STRANGE SOUNDS FROM THE WATER.
"ADAM did that on purpose!" was what Elmer exclaimed, as he saw how the
arms of the falling German boy pulled Ty with him into the pool under
the log.
That great splash was surely enough to frighten away any bass that might
even have had the hardihood to remain around, after the vigorous
threshing of the water by the greenhorn fisherman.
Of course the two boys immediately came to the surface. Ty was spouting
water like a young whale; but Adam seemed to be all right. He made a few
strokes after his original fashion, that had so aroused the admiration
of Landy, and arriving at the bank, climbed up.
Ty made a great deal more fuss as he churned his way to the shore; and
Elmer, who had hastened up so as to witness what followed, could see
that there was a look of wonder, almost awe, on the face of the
practical joker. The results had been so sudden, and so disastrous to
himself, that he could hardly understand just what had happened.
"Ach! put dot vas sooch a surprises to me, Ty," remarked Adam, from the
shore; "I dinks me I haf ketch de biggest fish in der river; undt ven I
throw oudt mine arms to pull him in, py chinks, it vas only you, having
some fun py me. How goes it, londsman; I hopes you enchoy yourself
mooch. Subbose you go pack, undt get my fishing pole, vich is floating
down der stream."
He gave Ty a push as the other tried to clamber out on the bank and
forced him in again. The other showed signs of fight until Elmer, sizing
up the situation, called out:
"That's only fair, Ty; you made him lose his rod, as well as take a
ducking with his clothes on. Get the rod again, and let him pull in his
fish."
Possibly Ty realized the justice of this claim; or it might be he felt
disposed to take his medicine gracefully, for with a laugh he swam out
again, as well as he was able with his garments clinging to his limbs,
secured the rod, which had partly sunk, and came back with it in one
hand.
As if to prove that he harbored no animosity, Adam frankly stretched out
his hand and helped Ty ashore. There they stood, dripping wet, and
laughing at each other.
"Oxcuse me, Ty," said the German lad, making a queer face; "put I haf to
laugh, it is so funny! You dinks to make me some droubles, and by
shiminy you fall indo de same hole yourself. So, dere is two of us!"
"The joke is on Ty," announced Elmer. "I saw the whole thing, and I want
Adam to own up right now that he had one eye open all the while, and was
watching what was going on."
Adam looked up at him with a leer on his square face; then he shut one
eye and deliberately winked at Elmer.
"I subbose dot I vas nodt so much asleep as somepody pelieves," he said;
and that was the only confession they could get out of him.
Fortunately, as the weather was so very warm, there was no danger of
either of the boys taking cold after their ducking. Neither of them
would bother changing their garments, or attempting to dry those they
had on.
"Let 'em dry on me," said Ty, whose good-nature had returned, though he
declared that everything had conspired to upset all his calculations
that morning; what with the obstinate bull, and now the clumsy Dutchman
who had to throw out his arm and pull him into the river along with
himself.
Ted had come up from his fishing place below to ask what all the row was
about.
"Fact ith, you have buthted up the fithing for thith morning," he
declared, with some show of indignation. "If you mutht kick up a racket,
why under the thun don't you go off by yourthelf and do it. I got theven
fith, and one of 'em a beaut. And the biggetht of the bunch wath jutht
going to take hold when you had to make all that beathtly row."
When, however, the thing was explained to him, Ted enjoyed the joke as
well as Elmer had. He declared that he would wander along down the river
to another promising hole he remembered seeing. And Elmer, thinking that
the German boy might as well begin taking some lessons in bass fishing,
agreed to accompany Adam upstream a little distance, to try for a
capture.
"Hey, that was just the greatest thing ever!" called out a voice; and
Landy was seen approaching from above, waving his little kodak in glee.
"What's all this talk about?" demanded Ty.
"I got it, that's what!" the fat boy kept on saying. "And won't it just
be a corker, though!"
Elmer jumped to conclusions at this remark.
"Do you mean you saw the tumble Adam and Ty took?" he asked.
"Well," Landy went on, "you see, I had just discovered Adam sitting
there asleep on that log sticking out over the water; and I thought what
a lovely subject he would make for a picture. So I crept up till I had a
good focus, and then I pressed the button!"
"Yes, go on; that wasn't all you did, was it?" asked the patrol leader,
who was able to read the open-faced Landy like the page of a book.
"Well, you see, it was such a fine subject that I thought I had ought to
knock off another view, so that if one proved poor the other might be
good. And just as I was all ready, why, it happened!"
"And you snapped it off as they were falling in?" Elmer continued.
"I think I did," said Landy, eagerly; "for my finger just pressed the
trigger unconsciously. I was that astonished, you see. And I'm going to
develop this roll to-night. Wouldn't it be just immense if it turned out
to be a good picture!"
"Oh, yes; something to amuse the rest of the troop, and chase the blues
away," grunted Ty, as he hunched his shoulders and sauntered back to the
camp to ascertain what Elmer might have been doing there.
Elmer did take Adam up the river a piece, and finding a promising spot
where there seemed to be a likelihood of bass frequenting, he proceeded
to instruct the other in the rudiments of the art.
Adam took to it from the very first. He was frank enough to confess that
he had never done any fishing in the old country, and was therefore
utterly green; but he showed an aptitude for catching on to what Elmer
told him; and before they had been an hour at work he had not only
succeeded in hooking a fine specimen of the gamey bass, but played and
landed him in great style.
