DOLPH HEARS ABOUT THE HAUNTED CABIN
Teddy Overton busied himself for several minutes around the spot where
they could easily see, a deer had been butchered.
Dolph watched his chum eagerly, now and then casting an uneasy glance
toward the scene of the late tragedy; as though the mutilated remains
of the deer might tell the story, if only gifted with the power of
speech.
One thing was already evident. The tracks of the two lawless poachers
told that their comrade must have run up against some sort of snag, in
his quest for a bee tree; and the secret of his failure to return to
camp was not hard to guess.
Teddy seemed to have finally made up his mind, for he approached his
friend.
“Well, have you found out what happened?” asked Dolph, eagerly.
“Yes, he’s a prisoner, all right,” the other replied.
“Gabe and Crawley responsible, I take it?” questioned Dolph.
“No other. They shot this deer out of season. Amos happened to see them
do it. Because they’re afraid he’ll inform the game warden of this
district, or because of some other reason, they concluded to take our
chum along with them.”
“But what business have they making any respectable person a prisoner?
Why, those men would rob a trapper’s _cache_ of his pelts—they’d steal
the pennies from a dead man’s eyes. They’ve got some sort of a game up
their sleeve, I guess and you’re on to it, Teddy; I can see it in your
face.”
“Yes, I think I can see through a millstone that’s got a hole in it,”
replied the lumberman’s son and heir, grimly. “It’s a risky one too all
right. I knew Hackett was getting down grade pretty fast but I never
thought he’d be so desperate as to try and kidnap a fellow, to hold him
for ransom. He must be pretty near the end of his rope.”
Dolph laughed, as though amused.
“What, is that their little dodge?” he exclaimed. “Well, they sure have
gone and barked up the wrong tree, that time. Why, Amos hasn’t got a
relative in the wide world that he knows about, you told me. It’s your
good dad that’s going to send him to school, and give him the chance
to study for being a doctor later on. What silly notion possessed them
to ever lug him off? That Hackett must be going into his dotage, I just
guess.”
“Hold on, Dolph, perhaps not, when you look into their nice little game
a bit further. Amos hasn’t any cash, himself, but he’s got a friend who
thinks a heap of him, and whose daddy might put up ransom money. That
friend is myself, you know?”
“I see,” muttered Dolph, a little uneasily, “not so dull a game after
all.”
“They may have even a better card up their sleeve,” continued Teddy,
“I notice that when they left here those men took no pains to cover up
their tracks. Fact is, it looks to me as they might be just _inviting_
us to follow. That would indicate just one thing—that Amos was carried
off to hold him as a bait to trap somebody else—you and me. Once they
had the lot of us, you see they could send Amos to make terms for our
surrender.”
“Whew! you give me a bad feeling, Teddy; but honest now, it does sound
reasonable like. I wouldn’t put it past that big Gabe Hackett. I
remember now, how he kept looking at me, queerlike, out of the comer of
his eye. But this is a desperate affair. Do you think they’d dare try
such a job? If caught it would mean a long jail sentence.”
“That’s so, but Hackett is getting more reckless about consequences,
right along. Like enough he figures on skipping across to Canada once
he gets hold of a good bunch of the long green. You can be sure, Dolph,
this is a trap laid for us.”
“Then we’d be silly to fall into the same, I take it,” declared the
other.
“We certainly won’t, if we know it,” declared Teddy. “We’ll take up
the trail, and see if we can get our chum out of their hands; but let
us never forget that we ’re up against a pair of prime woodsmen, who
know pretty much all the tricks of the trade. And while we follow the
trail we must arrange it so they can’t lay hands on both of us. You’re
the one they want most, I take it, Dolph. I rather think Gabe would
hesitate a little to hold me, because he knows what my dad can be, once
he’s roused up. It’s getting dark, and we’ll have to use the lantern.
So while I go ahead, to follow the trail, do you hang back, just so
far, with your scatter gun ready to pepper the rascals, if they show
up.”
“All right,” said Dolph, seriously, “I want to say right now that I
think your little plan’s a good one. The sooner we start the better.
Amos, poor fellow, will be thinking we mean to desert him. Lead on,
Teddy, and tell me just how far you want me to fall back.”
