Bud Shoots
For nearly half an hour Bud had kept his eyes fixed almost continuously
on a certain spot in the dark shadow at the edge of the thicket directly
south of the tent, which faced west. His attention had been drawn to this
spot thirty or forty times after he relieved Max at 1:30 o'clock, and the
cause of his interest was a slight movement in the shadow, suggesting a
shifting of position by an animal of considerable size.
The moon was up, but not high enough to shed much light in the open area
in which the tent was pitched. The sky was clear, and because of the deep
shadows in which this spot was merged, the heavens, to Bud's eyes, were
studded with myriads of gem-like brilliants.
In the dim light thus afforded, the boy sentinel was able to make out
what appeared to be portions of the form of a man partly hidden in the
bushes, which grew at heights varying from three feet to six or seven
feet from the ground. Meanwhile he congratulated himself repeatedly for a
bit of very ordinary ingenuity he had resorted to in order to prepare
himself for any emergency of more or less menacing outlook.
Soon after Mr. Perry announced his intention not to allow any of the boys
to have possession of his pistol while on guard, Bud's mind became busy
on plans for the contrivance of a substitute. In accord with Mr. Perry's
concession, each of the boys cut for himself a stout stick to be used as
a weapon of defense if necessary, and to supplement this Bud decided
first to gather a few dozen stones about the size of a hen's egg in order
that he might exercise his skill at throwing if any suspicious looking
objects should appear to his view.
Then he happened to remember that he had a large rubber band in a small
and little-used pocket of his coat. He had put it there for no particular
reason, perhaps merely to save it. He had found it about three weeks
before and the unusual size and strength of elasticity of the band was
enough to interest any boy in the habit of seeing the adventurous
possibilities of little things.
With the aid of his searchlight, Bud found a small forked limb in a tree
at the edge of the open area, immediately after he took charge of the
guard post, and cut it off. Then he returned to his seat near the tent
and began to whittle. The purpose of this whittling must soon have been
evident to an observer, for he held the object up frequently and viewed
it, with the calculating eye of a "dead shot," until at last he was
satisfied with the length and "grip" of the handle and the symmetry and
trim of the prongs of a fork.
Bud was always very methodical in his youthful mechanics. Everything he
made must be "just so," hence the results were usually effective, as well
as artistic to a degree. In this instance, even the notches that he cut
around the extreme ends of the prongs were neatly grooved, in spite of
the limitation of the light in which he worked. The only regret he had
was the fact that he possessed no good strong cord, about the size of
fishline, with which to attach two separate sections of the rubber band
to the prongs at the grooves. As substitute for such cord he had provided
himself with some strands of the rope with which the hands of their
prisoner, "Captain" Howard, had been tied. After all the other details of
his mechanical labor had been completed, he took from one of his pockets
an old and inexpensive pouch-like pocketbook, emptied the contents into a
trouser pocket and proceeded to cut out a section of the pouch to a size
and shape suited to his needs. The rubber band he had cut into two equal
lengths and in the leather section from his pocketbook he cut two small
holes near opposite edges.
The assembling of the parts of his contrivance was now speedily
accomplished, resulting in a very neat hand-catapult of a kind with
which every boy is familiar. After testing the strength of the
connections by stretching the rubbers several times to thrice their
ordinary length, Bud looked about him and soon gathered a supply of
small stones suitable for missiles.
He was thus engaged when he first observed a movement in the shadow of
the thicket to the south of his position. Then, indeed, he congratulated
himself on the preparation he had just made to defend himself and his
companions against stealthy and hostile movements on the part of the
enemy about the camp under cover of the darkness.
Bud was not, by nature, a blood-thirsty boy. All of these preparations
for battle were made without the slightest thought of the actual effect
of one of his missiles should it hit his mark. His industry was inspired
more by the mechanical act than by any picture of human pain that might
result. Hence, when the time came for him to make use of his weapon "with
deadly intent," he found himself in a hesitant frame of mind. He knew
that some animal, human or otherwise, was eyeing the camp with studied
interest, and it was difficult to imagine other than a human being
capable of such interest.
Bud finally came to the conclusion that the animal half hidden in the
shadow of the bushes was a man, and that the latter's interest was
centered in "Captain" Howard, whom he doubtless believed to be held
prisoner within the four canvas walls of the tent.
"I bet he's one of those four men that took Hal and me and marooned us on
that other island," the boy mused. "Of course, he's looking for a chance
to set our prisoner free, but he's doomed to disappointment. My
goodness!"
Bud whirled around suddenly as a new possibility occurred to him,
stimulated by a slight noise like the cautious tread of a man's foot. The
next instant a cry of alarm almost escaped him as he saw a human form
near the entrance of the tent.
