THE FIRST HIKE
It was nearly a minute before the boys could find their tongues. The
hermit stood there blinking in the sunlight, for it had been pitch black
inside of the storehouse.
Finally Garry shouted:
"Hello, Hermit. Where did you come from?"
Barrows stared at the boys in surprise.
"Do you know this man?" he asked sharply.
"Of course we do," replied the boys, almost simultaneously. "It isn't so
long ago that he was of great aid to us in our work on the fire patrol,"
added Garry. Immediately he could have kicked himself, for he had by
this statement let Barrows know that the man might be of help to them
again.
"What are you trying to do around here?" snapped Barrows, turning to the
hermit. "Trying to steal something, or set fire to the camp or something
of that sort?"
"That will be just about enough, Mr. Barrows," interrupted Garry. "We
happen to know this old man, and I'll vouch for him personally. It is
probable that he came here to visit us, and was wandering about when
your men, naturally thinking him to be a marauder, seized him. You can
take my word for it that he's all right."
Barrows evidently resented the way in which Garry had spoken to him. "I
think I am the best judge of what to do in this camp, young man. I am
not satisfied with his presence here, and it is my intention to have him
taken to town and lodged in jail there until I find out what's at the
bottom of the broken saws and such occurrences in the camp."
"Now just one moment, Barrows," said Garry with a determined ring in his
voice, and a snap in his eyes that boded little good for Barrows. "I am
not one who will naturally trade on his being the son of the man who
owns this camp, but I give you ample warning that if my word is doubted
in this matter, and this old man, who is as harmless as a rabbit, is not
freed immediately, I will go to town this morning and take steps that
will cause your instant removal from this camp. I have never asked my
father to back me in anything that I was not absolutely sure of, and you
can rely on the fact that he will take my word in this case, knowing me
as he does. Now Mr. Barrows, you may take your choice in this matter and
decide quickly."
The manager hesitated a moment, evidently trying to decide just who had
the upper hand in the situation. Seeing this, Garry turned to Phil and
Dick, and said:
"Boys, go pack up your dunnage and get ready to leave in fifteen
minutes."
The two chums turned on their heels without a word, and were starting
for the shack when Barrows, seeing that he was beaten, called:
"Never mind, boys, the old man will go free this minute."
He said it with a bad grace, and the glances that he covertly cast at
the boys showed that he was enraged at the turn affairs had taken. What
made him still angrier was the fact that the cook and two or three men
had gathered around and seen him come out second best in the battle of
words.
He determined to make the best of a bad situation.
"I am afraid that I spoke a little too hastily in this thing," he said,
coming closer to Garry. "I want you to remember that I am always trying
to protect your father's interests here; that is what he pays me for,
and I thought that there might be something peculiar in this chap's
showing up here in the dead of night."
Garry, having won his point, and for the sake of future peace and
freedom from interference, resolved to mollify the manager.
"That's all right, Mr. Barrows. Only I want to tell you this," and here
Garry lowered his voice: "The old chap is mentally unbalanced, and it
was largely for that reason that I did not want him to be annoyed. He
lives near a tract of wild land where we patrolled early this summer,
and was very decent to us, tanning skins of animals that we shot, and
leaving us rabbits for eating. It is a pet trick of his to wander about
at night, and appear very mysteriously, and as I propose to have him
stay with us a few days, I wish you would pass the word that he is
afflicted and caution the men not to tease or annoy him."
Barrows assented grudgingly and then marched off to the office.
Left alone with the hermit, for the cook and the others had departed for
their customary tasks, the boys eagerly asked the hermit what he meant
by his note, and if he had anything to tell them.
"I didn't mean to get caught," he said. "I know what you boys are here
for. Nate told me a little and I can make two and two equal four. I was
creeping through the woods last night to come and leave a letter for
you, when I heard some men talking, and crept up to listen to them. They
were just getting ready to leave and all I heard was a man saying that
his brother would soon be there and that he would know how to deal with
those spies. I couldn't get a good look at the man, but he spoke with an
accent, and was a heavy, strongly built man. That's what I was going to
write to you, for I believe you are the ones that the men in the secret
meeting meant when they referred to spies."
