THE COMING OF UNCLE CALEB
ELMER may not have exactly fancied the job, but he was one of those
fellows who can always be depended upon to perform any duty devolving on
him, no matter how disagreeable. And it was not to be thought of that
they should pass on, to let the poor little animal gnaw its foot off; as
well as disappoint the trapper when he had made such a rare catch.
So handing his pack and gun over to the care of the others Elmer looked
about until he spied the right sort of stick with which he could
dispatch the little beast by a clip on the head, so as not to spoil the
valuable skin in any way.
When this had been done in great shape they examined the silver fox more
closely and admired the sheen of his coveted coat, for which wealthy
people are ready to pay almost any price.
"Shall we hang it up here above the trap?" asked Toby, presently.
"What for?" Elmer went on to say.
"Why, so Uncle Caleb can get it when he comes along," replied Toby; "you
wouldn't want to make him die of heart failure, would you, by letting
him see he'd made a catch of a silver fox, and that it was gone?"
Elmer laughed at him.
"Why, what's to hinder our camping right here, and waiting for Uncle
Caleb to show up?" he asked.
"Well, I declare, what a lot of ninnies the rest of us were not to think
of that!" chuckled Lil Artha; "I tell you it's a good thing for George,
Toby, and me that we've got you along, Elmer. We'd be losing our heads
next, I'm afraid."
"It wouldn't be the first time you'd lost your head, Lil Artha," George
hastened to assure his comrade. "But I want to say that I think the idea
is all to the good, and that I'm ready to camp right here, and keep on
waiting for Uncle Caleb to show up, whether it takes an hour, a day or a
week; so long as our supply of venison holds out."
"So far as that goes," Elmer continued, "I wouldn't be surprised to see
him any old time, because after the storm he'll be anxious to look into
this trap."
Toby stretched his neck and looked all around.
"Don't seem to see anything of him yet," he remarked.
"When he comes," resumed the scout master, "I think you'll find it'll be
from that direction over there. I see a good place where we can drop
down and hide; so come on, fellows."
"Hide?" echoed George; "whatever would we want to be doing that same
for, Elmer?"
"Just to see how disappointed Uncle Caleb looks when he gets here, and
finds all these signs around, the blood on the snow, the hair of a
silver fox in the closed jaws of the trap, and footprints everywhere,"
the scout master told him.
Toby was heard to laugh.
"I can just imagine how he'll act," he ventured; "but then, we'll let
him know who got the pelt before he's had much time to growl."
Elmer held the dead fox up by his bushy tail, and George was seen to
look keenly at it as he muttered:
"Fifteen hundred dollars, and for that measly little runt? I don't
believe there's a word of truth about the story. Somebody's been
stuffing you, Elmer."
There happened to be a pretty good hiding-place close by. It lay just
about where Elmer would have picked it out had he been given a chance.
Here they proceeded to settle down, and make themselves as comfortable
as the conditions allowed.
"Wonder how long we'll have to wait?" Toby remarked, after they had
scraped the snow away, and made places where they could stretch their
rubber ponchos out and with blankets on top form comfortable seats upon
which to rest their tired bodies.
"That depends a whole lot on how soon Uncle Caleb would think to start
out, and how far he has to come to get here," Elmer told him. "The
walking is tough enough for us, and yet we're young. He's a pretty old
man, Toby says, and might have a harder time of it than we would. But
then by noon there ought to be something doing, I'd think."
George had been looking around, and now gave them the benefit of his
observations.
"Plenty of wood handy, notice, fellows; if we have to hang out here any
length of time, why, we could make a fire, and do our little cooking
stunt all right."
"Why, what's getting into George," remarked Toby, pretending to be
surprised; "he seems never to get enough to eat. Time was when he had a
little bird appetite, but these days he's like a hungry bear all the
time."
"I don't know what ails me," George replied, "but it must be going on
half rations kind of frightened me, and now I'm thinking something might
happen again; so I'm bent on laying in a good supply while it lasts."
"We'll have to look around for a whole herd of deer if you keep on that
way much longer, George. And I don't know what your folks at home'll do
when you get back again. You'll eat 'em out of house and home, that's
right," Lil Artha expressed himself by saying.
George took this chaffing in good part. He was feeling splendidly now,
since the danger of their facing real want was of the past.
"Oh! that's all right, boys," he told them. "It was only a little while
ago my folks were worried about me eating so little, and I guess they'll
sing the other way now. Dad'll talk about going into bankruptcy when he
watches me put away the food. Seems like I never could get enough
again. I want to eat six times a day, and then complain because meals
are so far apart."
"Listen!" exclaimed Lil Artha.
"What did you think you heard?" asked Elmer, after all of them had
strained their ears without any result.
"Guess I must have been away off, and it was only a hoot owl after all;
but I thought I heard some one cough!" the tall scout declared.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that way, because it's getting
on toward time for him to show up, if he means to come along to-day,"
said Elmer.
