DELAYED BY A STORM
"A Bear!"
"Where is he?"
"Let me get my gun!"
Such were some of the exclamations uttered after Whopper made his
declaration that he had seen a bear. In the meantime the youth who
loved to tell big stories had caught up his shotgun and was aiming
it to the right of the watercourse, where there were several big
rocks overgrown with brushwood. He took aim and blazed away. A
grunt followed, and then came a thrashing in the bushes, growing
fainter and fainter in the distance.
"You hit him!" ejaculated Snap.
"Yes, but he is running away for all he's worth," answered Whopper,
disappointedly.
By this time every one of the young hunters had his firearm. The
boat was turned to the bank of the creek, and then each youth looked
at the others. Not a trace of the bear was to be seen anywhere.
"No use of going after him," said the doctor's son. "More than
likely he's half a mile away by this time and he'll be so shy he
won't let us get anywhere near him."
"If only we could have gotten a shot at him!" said Giant, wistfully.
"Think of bringing a bear down first lick!" And his eyes glistened.
"We might have crawled up on him, only I thought he saw us," explained
Whopper. "That's the reason I called for my gun."
"I guess he kind of scared you," said Snap.
"Well, I admit I was startled. I didn't think we'd find a bear along
here---I thought they hung up in the mountains."
"They may come down to gather some stuff that grows in this water,"
answered Snap. "They love to eat certain roots, so Jed Sanborn told
me, and sometimes they travel a long distance to get them."
After a little more talk the journey was resumed, and nothing out of
the ordinary came to their notice until late in the afternoon. Then
Shep, who was in the bow looking forward, held up his hand for silence.
"What is it?" whispered Giant, who was next to him.
"Some small animals squatting on yonder rocks," replied the doctor's
son. "I don't know what they are."
The young hunters stopped rowing and took up their shotguns with care.
They allowed the boat to drift behind a screen of bushes on the side
of the watercourse. Then they looked through the bushes with care.
"I know what they are---muskrats," whispered Giant.
"I see two of them," added Shep. He raised his gun and Giant did the
same. Bang! bang! went both pieces, one directly after the other.
The muskrats gave a leap upward and fell with a splash into the stream.
"We hit them, that's certain," said the doctor's son. "But they may
get away."
Eagerly the boys rowed up to the spot where the muskrats had sat.
Around the rocks the clear water was churned up into mud. But on
the surface floated the two bodies of the creatures.
"I don't know what we are going to do with them," said Snap. "The
skins are not very good this time of year."
"I couldn't resist bringing one of 'em down," said Shep.
"Just the way I felt," added Giant.
They continued on their way, and a few minutes later came to something
of a cleared spot along the watercourse. Here Snap leaped up, shotgun
in hand.
"Here's our chance, fellows!" he whispered. "All together."
He pointed to some low trees beyond the clearing. The branches
were thick with quail. All understood and took up their firearms.
"I'll shoot high, Shep can shoot low, Giant to the left and Whopper
to the right," commanded the leader of the club. "All ready?"
"Yes," was the low answer, and the four weapons went off almost as
one piece. There was a great fluttering in the trees and five quail
were seen to drop. Then two others flew around in a fashion that
told plainly they were seriously wounded.
"Come on, we must get them!" cried Giant, and leaped forward. As the
two wounded birds flew close together he blazed away a second time,
and the game dropped like a stone. The rest of the quail were now out
of sight.
"Seven quail!" cried Snap, enthusiastically. "I don't call that half
bad."
"I call it very good," declared the doctor's son. "To-morrow we can
have quail on toast."
"Where are you going to get the toast?" questioned Whopper.
"Well, we'll have quail on crackers then," put in Giant.
Stowing the quail away in the bow of the boat, they went on through
the gathering darkness. The sun had gone down over the hills in the
west, casting long shadows across the little watercourse.
"It will be pretty dark by the time we reach Firefly Lake," said
Snap, and he was right. It was cloudy too, and a stiff breeze from
the east had begun to blow.
"We'll have to take care how we pitch our tent to-night," was
Whopper's comment. "Unless I miss my guess, we'll have rain by
to-morrow morning."
"Oh, don't say that!" cried Giant. "I don't want it to rain yet."
"It won't hold off for you or anybody else," returned Snap. "Whopper
is right, we must stake our tent well and allow for the water to run
off---if rain does come."
When they at last rounded the final turn and swept into Firefly Lake
it was so dark they could see little or nothing ahead. But they
remembered the locality and had little trouble in reaching a spot
where they had camped once before. But the snows of the previous
winter had played sad havoc with the fireplace they had built, and
they had to build a fire in the open. While Whopper and Giant
prepared a substantial supper Snap and Shep put up the tent, on a
bit of high ground. Around the tent they dug a small trench, to
carry off the water, should it storm.
"We want to make sure that our boat doesn't get away from us again
to-night," said Whopper.
"Here is a cove---we can haul her up in that," said Snap, and this
was done, and the craft was tied fast to two trees.
Having had but little sleep the night before, all the young hunters
were tired out, and it was not long after getting supper that they
crawled into the tent and went to sleep. On account of the wind they
did not dare to leave the campfire burning, for they knew only too
well how easy it is to set a forest on fire through such carelessness.
At about two o'clock in the morning Giant awoke, to find the rain
coming down steadily on the tent. He crawled to the front of the
shelter and looked out. All was pitch dark, and, somehow, the
prospect made him shiver. The wind had gone down, and only the fall
of the rain broke the stillness.
"This is lonely enough for anybody, I guess," he mused, and crawled
back to his corners. "Shouldn't wonder if we have to stay in came
tomorrow. But I don't care---it will give us all a chance to rest
up."
He struck a match, to see how the others were faring, and as he gazed
around he saw a small stream of water coming in through a hole in
the tent. The stream was falling close to Whopper's head. Just
then Whopper turned and the stream took him directly in the ear.
"Wh---wow!" spluttered Whopper, awakening and squirming around.
"What's the matter here? Has Niagara Falls broke loose, or who's
playing the hose on me?"
The noise aroused the others, and all sat up. By this time the match
had gone out, but Giant promptly struck another and then lit the camp
lantern. Whopper gazed at the hole in the tent ruefully.
"That's too bad," said Snap. "We'll have to mend that, the first
chance we get."
"We can't mend it to-night," answered Shep.
Gracious! Just listen to it rain!
The boys sat up for quite awhile listening to the rain, but presently
they grew tired again and one after another dropped off to sleep.
Whopper found a dry spot next to Giant; and thus they rested until
daylight.
It was certainly a dismal outlook that confronted them when they
arose for the day. The rain was coming down steadily, and no dry
firewood was to be had with which to cook breakfast.
"We should have put some wood in the tent," said Snap. "We'll know
better next time."
It took a deal of coaxing to start a blaze, but once it got going
to keep it up was easy. They took their time, for traveling in such
a storm was out of the question. The meal over, they washed up the
dishes, and then huddled down in the tent once more.
"This is the only drawback to camp life," said Snap, with a sigh.
"A storm knocks everything endways. But there is no help for it, and
a fellow must take the bitter with the sweet."
The storm continued all day, and the only thing the lads did was to
fish. At this they were very successful, and a fine supper of fresh
lake trout put them in much better humor. They put in a peaceful
night, and the next morning, the storm having cleared away, they set
off for Lake Narsac.