PROSPECTING FOR PICTURES
"How do you know that, Steve?" asked the startled Toby.
"Guess I can read tracks when I see them!" snapped the other.
"Then you've come across some sort of trail, I reckon?" ventured Jack.
"Just what I have," came the quick reply, "and here's the way I happened
to hit on it. Tell me, do either of you chance to own this pocket
handkerchief?" and as he spoke Steve flipped the article in question
from its hiding place, and held it up before his comrades.
Both gave a hasty look, and shook their heads in the negative.
"Never saw it before," Toby went on record as saying; "and it's an
unusually fine piece of material, I should say, just such as a gentleman
who cared a heap for his personal appearance and clothes would be likely
to carry."
"Well, you picked that up first of all, and it excited your suspicions;
is that it, Steve?" queried Jack.
"It started me to looking around the spot," explained the other, "and
right away I saw the tracks of shoes--long shoes in the bargain, making
prints entirely different from anything we'd be likely to do. So says I
to myself, 'hello, Mister Man! I see you've been snooping around here
while we slept like the babes in the woods!' And so I came in to let you
fellows know about it. Want to see for yourselves, don't you? Then just
follow me."
They were soon examining the imprints. Just as Steve had said, there
could be no question as to the tracks having been made by some one other
than themselves. More than this, Jack could easily tell that they were
comparatively fresh.
"Let's follow them a little bit, and see what he was up to," he
suggested, which they accordingly set out to do, and found that while
the stranger did not actually enter the camp he did scout around it as
though desirous of seeing all he could.
"Wanted to know if Toby here spoke the truth when he said we were only a
bunch of fun-loving boys off on a vacation camping trip, didn't he,
Jack?" Steve asked, as if to confirm his own suspicions.
"Yes, he actually went completely around our camp, and in several places
seems to have approached pretty close," Jack went on to say, after they
had given up following the trail of the unknown man. "I think he must
have even heard some of us breathing inside the tent, and perhaps he
could count our number that way. But after all no great harm has been
done; only it goes to show we must keep our eyes open all the time we're
up here."
Toby heaved a great sigh.
"Whew! but it's getting some exciting, let me tell you, fellows. All the
while you're gone today I'll be nervous and think I heard footsteps
every time a gray squirrel whisks around a tree, or barks at me so sassy
like."
"Do you think this could be the same man who talked with Toby yesterday,
Jack?" Steve inquired.
"We can guess that it must have been," came the answer. "He wasn't
wholly satisfied with things, and dropped over in the night to learn if
this camp was actually run by boys. You see how wise the lady was, after
all, for if this party had run upon three _men_ in camp up here,
the chances are he'd be more apt to suspect their motives."
Steve shook his head as though ready to give it up. He never in all his
life had been so thoroughly mystified as just then. Toby, too, had an
anxious expression on his face, as though he would give considerable if
only Jack felt disposed to explain the whole matter. But Jack held his
peace; apparently nothing could induce him to betray the confidence of
the lady who had trusted him. When the right time arrived, he would
divulge the secret; but until then both his chums must content
themselves with taking it out in speculations.
Finally, Jack began to collect his photographic paraphernalia as though
about to get ready to start forth on his tramp. Steve had meanwhile
looked after a "light lunch," which he facetiously called a "snack";
though it filled two of his coat pockets, and Jack had some difficulty
in stowing away his portion.
Toby eyed these amazing preparations with something akin to awe.
"Say, do you really expect to come back tonight, or are you figuring on
staying out a whole week?" he asked plaintively; at which Jack, taking
compassion on him, hastened to assure Toby there was no cause for worry.
"You know Steve's weakness," he went on to say aside, "and of course he
is always in deadly fear of starving to death. That's why he loads
himself down so with grub on the least provocation. But never expect to
see a crumb come back, for that would be against Steve's principles, you
know. He thinks it a shame to waste food; and so he'd stuff himself
until he could hardly breathe rather than throw anything away. We may be
a little late in the afternoon, but we'll bob up serenely long before
dark comes."
So they set out, Toby waving them goodbye with his dish towel, for he
had started in to do the breakfast things.
For a whole they walked along, observing everything that seemed worth
their attention. Then Steve took note of a certain fact which he deemed
significant. This was that Jack was heading in an almost straight line,
as though he had arranged a plan of campaign for that day; and also that
if they kept along that course, sooner or later they were bound to fetch
up in the neighborhood of the place where that strange booming sound had
originated.
This fact agitated Steve, and made him think many things. He even found
himself speculating upon the chances of their running across the
stranger who was taking such a deep interest in their presence in the
Pontico Hills country.
