Laying Plans
“Did anybody happen to see Peleg after the fire broke out?” called
Ralph, over his shoulder, as he continued to pilot the big car, the
headlights showing him all inequalities in the road, so that he
could avoid most of the “bumps.”
“I did,” spoke up Andy, immediately. “Let’s see, I think it was just
about the time that fat mayor was going around shaking hands with
us, and giving us that taffy about his change of heart regarding the
scouts.”
“Then Peleg should have known we meant to clear out pretty soon,”
interrupted Tubby, slowly, “so if he had a particle of sense, and
really wanted to come back home in the car with the crowd, why,
seems to me he’d have hung around.”
“Well, he didn’t,” added Andy. “I saw him grinning as though tickled
half to death about something. Perhaps now it pleased him to see
that mayor grabbing our hands so,--well,--I might say effusively. How
about that, Ralph; would Peleg care if he saw you being patted on
the back, and made a hero of?”
“He might, and then again perhaps it was something else that made
him seem so happy,” replied Ralph.
The other boys may not have understood the real meaning of those
words, but Rob did. He knew Ralph was hinting to him that the farm
boy may have held back from joining them because he began to feel
ashamed of what he had done, and could not bear to face the owner of
the stolen stamps so soon after selling the packets to the curio
dealer.
Even that failed wholly to convince Rob. When he believed in any one
it was hard to make him change his opinion. Why should Peleg seem so
well satisfied with himself? Surely, the getting of a few dollars,
more or less, in a shady transaction too, of which he must later on
feel ashamed, would hardly cause him to appear so happy.
Rob confessed that he could not make it out at all. He was really
too tired to continue bothering his brains over the puzzle.
“Perhaps tomorrow, when Peleg comes home again, we may find out what
it all means,” he told himself. “There’s no way of finding out right
now; and so what’s the use fussing with it?”
Accordingly, Rob put the affair out of his mind. If it came to the
worst there was a speedy way of learning the truth, just as Ralph
had mentioned; by going to town again, with the excuse that he
wanted to see what Wyoming looked like after the great
conflagration, Ralph could drop in and see the curio dealer. Being
ready to buy back the stamps, if Peleg had really sold them, he
could influence Mr. Hardman to return the stolen property.
They made the little journey back to the farm without incident.
Ralph did not attempt anything like speed in covering the ten or
more miles. Twice that same night he had raced like mad over that
course, escaping disaster several times only by a narrow margin.
Ralph did not care to accept the same risks again when there was no
sense in it.
Rob, however, would not soon forget both of those hurried trips,
with that ominous glare in the heavens to spur the driver on.
Arriving home, they soon sought their beds, for it was a pretty
tired lot of fellows who came back after such a tempestuous
experience.
Little talking was indulged in, at Rob’s suggestion. They could
leave that for the morning, when they would be refreshed, and able
to discuss all details connected with the night of terror.
When morning came it proved to be a fine opening, for the sun arose
in a clear sky, despite the threat of rain during the earlier part
of the preceding night.
They had hardly finished breakfast, and were trying to lay out a
programme for the day, when the man Pete, who was in charge of
Ralph’s queer fur farm showed up. Rob understood from his manner
that something unusual must have caused him to pay this early
morning visit to the farmhouse, for as a rule he cooked his own
meals up at the other station, sleeping there as well.
When Ralph had had a little talk with him he came over to where the
rest of the boys were sitting on the porch.
“Well, more trouble in prospect up at my fox farm,” Ralph remarked.
“Another cat bobbed up, Ralph?” asked Rob, immediately. “I mention
that because I happen to know as a rule where you run across one
you’ll also find its mate, for they generally hunt in couples.”
Ralph nodded his head, and made a wry face.
“You’re on, Rob,” he replied. “Pete heard the critter screeching
over in the woods last night. Then this morning he found where it
had entered my preserves, and he thinks it must have got away with
one of my fox pups, for he saw signs of blood and fur on the ground.
But, anyhow, whether that’s so or not, we’ve got to get after Mr.
Cat, and keep it up till we bag him. There’ll be no peace as long as
he hangs out around my fur farm.”
“Will Pete go out and try to shoot this one like he did the last?”
asked Tubby, remembering the fresh skin that had been fastened to a
stretching board, and hung on the shady side of the cottage to dry
in the air away from the sun.
“He’ll keep on the move right along, with his gun on his shoulder,”
explained Ralph. “But his running across the first rascal was a big
piece of luck. This time I’ll have to try and fix a trap for the
beast. Since there’s no time like the present, I think I’ll get busy
now. Who wants to go up with me?”
There was a unanimous assent, showing that all of them felt a deep
interest in this part of the proceedings. So, leaving the farmhouse,
they strolled along in the direction of the fur farm, away off at
the upper part of Mr. Jeffords’ extensive property holdings.
