THE FIRE VIGIL
When the sound of their snow-shoes crunching over the surface of the
drifts came to the ears of Lub, still seated there on the log, he was
seen to start, and half raise his gun, while he evidently gave some sort
of signal, for X-Ray came rushing out of the shack, also armed.
At discovering that there was no sudden peril both the defenders of the
camp laughed at their fears.
"Welcome back, fellows!" sang out Lub; "didn't expect you so soon, and
supper is not even started yet. But after we've heard your report we'll
get busy."
"Did you go all the way over?" asked X-Ray, eagerly.
"We sure did," replied Ethan.
"And perhaps now you learned what the row was about?" continued Lub.
"They were having a dance," said Ethan, with a suggestive grin.
"It must have been because they were half drunk, then," sneered X-Ray.
"Nope; perfectly sober, so far as we could learn from their _chef_. You
see, Mr. Bodman and his two sportsmen guests were coaxed to dance
_against their will_. Every time a gun went off, and the bullet kicked
up the snow and dirt near their feet they had to jump all the harder!"
Of course it was Ethan's object to arouse the wonder of the other pair,
and to judge from the puzzled expression on their faces he had already
succeeded in doing so.
"Oh! come on, and tell us all about it," said Lub.
At that the two returned scouts found places on the log, and started to
relate how they had come upon the panic-stricken _chef_, who by degrees
had told the whole remarkable happening, beginning with his mistake in
scalding a stray dog under the impression that it was a prowling wolf,
down to the minute they came upon him hiding there, and afraid to go
back to the camp lest he be confronted with that furious giant of a
woodsman, wild to avenge the insult to his four-footed pet.
Never had Lub and X-Ray listened to a more curious and thrilling story.
They almost held their very breath as they hung upon every word, with a
look of intense interest stamped on their faces.
"Now," said Phil, when everything they had learned had been told, "what
do you two think about it? Was the Terrible Badger the man we've been
hearing so much about since coming up here--Baylay?"
"Must be that he is," announced X-Ray, promptly.
"Well, the indications all point that way," Lub remarked, in his slow
fashion, as though he might be still weighing things in his mind. "There
are so few persons up around here that it couldn't well be any one else.
So we'll have to take it for granted the owner of the dog is Baylay."
"Hurra! since Lub has finally figured it out the rest of us needn't
bother about it any more. Lub has settled the thing beyond all dispute,"
laughed Ethan.
"Well, I guess you'll find that I'm right," ventured Lub, who often took
himself very seriously, and in this way sometimes intensified the joke.
"How about that grub, _chef_?" asked Ethan; "that little tramp seems to
have put an edge on my appetite."
"Huh! as if it wasn't always sharp enough," Lub told him; "but if
there's nothing more to listen to I suppose I might as well get busy.
You see, I've got a pot of beans cooking there, which has been on more'n
two hours, so I should think the things would be fairly done. And along
with that we're going to have some fried ham, with eggs to follow,
coffee, cakes, and then crackers and cheese for those who feel that
way."
"Well, if it will hurry things up any I'm ready to pitch in and help
you, _chef_," Ethan told him.
"Get some more wood, then!" ordered Lub, "and be careful about that
bean-pot. I hung it across on that iron rod from two stakes with
crotches on top, but it is a little shaky. If you spill the beans your
name will be Dennis, I warn you."
"He'd better cut a hole in the ice and drown himself if he's that
clumsy," warned X-Ray; "for after smelling those beans cooking all this
time it would make me pretty cross if I was cheated out of having three
messes for supper."
Somehow even tender-hearted Lub had not been heard to express anything
like sorrow on account of what had happened over at the other camp. In
fact all of them seemed to be of the one mind; and to think that it
served the bossy millionaire about right to be ordered around a little,
and made to dance a hornpipe at the dictation of the terror of the pine
woods.
According to their notion it was a dose of his own medicine Mr. James
Bodman had been compelled to take. No doubt many a time he had by his
brutal methods of frenzied finance compelled others to dance to his
fiddling; and now he knew how it felt himself.
