THE HORN POINTS THE WAY
Stacy tried to play a tune on the horn, the result being a series of
squawks and discords.
"For goodness' sake stop it!" begged Tad.
"Don't you like my music?"
"I like music, but not your music. It's awful."
"Huh! You haven't any ear for music," complained Chunky.
Tad concluded that their horn had been heard, and that the searching
party was waiting for them rather than start out over the trail which
Lilly had seen but had not as yet read. He thought of course that
the boys had strayed away on the trail of a bear.
Some time later, guided by the guide's horn fully as much as by the
trail marks, Tad and Stacy neared their two companions. A twinkling
light, now appearing and then as suddenly disappearing, seen far down
the trail between the trees, told the guide that the missing boys
were almost home.
"Hurrah! There they are," shouted Rector.
Lilly uttered a long-drawn call, which Stacy answered with a shrill
whoop.
"I guess we have a surprise for them," chuckled the fat boy. "Won't
their noses be out of joint? I reckon they will."
"Boys, are you all right?" shouted the guide when they came within
hailing distance.
"Both right-side-up," answered Tad cheerily, while Stacy was marking
time with hoarse toots on the hunting horn.
As they drew near, Ned and Lilly rode forward at a gallop to meet
them. About this time they discovered that Tad was carrying
something on his pony's back.
"What's that you have there?" called Lilly.
"Guess," shouted Chunky.
"A bear," ventured Ned.
"No. There aren't any bears in these woods--only snakes and owls,"
replied the fat boy.
"We have a deer," Tad proudly informed the guide and Ned.
"Well, you are some hunters," remarked Lilly approvingly. "Did you
get lost?"
Tad shook his head.
"Oh, no; we held closely to the trail. There is no fun in getting
lost, you know. Mr Lilly, did you find my double blaze?"
"I reckon I did. I knew, from that, that you had gone away after
something, and I saw you knew what you were about. How far did you
go?"
"'Bout a hundred miles," replied Stacy.
"Not quite so far as that, I guess," laughed Tad. "We went a long
distance, though, and it was the toughest traveling that I ever
experienced."
"Shall I take the doe?" asked Billy.
"No, thank you, Mr. Lilly. My horse is tired, but I think he can
stand it until we get home. Where are the Professor and Walter?"
"At the camp. No need to fetch the whole outfit along. I thought you
boys were lost, and that we might have a long hike of it through the
night. I am mighty glad to see you safe and sound. Where did you get
the doe?"
"Just a few rods from here."
"Eh?"
"Yonder." Tad pointed.
Lilly regarded him with a puzzled expression.
"Then what in the world were you dragging him off into the swamp for?"
"I will tell you about that when we get home," replied Tad. "It is a
long story."
"And an exciting one, too," added Chunky, mysteriously.
"I'll bet you have been getting into fresh difficulties," jeered
Rector.
"On the contrary, Ned, he has been helping me out of difficulties.
Stacy showed himself to be the real man today. You will agree with
me when you hear the story."
"Let's hear it, then," urged Ned.
"I couldn't think of telling it to you now. Stacy is famished; we are
both tired and anxious to get home."
"Yes, and we are going to have some venison steak when we get back to
camp. Oh, wow?" howled the fat boy.
The Professor and Walter heard them coming when later the party
neared the camp. Both were out watching with anxious eyes. Tad
shouted that they were all right, to the great relief of Professor
Zepplin, and the Professor and Walter opened their eyes when they saw
what Tad had shot.
"Help me get this animal strung up," requested Tad. "I have bled the
doe, but that was all I could find time to do. The carcass should be
strung up and dressed at once."
"Ichabod will attend to that," answered Lilly. "Here, Ichabod. Get
these young gentlemen something hot to drink and eat, then look after
this carcass."
"Yes, sah." Ichabod was grinning broadly. He had not believed that
the boys were such mighty hunters. They had not shot a bear, it is
true, but they had brought in what was better--a fine, tender doe,
and the colored man was actually licking his chops in anticipation of
the treat before him. Next to a 'possum stew Ichabod went silly over
venison steaks.
None of the party had eaten supper, so that all the appetites were on
keen edge. In a few moments there was a steaming pot of coffee ready
for them, with some hastily fried bacon. This, with a heaping plate
of waffles which the colored man had baked earlier in the evening,
made a most palatable meal. Stacy's voice was stilled. He began
before the others and ate so voraciously that his companions were
forced to eat more rapidly by way of self-protection.
"Let him eat. He has earned it," begged Tad in answer to the
Professor's protest.
"Suppose you tell us what happened," suggested Lilly.
"Shortly after we arrived at our station," began Tad, leaning back, a
slice of bacon in one hand, a waffle in the other, both poised half
way to his mouth, "I heard something in the brake, and peering, I
caught sight of this doe. She saw me at the same instant, and leaped.
I shot her while she was still in the air," murmured Tad modestly.
"Was she in the cane?" interrupted the guide.
"Yes, sir."
"Good shot!"
"It was a quick one, and lucky. I caught her just back of the left
shoulder. She went down in her tracks."
"Better than shooting bears," declared Rector.
"Having left Stacy with the horses some distance back I strung up the
carcass, then hurried back to get my horse. When we reached the place
where I had left the deer, there was no deer there. It had
disappeared."
