THE MAN OUTSIDE
“Sure you weren’t dreaming, Andy?” whispered Rob, in turn, as, having
listened for a brief time, he failed to catch any unusual sound.
“Not a bit of it,” the other assured him. “I sat up and made certain of
it before crawling out of my bunk. I tell you there _is_ somebody
outside there, and he’s doing his best to get in, too.”
The night wind was sighing through the pinetops, Rob noticed. Could
Andy’s imagination, excited by some dream, have conceived the idea that
a would-be intruder was “fiddling” at the door, and endeavoring to find
ingress? Rob was still undecided, but at the same time he considered it
the part of wisdom to get out of his bunk and slip his feet into a pair
of warm moccasins he always carried with him.
It was almost dark inside the long bunk cabin. The fire had died down,
and even if there were still smouldering embers present the wooden
screen hid them from sight.
Rob now became aware of the fact that Andy clutched something in his
hands. The touch of cold metal told him it was a gun. This would
indicate that the other fully believed what he asserted, and that some
strange man was even then about to force an entrance into the cabin,
possibly under the belief that no one was occupying the building at the
time.
“There, did you hear that?” came again from the aroused Andy. “He’s
trying one of the window shutters. Rob, I remember that several of them
are kind of loose. When he strikes one of those he can get it open
easily enough, and then what’s to hinder him pushing in the sash?”
“Well, there is something moving around out there, I do believe,”
muttered Rob.
“Oh, I wonder if it could be Wolf come back!” said an awed voice close
to them.
“Hello! Are you there, Tubby?” questioned Rob cautiously, for neither of
them had noticed that they were crouching close to the bunk selected by
the third member of the party. Tubby, chancing to awaken, must have
heard them whispering.
“Yes, but could it be the dog, do you think, Rob?” asked the fat scout
eagerly.
“That’s silly talk, Tubby,” Andy told him, so softly that his voice
would not have carried any distance, and might never have been
distinguished from that crooning night breeze that rustled the hemlocks
and passed gently through the pinetops.
“Dogs couldn’t reach up and shake a shutter that stood five feet from
the ground. It’s a man, that’s what; and we’d better figure on how we’re
going to give him the surprise of his life, if he gets inside here.”
“Wait till I get my little hand electric torch,” said Rob, who often
carried one of these useful articles about with him; indeed, any fellow
who has handled such a neat little contraption in an emergency knows
that they are worth their weight in silver every time.
The one Rob had was very diminutive; in fact, a “vest-pocket edition,”
it was called; but upon pressing the button quite a strong ray would be
thrown forward. He kept it handy when sleeping in the open.
“Tubby, get out of your bunk, and be ready to lend a hand,” ordered Rob.
The one addressed hastened to do as he was told.
“Tell me what I’m to do, Rob,” he pleaded.
“Bring both your heads closer this way,” continued the leader. “Now,
this is the scheme: Tubby, you creep over to the fire, and when you hear
me call out throw that wooden screen down, and then as quick as you can
get a handful of the fine tinder on the fire, so as to set up a blaze.
Understand?”
Tubby said he did, and accordingly Rob went on further:
“Andy and myself will try to find out which window the man is going to
creep through, and we’ll form a reception committee. When I turn on the
light, you, Andy, be sure to cover him with your gun, ready to shoot if
he attacks us. Get that, do you?”
On his part Andy assured the chief that he understood perfectly.
“Well, then,” concluded Rob, “all I want to say is that after Tubby sees
the fire begin to pick up he is to dart over and get my gun here, with
which he, too, will proceed to cover the intruder. That’s all. Now get
busy, boys. Andy, come with me, and be careful not to strike your gun
against anything so as to alarm him. Tubby, head over to the fireplace,
and be ready to act!”
It was intensely exciting, Tubby thought, as he managed to cross to the
end of the long bunk-house, where the yawning fireplace stood—the same
gaping aperture down which that bobcat had dropped, and up which he had
also climbed with such fatal alacrity later on, when dispossessed by
reason of the acrid smoke fumigation.
Reaching the place assigned to him, Tubby felt of the wooden screen. He
found that it would only require a smart push to send it flat, after
which he could turn his attention to snatching up some of the fine dry
tinder which had been arranged in a little pile close by; and as Tubby
had paid more attention to the cooking than any one else, he ought to
know to a dot where to find this “fire-starter.”
Meanwhile, Rob and Andy had started to creep along close to the side of
the log cabin wall. Rob was heading directly toward the spot where he
had distinctly heard the last suspicious sound. If the prowler without
had found that shutter fast he would just as likely as not examine the
next one, and keep trying until he ran upon a damaged wooden cover which
the winds had banged back and forth until it could no longer do full
duty.
Yes, there was some one shaking the next shutter which had been used to
keep the drifting snow out when the loggers were in camp during the long
winter months. As the two boys crept closer they could hear a grumbling
sound, just such as might proceed from a disappointed man who was being
continually baffled in his efforts to force an entrance.
Rob had been thinking as he moved, and several possibilities had in turn
taken possession of his active mind. Could this be Uncle George himself,
come back to the abandoned logging camp, and who upon finding the door
barred from within, was now trying to gain an entrance? At first Rob
rather favored this idea, but he quickly realized how slender a hold it
had in the way of plausible facts.
In the first place the sportsman would hardly come back minus his Indian
guide, unless Sebattis, too, had proven false, and had to be sent flying
like Zeb Crooks. Then, again, if he suspected that some passing hunters
were occupying the bunk-house, having accepted the invitation to enter
and make themselves at home, why should not Uncle George call out and
ask them to open the door to him? No, there was something much more
suggestive and suspicious about this event than the return of the mighty
Nimrod. This unknown party did not suspect that the cabin was occupied;
he meant to get in, perhaps to make free with the property left there by
Uncle George.
In a word, Rob was more than half convinced already that he knew who the
man outside, fumbling with the various wooden shutters, must be—no other
than that same Zeb Crooks, who possibly had come sneaking back, knowing
the intention of his former employer to leave the camp unprotected for a
few days—come back to rob the place of anything valuable that he could
find and sequester.
Rob did not bother trying to communicate this to Andy, for there was no
need, and it would hardly have been politic, with the man outside so
close to them. He was now at the next window, and Rob believed that the
crisis was at hand, for the man gave a satisfied grunt as though things
were finally working to suit his purposes.
So he nudged Andy, as if to warn him to be on the alert, though truth to
tell there was little need of this, for the other scout was fully
aroused every second of the time, with his gun clutched in nervous hands
ready to do his duty when the call came.
Yes, the window was being shoved back now, and the man still muttered to
himself. One thing sure, he never dreamed that the cabin had occupants,
though how the door came to be fastened on the inside must have puzzled
him somewhat.
The eyes of the boys had become so used to the semi-darkness that they
were able to fairly make out the window, once the shutter had been drawn
back. They could also see some sort of movement there. Having given the
swinging sash a push that sent it inward, the man was now thrusting his
head and shoulders through the small opening.
Rob knew the difficulties attending such an awkward entrance. He felt
almost certain that the party, even if not clumsy in his movements,
would likely tumble to the puncheon floor when he finally gave the last
push. That was the very moment Rob figured on springing his surprise.
The man would be caught unawares, and least able to defend himself or
spring at them.
When he heard a scuffling sound, and saw the window no longer obstructed
by a dark form, Rob knew the crisis was upon them.