unreasonable. That water is so good that you never found out its
badness till after it had done you a better service than any other
water in the world ever did. Yet now you ungratefully revile its lately
discovered badness, while omitting to remember its previously enjoyed
and surpassing goodness. I am so ashamed of you that I’m going to
start a fire and get supper going. I for one want some coffee, and it
is going to be made of water from that spring, too. Those who object to
brackish coffee will simply have to go without.”
VII
AN ENEMY IN CAMP
NO sooner was the camp fire started than Cal went to the boat and
brought away a piece of tarpaulin, used to protect things against rain.
With this and a lighted lantern he started off through the thicket
toward the mouth of the little estuary, leaving Dick to make coffee and
fry fish, while Larry mixed a paste of corn meal, water and a little
salt, which he meant presently to spread into thin sheets and bake in
the hot embers, as soon as the fire should burn down sufficiently to
make a bed of coals.
As Cal was setting out, Tom, who had no particular duty to do at the
moment, asked:
“Where are you off to, Cal?”
“Come along with me and see,” Cal responded without answering the
direct question. “I may need your help. Suppose you bring the big bait
bucket with you. Empty the shrimps somewhere. They’re all too dead to
eat, but we may need ’em for bait.”
Tom accepted the invitation and the two were quickly beyond the bend
in the creek and well out of sight of the camp. As they neared the
open water, Cal stopped, held the lantern high above his head, and
looked about him as if in search of something. Presently he lowered the
lantern, cried out, “Ah, there it is,” and strode on rapidly through
the dense undergrowth.
Tom had no time to ask questions. He had enough to do to follow his
long-legged companion.
After a brief struggle with vines and undergrowths of every kind,
the pair came out upon a little sandy beach with a large oyster bank
behind it, and Tom had no further need to ask questions, for Cal spread
the tarpaulin out flat upon the sands, and both boys began gathering
oysters, not from the solid bank where thousands of them had their
shells tightly welded together, but from the water’s edge, and even
from the water itself wherever it did not exceed a foot or so in depth.
Cal explained that these submerged oysters, being nearly all the time
under salt water, and growing singly, or nearly so, were far fatter and
better than those in the bank or near its foot.
It did not take long to gather quite as many of the fat bivalves as the
two could conveniently carry in the tarpaulin and the bait pail, and as
Cal was tying up the corners of the cloth Tom began scrutinizing the
sandy beach at a point which the ordinary tides did not reach. As he
did so he observed a queer depression in the sand and asked Cal to come
and see what it meant.
After a single glance at it, Cal exclaimed gleefully:
“Good for you, Tom. This is the luckiest find yet.”
With that he placed the lantern in a favorable position, emptied the
bait pail, hurriedly knelt down, and with his hands began digging away
the sand.
“But what is it, Cal? What are you digging for?”
“I’ll show you in half a minute,” said the other, continuing to dig
diligently. Less than the half minute later he began drawing out of the
sand a multitude of snow-white eggs about the size of a walnut. As Tom
looked on in open-mouthed wonder, he thought there must be no end to
the supply.
“What are they, Cal?” the boy asked.
“Turtle’s eggs, and there’s a bait bucket full of them. You’ve made the
luckiest find of all, Tom,” he said again in congratulation.
“Are they good to eat?”
“Good to eat? Is anything you ever tasted good to eat? Why, Tom,
they’re about the rarest delicacy known to civilized man. In Charleston
they sell at fabulous prices, when there happen to be any there to
sell. Now we must hurry back to the fire, for the ash cakes must be
about done and the coffee made.”
After a moment or two of silence, Tom asked:
“Why did you think there was an oyster bank down there, Cal?”
“I noticed it as we came into the creek and I took pains to remember
its location. But here we are. See, fellows, what Tom has found! Now
bring on your coffee and your ash cakes and your fish, and we’ll feast
like a company of Homer’s warriors. It won’t take long to boil the eggs
in salt water—ten minutes is the allotted time, I believe, in the
case of turtle’s eggs, and during that time we can be eating the other
things and filling up with fire-opened oysters.”
With that he threw three or four oysters upon the coals, removing them
as soon as they opened and swallowing them from the shell. The others
followed his example.
Of course it really was an excellent supper the boys were eating out
there under the stars, but sharp-set hunger made it seem even better
than it was, and the contrast between it and the supper of bologna
sausages and hardtack of the night before, added greatly to the zest
of their feasting. They rejoiced, too, in being free, out there in
the woodlands, with no dismal rain to depress their spirits and no
restraint of any kind upon their liberty.