Lilly had forgotten to eat. He was leaning forward with eager face.
"Not there?"
"I examined the ground and found the tracks of a man," continued
Butler. "Then I found horse tracks. I found also a trail on the
ground where the carcass had been dragged over it to a tree and blood
at the foot of a tree where the doe had been thrown down. From that
point the dragging was not found. Instead, were the hoofprints of a
horse. These hoofprints sunk into the soft ground deeper now,
showing that the animal was carrying a heavier load."
"Indeed?" wondered Professor Zepplin.
"Well, to make a long story short, we determined to get that doe.
The trail was an easy one to follow, for the fellow who had stolen
the carcass had to cut his way through over most of the trail. A
blind man could have followed him."
Tad then went on to explain how they had eventually come up with the
stranger, engaged him in conversation, repeating what the man had
said about having seen a hunter with a buck, then proceeding to
relate how the carcass had been discovered behind a fallen cypress.
"Then what?" asked Lilly in a low, tense voice, tugging violently at
his long moustache.
"I went over to fetch the deer."
"A--a--a--and the fellow shot him. He shot Tad's hat right off,"
cried Stacy, forgetting to eat for the moment. Tad embraced the
opportunity to take a bite of the crisp bacon.
"No, he didn't shoot again. Stacy leveled his rifle at the man and
made him drop his revolver. Then Stacy made the fellow give up his
rifle. There isn't much more to tell except that we got our doe,
after which I returned the fellow's weapons to him and sent him on his
way at a lively clip. That's all. You know the rest. We followed
our trail home and here we are. How many bear did you get?"
"Not a smell," answered Rector. "But tell us some more."
"Did you find out what the fellow's name is?" questioned Lilly.
"We didn't ask him. But I tripped him into an admission that he knew
you. Still, I don't know as that is of much consequence. Everyone
down this way appears to know you."
"Pretty much all of them do," answered the guide. "What did the
fellow look like?"
"He looked like some sort of a man to me," spoke up Chunky. "I reckon
he was some sort of a man, but not much of a one at that. I'm sorry
he didn't give me an excuse to plug him."
"Stacy!" warned the Professor reprovingly.
"Yes, Stacy is developing into a blood-thirsty young man," smiled Tad.
"Still, he proved himself the genuine thing today. He was as cool as
could be. I wish you might have seen the way in which he handled the
fellow."
"What did he look like?" repeated Lilly.
"I beg your pardon. He was about your height, I should say, but
somewhat thinner. He wore a long beard and his face was weazened.
He had blue eyes and light hair. His horse was white, something like
the one I am using now. Does that give you any idea, Mr. Lilly?"
The guide's face had contracted into a scowl.
"I reckon I've seen that hound before," growled Billy.
"Who do you think he is?"
"I wouldn't want to say, not knowing for sure. But if it's the fellow
I think, you will most likely hear from him again."
"But what was his motive?" insisted Tad.
"Eh? Motive? Why, I reckon he wanted some steak for his supper,"
grinned Billy.
"That's what I told him," piped the fat boy.
Tad shook his head.
"That wasn't his only reason. He had another," declared the boy with
emphasis.
"What makes you think so?" questioned Lilly, peering keenly at the
brown-faced Pony Rider Boy.
"He saw that deer before I did. He must have. Why didn't he shoot
if he wanted it?"
"You're a sharp one," chuckled Lilly. "I reckon Pete will have to
get up before daylight if he thinks to get ahead of my boys."
"Pete?" repeated Butler.
"I was just thinkin' out loud," explained Billy.
"Do I understand you to say that he tried to shoot you, Tad?"
questioned Professor Zepplin.
"I wouldn't say that exactly. I don't think that at first he
intended to hit me. Later on he was so mad that he would have done
so had not Chunky held him in check."
"Stacy, I am pleased beyond words to know that you have in a measure
redeemed yourself," declared the Professor with glowing face.
"Oh, I am always in my element when there is danger about. Yes, sir,
I am a hummer when it comes to danger."
"Especially when a 'gator is chasing you," reminded Ned Rector.
"That isn't danger, that's just plain murder," answered the fat boy,
rolling his eyes and showing the whites.
"Well, don't have a fit about it," chuckled Ned. "I will admit that
you were a hero in this instance, but you will have to play the hero
a lot more times before we even up for the cold feet you have shown
in the past."
"You're jealous--that's what is the matter with you," retorted the
fat boy.
"You are under the impression that you know the man, Mr. Lilly?"
asked the Professor.
"I may," was the evasive answer.
"What do you propose to do about it?"
"Nothing just now. I reckon I'll think the matter over. I shall
come up with the moccasin one of these days, then we'll have a
reckoning that _will_ be a reckoning."
"I sincerely hope there will be no bloodshed," said the Professor
anxiously.
"There came pretty near being bloodshed today," replied Stacy.
"Br-r-r-r!"
After supper Lilly went away by himself and sat down on the bank of
the river, where he tugged at first one end of his moustache, then
the other, while he pondered over the story told by Tad Butler and
Stacy Brown.
"The copperhead!" grunted Lilly. "I reckon I don't want to see him.
I'm afraid I couldn't hold myself. But we shall see, we shall see."
In saying this Lilly was a prophet, for before long they did see.