"My goodness!" he repeated aloud, but in subdued tone, as he recognized
the approaching youth. "You'd better announce yourself, Max, before you
come onto an armed person under such circumstances as these."
"Armed!" echoed the Canadian youth in surprise. "I thought Mr.
Perry said--"
"Oh, yes, he said we couldn't have his automatic, but I've been busy
making a very effective substitute since I came out here--see?"
Bud exhibited his weapon by drawing back the leather sling, thereby
stretching the elastics to their full capacity. His searchlight he had
switched off after finishing the work on his catapult, and the only
illumination in the open area came from the moon over the tree tops.
"Did you make that out here to-night?" demanded Max in astonishment.
"Sure--why not?" was the other's reply.
"Well, you're some boy, all right. I'd never 'ave thought of it. If
anybody means mischief around here, he'd better look out, with a weapon
like that in your hands."
"You bet he had," Bud returned with a sturdiness of purpose, indicating
to his Canadian friend that he meant business. "And there's at least one
prawler around here already. I'm glad you came out here, for I was just
about to come in and wake up the whole camp."
"Is that so?" whispered Max. "Why, what's doing?"
"I don't want to let on that I know anybody is prowling about," Bud
replied; "but if you'll watch those bushes straight south of here for a
while you'll make out the form of a man half hidden there. He moves a
little every now and then. Be careful and don't let him know you known
he's there."
"I won't," Max replied excitedly. "Why don't you shoot at him?"
"I don't want to do that unless I have to," Bud replied. "Besides,
I'd like to know what he's up to. Why did you come out here? Couldn't
you sleep?"
"I didn't sleep a wink; I couldn't. My head was in a whirl all the time.
I was busy imagining just such things as this. Believe me, it was some
spooky job, out here all alone."
"Yes, that's true," Bud agreed. "I'm glad enough to have your company. By
the way, you haven't explained how you happened to come here with Mr.
Perry. We're mighty glad to have you here, but I was wondering how your
folks happened to let you come."
"Mr. Buckley is my uncle," Max replied. "I called him up and told him
what was going on out here, and he asked me to come along."
"Oh, that's it," Bud returned. "I was wondering if you Canadian boys are
way ahead of us Yankee boys when it comes to doing as you please. My
father wouldn't let me come on this trip if Mr. Perry hadn't come along."
"I guess we're not much different from you Yankees," Max replied. "But,
talkin' about doing as you please, it seems to me that you went pretty
far when you made that slingshot after Mr. Perry said you mustn't have
a pistol."
"Oh, that's nothing like a pistol," Bud replied. "You couldn't kill
anybody with it."
"I don't know about that," Max answered with a shake of his head. "I
wouldn't like to be in front of it when you shot. I bet you could knock a
fellow silly with it."
"Maybe I could. Well, anyway, a slingshot's a long way from being a
pistol. Have you made that fellow out yet?"
"Yes, you bet I have," answered Max. "I've seen 'im move several times."
"Let's sit down and pretend not to suspect that anybody's watching us,"
Bud proposed. "Then maybe he'll be a little bolder."
"All right, but we'll have to keep a close watch out of the corner of
our eyes."
"Sure. Come on. Here are a couple of chairs."
"Let's sit down facing each other, so that nobody can creep onto us
unawares," suggested Max.
"That's a good idea," said Bud.
They seated themselves, face to face and within "whispering distance" of
each other and continued their conversation in low tones, but at the same
time keeping a sharp lookout for developments.
"This experience has proved one thing," Bud remarked in the course of
their continued discussion, "and that is that all our watches ought to be
in two's."
"Yes, a single watcher gets pretty lonesome, and, besides, it's too easy
for him to be taken by surprise. Now, there's a sample of what I say.
Don't look yet; he'll know we see him. He's moved, farther to the east,
and now he's creeping up behind the tent."
"We must make sure that he's alone, or else rouse the rest of the camp,"
said Bud excitedly. "Keep watch in every direction. I'll turn slowly and
get a look at him, and then turn back and pretend not to see him."
This program was observed carefully for a minute or two. Meanwhile the
spy crept closer and closer, crawling like a serpentine quadruped and
making fairly good progress withal. At last, however, Bud decided that it
was time for him to do something to put a stop to this proceeding.
Without giving his companion any warning as to his intention, he lifted
the catapult eye-line high, pulled back the sling, in which all this time
he had held a stone nearly half the size of a hen's egg, and let it fly.
Thud!
That the missile hit the mark hard was indicated, first, by the sound of
the blow, itself, and, second, by the muffled cry of agony that followed.
The next instant the victim, who seemed to be struggling to retain his
"quadruped balance," rolled over with a moan of impotent agony.