But they were all very tired after their sleepless night before and
their hard-working day, and without argument or discussion, one by one
of them stretched himself before the fire not long after supper, and
fell asleep. Cal remained awake longer than the rest, though he, too,
was lying flat upon his back, ready to welcome sleep as soon as it
should come to his eyelids.
Before it came he was moved by jealousy or mischief to disturb the
others with an admonition.
“You fellows are recklessly trifling with your health, every one of
you, and it is my duty to warn you of the consequences. In allowing
so brief a time to elapse between the consumption of food in generous
quantities, and your retirement to your couches, you are inviting
indigestion, courting bad dreams and recklessly risking the permanent
organic and functional impairment of your constitutions—to say nothing
of your by-laws, orders of business, rules of procedure and other
things that should be equally precious to you.”
“_Will_ you shut up, Cal?” muttered Dick, half awake. Tom remained
unconscious and Larry responded only with a snore.
Presently even Cal’s wakefulness yielded, his thoughts wandered, and he
fell into a sound slumber.
The woodlands were as still as woodlands at night ever are; the stars
shone brilliantly in a perfectly clear sky; the brush wood fire died
down to a mass of glowing coals and gray ashes, and still the weary
ship’s company slept on without waking or even moving.
Then something happened, and Larry, who was always alert, even in his
sleep, suddenly sat up, at the same time silently grasping the gun
that lay by his side. He was sure he had heard a noise in his sleep,
but now that he was wide awake, everything seemed profoundly still.
Nevertheless he waited and watched. Then suddenly he brought his gun to
his shoulder, and in sharp, ringing tones cried out:
“Drop that!”
Instantly all the boys were standing with their guns in hand, not
knowing what had happened, but ready to meet whatever might come. A
second or two later Larry, still sitting and aiming his gun over his
bent knees, called out again:
“Drop that, I say! Drop it instantly or I’ll shoot. I’ve got a bead on
you. Now throw up your hands! Quick, and no fooling.”
[Illustration: DICK, CAL, AND TOM SEARCHED THE MAN’S CLOTHES.
_Page 73._]
As he gave this command he rose and slowly advanced toward the dory,
keeping his gun levelled from his shoulder.
It was difficult to see anything, until Tom thought to throw a bunch
of dry brush upon the coals. As it blazed up the boys saw the man whom
Larry had held up. He was standing by the boat, his back toward them
and his hands, held up in obedience to Larry’s command.
“Now, boys, see what shooting irons he has about him,” directed Larry,
who stood with the muzzle of his shotgun less than three feet away from
the prisoner.
Dick, Cal and Tom searched the man’s clothes, but found no weapons
of any sort there. Tom was thoughtful enough to search his
long-legged leather boots, and from each of them he presently drew a
murderous-looking army revolver. Without saying a word, the boy sprung
the pistols open and emptied them of their cartridges, which he tossed
into the creek.
“Now you may let your hands down,” said Larry, at the same time
lowering his piece, but continuing to hold it with both barrels at full
cock.
“Cal, take care of that box of cartridges I made him drop, and take a
lantern and look the boat over. He may have done some damage before
trying to steal our ammunition.”
Up to this time the intruder, a huge man of evil countenance, had
spoken no word. Now he suddenly took the initiative.
“Who are you fellers, anyhow, and what are you a-doing here?” he asked.
“Curiously enough,” responded Cal, “those are precisely the questions
I was going to ask you. Suppose you answer first. Who are you and what
are you doing here?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” the intruder replied,
truculently.
“Perhaps you’d better reconsider that,” said Cal. “You’re a prisoner,
you know, caught in the act of stealing our ammunition, and we are
armed. We can chuck you into our boat and take you to a magistrate, who
will provide you with jail accommodations for a while. Give an account
of yourself. What did you come to our camp for?”
“I come,” he replied with somewhat less assurance in his tone, “to find
out who you fellers was, and what you’re a-doin’ here where you don’t
belong, and to give you fair warnin’ to git away from here jest as
quick as you know how. Ef you don’t, it’ll be a good deal the worse for
you.”
“We’ll do nothing of the kind,” broke in Larry. “We’re on land that
belongs to Mr. Hayward, a friend of ours, and we’re going to stay here
as long as we like.”
