ANOTHER START
The four young hunters were used to rowing together, so they made
rapid progress when once they had caught the stroke. Simon Lundy
sat in the stern of the craft, gazing anxiously ahead.
"The wuss o' it is he's got sech a tarnal good start of us," remarked
the farmer. "He must be a mile away by this time."
"Never mind, we'll catch him before long, if he sticks to the
river," said Snap, confidently.
"Wisht I had brung a gun along."
"Yes, that would have been a good thing," was Shep's comment.
"And that reminds me," he added to his chums, "all of our weapons
were left in the rowboat."
"Yes; and the nigger is well supplied with guns and pistols,"
came from Whopper. "Maybe he will try to shoot us full of a million
holes when he spots us."
"Oh, deary me! Don't say thet!" groaned Simon Lundy. "I---I don't
want to be shot at, not me!"
"He won't dare to shoot!" said Giant. "We can pretend that we
are all armed, you know."
On and on sped the rowboat, making excellent progress on the
smooth-flowing river. About a mile was covered, and they swept
around first one bend and then another.
"I see a boat ahead!" roared the farmer. "She's gone now," he
added, as the craft shot behind some bushes, at a point along
the river.
The four young oarsmen increased their stroke, and soon gained
the point. Then the boat again came into full view and they could
see that it was their own craft and that the colored man was rowing
along at a good rate of speed.
"There he is!" was the cry.
"Pull, boys, pull!" called out Snap.
They did pull, and soon came closer to the craft ahead. Then
the negro chanced to look back and saw them. He was evidently
chagrined, and with out delay turned in toward shore, close to
where the trees grew thick.
"Stop!" cried Shep. "Stop, you rascal!"
But the negro paid no attention, excepting to renew his efforts
to reach the river bank. He sent the rowboat in among the bushes
with a loud swish, and hopped ashore. Then the other boat came
up.
"Stop!" roared Simon Lundy. Give me back my watch!"
"Don't yo' dar to follow me!" yelled the negro, and showed a big
horse-pistol. "If yo' do, somebody is dun gwine to git shot."
"Don't!" yelled the farmer, and fell flat in the rowboat.
The boys were also alarmed, and for the moment knew not what to
do. In that space of time the negro darted back of some trees
and was lost to view.
"Look out, boys, he'll shoot ye sure!" said Simon Lundy, in a
voice full of fear.
"He has gone," announced Snap.
"Are all of our things safe?" asked Shep, anxiously.
"We'll soon find out," put in Whopper, and leaped from one boat
into the other. All made a hasty examination and found everything
intact. Even their weapons had not been touched, for which they
were exceedingly thankful.
"He wasn't expecting us," explained Giant. "He thought he'd get
time later to go through our belongings." And the others concluded
that Giant had spoken the truth.
What to do next was a question. Simon Lundy said he did not want
to follow the negro, since the rascal was armed and evidently full
of fight.
"I'll go after him if the others will," said Shep, and the upshot
of the matter was that the four boys went on a hunt, leaving the
cowardly farmer to watch the two boats. The boys went deep into
the woods and even to the road beyond, but saw nothing of the
rascal that had disappeared.
"He will be on his guard now and keep out of sight," said Whopper.
"I'll bet he don't show himself again in two years."
"Make it ten years while you are at it, Whopper," said Snap, drily.
"Well, do you think he will show up?"
"No. But we may see him some day."
When the four young hunters returned to the boats they found Simon
Lundy had hidden himself behind some bushes. He came out rather
shamefacedly and asked if they had met the negro.
"Yes; and he said he was coming to chew you up," answered Whopper,
with a wink at his chums.
"H-he did!" quaked Simon Lundy. "Sa-say, hadn't we better be
a-goin'?"
"We are not going to bother to look for him any more," said Snap,
who was disgusted with the cowardly and miserly farmer. "We are
going on our way."
"An' what be I a-goin' tew do?"
"Take Mr. Welby's boat back," answered Snap, shortly. "You can
row, can't you?"
"A leetle, yes."
"Then, good-by to you," said Shep, and leaped into the rowboat
containing the camp outfit.
"Hi! Don't leave me here alone!" ejaculated Pop Lundy, in fresh
alarm. "Shove the boat out into the stream."
This they did for him, and soon he was rowing away from the spot
as best he could, fearful, evidently, that the negro would come,
as Whopper had said, to "chew him up."
"He's about the limit!" was Snap's comment, when Simon Lundy was
out of hearing. "How I would love to play ghost on him!"
"He'd have a fit and die," added Shep.
The negro had not disarranged the boat in the least, so they were
soon on their way, Shep and Giant taking the oars. Snap leaned
back in the stern and stretched himself.
"Tell you what, fellows, our outing is starting with lots of excitement.
Wonder how it is going to end?"
"Perhaps it will end very tamely," said Whopper, who was in the
bow, munching an apple. "We'll strike several weeks of rain,
and not get a shot at anything larger than a rabbit. Then we'll
all take cold, and have to send for a doctor, and-----"
"Say, please heave him overboard, somebody!" burst out Giant.
"He's just as cheerful as a funeral. We are going to have nothing
but sunshine, and I am going to shoot two bears, four deer, seventeen
wildcats, eighteen-----"
"Hold on!" shouted Snap. "You have gotten into Whopper's story-bag,
Giant, and it won't do."
"Oh, I was fooling!" said Whopper. "We are going to have a peach
of a time. We are going to strike an old lodge in the wood---some
an old hermit once lived in---and find a big pot of gold under the-----"
"Bay window, near the well, just across the corner from the
barber shop, next to the school," broke in Shep. "Say, cut out
the fairy tales and get to business. Does anybody know that it
is exactly ten minutes to twelve?"
"Codfish and crullers! You don't say so!" came from Whopper. "I knew
I was getting hollow somewhere. What shall we do---go ashore and
cook dinner?"
"Might as well," came from Snap. "Our time's our own, remember.
We haven't got to hurry."
"I know just the spot, about quarter of a mile from here," said
Shep. "Our family once went there for a picnic. There's a good
spring of water there and a hollow for a fire, and everything."
"Pantry full of dishes and a tablecloth, I suppose," broke in
the irrepressible Whopper. "I do love a picnic ground where you
can pick napkins off the bushes and toothpicks, too."
The boys pushed the rowboat on its way and soon reached the spot
that Shep had mentioned, and there they tied up at a tree-root
sticking out of the river bank. Beyond was a cleared space and
a semi-circle of stones with a pole in two notched posts for a
fire and kettle. They soon had a blaze started and Whopper filled
the kettle at the spring and hung it to boil.
"This is just a taste of what is to come," said Snap. "At this
meal we'll have our sandwiches, cake and some hot coffee. It
will be different when we broil our deer meat, or something like
that, and make hot biscuits."
"And roast our bear steaks," put in Whopper. "Just wait till
you see the bear I shoot!"
"He means the bear he runs away from," said Shep, and this caused
a laugh.
As soon as the water was boiling they made coffee, and then all
sat around to enjoy their first meal in the open. The adventures
of the morning had given them all good appetites, and they did not
stop until the entire allowance had disappeared.
"No more just now," said Snap. "We must keep something for supper
and for breakfast, you know. After that we have got to live on
regular camp fare."
They lolled around for the best part of an hour, then arose, cleaned
up the camp, and started on their journey.
"And now for Lake Cameron!" cried Shep. "May we reach there without
further mishaps."