THE NEW CAMP
"Well, how did you like it, Jerry?"
"Talk to me about your shooting the whirlpool at Niagara in a barrel!
That was bad enough for me! I swallowed enough water to float a ship!
And here we are yet, each perched on a measly old slippery rock, in the
middle of the rapids. Say! tell me about that, will you, Frank? How are
we going to get ashore?"
The situation was comical as well as tragical. Just as Jerry said, each
of the late inmates of the overturned bullboat, after being buffeted
about furiously for several minutes, had succeeded in wildly scrambling
on to an exposed rock.
There in midstream they sat, dripping wet, and with the foaming water
surrounding them on all sides. In spite of his recent scare, Frank could
not help laughing.
"What ails you? Perhaps you think I look funny?" exclaimed Jerry, who
had received a few bruises, and was not feeling quite as cheerful as
usual.
"Well, if you could only see yourself just now, you couldn't help
laughing. Do you know you just put me in mind of that little god of good
luck, Billikin!" called Frank, and in spite of his soreness Jerry had to
grin in sympathy.
"Well, all right, then; there are two of us, and I guess you look as
silly as I do. But there's that fellow, Will, getting his work in, as
usual. A nice pair of geese we'll look like in his book of martyrs."
"Oh, that doesn't bother me one little bit just now. All I'm thinking
about is how under the sun we're going to get out of this pickle," said
Frank, sweeping his hand around, as if to call attention to the angry
water that leaped and boiled in a frenzy of eagerness to get at its
expected victims.
"Can't swim to the shore, that's sure. I suppose we'll just have to slip
in again and make another turn of it. Thank goodness! the bottom of the
old rapids is in sight, and as Bluff and Reddy have picked up our boat
and the paddle, they could turn their hands at life saving when we came
bobbing along."
"Hold on! Don't be rash, Jerry!" called Frank.
"Well, have you got anything better to say about it--any bright scheme
to propose that offers to soften the blow?" demanded the other, pausing
in his movement toward slipping off his unstable seat.
"I've just thought of something," answered Frank.
"Good for you, then. I guess I'm too badly rattled just now, for once,
to do much thinking. What's the game, Frank?"
"Why not let Reddy and his reliable old rope come into play again?"
"Say! we'll have to beg or buy that clothesline from Reddy when we go
away from here, and hang it up in our clubroom, as the most valuable
asset we have. Without it what would become of us, eh? Talk about your
trained nurses! That fellow is a whole hospital to the tenderfoot crowd.
Call to him, please, and enlist his sympathy in the noble cause of
yanking us in out of the wet."
So Frank did shout to the cowboy, who, having beached the two boats
below the rapids, was hurrying up the shore. Mr. Mabie, too, had joined
Will, so that presently the entire balance of the little party had
gathered opposite.
Reddy entered into the game with spirit. He seemed to believe that these
tragic occurrences must have just happened to give him a chance to show
his skill in launching his rope.
"Jerry first, please!" called Frank.
"And why? Is it because I'm more valuable, or better-looking?" demanded
Jerry.
"Oh, perhaps I want the pleasure of seeing how you look as you flounder
through the rapids; and then, again, I may pick up a few points as to
how _not_ to do it."
"Tell me about that, will you! Some people have all the nerve!" shouted
Jerry, for the rushing water made so much noise that an ordinary call
could not have been heard.
Nevertheless, he accepted the flying noose that came shooting straight
toward him, placed it under his arms, made sure that his gun was still
fast to his back, and then fearlessly dropped off his perch.
There was considerable floundering on the part of the swimmer, much
straining among the others who manipulated the rope, after which Jerry
was assisted up the bank. His first act, after coughing up a lot of
water, was to shake his fist at the grinning Frank, and then call out:
"Now you come on, and see how you like it!"
Frank did not wait upon the order of his going. As soon as he had the
rope secured under his arms he slipped down into the foamy water, and
began to buffet the current like a water spaniel.
After an exciting experience he, too, was drawn ashore, really none the
worse for his adventure.
"Shake hands, Frank. You did nobly. I might have laughed, only I didn't
seem to have breath enough," said Jerry, but the look in his eyes told
how he had enjoyed seeing his chum passing through the same experience.
A fire was made, so that the soaked ones might dry off. Meanwhile, Mr.
Mabie and Will succeeded in successfully shooting the rapids, though the
latter was wise enough to leave his precious camera in the care of
Bluff.
As noon found them still there, they took a "snack" before resuming the
water journey. Below the fierce rapids the current was still swift, but
there were places where the stream widened, and here the scenery was
very fine, although the leaves looked more or less parched on account of
the scarcity of rain during the summer that was passing.
An hour later, and they saw signs of smoke below.
"The boys have arrived ahead of us," said Mr. Mabie, pointing to the
wreaths that ascended above the trees.