“You’ll do it at your own resk, then. You’ve got me hard and fast, but
they’s others besides me.”
“Now listen to me,” said Larry, rising and speaking sharply. “We’ve
got you hard and fast, as you say, and we could take you to jail or we
could hold you as a hostage, if you know what that means; but we’ll do
neither. We’re not afraid of you or the ‘others’ you mentioned. We are
going to turn you loose and dare you to do your worst. We’ve a right to
be where we are, and we’re going to stay here till we’re ready to go.
We’re armed, and we know how to shoot. But there’ll be no holding up
of hands the next time any of you invade our camp, and there’ll be no
challenging. It’ll be quick triggers. Now go! We expect to stay here
for three or four days. Go!”
The man moved off through the woods, with a peculiar limp in his left
leg, turning about when at a little distance, and shouting:
“It’ll be the worse for you! I’ve give you fair warnin’.”
VIII
CAL BEGINS TO DO THINGS
“WONDER what it all means,” said Tom, when the man had limped away
through the undergrowth and out of hearing.
“It means, for one thing,” said Cal, “that we’re practically in a state
of siege here. We must all be on the alert and never all sleep at once.”
“Yes,” said Larry, “and that isn’t enough. We must guard ourselves
against surprise by day as well as by night. As soon as it grows light
enough in the morning I’ll explore our surroundings and see what may
best be done. It is now a trifle after four o’clock, and we shan’t go
to sleep again. Why not have breakfast and make a long day of it. I
want to get some game, for one thing. I wonder if that fellow’s gang,
whoever they are, have cleaned all the wild things out of these woods.”
“You can rest easy as to that,” said Cal. “We’ll have something fit
to eat for dinner to-day, and I’ll have it here in time to cook it
properly for that meal. What I am wondering about is who those fellows
are, and what they are doing around here, and why they don’t want us
around.”
“Then you believe what that fellow said?” asked Dick. “You believe in
the existence of those others’ with whose vengeance he threatened us?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, I don’t. There may be another man down here with that one,
fishing or hunting, but I don’t believe in the presence of a company of
them.”
“But why not, Dick?”
“Simply because it is unlikely. On its face it seems to me more likely
that, as we had caught that fellow stealing, he invented the formidable
and vengeful force theory just to scare us into letting him go. What
would there be for such a band as he suggests to do down here in these
lonely woods? What is there here to attract such a band?”
“I am not prepared to answer those questions,” said Cal. “I can’t
imagine what a gang of that sort could be doing here, or why they are
here, or anything about it. But it is my firm conviction that we have
need to keep cartridges in our guns and about our persons.”
“Oh, that’s of course,” answered Dick; “though if there is any such
gang and they don’t attack us early this morning, we needn’t look for
them before night, so we’ll have plenty of time for getting a good
supply of game.”
“All right,” said Cal. “And by way of making sure, as it’s coming on
daylight now, I’ll go and get that turkey gobbler I was speaking of.
I’ll be back to breakfast.”
With that Cal started off, gun in hand, leaving the rest to wonder.
“How can he be so confident of finding game?” Dick asked, with a note
of incredulity in his voice.
“I don’t know,” answered Larry, “but it’s nine chances in ten that
he’ll do it. He’s the wiliest hunter I ever knew, and with all his
chatter, he never says a thing of that kind without meaning it;
especially he never gives a positive promise unless he is confident of
his ability to fulfill it. So I expect to see him back here before we
have breakfast ready, with a turkey gobbler slung over his shoulders.”
“Why ‘gobbler,’ Larry?” Dick asked, looking up from the mortar in which
he was pounding the coffee.
“How do you mean, Dick?”
“Why, it wasn’t just a turkey that Cal promised us, but specifically a
gobbler, and now when you speak of it you also assume that the bird he
is to kill will be of the male sex. Why may it not be a turkey hen?”
“Why, he wouldn’t think of shooting a turkey hen at this time of year.
They’re bringing up their chicks now and they won’t be fit to eat for a
month yet. So if he brings any turkey with him it’ll be a bearded old
gobbler as fat as butter.”
At that moment a shot was heard at some distance. The next instant
there was another, after which all was still.
“I say, Larry, I don’t like that,” said Tom uneasily.
“Don’t like what?”
“Why, those two shots in quick succession. Maybe Cal has met some of
that gang and they’ve shot him. Hadn’t we better go to his assistance?”
