Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, David Garcia
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE CAMPFIRE AND TRAIL SERIES
WITH TRAPPER JIM IN THE NORTH WOODS
BY LAWRENCE J. LESLIE
1913
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. WHAT LUCK DID FOR THE CHUMS
II. HOW POOR TOBY WAS "RESCUED"
III. WHAT WOODCRAFT MEANT
IV. THE SECRETS OF TRAPPING
V. WHAT CAME DOWN THE CHIMNEY
VI. STEVE STARTS GAME
VII. THE UNWELCOME GUEST
VIII. SMOKING THE INTRUDER OUT
IX. BEFORE THE BLAZING LOGS
X. THE TRAIL OF THE CLOG
XI. "STEADY, STEVE, STEADY!"
XII. THE END OF A THIEF
XIII. A GLIMPSE OF THE SILVER FOX
XIV. THE PURSUIT
XV. GLORIOUS NEWS
XVI. SURPRISING BRUIN--Conclusion
WITH TRAPPER JIM IN THE NORTH WOODS.
[Illustration: "THE SILVER FOX!"]
CHAPTER I.
WHAT LUCK DID FOR THE CHUMS.
"It was a long trip, fellows, but we're here at last, thank goodness!"
"Yes, away up in the North Woods, at the hunting lodge of Trapper Jim!"
"Say, it's hard to believe, and that's a fact. What do you say about it,
you old stutterer, Toby Jucklin?"
"B-b-bully!" exploded the boy, whose broad shoulders, encased in a blue
flannel shirt, had been pounded when this question was put directly at
him.
There were five of them, half-grown boys all, lounging about in the most
comfortable fashion they could imagine in the log cabin which Old Jim
Ruggles occupied every fall and winter.
"Trapper Jim" they called him, and these boys from Carson had long been
yearning to accept the hearty invitation given to spend a week or two
with the veteran woodsman. A year or so back Jim had dropped down to see
his brother Alfred, who was a retired lawyer living in their home town.
And it was at this time they first found themselves drawn toward Jim
Ruggles.
When he heard of several little camping experiences which had befallen
Toby Jucklin and his chums, the trapper had struck up a warm friendship
with the boy who seemed to be the natural leader of the lot, Max
Hastings.
Well, they had been writing back and forth this long time. Eagerly had
the boys planned a visit to the North Woods, and bent all their energies
toward accomplishing that result.
And now, at last, they found themselves under the shelter of the roof
that topped Old Jim's cabin. Their dreams had come true, so that several
weeks of delightful experiences in the great Northern forest lay before
them.
Besides Toby Jucklin, who stuttered violently at times, and Max Hastings,
who had had considerable previous experience in outdoor life, there were
Steve Dowdy, whose quick temper and readiness to act without considering
the consequences had long since gained him the name of "Touch-and-Go
Steve"; Owen Hastings, a cousin to Max, and who, being a great reader,
knew more or less about the theory of things; and last, but not least, a
boy who went by the singular name of "Bandy-legs" Griffin.
At home and in school they called him Clarence; but his comrades, just as
all boys will do, early in his life seized upon the fact of his lower
limbs being unusually short to dub him "Bandy-legs."
Strange to say, the Griffin lad never seemed to show the least resentment
in connection with this queer nickname. If the truth were told, he really
preferred having it, spoken by boyish lips, than to receive that detested
name of Clarence.
These five boys had come together with the idea of having a good time in
the great outdoors during vacation days.
And Fortune had been very kind to them right in the start. Although Max
always declared that it was some remark of his cousin that put him on the
track, and Owen on his part vowed that the glory must rest with Max
alone, still the fact remained that once the idea popped up it was
eagerly seized upon by both boys.
They needed more or less cash with which to purchase tents, guns, and
such other things as appeal to boys who yearn to camp out, fish, hunt,
and enjoy the experiences of outdoor life.
As the Glorious Fourth had exhausted their savings banks, this bright
idea was hailed with more or less glee by the other three members of the
club.
It was not an original plan, but that mattered nothing. Success was what
they sought, and to attain it the boys were quite willing to follow any
old beaten path.
An account of valuable pearls being found in mussels that were picked up
along certain streams located in Indiana, Arkansas, and other states,
suggested the possibility of like treasures near at home.
Now, Carson, their native town, lay upon the Evergreen River; and this
stream had two branches, called the Big Sunflower and the Elder. The boys
knew that there were hundreds of mussels to be found up the former
stream. They had seen the shells left by hungry muskrats, and even
gathered a few to admire the rainbow-hued inside coating, which Owen told
them was used in the manufacture of pearl buttons.
But up to that time no one apparently had dreamed that there might be a
snug little fortune awaiting the party who just started in to gather the
mussels along the Big Sunflower.
This Max and his chums had done. Their success had created quite an
excitement around Carson.
When it was learned what was going on, farm hands deserted their daily
tasks; boys quit loafing away the vacation days, and even some of those
who toiled in the factories were missing from their looms.