"You'll do, I reckon, now, Adam; so I'll leave you here and go back to
camp. Be sure you come in when you hear the signal, which will be three
loud cooies."
At noon, when the fishermen gave it up for the day, as the heat stopped
all biting on the part of the bass, it was found that while Ted had
caught seven fair-sized fish, five of them bass, one a large perch, and
a sucker that was the largest Elmer had ever seen around that region,
Adam had brought in two bass and a big catfish.
"Py shiminy crickets, dot feller vas dry some foolishness py me," he
said, as he held up the still wriggling catfish; "I haf drouples to get
him off der hook; and he sthick me dwice so hardt in der finger. Ooch!
put it do feel sore yet somedimes. I dink me he preak off some dot thorn
in der pone."
"That's another lesson you must learn, Adam," said Elmer. "The catfish
has ugly spines that hurt like fun when you run your hand against them.
I guess they're poisoned, like the tail of the stingy-ray, down South.
I've known a fellow who had a running sore for a month after being stuck
by the fin of a cat. And, Ted, seems to me here's another chance to use
that colored stuff that was so fine with Landy."
"Right-o, Elmer," exclaimed the other, making a dive for the tent to
look up his medicine bag.
So Adam grinned, and allowed the "doctor" to paint his hand in the
region where the spines of the catfish had penetrated with such painful
results. Indeed, he declared an hour later that the pain had all
departed; and Elmer concluded from this that permanganate of potash was
good to use on all sorts of poison wounds.
"I believe," he went on to say, "that if I was struck on the arm by a
rattler, I'd cut the wound open some, suck all the poison I could out,
providing I had no scratch or sore about my mouth, and then take my
chances, after painting it freely with the strongest solution of this
potash I could bear. Yes, and I think I'd come out much better than
those who believe in soaking the patient with whisky."
The afternoon they spent in resting up. Indeed, it was unusually hot,
and somehow none of them aspired to exert themselves any more than they
could help.
Adam had offered to clean the fish, after he had been shown how, and
made quite a good job of it, being very particular, after the fashion of
his kind. And Elmer gave Ty the duty of seeing that the fish were served
that evening at supper. It would be a poor piece of business if they put
several days in up there on the old Sweetwater, famous for its bass
fishing, and never once enjoy a mess of the delicious dish.
They waited later than usual that evening, hoping the air would cool off
some with the setting of the sun. It was almost dark when Ty got started
with the supper. When the fish began to fry in the pan (in which the
cook had first tried out several slices of salt pork, which grease was
made very hot before the bass, dipped in cracker-dust, were placed in
the pan), some of the boys, who had declared they had no appetite, were
observed to sit up and take notice as they sniffed the fragrant odors
that arose.
"Guess you-all will come around when things are ready," laughed Ty, who
often liked to mock the Southern scout, Chatz Maxfield, when he talked.
"Well, I confeth I'm waking up," admitted Ted, frankly.
"And that stuff smells mighty good, Ty," declared Landy. "I want you to
remember now that it wasn't me said I couldn't eat a bite."
"I thould thay not," laughed Ted. "Nobody would ever believe you guilty
of thuch a thilly thing. You're alwayth hungry, Landy, and ready to
gobble."
"Say, now, that's what I call mean," expostulated the fat boy,
pretending to be very indignant, though these attacks on his character
were of daily, almost hourly occurrence, and he was quite accustomed to
meeting them. "Just because I'm big, and need more to keep me up than
the rest of you, some fellows like to say I'm greedy. 'Tain't so. And
some day I'll run you a match, Ty, to see who can keep from eating a
bite the longest."
"Not much, you will," declared the cook. "Why, it wouldn't be a square
deal. You've got all your fat to fall back on; and look at me, skin and
bones."
So they laughed and talked, as the preparations for supper went on
apace.
"What're you listening to, Elmer?" asked Landy, after some time had
passed; and looking toward the patrol leader he saw that he had his head
raised in an attitude that told of suddenly aroused interest.
"I thought I heard a queer plunk just then, out there on the river,"
replied the other. "Yes, there it went again. Did you hear it, boys?"
"Sure we did," replied Ty, raising his head from his duties at the
cooking fire, in between the stones that had been fashioned somewhat
after the shape of a V, with the evening air fanning the broad end.
"Whatever can it be, Elmer?" demanded Landy, his face immediately
expressing curiosity, and, perhaps, a trace of alarm; for anything that
savored of mystery always excited the fat boy.
All of them were now interested, and listened to ascertain whether that
strange sound was repeated. Perhaps an interval of half a minute passed.
Then once more came that plain "plunk!"
"Sounds like somebody drowning, and givin' the last gasp!" declared Ty.
"Oh, let up on that thort of thuff, Ty," said Ted. "You're alwayth
thinking about thuch nathty thingth."
Landy turned appealingly to the patrol leader. He realized that if
anybody ought to know what the character of those queer sounds was,
Elmer must.
"What is it, Elmer?" he asked again. "The sea serpent or only some old
grand-daddy bullfrog croaking to himself on a log. Say, perhaps that's
one of them funny old loon birds you were telling us about to-day, that
can just laugh so's to make your flesh creep! Tell us about that, Elmer.
Whatever is it? There, that time it was a double plunkety-plunk! Now, I
wonder what in the dickens it means!"