THE KNIFE WITH THE BUCKHORN HANDLE
"Everybody get out in a hurry!" called Elmer, suiting the action to the
word himself by scrambling erect and making for the open door of the
big barn.
It was far from light in there; but as they could easily see the
opening all they had to do was to make for it. Elmer had been careful
to make sure that there were no pitchforks lying around loose, to be
run upon by accident.
Hardly had the scouts managed to stream from the interior of the barn
than they became aware of the fact that someone was running headlong
toward them. Toby threw himself into an attitude of defense, raising
the piece of wood he had grasped for a club; but Elmer realized that
the runner was approaching from the direction of the farmhouse and
therefore must be a friend rather than a foe.
"Steady, boys, it must be Johnny!" he told his comrades as they
clustered there.
Johnny it proved to be. The bound boy must have lain down on his cot
fully dressed and equipped, for he had on even his cowhide boots, and
was minus only a hat. Of course, the boy was fairly brimming over with
intense excitement.
"Didn't yuh hear him yell?" he was crying. "We've kotched the chicken
thief fur sure, fellers. Whoop la! kim on, everybody, and nab him
afore all the blood runs tuh his head!"
Lil Artha and Elmer, of course, had snatched up their guns, although
they hardly believed they would find any use for the weapons. All of
them started on the run toward the spot where the turkeys roosted in
the favorite tree.
The sky was clouded over, and while it was not actually dark the boys
had some little difficulty in seeing as well as they might have liked.
Now and then one of the sprinters would stumble over some impediment,
and perhaps measure his length on the ground, only to scramble erect
again and tear after the rest.
It was usually clumsy Landy who met with these mishaps; but even such
things did not seem to subdue his ambition to keep after the crowd.
Elmer was listening as he ran. He wondered why they did not already
hear the groans or whines of the wretched thief who had been hung up by
the heels without receiving a second's warning.
Remembering how Johnny had been whisked aloft, Elmer felt sure no one
could be blamed for letting out that shriek when the catastrophe came
about. Nor would he have thought it queer if the suspended rascal kept
up his groans as he writhed and twisted in a vain effort to reach up to
the limb; which only a circus contortionist would have been able to do.
He imagined he heard some sort of sound ahead of them. But even at
that Elmer could not be certain. It might be the night breeze sighing
through the upper branches of the tall tree, or the alarmed turkeys
holding a confab among themselves, for all he could tell.
But they were rapidly bearing down upon the spot now, and in another
half minute ought to be where they could see the swaying figure of the
caught thief.
"I don't seem to get him, Johnny!" ventured Lil Artha, in a
disappointed tone.
"Huh! somethin' gone wrong I guess!" grunted the inventor; and if the
tall scout could feel chagrin, fancy what a shock it must have been to
Johnny when he realized that there was no dangling figure to greet him,
despite that wild yell so full of mortal agony.
Perhaps already wise Elmer had begun to hazard a shrewd guess as to the
why and wherefore of this vacancy. He was a great hand to see through
things long before the answer became apparent to his chums. If this
were so, at least he did not venture to say anything to them about it.
By now all of them, save slow-poke Landy, had arrived at the tree.
They could hear the alarmed turkeys making some twittering sounds
above, but if any of them had flown off the rest remained on their
roosts.
Johnny had been smart enough to fetch his lantern along. This he now
proceeded to light, and as soon as the wick took fire he began to
examine the trap.
"Dog-gone the luck, she went and broke on me!" he wailed, as though his
boyish heart were almost broken by the catastrophe.
"That's what comes of not testing things before-hand!" said Toby, with
the air of a wise-acre who knew it all; and yet Toby was himself a most
notorious offender along those very same lines, as his chums could have
informed the bound boy had they chosen to give a fellow-scout away.
"Gee whiz! he did test it, Toby," said Lil Artha, indignantly; "didn't
we all of us see him ahangin' head-down. There's some sort of a
mystery about it, that's what."
"Not much," said Elmer, who, while the others were talking, had been
examining the end of the rope that lay on the ground near by; "it's
been cut, that's all."
"Cut with a knife d'ye mean, Elmer?" cried Johnny, aghast.