Indeed, X-Ray was filled with only one keen regret. He would have given
almost anything for the pleasure of being in position to see what the
French _chef_ had so aptly described.
"Just to think of that red-faced fat old fellow dancing as the bullets
plowed up the snow close to his toes!" he was heard to say; "I can see
him jumping up and down like mad, cracking his heels together, puffing
like a winded nag, and screaming his threats at the man who was treating
him as if he were only a common every-day ten dollar a week clerk,
instead of the great American millionaire. Wow! it must have been rich,
though!"
They could talk of nothing else all evening. No matter what subject was
broached some one was sure to bring it back to the one intensely
interesting topic.
It seemed to be the consensus of opinion among them that Phil was right
when he figured that Baylay could not have been home before he visited
the other camp. If he had known of his child's vanishing in the great
snow forest he would hardly have bothered himself seeking revenge for
the injury to his dog. On the contrary it was more than likely he would
have besought the inmates of the camp to come to his assistance in
trying to find the child, even though all hope of the little one being
still alive must be abandoned.
"I wonder if we will see him here, sooner or later?" Lub ventured to
say, and then giving his little charge a benevolent look he continued:
"If he could only up and tell us things it'd make it so much easier.
Sometimes seems to me the boy knows what I'm saying to him, and tries
the best he can to answer, but as yet I haven't mastered his sign
language. Chances are his mammy would know everything he wants to tell."
"He's gone to sleep now," remarked Phil, "after that fine supper he put
away. One thing sure, he hasn't lost his appetite even if he has his
folks."
"Can you blame the little shaver?" said Lub, quickly; "like as not it's
been a long spell since he's seen such grub as we put before him, and
plenty of it at that. Up here the guides are in the habit of taking what
they call pot-luck; one day plenty of meat on hand, and another time the
pot is pretty nearly empty."
"X-Ray, don't you want to come out with me for a short time?" asked Phil
as he got on his feet.
"Sure I do," the other replied, without the slightest hesitation in his
manner or speech; "what's doing now, Phil?"
"Oh! you remember I said I had found several places where certain small
fur-bearing animals live. An old trapper would say they '_use_' the
ground where their tracks show. Well, I want to get some flashlight
pictures of the same, and it's to lay my trap that I'm going out now."
"Glad you don't think of going alone, Phil," remarked Lub, seriously.
"Why, do you think I might run up against a wolf pack, and have to climb
a tree to save myself from their teeth?" laughed Phil, as he slung the
camera over his shoulder, and then picked up his repeating rifle.
"Well, it wasn't so much that as the chance of your meeting some of the
ugly crowd from the other camp that made me say what I did," Lub
continued. "Any lot of people who could get down so low as to try and
burn a party of boys out of their shack, just for petty spite, would be
capable of doing pretty nearly anything."
At that both Phil and Ethan laughed loudly.
"Make your mind easy about that millionaire and his party!" exclaimed
the latter, "they've had enough experience with the Terrible Baylay to
do them a life-time. I rather think they'll be afraid to venture far
away from their old camp the rest of the time they're up here. Fact is,
it wouldn't surprise me a whit if they packed up and vacated inside of
twenty-four hours."
"And you're saying just what was in my mind, too, Ethan," Phil added.
"Not one of those three wealthy men could be tempted to get away from
the fire this night; and I rather think they'll take a dislike to the
whole neighborhood. They haven't been very lucky since coming here."
"Not in getting their caribou, anyway," said X-Ray, uproariously, as he
allowed his thoughts to go back to the time when he and Phil offered
their leavings to the domineering financier, after he tried to make out
he had first claim to the quarry that had been brought down.
As Phil had made all his preparations beforehand they experienced little
difficulty in placing the trap. It was so arranged that the mink could
not possibly get the attractive bait without setting the flashlight
cartridge off; and if everything worked well his picture would be taken
as neatly as though the photographer were present in person to
superintend things.
"I hope this will be the beginning of a series of successful jobs along
this same line," Phil was saying, as after arranging things to suit his
ideas they headed in the direction of camp once more.