“You may go if you are uneasy, Tom,” answered Larry; “but it isn’t at
all necessary I think. Cal knows how to take care of himself.”
“But how do you account for the two shots in such quick succession?”
“By the fact that Cal usually hunts with cartridges in both barrels of
his gun just as other people do. He may have missed at the first fire.
In that case he would take a second shot if he could get it.”
Tom was somewhat reassured by this suggestion, but he was not entirely
free from anxiety until ten minutes later when he heard the crackling
of dry branches under Cal’s big boots. A moment afterwards Cal himself
appeared, with two huge gobblers slung over his neck.
“So you got one with each barrel,” quietly commented Larry, feeling of
the birds to test their fatness.
“Yes, of course. That’s what I fired twice for. Did you imagine I’d
shoot the second barrel just for fun? By the way, isn’t breakfast
nearly ready? I’m pretty sharp set in this crisp morning air.”
“I must say, Cal,” said Dick, as the little company sat on the ground
to eat their breakfast, “you’re the very coolest hand I ever saw.
Why, if I had shot two big gobblers out of one flock of turkeys I’d
be tiring the rest of you with minute descriptions—more or less
inaccurate, perhaps—of just how I did it, and just how I felt while
doing it, and just how the turkeys behaved, and all the rest of it.”
“What’s the use?” asked Cal between sips of coffee. “The facts are
simple enough. We wanted some turkeys and I went out to get them. I
knew where they were roosting and I got there before time for them to
quit the roost. I shot one from the limb on which he had passed the
night. The others flew, of course, and I shot one of them on the wing.
That’s absolutely all there is to tell. I like to get my game when I
go for it but I never could see the use of holding a coroner’s inquest
over it.”
“What puzzles me,” said Tom, “is how on earth you knew just where those
turkeys were roosting. Did you just guess it?”
“No, of course not. If I had, I shouldn’t have been so ready to promise
you a gobbler as I was.”
“Then how did you know?”
“I saw the roost last night.”
“When, and how?”
“When you and I were out after the oysters. Do you remember that just
before we came out of the woods and upon the beach, I stopped and held
up the lantern and looked all around?”
“Yes, but you were looking for the oyster bed and you found it.”
“I was looking for the oyster bed, of course. But I was looking for
anything else there might be to see, too. I always do that. When I was
at the bow last night looking for the mouth of this creek I saw the
oyster bed, and marked its locality in my mind. In the same way, when
I was looking for the oyster bed with the lantern above my head, I saw
the turkey-roost and carefully made mental note of its surroundings
so that I might go straight to it this morning. Is there any other
gentleman in the company who would like to ask me questions with a view
to the satisfaction of his curiosity or the improvement of his mind?”
“I for one would like to ask you what else you saw this morning while
you were out after the turkeys,” answered Tom. “Apparently you never
look for one thing without finding some others of equal or superior
importance. Did you do anything of that sort this morning?”
“Yes, I think so. I made two observations, in fact, and both of them
seem to me to possess a certain measure of interest.”
Cal paused in his speech at this point and proceeded to eat his
breakfast quite as if the others had not been waiting for him to go on
with whatever it was that he had to tell.
“You’re the most provoking fellow I ever saw, Cal,” said Tom,
impatiently. “When you have nothing to say that is in the least worth
saying, you grind out words like a water mill, till you bury yourself
and the rest of us in the chaffy nonsense. But when you have something
to tell that we’re all eager to hear, you shut up like a clam at low
tide. Go on, can’t you?”
“I have always heard,” replied Cal, in leisurely fashion, as if his
only purpose had been to prevent the conversation from flagging, “that
one of the most necessary arts of the orator is that of getting his
audience into a condition of anxious waiting for his words before he
really says the thing they want to hear. I cannot myself claim the
title of orator, but I’m practicing and—”
“_Will_ you stop that nonsense, Cal, and tell us what you have in mind?
If not we’ll duck you in the creek.”
It was Larry who uttered this threat.
“I’ve had worse things than that happen to me,” answered Cal,
imperturbably. “The morning is sunny and the sea water on this coast
closely approximates tepidity. By the way, Dick, our higher water
temperature seems to mar the edibility of some fish that are deemed
good at the North. There’s what you call the weak fish—”
He stopped suddenly, for the reason that Dick had approached him from
behind, seized his shoulders and toppled him over upon the ground.
“Now tell us what we’re waiting to hear!” Dick commanded, still holding
his comrade down upon his back.
