ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS
One day not so long afterwards the boys returned to shore, but at a
different place than they had been before, and set out on a walk through
the woods toward the hill, which they had never managed to get to before,
although they had tried it more than once.
They took the axe along, not knowing but they might want it, and set out
in high spirits.
Hearing voices ahead of them they pushed on, and soon came across the old
sailor, Ben Bowline, and the acting head cook, Bucephalus, discussing some
knotty point.
"Ah tell yo' dis am not de way," said the negro in a very positive tone,
"an' any one what has any perspicuity in his haid will tell yo' so."
"I don't know what that 'ere is, and I don't believe I ever had any, but
it ain't the right road 'cordin' to the course," returned the sailor. "We
sot out nothe-nothe-east, and this here course is due nothe, which ain't
at all proper."
"Which way yo' wan' to go, Sailorman?" asked Buck.
"This here way, of course," said Ben, pointing.
"Huh! an' there ain't no path there, nothin' but briahs an' big rocks an'
swamp. How yo' goin' to get through there? This here way is the right way,
because it am plain to be seen that it am a thoroughfare, and has been
promenaded by pedestrians before now."
"I don't care what has happened to it, and it may be a good road all the
same, but it ain't the course we sot out on, and so it's the wrong one to
take, and I ain't going to take it."
At this point Jack, Dick and Jesse W. came along, being much amused at the
arguments offered by the disputants.
"How are you heading, Ben?" asked Jack in the soberest fashion.
"Nothe-nothe-east, sir," said the old seaman, saluting.
"Change your course to north."
"Aye-aye, sir, north it is," said Ben.
"And follow in our wake in case you are needed."
"Aye-aye, sir, follow in your wake it is, yes, sir."
"You could not have persuaded that grizzled old tar that there was any
course but the one he started on, no matter what the difficulties of his
course were, but give him a new one, and he will take it without the least
question. That's the sailor of it."
"And they would have stood there arguing till the cows came home," said
Dick. "You settled it in a moment."
"And if we need them they are there."
They kept on, now in the open and now in deep shade, having occasionally
to cut their way, pushing on toward the hill, which Jack had determined to
get to the top of, and now and then seeing it when they reached higher and
more open ground.
They reached the top at length, and had a fine view of the island and of
the sea, but could not see any other islands in the distance.
"We are on a lost island and no mistake," said Percival. "There is not
another one in sight. I wish I could make out a passage through the reefs,
but there does not seem to be any."
"We may find one unexpectedly," said Jack. "That often happens. You hunt
and hunt for a thing and don't find it, and then you give up hunting and
the first thing you know you find what you have been looking for without
looking for it."
"That sounds like a contradiction," laughed Percival, "but I know what you
mean."
Leaving the hill after getting a good view of the surrounding sea and the
island, the boys took a course which would lead them to the part of the
reefs, which they had not before visited.
They were pushing on leisurely when they suddenly stopped and listened,
having heard what seemed to be a cry for help.
"Somebody is in trouble," said Jack. "Where is it, straight ahead?"
"It sounds like it, and that sounds like the voice of Billy Manners."
"Maybe he is joking," said young Smith. "He always is."
Just now came a lusty cry for help in so serious and agonized a tone that
Jack said with a smile:
"Billy is not joking now, that is certain. He is in real trouble. Come on
and let us see what it is."
They pushed on rapidly, the call being presently repeated, and at the same
time they heard a bellowing sound, which they could not make out.
"Come on!" cried Percival. "Billy is in trouble, and that sounds like the
bellow of a wild beast."
"I should say it was a calf," remarked Jesse W., "if you were to ask me
about it, but what a calf is doing here----"
He hurried on to keep up with Jack and Dick, Buck and Ben following
quickly, having evidently heard the noises.
Coming in a short time into an open space the boys paused and then began
to laugh heartily, something they would certainly not have done if Billy
had been in danger.
There, in the crotch of a little tree about six feet from the ground, was
Billy Manners, while at the foot of the tree was a calf a few months' old
bellowing lustily and evidently calling for food.