Now, in all probability Dolph had never fired a shot at a human being
in all his young life. The idea was more or less abhorrent to him; it
did not appeal to him at all. But he came of soldier stock. Some of his
people had borne an illustrious part in all the wars of the country
from the time of the Revolution down to the unpleasantness with Spain,
in which his father had served as a colonel.
When the test really came, doubtless Dolph would not be found lacking
in those essential qualities that had distinguished his forebears.
As soon as Teddy called out the one word “come,” he started after him,
and managed from that moment to keep just so far in the rear that his
presence could not be easily discovered by any observer.
In this way, then, was the pursuit taken up.
Teddy had little trouble about sticking to the plain trail. He could
have covered the ground twice as fast, had he not been keeping an eye
constantly ahead, fearing some sort of ambush.
So the better part of an hour passed. By this time an idea had come
to the one who was doing the trailing. It happened that the old, long
abandoned cabin once used by fur gatherers, was known to Teddy Overton.
And now he began to feel confident that the trail was leading toward
that spot.
Accordingly he signaled to Dolph to approach.
“I feel dead sure I know where they’re heading for,” he said as the
other drew up. “And it might save considerable time if we struck out
straight for the old cabin instead of following their trail. And
besides,” he added, “perhaps we’ll escape a trap by springing this
surprise on Gabe and Crawley.”
“Old cabin, you say?” repeated Dolph, “whoever lived there, Teddy?”
“Some trappers, many years ago. There’s a dark story told about a
tragedy that happened there. One trapper went crazy, they said, from
too much strong drink. He killed his companions, and froze to death
himself. They were found there in the Spring by some timber cruisers,
looking for new lands up here. Nobody has ever lived there since. Now
and then some wanderer has put in a night in the cabin, but they say
it’s haunted; and that those trappers’ spirits come back to fight over
again their long ago battles. I was at the cabin once, in the day time,
though. A lot of ugly bats flew out. We didn’t see any spirits, either.
But then, I don’t think I’d care to stay a week in that ramshackle old
hut.”
“Well of all things, a haunted cabin take the cake,” declared Dolph.
“Now, I’d just like to play ghost, for once, and give those fellows a
scare that’d make their hair stand up on end.”
“Shall we make a bee line for the hut, as I said?” asked Teddy.
“Sure. You’re the captain of this relief expedition. Whatever you say
for me to do I’ll try and carry out, you understand, Teddy.”
“Good enough. And I’ll warrant you never dreamed of such a business
as this when you helped me map out our little canoe trip across the
neck of Michigan to White Fish Bay and perhaps the Pictured Rocks, eh,
Dolph?”
The other fairly snorted his disgust.
“Well, I should think not,” he remarked; “and who would? Why, if
I’d been over in Greece, or Spain, or Italy, I might have guessed
that something of the kind would have turned up; but away up in this
Michigan wilderness—well, it faizes me, all right. But then, I reckon
human nature’s pretty much the same all over the world. The temptation
to get hold of the mighty dollar makes men do heaps of queer stunts, I
don’t care whether they’re white, red, black or yellow. Now, I guess
you’re intending to sneak around, and creep up to this same haunted
cabin by the rear route?”
“Yes, that’s the game,” replied Teddy.
“That is, while these two poacher chaps are lying in a snug little
ambush at some point along their own trail, why, we can be spying on
the cabin on our own account?” Dolph went on to remark.
“You’re on, I see,” chuckled the other.
“It looks good to me,” Dolph continued, reflectively. “As I said
before, tell me what to do, and I’ll carry it out to the letter.”
“I hope we won’t have to get to the fighting stage of the game,” Teddy
remarked, as they kept pushing forward in a direct line; “but if we do
I know I can depend on you to back me up. There are other ways to win
out. Well, here goes to douse the glim.”
He blew the lantern out and hung it on the branch of a tree he marked.
“I can find it again given half a chance,” he said; “and now we’ve got
to do the rest of it in the dark.”
Through the silent pine woods they crept like shadows, flitting from
tree to tree.
Now and then Teddy would pause to listen, for caution had become
second nature with the boy and he did not mean to lead his friend into
trouble, if he knew it. But no sound came to their ears, at least
nothing that would indicate the presence of human beings near.
Then through the trees they caught the gleam of a light, which, from
its steady character they believed must come from the small window of a
cabin.