Jack did not make any pretense at hurrying. He was taking his time, it
seemed, and enjoying the scenery around him. A thousand things called
for exclamation of delight, for the woods looked especially grand with
the sun glinting on the green foliage of the various trees, some of
which were veritable forest monarchs.
Once before noon arrived, Jack stopped short. The largest tree thus far
encountered confronted them. Just what size butt it had I should be
afraid to say, for fear I might not be believed, but it was perfectly
enormous.
"I must try to get a shot at that dandy oak," said Jack, with bubbling
enthusiasm, such as becomes an amateur photographer who loves his
calling. "Never have I set eyes on such a majestic king of the woods.
I'm sure it will make a splendid picture with you standing alongside,
Steve, just to show its enormous girth. The pity of it is that I can't
dream of trying to get the whole tree in the picture, for no camera
could do that in these dense woods, where you can't get far away from
the object you're photographing."
He found that the side toward the sun was after all the best for his
purpose, and accordingly, after a little maneuvering, Jack secured a
picture of the tremendous monarch of the woods.
"I guess now he was a pretty hefty old tree when Columbus discovered
America," said Steve, afterwards, as he tried to measure the butt by
passing around it many times with his arms fully extended. "Just think
of all the stirring events in history that this giant has outlived. It
makes a fellow look up with respect, and feel as if he wanted to take
off his cap to the patriarch, doesn't it, Jack?"
"You give him the right name when you say that, for a fact, Steve;
because there's no way of our telling just how many hundred years he has
stood right in this same spot."
"Well, I'm glad I'm not a tree," grinned Steve, "because it must be
terribly monotonous staying all your life rooted to the ground, and
never seeing anything of this beautiful world. As for me, I want to
travel when I grow up, and look on every foreign land. Going on now,
Jack, are you? Soon be time to take a little noon rest, and lighten the
loads we're carrying in our pockets."
"Given half an hour more and it'll be noon," Jack informed him, after
taking a look aloft to where the beaming sun was high in the heavens. "I
never like to eat lunch until then, so let's wait a bit. Besides, I'm
not quite as hungry as I ought to be to do justice to all that stuff you
put in my pockets."
After that Jack did not seem anxious to snap off further pictures,
though they came across a number that would have made excellent ones.
Steve wondered whether he might not be saving his film for something
more important. Even the thought gave a delicious little thrill, his
imagination was so highly excited by now.
Then came the time when Jack, taking another look aloft, announced that
the sun had reached his zenith, or nearest point overhead. That was good
news for Steve, although truth to tell he had for some time been slily
nibbling at the contents of one of the packages he carried in his
pockets, unable to resist the temptation while the opportunity was
within his grasp.
Fortune favored them again; but then possibly the presence of that sweet
singing little rivulet that meandered through the forest may have had
something to do with Jack's decision to stop for lunch; he was always
seeing these small but very important things, as Steve very well knew.
They found a mossy bank and sat down, Steve with a great sigh of
contentment; but whether this was caused by the fact that his lame foot
was hurting him a bit again, or just from plain delight over the arrival
of "feeding time," it would be hard to say; nor, indeed, fair to big
Steve, who might have his weaknesses, but on the whole was a real good
fellow.
Here the pair sat and ate and drank of the cold water until they had
fully satisfied the inner man. After all, Steve was compelled to wrap up
part of his lunch again, being utterly unable to devour it.
"Huh! guess that time my eyes were bigger 'n my stomach," he grunted,
being too full for much speaking; "but, then, never mind, we are quite a
ways from camp, and I often take a little bite around three in the
afternoon, even when I'm home. So it isn't going to be wasted, believe
me."
"Only waisted," laughingly said Jack, and then apologized for getting
off such an atrocious pun.
They decided to lie around for an hour, and then push on a little
farther before turning back. That Jack figured would bring them to the
camp by the triangle oaks an hour or so before darkness came on, which
was time enough.
It was very pleasant for Steve, lying there on his back, and feeling the
gentle breeze fan his heated face; for around about noon the sun's rays
began to grow pretty fervid, and Steve often mopped his perspiring and
beaming face, though taking it good naturedly.
Both of them shut their eyes and rested, though not meaning to even take
what Steve was pleased to call a "cat nap." It was peculiarly still just
at that hour after the middle of the day. The little woods animals must
all be sleeping in their burrows, or the hollow trees where they had
their nests. Even the inquisitive squirrels were only noticeable by
their absence. A scolding bevy of crows alighted in a tree some distance
off, and kept up what Steve called facetiously a "crow caucus."
The time Jack meant to remain there resting, had almost expired when
both of the boys suddenly sat up, and held their heads in a listening
attitude.