"You haven't given up the idea of visiting that beaver settlement, I
hope, Phil?"
"Just as soon as we get the boy off our hands we'll take it up," he was
told.
"While that is hanging over us I'd rather stay near home; because
whether Baylay comes in the dead of night, or by the light of the sun I
want to be there to meet him."
"And the rest of us would rather have it that way, I'm sure," admitted
Ethan, which was enough in itself to show how the balance of the
Mountain Boys had come to depend on Phil as their leader. "But if you
feel so sure none of that crowd will venture out to-night, is that going
to make any change in our regular program of keeping watch, Phil?"
"No, I don't see why it should," came the ready response. "It's a good
habit to get into, and the more we practice it the better we can stand
our stint without feeling like going to sleep on post."
"I half expect you're looking for a visit from Baylay," ventured Ethan,
shrewdly.
"That depends a good deal on whether he knows about our being here," he
was told.
"If he didn't happen to see our smoke, or run across McNab when the
farmer was getting out of the bush, of course he wouldn't be apt to come
this way. In that event the man would spend all his time scouting the
snow woods around the place where we picked up the kid."
"He must be a smart tracker, Phil?"
"It stands to reason that he is," replied the other; "and I can give a
good guess why you say that, Ethan. You think he may try to follow the
boy from the time he started out, with his little popgun under his arm,
just as he had seen his daddy go forth many a time on a hunt for fresh
meat."
"If he did, and the wind hasn't drifted the dry snow so as to cover the
trail all up, why in the course of time he'd reach the spot where we
found the kid; and as the trail ended there he might guess somebody had
found him, or else the wolves had carried the boy off."
"That's true enough, Ethan; but as the wind has been blowing more or
less ever since, and the snow is like powder, I'm afraid that trail of
the boy has been covered long ago. Even the smartest tracker couldn't
keep it long. But we'll have to wait and see what turns up."
They sat there before the fire for a long time. There was so much to
talk about that the time passed before they knew it. Lub had some while
since managed to get his little charge tucked away under the capacious
blanket, and he now declared his intention of joining him.
Phil insisted upon taking the first watch on this particular night, and
while the other pair may have had some idea as to what his reason was
they did not ask any questions.
"You'll wake me in good time, remember, Phil," had been the last words
of X-Ray as he smothered a tremendous yawn; and then followed Ethan
under his blanket.
Phil sat there watching the fire, which he meant to keep burning
cheerfully all through his time on guard. If any one were heading for
the camp through the snow woods that welcome pyramid of flame would
serve as a guidepost to their steps. And somehow Phil seemed to have the
utmost confidence that sooner or later his vigilance would be rewarded.
An hour, two of them almost had passed, and beyond the customary noises
of the night nothing had broken upon his hearing. The wind murmured and
fretted among the pine-tops; or a limb creaked mournfully as it scraped
across another. A snow owl called to its mate in the deeper recesses of
the woods; perhaps some daring little creatures came creeping from
unknown recesses under various roots, and hunted for crumbs of food near
the camp.
Then Phil raised his head to listen. He smiled, and nodded, as though
satisfied his long vigil was about to be rewarded.
Yes, plainly now he caught the peculiar crunch of advancing snow-shoes.
The sound came from the quarter away from the lake; and it was in that
direction they believed the waif's people had their lonely cabin, deep
in the recesses of the bush, so that only with the greatest difficulty
could any venturesome game warden ever find the home of the poacher who
scorned all their warnings, and defied arrest.
Nearer the sounds came. Whoever it was advancing he was apparently in a
desperate hurry; and that seemed to fit in with Phil's way of figuring.
Indeed, with the fate of that little darling of a boy hung up in the
balance he could not see how any father who cared at all for his child
would linger on the snow-shoe trail.
Phil arose quietly to his feet. The sounds were close at hand as a huge
form loomed up in the light of the firelight; and Phil drew a breath of
relief as he realized that the crisis had come; for that could be no
other than the poacher Baylay, come to ask in his anguish if they had
seen the lost boy.