BUCK MAKES A DISCOVERY
The one lantern carried by Ted threw but a poor light over the scene of
the camp but it was enough for the arriving boys to see that all of the
tents were down, apparently blown over from the storm. The first two
were down altogether, canvas and poles, while the last two consisted of
flapping canvas on the poles. While they looked they were joined by the
other boys, who came jumping and running from the truck, where they had
taken a poor refuge during the storm.
“Oh, boy, I’m glad you are back!” exclaimed Plum, fervently, catching
Ted by the sleeve.
“What happened here?” Ted asked.
“Why, the storm blew the tents down. We were all under the canvas and
keeping pretty dry, except for some water which leaked in from the
trenches, when all of a sudden there was a blow of wind and the tents
were down. It even carried over the poles on two of the tents, or
else we knocked them down getting out, I don’t know which. But we were
soaked and tried to get in the truck and pull a piece of canvas over
our heads, but it didn’t do us much good.”
Apparently, it had not. All of them were as wet as the five who had
been trailing. With the tents down and all of them dripping they
presented a sorry sight which even the flicker of the one lamp could
not make up for. Looking backward, the evening did not seem to have
been a success.
“Well, only one thing to do,” directed Buck, briskly. “Let’s locate our
axes and hunt dry wood for a fire.”
“There isn’t any dry wood,” a boy objected.
“We can get dry wood by taking a fairly large log and chopping off the
wet outside,” explained Buck. “In that way we’ll get down to the heart
of it and find something that we can burn. You know where that dead log
is back of the springs, and you can surely cut something dry out of
that big fellow. Come on, I’ll show you.”
Buck went to the mass of canvas which had been his own tent and lifting
the soggy material, felt inside for his axe, which he had no trouble
in locating. The other boys procured theirs and then they went off in a
body to hunt up dry wood, a seemingly impossible process. But Buck had
had to deal with wet wood before in his camping experiences.
“Now, here is this log,” he told them. “The outside looks pretty wet,
and it is wet. Start cutting it away in slices, this way.” With his axe
he split the wood along the upper side, tearing off the wet strips and
tossing them to one side. “Now, here is some that looks fairly dry,” he
went on, as they cut deeper. “This stuff will do very nicely for our
fire.”
The younger boys were surprised to find that there was indeed a goodly
supply of dry wood in the old log and they gathered a large heap of it
and took it back to the camp. Buck knew that they were going to need
lots of it, for it was impossible to think of going to bed that night.
The wet canvas could not be put up and the entire camp would have to be
dried out. They would need wood for the entire night.
“They are all excited and won’t mind staying awake all night,” he
reflected, as he carried an armful of wood back to the fireplaces.
Here he found Ted down on his knees cleaning out the wet mass of ashes
which had been the evening’s fire and when these had been raked out
and scattered to one side, some paper, which came from under the seat
of the truck was stuffed into the stone fireplaces and the wood was
piled so as to catch fire. A match was applied and the tiny spurt of
flame which immediately jumped up was a very welcome one. The one
faithful lamp was still going and had done its duty well.
Carefully they fed the flame with splinters of wood, and the building
of the fire took care, for the log wood was not thoroughly dry, but had
in it enough moisture to make it a problem. It smoked and drove them
away from the fire more than once, but they were pleased to see that
it did burn. Some good fuel was added in the form of a canned goods
box which had been under the truck and so was not very wet. Around the
blaze created by this wood they dried their clothing as much as they
could.
“We can’t go to bed tonight, can we?” Tom Clayton asked.
“No, we couldn’t get the tents up tonight, because we’ll have to dry
them,” replied Ted. “But the night won’t last so very long now. When
we do get everything fixed up we’ll put in the daytime sleeping, if we
feel that way.”
“I certainly would like to go to sleep right now!” yawned Drummer,
stretching himself.
“I guess most of us would,” nodded Buck. “But everything is against us.
How would you like to snuggle down under that canvas right now?”
“Ugh, not while it is as wet as it is!” cried Drummer. “I’d rather
stand up around the fire all night!”
“Is everything soaked, blankets, sweaters and everything?” Ted asked.
“Yes,” replied Buck. “As soon as the canvas fell on the stuff it all
got soaked, at least in the tents where the poles went down. I don’t
know about the other two.”
Some of the boys rummaged under the canvas and found that blankets were
damp and not too wet to put on, and immediately they returned with
blankets over their shoulders. Others had not been so lucky and they
crowded close to the fire. As morning came on another group went out
and hunted for wood, bringing back a large supply. The fire had been
effective but not perfect, and the smoke had chased them from side to
side of the fireplace.
It was the first really disagreeable camp experience that these boys
from the club had ever had and some were plainly discouraged by it
while others enjoyed the novelty and adventure of it. The conversation
by the fire became more cheerful and soon jokes and laughter took the
place of brooding silence. The five who had trailed the man with the
lantern told their experiences and those who had remained in camp told
theirs.