"And now that you mention it," added Toby, "I remember Uncle Caleb does
have a sort of cough. That was one reason he took to the woods, for he
said it was going to add ten years to his life, living in the open,
winter and summer, and eating the plainest kind of food."
After that they began to watch more closely than ever, and also listened
carefully to catch a repetition of the sound that Lil Artha believed he
had heard.
The great woods in their white snow mantle seemed to be deathly quiet.
The air had become far less bitter, and in the sun it was thawing
slightly. Occasionally some branch would manage to dislodge its burden
of snow, which was apt to rustle through other branches on its way to
the ground. Away in the distance those crows were cawing again, as
though disputing some lucky find, or holding a council of war
concerning some contemplated movement in search of new feeding grounds.
Beyond these little breaks the silence remained profound.
All at once Elmer gave a low "hist!"
The others had caught the same sound, and as it was repeated again and
again they began to believe that some one must be approaching from the
very quarter in which Elmer had said Uncle Caleb was apt to come.
"What's that queer scraping, shuffling noise mean, Elmer?" whispered Lil
Artha.
"I bet you I know," spoke up Toby, also in a cautious tone; "snow-shoes,
and my uncle is wearing the same. How's that for a guess, Elmer?"
"You're right that time, Toby; and there he comes!" was the scout
master's reply.
Looking again they could all see the figure of an elderly man, dressed
in khaki-colored hunting garments, but warmly clad. He was advancing
over the surface of the heaped-up snow, and with the free movements of
one to whom the use of snow-shoes was an old story. To see the way he
lifted his feet, still dragging the long shoe made of bent hickory, and
stout gut that crossed and re-crossed diagonally from side to side, it
was evident that Uncle Caleb had spent many days and weeks in the woods
when it was impossible for him to get anywhere without the use of
snow-shoes.
Toby watched him eagerly. He was evidently thinking that before he left
this section of the wilderness he too would be able to walk deftly,
after he had been shown the secret of manipulating the clumsy
contrivances that served to keep the pedestrian from sinking into the
drift.
As the hunter and naturalist drew closer to the spot where he had placed
his fox trap they could see that he was getting more and more agitated.
Evidently he must have already discovered certain suspicious signs
around that gave warning to the effect that he was about to receive a
shock of an unpleasant nature.
Uncle Caleb was almost running now. Had there been a glaze on the
surface of the snow he would have fairly flown to the spot; but as it
was he floundered more or less in advancing hurriedly.
Now they saw him bend down to examine his trap. The presence of the
stains on the trampled surface of the snow would be enough to tell him
that there had been a victim held between those grim steel jaws of the
Newhouse trap. When he found several almost black hairs present he would
also understand that he had caught the coveted silver black fox; and
while that might add to his joy under ordinary conditions it was only
apt to provoke his additional wrath just then; for those telltale
footprints all around gave him to understand he had been robbed of his
treasure.
He presently got up from his knees. They could see that he was shaking
his head as though he did not like the way things looked. Many winters
had Uncle Caleb spent in this vicinity, and never before had he ever
known of a case of thievery; that it should come when he had made such a
fortunate haul was doubly provoking.
It was hardly wise to carry on the joke any further, Elmer thought; and
accordingly he gave the signal for which Toby was waiting. The latter
immediately jumped to his feet, and shouted at the top of his voice:
"Hello! Uncle Caleb! how d'ye do? You see, I've kept my word, and
dropped in to visit you at last. And as you told me to bring a friend or
two along, I've fetched our scout master, Elmer Chenowith, also two
other bully good fellows, George Robbins and Lil Artha Stansbury!"
The elderly recluse stared at the four boys as though he found great
difficulty in believing his eyes. It was as if they had suddenly bobbed
up out of the snow-covered earth to surprise him.
"Why, hello! is that you, Nephew Toby?" he presently called back. "Come
along and shake hands with me. You're mighty welcome, my boy, let me
tell you; and your comrades too. I shall be delighted to meet the Elmer
I've heard so much about in your newsy letters; also your other chums."
"But, uncle, we've got a little surprise for you, see?" and as he spoke
Toby suddenly held up the silver fox, which act caused the other to
smile broadly; "we were directed wrong by a boy, who must have had a
grouch against all scouts; and so we got lost; and then that storm
caught us; but we were hunting around for some sign of your cabin when
we came on this fox caught in a trap, and with his leg nearly cut off.
Elmer said he'd soon be gone, leaving only a paw behind; so he knocked
him on the head, and then said we'd better wait here till you came. Is
it a real silver black fox, Uncle?"
"And are the skins worth as much as fifteen hundred dollars, sir?" asked
George, as though he could never rest again until he had settled that
bothersome matter in his mind.
"Yes to both questions, boys," replied the scientist; "this skin may be
worth anywhere from a thousand dollars to twenty-five hundred, according
to how it is graded; and I'm delighted that you had the good sense to
save it for me."