"All on account of our mishap. We lost three hours that way," remarked
Frank, who felt a little provoked over the accident, since he aspired
to be a capable canoeman at all times.
"Those things will happen to the best of guides at times," consoled the
stockman. "I've often been in the drink myself. There are some
cross-currents in our rapids, that one can only learn by experience. I
rather expected you would go over, and instructed Reddy to be on the
watch below."
"I wager I wouldn't get caught in that same way again, sir," asserted
Frank.
"And I'm sure you wouldn't, lad. Experience is the best teacher, and if
we didn't have some of these bad turns we'd grow too confident."
The camp was soon looking quite cozy again, when the tents had been
placed and everything made snug.
"I'm going to like this place almost as well as the one under the
cascade," remarked Will, who had been rather skeptical all along.
So the first evening came along, and supper was the same hearty,
enjoyable meal they had always found it. The camp appetites worked
overtime, the coffee tasted splendid, the elk steaks were just what each
one had been hungering for, and as the cook supplemented these with a
heaping platter of flapjacks the contentment of the four chums seemed
complete.
"How long do we stay here, Mr. Mabie?" asked Bluff, never hesitating
when in search of information.
"Possibly a week or so. Then back to the ranch, and a new line of
experiences. This terribly dry weather is making me anxious, for the
range is drying up, and we shall be hard set to find pasture for the
cattle soon, unless rain comes along."
"Do you have such a dry spell in summer often up here?" asked Frank.
"Never saw the equal of this since I settled in the valley, many years
ago. Now, down in Ohio, where I originally came from, they have drouths
even in May, at times, and I've seen things go to the dogs more than
once, gardens dried up, and even a forest fire in July, but never up
here," replied the stockman.
"The woods look as though it wouldn't take a great deal to set them
going," declared Frank. "One of the men threw a match down to-day, after
lighting his cigarette, and it seemed like magic the way the fire
flashed up. He had to be quick to jump on it before the breeze carried
it along."
Mr. Mabie frowned.
"I won't ask you which man it was, Frank; but I must warn them again to
be more than ordinarily careful about throwing matches around and
leaving a fire burning anywhere in the woods. Many a grand forest has
been ruined by such carelessness," he said.
"How does that happen, sir?" inquired Bluff.
"It is easy. The careless hunter or trapper leaves his dying fire when
he breaks camp. Then up comes a sudden wind and some of the red cinders
are blown into the dead leaves or punk grass. Fanned by the breeze, they
become a roaring flame in a minute, and the mischief is done. Be
careful, boys, please."
"We certainly will, sir," replied Frank sincerely. "Not to speak of the
damage done, it must be mighty unpleasant to be caught in a forest fire.
I've read of such things, but never hankered for a personal experience."
On the following day they started to look into the possibilities for big
game around the new camp.
"Reddy, here, says he knows of a bear den that we ought to visit some
time later. While at it, you boys must see all there is going in the way
of sport, for you may never come out this way again, though I hope that
will not be the case. To-day, however, we will take things a bit easy,"
remarked the ranchman.
Although the stockman did not speak any plainer, Frank knew just what
he meant.
"He thinks we must be feeling the effects of our little excitement
yesterday, Jerry, and that the soreness in our muscles will take our
ambition away for to-day," he said aside to his chum.
"Tell me about that, will you! To prove that we're tougher than Mr.
Mabie thinks, let's you and I engineer a little hunt of our own?"
proposed the other quickly.
Accordingly, they started out, going down the valley.
"The walk will do us good, anyhow," declared Frank, "even if we don't
run across any big game."
"I was asking Mr. Mabie about moose, and he said that occasionally one
is seen in this region, though generally they hang out further east.
I've always wanted to get a moose, but was never able to be up in the
woods where they are found, when the law was off. How about you, Frank?
Ever shoot at one?"
"Never had that luck, though I've seen many in the summer time, in
Maine. Somehow, it seems to go against the grain doing this hunting at
such a queer time. I guess it won't be long before they have as strict
laws up here as we have to protect such game as deer and elk."
"How about panthers and grizzlies?" asked Jerry.
"They don't want to protect those fellows. You've got a right to knock
one over, or a wolf, any time you want, if he doesn't get you first,"
laughed Frank.
An hour later they separated, Frank to look along one ridge, while Jerry
had taken a notion to see what the other might have in the shape of
game.
Frank spent quite a long time scouring the woods that covered the side
of the valley. He had not put up anything worth while, and was even
thinking about heading back to the place where he had agreed to meet his
chum, when a distressing little accident occurred.
Just as he was hurrying down a steep bank his foot caught in a vine, and
he was hurled forward with such violence that his head, coming in
contact with the hard ground, received such a blow that he was rendered
unconscious.
Frank never knew just how long he remained insensible. It might have
been only a few minutes, or perhaps half an hour slipped by while he lay
there. When he finally opened his eyes he looked up into a dusky face,
and realized that it belonged to an Indian!