"Just what it has," continued the patrol leader firmly; "you can see
that with one eye, for the edges are smooth, and not ragged as they
would be if the rope had broken a strand at a time."
Every fellow had to push up and examine it to make sure, and there was
no dissenting voice after that. They knew Elmer was right, as he very
nearly always appeared to be in matters like this.
"But say, however could he have twisted up to get at the rope while he
was hanging here by one leg, I'd like to know?" demanded Landy.
"Mebbe the second thief helped him git loose," suggested the bound boy.
"Just what happened as sure as anything," assented Elmer. "They were
too smart for you that time, Johnny. Instead of running away when the
alarm went off, this second fellow whipped out his blade, and finding
the rope where it ran from the tree, he cut it."
"Then the other dropped down, and got his legs loose," added Toby.
"See, here's the loop lying on the ground."
Sure enough, it was just as he said. The loop was there in plain
sight, just as it had apparently been hurled aside by the trapped thief
after he had a chance to use his hands.
Johnny was the most bitterly disappointed fellow Elmer had come across
in a long time. He kept muttering to himself as he examined the
fragment of rope. Lil Artha said he was "chewing the rag," whatever
that might mean; but, at any rate, Johnny did not seem to be in a very
happy frame of mind, so the operation could hardly have been of a
pleasant nature.
"Now, I understand that second little rumble I heard," said Elmer. "It
was just as Johnny reached us in front of the barn, and sounded like
the barrel had started on again. That happened when the rope was cut,
allowing the weighted hogshead to keep on a little further to the
bottom of the drop."
"Let's see if you hit the nail on the head with that guess," suggested
Toby, who liked to be convinced by his own eyesight when anything came
to pass.
So, led by the inventor of the trap, they hurried to where the hogshead
had been perched on the brink of the steep little descent. It could be
seen at the bottom; and this confirmed the theory Elmer had advanced.
"And we didn't get a glimpse of the thieves after all," lamented Landy;
"now I was hoping I'd see a fellow dangling there when we came up. Not
that I'd like him to suffer too much, you know; but for Johnny's sake I
wanted him to be nabbed."
"Yes, it's all off now," admitted Lil Artha.
"Of course, after that row they wouldn't be silly enough to come again
for another try?" suggested Toby.
"Huh! that ole trap ain't no good after that mess," grunted Johnny,
disdainfully. "I reckons as how I'll hev tuh think up sum other kind.
But they ain't agoin' tuh git any o' them turks if I have to sot up all
night, and borry a gun frum you fellers in the bargain."
"What's the matter with tying Moses the bulldog to the tree here?"
remarked Elmer; "he's barking now at the kennel near the house. I'd
certainly make use of the old dog if I were you, Johnny."
"Jest what I will do, Elmer. Moses ain't a great hand tuh bark, yuh
see; bulls do the business with their teeth 'stead o' with their noise.
But he kin give tongue when he wants tuh. I'll fix him here fur the
rest o' the night."
"How does it come the farmer hasn't shown up?" asked Mark, who thought
it a bit queer Mr. Trotter displayed so little interest in the safe
keeping of his young turkeys.
"Oh! him," chuckled Johnny; "nobody never ain't agoin' tuh get him
waked up once he hits the hay. Talk tuh me baout sleepin', he kin beat
anything yuh ever met. I bet yuh the missus is up and waitin' tuh know
if we grabbed one."
"Do you think they got a turkey after all?" asked Landy, as he picked
up several feathers from the ground near the tree.
"What do you say about that, Johnny?" Elmer inquired.
"Well, it daon't stand tuh reason he did," replied the other, gravely;
"even if he had holt o' one at the time, he never'd a held on tuh hit
arter that rope had slung him head down'ards. Guess I ort tuh know.
If any o' yuh wants tuh feel what it's like, I'll rig the trap up agin
in the mawnin' for yuh. Hold a turkey nawthin'. He couldn't even hold
his breath, but had tuh give a yell like he was killed."
Indeed, they were all of pretty much the same opinion. No matter how
brave a fellow the trespasser might be, when he met with such a sudden
and unexpected upheaval as that running noose brought about, his wits
were bound to desert him for the time being at least.
