then what would we
do?"
"Better stay here, Gif, while I walk ahead and investigate," said Jack.
"Better take a gun along, in case you stir up something you don't want
to meet," warned Fred.
"Not a bad idea," and, reaching down into the boxsled, Jack brought out
one of the weapons that had been placed there.
"If you see a moose shoot him on the spot!" cried Randy.
"What spot?" queried his twin gayly. "A spot on the end of his tail or
the tip of his ear wouldn't be of much account."
"I don't see how you can joke, Andy, when we're lost away out here in
the woods and it's past midnight," came ruefully from Fred. "I'd give as
much as a dollar to be at the Lodge and lying down in front of a roaring
fire. I'm getting pretty cold."
They were all cold, for since nightfall the thermometer had been going
down steadily. More than this, the wind was rising, and this in the open
places was anything but pleasant to the cadets.
"I'll go with you, Jack," announced Spouter, and he, too, armed himself
with his gun, a double-barreled affair of which he was quite proud.
Holding his flashlight so that they might see where they were walking,
Jack led the way, and Spouter came close behind. They walked a distance
of several hundred feet, and here found that the road came to an end
among some rocks which were now covered with ice.
"It's a road to a spring, that's all," said Jack. "The water is frozen
now, but I suppose in the summer time the lumbermen and the other folks
around here occasionally travel in for a drink. We may as well go back."
"Well, it's a mighty good thing we didn't drive in here. We might have
had a job turning around on that rough ice," answered Spouter.
The frozen-up spring was a beautiful sight, the water standing out in
columns and waves as if made of milky glass. Behind the columns there
was still a trickle of water.
To get a better view of the sight, Jack swept the rays of the flashlight
first to one side and then to the other. As he did this he caught a
glimpse of a pair of gleaming eyes from the brushwood and snow behind
the spring. The eyes looked full of curiosity and fright.
"Look, look, Spouter!" he cried, and then dropped the flashlight into
his overcoat pocket.
"What is it?"
"I just saw the eyes of some wild animal back there. See! There they are
now!"
As Jack spoke he raised his gun and blazed away. This shot was followed
by one from Spouter.
The reports were followed almost immediately by a snarl and a whining
cry, and they heard some animal thrashing around wildly in the bushes
behind the spring, sending the loose snow flying in all directions.
"We hit it, whatever it is," announced Jack.
"What do you suppose it can be?" questioned Spouter quickly. "It wasn't
a deer, was it?"
"I don't think so, Spouter. It was too low down for that. Maybe it was a
fox, although it didn't sound like it."
"Perhaps there are brook mink around this spring."
"Maybe."
"Are you going back there to find out?" went on Spouter, for the sounds
in the brushwood had now ceased.
"Sure, I'm going back there! You don't suppose I'm going to let any game
get away from us!"
"Be careful, Jack. That animal may be playing possum, you know, and may
spring out at you."
"Don't worry; I'll be on my guard," answered Jack.
He had slipped another charge into his gun, and Spouter quickly did
likewise. Then, with their weapons ready for use and with the flashlight
held so that it cast its rays ahead, they cautiously moved around to one
side of the frozen spring and made their way in the direction of the
bushes and rocks in the rear.
"Hello there! what are you shooting at?" The cry came from where the
pair had left the boxsled. It was Gif who was calling.
"We don't know yet," answered Jack.
"We saw a pair of eyes, and we shot at them," added Spouter.
"Gee! what do you know about that?" exclaimed Fred. "Hunting before we
even reach the Lodge!"
"Let's go ahead and see what they struck," came from Randy.
"That's the talk!" added his twin.
Gif was willing, and in a moment more the four lads had scrambled down
from the boxsled and were making their way along the road leading to the
spring. By this time Jack and Spouter had advanced through the brushwood
and over the rocks close to the spot where they had last seen the
gleaming eyes. As they went on Jack imagined once or twice he saw
something moving through the snow, but of this he was not certain.
"Here is where we hit it, whatever it was," declared Spouter, when they
reached the point directly behind the spring. "See how the snow is dug
up?"
"Yes, and here are some drops of blood," said Jack, as he turned the
flashlight on the snow. "But whatever it was, it got away," he added
disappointedly.
"What have you got?" sang out Gif, for he and the others had come up on
the opposite side of the spring.
"We haven't got anything," answered Spouter dolefully. "We hit
something, but it got away from us."
"It wasn't a moose, was it?" queried Randy with great interest.
"No, I think it was a three-horned elephant," replied Jack, who was not
then in the best of humor. He hated to have the first thing he shot at
get away from him.
"Well, this seems to be the end of this road," remarked Gif, looking
around.
"Yes, it only led down to this frozen-up spring," answered Spouter.
"I move we go on," said Fred. "I'm cold, and I'm sleepy too."
"I think we're all that way," answered Gif. "Come on, you fellows. No
use of remaining around here. If that animal got away it probably moved
off quite a distance."
"That would depend on how badly it was wounded," answered Jack. "Just
wait a minute, and I'll see if I can't find its trail."
Aided by the flashlight, he looked around carefully, and presently made
out some tracks in the snow leading in the direction of a nearby
thicket. He moved to this, coming presently to several low-hanging
trees.
"See anything?" questioned Fred impatiently.
"Not yet. But the trail is here as plain as can be."
"Maybe those are only rabbit tracks," remarked Randy.
"Or tracks of the animals that came down to the spring for a drink," put
in Gif.
Jack did not answer. He was flashing the light around carefully,
inspecting all the trees and bushes in that vicinity. Suddenly the light
was flashed upward, and as the rays ran along one of the branches of the
tree directly in front of the youth there came a sudden snarl of rage
and protest.
"It's a wildcat!" ejaculated Spouter, whose eyes had also been following
the rays of light. "A wildcat!"
"Yes, and it's the animal we wounded," answered Jack. "See how it is
holding up one of its front paws."
"Be careful!" sang out Gif, in alarm. "A wounded wildcat is no beast to
play with."
Scarcely had he uttered the words when the wildcat gave another snarl of
rage. Then the tail of the beast began to quiver, and suddenly, with a
cry, it leaped down from the tree, striking the ground directly in front
of the surprised boys.