“My mouth’s full of sand,” Cal managed to say; “let me up and I’ll make
a clean breast of it, on honor.”
Dick loosed his hold, and as soon as Cal had rinsed his mouth, he
redeemed his promise.
“Well, the first thing I discovered was that there’s a promising young
deer at present haunting this neck of the woods, and we’re all going
out to involve it in controversy with us to-day, and then shoot it as
its just due for defying us in such impudent fashion.”
“Venison!” exclaimed Tom enthusiastically; “how my mouth waters for a
taste of its juiciness! But how do you know about it, Cal?”
“It isn’t venison yet,” slowly answered the other. “You are much too
hasty in jumping at conclusions. That deer will not be venison until
we find it and convert it into meat of that justly esteemed sort. Now
to answer your question; I discovered its tracks and followed them far
enough to know whither it was wending its way and about where to look
for it when you fellows quit your ceaseless talking and are ready for
the chase. There’s no great hurry, however, as the tracks were made
this morning and—”
“How do you know that?” interrupted Tom.
“I smelt them.”
“But how? I don’t understand.”
“It oughtn’t to be difficult for even you, Tom, to make out that if I
smelt the tracks, I employed my nose for that purpose. I usually smell
things in just that way.”
“Oh, pshaw, you know what I mean. I didn’t imagine any creature but a
well-trained hound could discover a scent in a deer’s track.”
“Obviously your imagination is in need of a reinforcement of facts
then. I’ll furnish them. In the middle of a deer’s foot there is a
little spot that bears an odor sweeter than that of attar of roses
and quite as pronounced. For that reason many young ladies, and some
who are not so young perhaps, like to keep a deer’s foot among their
daintiest lingerie. Now, when a deer puts his foot down it spreads
sufficiently to bring that perfumed spot in contact with the earth
and the track is delicately perfumed. When the odor is pronounced it
indicates that the track is newly made.
“Now that I have fully answered your intruded, if not intrusive
question, Tom, perhaps I may be permitted to finish the sentence you
interrupted.”
“Certainly, go on. Really, Cal, I didn’t mean—”
“I know you didn’t. I was saying that there is no need of haste in
going after that deer, because the tracks were made this morning,
and the marshy thicket toward which the deer was making his way is
sufficiently rich in succulent grasses and juicy young cane to occupy
his mind for the entire day, and several days. A little later we’ll cut
off his retreat on the land side of the point, and if we don’t get him
the fault will be with our inexpertness with our guns.”
“That’s all right, Cal,” broke in Larry, “and I’m glad you’ve marked
down the deer; but just now I must be off to plan our defense. You’ve
taken so long to tell us about your first discovery that I can’t wait
to hear about the second.”
“Oh, yes, you can,” replied Cal. “It will save you a lot of trouble,
and I can tell it in about half a dozen words.”
“Go ahead and tell it, then.”
“It is simply that I have solved the whole problem of defense.”
“How? Tell us about it!”
“Why, just above our camp—up the creek a few hundred yards, there’s
a big gum tree, with an easily accessible crotch, comfortable to sit
in, from which the one playing sentinel can see everything we want to
see. He can look clear across this point and half a mile or more up
the creek, and by turning his head he can see the camp itself and the
_Hunkydory_ and even the soiled spots on your coats. All we’ve got to
do is to keep a sentinel in that gum tree, and nobody can approach our
camp unseen, whether he comes by land or by water. Come on and I’ll
show you.”
The whole company followed Cal, and after a minute inspection found the
lookout to be quite as satisfactory as he had represented it to be. But
Tom, who had made up his mind to acquire Cal’s habit of observation,
noticed some things about the place that aroused his curiosity. He
said nothing about them at the time, but resolved to read the riddle
of their meaning if he could. To that end he asked to be the first to
serve as sentinel.
“All right,” said Larry. “You can stay here till we’re ready to go
after that deer. Then I’ll take your place.”
“But why?”
“Oh, so that you may have your share in the deer hunt.”
“You needn’t either of you bother about that,” said Cal. “Our camp can
be seen all the way to the cane brake where the deer is browsing, and
also from one of the points at which a man must stand with his gun
when we drive the deer. So we shan’t need any other sentinel and we’ll
all go. With all of us together over there we’ll be ready to repel any
attack on ourselves, and if anybody invades the camp we’ll swoop down
upon him and exterminate him.”