Everybody hunted for pearls. The little Big Sunflower never saw such
goings on. They combed its waters over every rod of the whole mile where
the fresh-water clams seemed to exist.
When the furor was over, and there were hardly half a hundred wretched
mussels left in the waters that had once upon a time fairly teemed with
them, the results were very disappointing.
Two or three small pearls had been found, it is true, but the majority of
the seekers had to be satisfied with steamed mussels, or fresh-water clam
chowder, as a reward for their hard work.
The wide-awake boys who first conceived the idea had taken the cream of
the pickings. And from a portion of the money secured through the sale of
these beautiful pearls they had purchased everything needed to fill the
heart of a camper with delight.
Here, as the afternoon sun headed down toward the western horizon, the
boys, having arrived by way of a buckboard wagon at noon, were looking
into the flames of Trapper Jim's big fire in the log cabin, and mentally
shaking hands with each other in mutual congratulation over their good
fortune.
There was a decided tang of frost in the air, which told that the summer
season was gone and early fall arrived.
It might seem strange that these boys, who in October might be expected
to be deep in the fall school term, should be away from home and up in
the wilderness.
That was where Good Luck remembered them again, and the explanation is
simple enough.
Even in the well-managed town of Carson, school directors sometimes
neglected their work. And in this year, when the vacation period was
three quarters over, the discovery was made that the big building was in
such a bad condition that certain extensive repairs would have to be
made.
In consequence, greatly to the delight of the older scholars, it was
decided that school for them could not take up until the middle of
November.
As soon as Max learned of this delightful fact he knew the time had come
for their long-promised visit to Trapper Jim.
They had been tempted to go during the summer months, but as there was
little to do in the woods at that period of the year save fishing, the
boys had been holding off.
Now they could expect to use their guns; to see how Jim set his cunning
traps that netted him such rich rewards each winter season, and to enjoy
to the full that most glorious time of the whole year in the woods, the
autumn season, when the leaves are colored by the early frosts and the
first ice forms on the shores of the little trout streams.
As the afternoon passed they recovered from the effects of the long
railroad journey overnight and the joggling buckboard experience. A
thousand questions had been fired at Jim, who was a good-humored old
fellow with a great love for boys in his heart.
"Take things kind of easy to-day, boys," he kept on saying, when they
wanted to know why he didn't get busy and show them all the wonderful
things he had in store for his lively young visitors. "I want you to rest
up and be in good trim for to-morrow. Plenty of time to begin work then.
Knock around and see what it looks like where Old Jim has had his hunting
lodge this seven years back."
So they did busy themselves prying into things. And between that hour and
dark there were very few spots around the immediate neighborhood that
they had not examined.
Jim's stock of well-kept Victor steel traps were commented on, and
stories listened to in connection with this one or that. No wonder the
hunting instinct in the lads was pretty well aroused by the time they had
heard some of these stirring accounts.
"If the whole bunch of traps could only talk, now," declared Owen, as he
handled a big one meant for bear, "wouldn't they make the shivers run up
and down our backbones, though?"
Trapper Jim only smiled.
He had a thousand things to tell the boys, but, of course, he did not
want to exhaust the subject in the beginning. By degrees they should hear
all about his many adventures. It would be his daily pleasures
to thrill his boy visitors with these truthful stories as they gathered
each night around the roaring fire and rested after the day's work.
The shades of night, their very first night in those wonderful North
Woods of which they had dreamed so long, were fast gathering now.
Already the shadows had issued forth from their hiding places, and the
woods began to assume a certain gloomy look.
Later on, the moon, being just past the full, would rise above the top of
the distant hills toward the east. Then the woods might not seem so
strangely mysterious.
"When you're ready to begin getting supper, Uncle Jim," said Max, "you
must let us lend a hand. We don't know it all by a long sight, but we can
cook some, and eat--wait till you see Steve begin, and Toby--Why, hello,
here we've been chattering away like a flock of crows and never noticed
that our chum Toby was missing all the while!"
"Missing!" echoed Steve, jumping up eagerly at the prospect of their
first adventure coming along; and no doubt already picturing all of them
stalking through the big timber, lanterns and torches in hand, searching
for the absent chum.
"Who saw him last?" asked Max.
"Why, a little before dark," Owen answered, promptly, "I noticed him
prowling around out among the trees. He called out that a cottontail
rabbit had jumped up and was just daring him to chase after her."
"Looks like he accepted the dare, all right," said Bandy-legs.
"Where's a lantern? I choose a lantern. You other fellows can carry the
torches, because I got burned the last time I tried that game."
Steve was already beginning to hunt around as he talked, when Trapper
Jim, who had meanwhile gone and opened the door of the cabin, called to
them to be still.
"I thought I heard him right then," he said, "and it sounded to me like
he was calling for help. Get both those lanterns, boys, and light 'em.
We've got to look into this thing right away."