“We were just standing around watching your lights when the storm was
first heard,” related Plum. “We hoped you’d come down right away, but
you didn’t and then the old storm hit and we dug for the tents. We
sat in there pretty dry except for some water that came in around the
bottom of the tent and then all of a sudden there was a little blow and
the tent I was in came down! Seemed like the canvas on one side just
collapsed, the back pole seemed to come down in a hurry and I guess we
knocked the rest down when we tried to get out from under. The rest was
the same as we was, scrambling out of tents and looking for somewhere
to go, when we thought of the truck and climbed in there.”
“I knew that it blew pretty hard when we were up there under the rock,”
remarked Ted. “But I didn’t know that it blew hard enough to blow down
the tents.”
“The wind must have been stronger down here than it was up there,”
suggested Bob.
“That is hardly possible, because the wind always blows harder on a
higher level than in a basin, such as this spot is. I can see how a
wind would blow down one tent but it seems funny that it should blow
down four of them. However, I guess it must have just swooped down in a
sudden gust and done the job.”
“Which way did our tent buckle in?” Buck asked Plum.
“From the left side,” was the answer.
“Couldn’t have,” said a boy, promptly. “Ours went in on the right!”
“One of you must be wrong,” said Buck. “The wind must have come from
one direction to have force enough to flatten out the tents, and it
would have hit either on the right or the left side and not on both.
How about you fellows in the first two tents?”
“Ours went in on the left,” said a boy from the second tent.
“But ours collapsed on the right,” said Tom Clayton.
Buck snatched up the lantern. “I thought there was something funny
about that tent business all along,” he said. “Wait until I come back.”
He strode off with the lantern, leaving them wondering.
Buck went to the tents and placed the lantern on the ground. The canvas
had fallen in a confused mass and he was compelled to fish under it for
the ropes. He located the ropes which had been pegged into the ground
and examined them carefully. Without saying anything he examined the
others, passing from tent to tent.
“Find anything?” Ted hailed him, from the fire.
“Yes, sir!” was the vigorous answer. “These tent ropes were cut!”
“What!” cried Ted, leaping to his feet.
“That is just what happened. Come here.”
The entire group clustered around Buck as he held up ropes from two of
the tents. “Look here. One fellow says his tent collapsed from the left
and another fellow says his let go from the right. Good reason why.
Somebody stood between two tents and cut the ropes under cover of the
storm. Of course the tents went down on opposite sides, and I suppose
the man shoved the back poles and skipped to the next two tents and
cut the ropes there. He didn’t have time to knock over the uprights
there, because the boys were swarming out, so he left that to them and
probably took to the woods. Look at these ropes.”
There was not the slightest doubt in the world that the ropes to the
tents had been cut, and cut with a sharp knife which had required no
second cuts. They stared at the ends of the ropes in amazement.
“We didn’t hear anybody,” said Plum. “Probably you wouldn’t, with the
noise of the storm. If we want any additional proof that the ropes were
cut and not pulled, look at the tent pegs. They are all in the ground
as they were when we left and the other pieces of the rope are still
attached. There is no doubt that you boys had a visitor while we were
chasing!”
“It might have done us more good to have stayed at home and minded our
business,” smiled Ted.
“Maybe. Say, how near the end of the storm did this thing happen?”
“Almost at the end,” said Plum. “Just when the thunder was going away.”
“Then that kills our theory about the man in the log cabin,” Buck said
to Ted.
“Yes, it does,” replied his chum. “He couldn’t possibly be the one,
because if he had been in on this he couldn’t possibly have returned to
his house and changed his clothes.”
“No, he is out of it,” agreed Buck. “But who in the world can be doing
all this business? I tell you, I’m getting sick and tired of it and I’m
going to break loose before long and hunt somebody down.”
“The trouble with your breaking loose is that we don’t know who to hunt
down!” smiled Ted.
“No, that is the trouble. But someone is responsible. I don’t believe
it is any supernatural element, either, or if it is, that ghost carries
a fine sharp knife! When it gets light enough we’ll have to look around
for footprints.”
“It won’t be long before it is light now,” said Charlie, glancing at
the sky.
The last of the darkness was beginning to break in the east, a broad
bar of yellow-white light was appearing. Far over in the west the last
of the stars began to fade and as the minutes ticked off the band of
light spread and broadened and the aspect of the woods changed. The
darkness withdrew and the flush of a new and beautiful day appeared.
“Golly, I never was so glad to see the daytime come!” sighed Drummer,
as they stood around the fires watching the advance of the day.
“I guess none of us ever was,” agreed Buck. “And could I eat!”
“Then let’s get at it right now,” said Ted. “We’ll have an early
breakfast and then get to work. We are going to have a busy day.”