It may have been noticed also that no one, even bold Lil Artha, the
most venturesome of them all, volunteered to make the additional test
when morning came. They seemed perfectly satisfied to accept the will
for the deed. They had witnessed the speedy working of Johnny's trap,
and evidently had no itching to try what it felt like to hang head
downward from the limb of a tree, with a leg almost dislocated by a
sudden jerking, powerful lever.
"Well, 'tain't no use acryin' over spilt milk, they sez," remarked
Johnny, who, after all, seemed to be of a philosophical turn of mind;
"the thing's done, an' that's all they is tuh hit. Might as well git
Mose and fix him here tuh the tree. Them turks has jes' gut tuh be
saved, no matter how much trouble it takes."
"Elmer, what are you thinking about?" asked Mark just then; for being
used to the ways of his best chum he could see that the patrol leader
was pondering something in his mind.
"If you want to know it was about that yell," Elmer admitted.
"A pretty husky whoop in the bargain, let me say," observed Lil Artha;
"I used to think I could beat all creation letting out a yell, but that
went one better, you hear me talking."
"Yes," added Toby, "it sounded as if the top of the world had blown
off, the fellow made such a howl. Anyway, that's how it seemed to me
when I was waked up so suddenly."
"Have we ever heard a whoop like that before?" asked Elmer.
"Now you're thinking of Hen Condit, of course, Elmer," came from Toby.
"Well, Hen's got a good strong pair of lungs, let me tell you,"
admitted Landy. "I remember the time that cow tossed him when he was a
small boy, and say, he made everybody inside of half a mile run
outdoors to see what was the matter. They found Hen straddlin' a limb
of a tree, and whooping it up for all he was worth. It might have been
him, Elmer, no telling."
"And just as well any other person badly scared," Mark observed. "I
think I'd be able to do some fine work along those lines under the same
conditions."
"Then it seems that we'll never be able to identify Hen by that shout,"
laughed Elmer; "but there's a way we can find something out, as all
scouts ought to know."
That remark immediately put them all on their mettle.
"Sure thing, Elmer," agreed Lil Artha, "for, of course, you mean if we
could find a trail around here we might pick out the different
footprints; and one of us ought to know something about the kind of
shoes Hen wears."
"That's me," admitted Landy, "because I happened to be going with Hen
more or less lately. Show me the footprints and I'll tell you soon
enough if it's him."
Of course, nothing could be done without the lantern, so they kept
close to Johnny, who carried the same. From time to time he was given
instruction how to hold the light so they might examine certain spots.
"Hello! Elmer's found something!" suddenly exclaimed keen-eyed Lil
Artha, when he saw the scout leader stoop over almost under the tree,
and alongside the large drygoods box.
"That so, Elmer; what was it?" several asked him in a breath.
"Gather around me," the other commanded, "and let's see if you can
recognize what I picked up."
"Huh! bet you it fell from his pocket when he was dragged upside-down,"
was the way Lil Artha put it; quick to guess the truth, though he had
not himself thought of this possibility before.
"Correct for you, Lil Artha, for that's what happened," Elmer
acknowledged.
"Is it a knife, Elmer?" continued the tall scout.
"Once more you hit it," said the other; "and Landy, since you say
you've been going more or less with Hen lately, perhaps you'd be apt to
know his knife if you happened to set eyes on it?"
"To be sure I would, Elmer."
"You've handled it then, have you?"
"Lots of times, because you see I lost my own frog-sticker some weeks
back, and I ain't had a birthday since to get a new one," Landy
confessed.
"That sounds good to me," Elmer told him; "so now take a look at this,
and tell us what you think."
With that he brought his hand around, having been keeping it behind his
back all this time. When he opened it there was disclosed a common,
every-day jack-knife with a buckhorn handle, such as might be expected
to be found in the pocket of almost any lad, and capable, when given a
keen edge, of performing miracles in the way of shaving sticks and
cutting up apples.
So Landy gravely, though eagerly, took up the knife. He opened the big
blade and seemed interested in a certain nick he found there.
"Elmer, that settles it," he said, finally; "it's Hen's knife, I'm
positive; and it must have been him that was hanging from this tree a
bit ago!"