"I told you it was a calf!" laughed young Smith.
"Help!" roared Billy, seeing the boys. "Here is a wild bull, and I am
treed. Shoot him, boys, drive him away, anything!"
Instead of doing anything the boys only stood there and laughed, and when
Bucephalus and Ben Bowline came up in great haste they did the same, all
joining in a full-voiced laughing chorus.
"Why don't you help a fellow?" wailed Billy. "There you all are, laughing
to beat the band, and I can't get down on account of this wild bull at the
foot of the tree."
"Wild bull nothing!" exclaimed Percival. "It is a three months' old calf,
and you're another, only you are a bit older than that. Can't you tell a
calf when you see one, or have you been brought up in the city where they
don't have them except in the way of veal cutlets?"
"That a calf?" asked Billy in disgust. "I thought it was a wild bull. He
makes noise enough."
"Probably calling for its mother," laughed young Smith. "I said it was a
calf right along."
"Shoo!" said Buck, advancing on the terrible wild bull, which had so
frightened Billy. "Get o't o' dat or Ah cut yo' up fo' de young ge'men's
dinnah. Shoo!"
The calf let out a tremendous bellow, and scampered off into the woods,
whereat the boys laughed harder than ever till the tears fairly ran down
their cheeks.
"That's a good one on Billy who is all the time getting off jokes on other
folks," said Percival. "That is too good to keep."
"Dick Percival," said Billy, laughing in spite of himself, "if you say a
word about it I'll cut you dead."
"I can't help it," chuckled Dick; "it's too good to keep, and I won't keep
it, no matter what are the consequences. Think of a boy who has spent the
biggest part of his life in the country not knowing the difference between
a little three months' old heifer calf and a wild bull. Billy, my boy, you
have neglected your opportunities."
Billy got down from the tree, and all hands laughed again, but Jack said
thoughtfully:
"That was not a wild calf, and the question naturally arises, what is a
domesticated calf doing on a supposedly uninhabited island? If there is a
calf there must be a cow and if a cow, then people who own and take care
of her. There must be people on the island after all, although we have
never seen them."
"We have not been all over the island," said Percival, "and it is likely
that in the very parts where we have not been we shall find the people who
own the calf."
"They are probably negroes or halfbreeds," added Jack, "and seldom visit
the shore. Suppose we keep on. We may find a village, or, at any rate, one
or two houses occupied by them. Come on, Billy, you are safer with us in
case we come across another wild bull."
"Get out!" said Billy, half laughing, half in disgust. "How much will you
take to keep quiet on that subject?"
"I could not think of making a bargain, Billy," chuckled Jack, "and then I
am afraid it would cost you too much. Remember, there are myself and Dick,
Jesse W. Smith, Bucephalus Johnson and Ben Bowline to be bought off, and
the prices might go up."
"All right," muttered Billy with a wry face, "but don't rub it in too
much, that's all."
"All right, I won't, but remember when you feel like playing jokes on the
boys that I may say something about it."
"All right, but I say, what about it, that calf is not wild?"
"Not a bit of it, she is just as tame as any barn-yard calf along the
Hudson valley. Calves are the same the world over."
"And Billy was one not to know it," said Percival with a grin. "Remember,
William, you have not bought me off yet. I have made no promises, and
neither has Jesse W. Smith."
"Oh, I don't care anything about it," said the smaller boy. "I won't say
anything about it no matter how much Billy jokes, I am interested in the
other matter. If there are tame calves here there must be more or less
civilized people living on the island."
"Well, we have made two or three very good discoveries on our island,"
observed Percival. "We have found treasure, and we have found calves, and
probably inhabitants."
"And the next thing is to find a way through the reefs," said Jack.
"If we found the others why should we not find that?" asked Percival. "We
did not expect to find anything, and we have found a lot."
"But we won't find our way home," said Billy, "if we don't start pretty
soon, for it will be dark in a little while."
"The funny fellow grows serious once in a while," chuckled Dick, "but I
think he is right for all that."
"I think we had better be going myself," said Jack. "Ben Bowline?"