Pete went with them, and on the way detailed once more, for the
benefit of the scouts, how he had heard the screech of the cat not
far from break of day. He had known that something far out of the
common was taking place down at Wyoming, for he had seen the flame
in the sky, and even caught something of the clamor that accompanied
the fire; but his duty was to stay and guard Ralph’s valuable
property, so Pete had resisted the temptation to start toward town.
In return, the boys described some of the wonderful sights that had
come their way while watching the town burning. Pete was also
informed concerning the fortunate inspiration that had come to Rob,
following out which the dynamite had been used to baffle the fire
fiend. Ralph it was who told most of this, apparently much to the
confusion of Rob, who several times tried to throw the praise on the
shoulders of the one who had piloted the car back and forth, laid
the explosives without a hitch, and certainly merited a big share of
the successful outcome.
Once they were at the cottage where Pete held forth, Ralph began to
overhaul a number of rusty traps which he apparently had not touched
for some time.
“Three winters ago,” he told them, “I used to do quite a good deal
of trapping, and learned a whole lot about the habits of such wild
animals as we have around this section of the Adirondacks. Then I
got that fur-farm fever, and read up all the articles I could find
about the raising of black foxes, and such things. Well, after that
I didn’t care to trap common stock, and so I haven’t done a thing at
it since. So my traps look pretty seedy; but they’ll work, all
right. Pete, the first chance you get, give these things a good
oiling. No use having them go to the scrap heap for nothing.”
He picked out a certain trap, and said it would answer their
purpose.
“It must be set outside the boundaries of my enclosure,” Ralph
continued, when Tubby had suggested that one of the foxes or mink
might be caught, “and I’m depending a whole lot on Pete to show me
the right place. The cat will likely come back again tonight, and
follow the same path to the high fence. We’ll set the trap now,
because even in the daytime a hungry cat often starts out to get a
meal.”
“Oh! I’ve met them in the woods when the sun was shining brightly,”
said Rob. “Hunger causes even animals who see best in the dark to
roam around during daylight. But I agree with you, Ralph, when you
figure that your trap is more apt to wind up the cat’s career than
Pete’s gun.”
All of them went forth to see the trap set, Pete leading them to
where he had reason to believe the animal had crossed the boundary
line of the preserves. Tubby in particular watched every move Ralph
made when setting the trap; for Tubby knew next to nothing about
such things, never having had an opportunity to visit the woods
during fur season.
After this had been duly attended to, they once more took a look
around the fur farm, and then sauntered back to the house. Rob was
wondering what Ralph intended doing with regard to finding an answer
connected with the stamp disappearance mystery. He fully anticipated
that the other would announce his intended departure for the town,
and asking whether any of them would care to go along. But the
morning passed away, and nothing was said or done.
In fact, Andy and Tubby went fishing, the stout scout seeming to
have taken a great liking for the sport. Considering the fact that
he was “high notch” so far, having captured the largest bass yet
taken, this was not to be wondered at.
“I’m going to ask you to do me a favor, Rob,” remarked Ralph as they
sat there on the porch, Sim being at some other part of the premises
just then, having accompanied his uncle to see a new patent churn
that he had installed in the milk cellar.
“Now he’s going to bring up the subject of Peleg again,” thought
Rob; but for once he was mistaken, since Ralph did nothing of the
sort.
“I’m getting to be a whole lot interested in that flashlight picture
game,” he went on to say; “and I’d like to see how you work it, if
you don’t object.”
“Why, that would be easy enough,” the scout leader told him, much
gratified, “for I happen to have the apparatus in my bag. You see,
at the last minute I got an idea we might want to take a few
pictures of that sort, and so I chucked it in. What kind of animal
have you in mind, Ralph?”
“Well, my mink interest me more than anything else,” came the reply;
“partly because they are so shy that you can hardly ever get a
glimpse of the little rascals. I don’t know near as much about their
habits as I’d like, though as a trapper I understood where to set my
traps in order to catch them visiting in and out of the holes along
the banks of a creek.”
“All right, then, if you say the word we can set a snare tonight
that may bring results,” Rob continued. “I don’t know that I ever
got a good picture of a mink, and it would please me to manage it
that way.”
Still nothing was said about Peleg, although Rob had incidentally
asked some time before if the boy had shown up at the farm, to learn
that nothing had as yet been seen of him.
Apparently Ralph had not as yet made up his mind concerning a visit
to town. It might be that the strenuous events of the preceding
night were still too vivid in his mind for him to desire to see how
Wyoming looked after the fire. Rob, on his part, had no intention of
influencing the other to take a run in, knowing as he did that this
would mean a trip to the curio dealer, and possibly finding out
certain unpleasant truths concerning Peleg.
The two fishermen came back in the car, which Andy had been able to
run, just as the lunch bell sounded. Rob knew as soon as he saw them
that something out of the usual run must have happened, for both
looked mysterious and excited.