The boys looked aghast at each other when they heard the concluding
words of their friend the hermit. At once the same thought leaped into
the minds of all three. Man with an accent, heavily built and strong
appearing. Brother was coming to help him. All put together it meant
only one thing, and that was voiced by Dick.
"Jean LeBlanc!"
The others echoed the name of their Nemesis after Dick.
"What's that, did you speak of LeBlanc?" inquired the hermit.
"That's just what we did," replied Garry grimly. "That man you
described, unless we are very badly mistaken, was Baptiste, a brother of
Jean. And if Jean is on the way, we must guard ourselves every minute.
And we must make every moment count, for once he gets here he will make
strenuous efforts to get us in trouble, if not on his own hook, then in
cahoots with Barrows. Now let's break for the small lake. Suppose you
stay with us a few days, Hermit, and help us in our work."
"No, that would not be good tactics," was the reply of the hermit. "It
would cause trouble to you boys with that man who wished me lodged in
durance vile."
As was usual, the words of the hermit were anything but those that would
be naturally used by a man that had lived the greater part of his life
in the deep woods, far removed from all human beings. But the aged
hermit was always surprising them, if not by his talk, by his unusual
actions.
Garry had often thought that the old man was wise in his conclusions, so
he asked what could be suggested.
"I would say that you should go to the manager and tell him that I had
been offended by my reception and consequently had refused to stay and
visit you, going off in a huff. Then that will give me a chance to
return to the forest and watch for the coming of LeBlanc. I will
guarantee that I will not be captured again. I was too sure of myself
last night, since I did not know that the camp was full of night spies,
who held rendezvous in the dark of the night. I will warn you in the
usual way if LeBlanc approaches. In the meantime, my instinct tells me
that the man with whom you quarreled, Garry, is not to be trusted. Watch
him. Now I will go if you will give me some food to carry with me for
breakfast. I am hungry."
"There's one thing I wish you would do first, Hermit," said Garry,
calling him by the only name they knew, and which appeared to please
rather than offend the old recluse, "and that is go to the nearest town
and mail a letter for us. There is no one in the camp now that I would
trust with a message, and none of us who could get away. I should have
thought to do it yesterday when Howells left, but forgot it in the
excitement of his being discharged."
Borrowing Dick's ever ready notebook, Garry scribbled off a brief note
to his father, advising him to check carefully the shipments of timber,
and telling him in guarded words, that he had several clues that
properly trailed down would soon lead to the unmasking of the traitors
in the camp. He folded the note and gave the hermit money with which to
buy a stamped envelope, and on another leaf of paper wrote the address
to which the note should be sent.
This the hermit promised to do at the earliest possible opportunity. He
then proposed that they walk a few hundred yards out of the camp with
him, so that they might select a spot where notes could be left without
his having to penetrate the dangers of the camp at night.
This the boys agreed to do, and after a brisk walk selected a tree with
a hollow, half concealed in it, and established that as the
"postoffice." The hermit then took up his journey, while the boys
returned to the office to tell the manager, as they had agreed to do,
about the hermit's leaving. When Barrows heard their story he seemed
relieved and was apparently only too anxious to ingratiate himself with
the boys again, for he realized that he had overstepped the mark a bit
in his words with Garry a short time previous.
"You should have brought the old chap back, and perhaps I could have
persuaded him that it was all a mistake," but the boys were quick to
detect the false ring in his tone.
"Now we are off to Kanamo Lake for our delayed fishing trip, and so that
you may not get uneasy if we do not return by nightfall, let us tell you
that we are used to making camp wherever we happen to be, and so will be
all right. I only wish there was a canoe on the lake, and we would take
a three or four-day hike, canoeing from spot to spot on the lake, and
camping wherever we saw fit," concluded Garry.
"Sorry there isn't. You might make a flatboat out of some lumber, but
there is nothing with which to calk the seams, and the task of dragging
the lumber to the water would be almost too much to bother with for the
short time that you are going to stay here," replied Barrows.
As the boys set out on their seven-mile hike to the lake, they discussed
the way in which Barrows was continually bringing into the conversation
the suggestion that they were not going to stay very long.
"I wonder if that is a warning unintentionally given, or is the wish
just father to the thought?" asked Garry. "I don't remember ever saying
anything to Barrows about the length of time that we intended to spend
here."