"Sir to you, sir," said the seaman.
"Steer south, and go on a free wind at four miles."
"Aye-aye, sir!" said Ben, and they all set out for home, as they called
the yacht.
"Talkin' about calves," said Ben Bowline as they were walking on in a body
through the woods, "there was another adventure of mine which----"
"You're a liar!" suddenly interrupted a strident voice speaking in Spanish
and then some bad language in the same tongue followed.
"Mah goodness, dat am fightin' talk!" exclaimed Bucephalus. "Ah wouldn'
stan' dat, Sailorman."
"Jus' wait till I get my mudhooks onto him," growled Ben, "an' I'll let
Trim know whether I'll stan' it or not."
"There are people on the island besides ourselves," muttered young Smith,
getting close to Jack and Dick. "Maybe they own the calf."
"If you tell them anything about me," sputtered Billy, "I won't speak to
you again in a week."
Then there was more talk in Spanish and Bucephalus put his hands over his
ears and whistled.
"Mah wo'd! Ah done hear disreputable language in mah days, but nothin' to
compaiah with that!" he declared emphatically. "It ain't respectable. Ef
Ah meet de fellah wha' talk lak dat Ah's gwan to tell him wha' Ah done
thought ob him."
There was still more of the talk, and Ben Bowline doubled his fists and
said angrily:
"It's as bad to be told you're a liar in Spanish as it is in English or
French or Dutch or any other lingo, an' I'm not goin' to take it from
nobody. Just wait till I get hold----"
Dick and Jack were both laughing heartily now, much to young Smith's
amazement, Billy's surprise and the disgust of Ben Bowline, Bucephalus
looking on and wondering what had come over his "young gentlemen" as he
was accustomed to call them.
"What are you two fellows laughing at?" asked Billy.
"I don't see anything funny in it!" sputtered Ben.
"I think it's awful!" murmured Jesse W.
"Why, those are not men talking," laughed Dick.
"They aren't!" exclaimed Billy.
"Mebby dat am all imagination, sah!" added Bucephalus.
"What is it if it isn't men!" asked Ben.
"Parrots!" laughed Jack. "Don't you remember, you fellows, what we told
you happened to us the other day when we were ashore together, Dick and
I?"
"H'm! and I forgot all about it," chuckled Billy.
"Oh, that's different!" said J.W., greatly relieved.
"Parrots?" asked Ben. "Poll parrots? Well, I'll be keelhauled!"
"Mah we 'd! Ah knowed parrots could talk an' use de mos' obstreperous
vocabulary at dat," declared the negro cook, "but Ah done suspected dat
dey was men, fo' shuah Ah did."
The parrots, for such indeed they were, as all the party now realized,
continued to talk and scream and chatter, and in a short time the boys and
their companions caught sight of a number of them as they came out into a
more open bit of woods.
"We were a bit alarmed ourselves, as you may remember," said Jack, "when
we first heard them, and it was some little time before we realized that
they were not men."
"They have caught the talk of men who have been to the island," added
Percival, "and probably that of men who are here now. That calf is a tame
creature and is probably owned by some one now on the island. The parrots
may have heard them."
"If that is the sort of talk they heard, the birds were not in very good
company," remarked Billy, "and it is just as well that we did not meet
them this time. In fact, I hope we won't."
"Well, I'm glad it was only Poll parrots!" grunted Ben, "for I was ready
for a fight."
"I'm glad myself," echoed Jesse W., greatly relieved, "for I don't want to
get into a fight at all."
"That accounts for the milk in the cocoanut," laughed Billy. "I wondered
what you two fellows were laughing at. If it had been Dick alone I would
not have thought so much of it, but Jack has more sense."
"Thank you," said Dick dryly. "I know a tame calf from a wild bull,
however, if I haven't much sense."
"Come ahead, boys," said Jack. "We must get back to the yacht. If there
are other men on the island besides ourselves we do not want to meet them
just now. They are not a desirable lot, most likely."
The entire party then pushed on, and in a short time reached the shore,
got their boat and returned to the yacht.