"Maybe it is just the wish coming to surface as you say. At any rate,
let's not worry about that for awhile. We will have bridges enough to
cross when we come to them."
The chums pursued their way through the fragrant woods, spicy with the
smell of pine and balsam. Occasionally they heard the whirr of wings as
a covey of grouse or partridge, frightened at the sound of approaching
footsteps, took wing and flew away from the cover where they had been
hiding. The sound of the birds brought to the minds of the trio the sad
thought of the missing Sandy, for he had the canine instinct of most
dogs to flush a bird. He had so often hunted with the boys that they had
taught him to retrieve a bird as does a regular pointer or hunting dog.
"Tell you what we'll do when we get back to the camp tonight," announced
Phil. "We'll offer a reward for the finding of Sandy. I think myself
that some of the lumberjacks, perhaps that chap that took us coon
hunting, recognized the value of Sandy and stole him, determined to sell
him and make a few dishonest dollars. Sandy is worth more to us than
many people would want to pay for him, and I think if we offered a big
enough reward we might get him back."
This was agreed on by the boys, and chatting merrily of many things,
they trekked through the forest to the lake.
They took turns setting the pace and so made brisk time, even Dick
keeping up without grumbling, although there was no circus at the end of
the trail to lure him on to greater speed. However, Dick smelled
adventure in the air, and hence all his seemingly lazy ways dropped and
he dug to the trail as if his life depended on it.
Soon they reached the lake, which lay like a jewel in the midst of the
forest. For the most part it was surrounded by trees, thick and green.
At the end of the trail was a slightly open spot, and a stretch of sandy
beach that seemed to beckon the boys irresistibly.
"Let's take a short dip before we start exploring. I haven't had a swim
for days, and I think it would do us all a lot of good." Garry had been
sweeping the edges of the lake with his field glasses, which he had
brought along, and could see nothing other than an unbroken expanse of
forest. Far down at the end of the lake was a slight opening which Garry
judged was the outlet of the lake, although since he had not consulted a
map, he could not tell much about it as regarded its direction and size.
The others were also of Garry's opinion, and Phil then came to bat with
another suggestion.
"We must do a little fishing, also; for if we go back empty handed from
a lake that is supposed to be filled with fish, we are apt to excite
suspicion in the mind of Barrows, and set him asking us questions as to
what we did while we were away. We don't need to spend the whole day at
it, just catch a decent mess and quit."
"Right you are, Phil," answered Garry. "Now for a swim, and last man in
is no good."
The boys ripped off their clothes, and so used were they to speedy
disrobing, that all hit the water with almost the same splash.
"See that spot up the bank about three hundred yards, where the ground
begins to rise?" inquired Dick, as he splashed about in the water. "Bet
you fellows anything I've got against anything you have that I can give
you chaps ten yards' start and then beat you there."
"Well, you sure thing artist, splash him good, Phil," shouted Garry, for
Dick was an expert swimmer, much better than either of the others,
although they were not unskilled in the aquatic art.
Dick was thoroughly splashed, and with two against one, was soon forced
to holler quits.
"Tell you what I'm going to do; I'm going to swim up to that place and
back, anyway. You fellows can come or not, as you please," and with a
long, sweeping, underhand stroke, his head almost buried in the water,
Dick sped away. The remaining two contented themselves with paddling
about and noting the clearness of the water and the fine sandy bottom.
They got a stone and amused themselves by throwing it some distance and
then swimming under water after it and recovering it. They had been
doing this for some moments, when suddenly Garry, thinking that Dick,
with his speed, had been gone long enough to have done that distance
twice over, began to worry a bit, and called Phil's attention to the
lapse of time. They decided to swim up there and seek their missing
comrade, who, although they had perfect faith in his prowess as a
swimmer, might easily have been overtaken with a cramp, and met with
disaster.
It was generally a rule that they keep an eye on each other in the
water, and it was a strict regulation that a call for help be never made
in jest.
"Let's go," called Garry, and away they started. They had made less than
fifty yards, when borne on the breeze came the sound of Dick's voice.
Garry stopped swimming for a moment, and began to tread water, while he
looked toward the spot that had been Dick's goal when he swam away. Dick
could be seen standing on the bank beckoning wildly to them.