Camp Mates in Michigan; or, with Pack and Paddle in the Pine Woods

by St. George Rathborne

  CHAPTER VII

  DOLPH MEETS SOMETHING

  After they broke camp on the following morning, the three boys lookedback to the spot where the tent had lately been pitched, and exchangedremarks concerning the strange happenings of the night.

  “One thing I’m glad for?” remarked Dolph; “that storm concluded itdidn’t have a call in this direction. Thought I heard the farawayrumble of thunder once or twice, when it was my turn on duty; but I mayhave been mistaken. Anyhow, it’s a pretty enough morning to eat.”

  “Oh! we’ve got plenty to be thankful for,” laughed Teddy, who wasfeeling extra joyous it seemed. “Just think, if that big black-browedpirate had chosen to stay over with us, what a hole he’d have made inour grub chest this morning. As it is, we got off cheap by bribing himto go, with that cup of ground coffee; and as sure as you live, we evengot that back again!”

  “Do you think we’ll make the lake by night time?” asked Dolph, knowingthat his chum carried a little chart of the peninsula about him, andwas making good use of the same in planning their various moves.

  “Ought to,” Teddy replied, thoughtfully, “unless we peg out too soon,with this hard business of playing the spruce blade. I can tell betterby noon. If we reach that point in front of the wild cranberry marsh,we ’ll be more than half way there, and should be able to cover thebalance easy enough.”

  “I hope we do,” Dolph went on to say.

  “Now, you’re thinking of trying those flies you brought along, on thebass they say inhabit that same lake, and of whopping size too,” Teddyjokingly remarked.

  “Oh! I acknowledge the corn,” the other admitted, candidly; “because Ido happen to be mighty fond of fishing at any and all times. If I cantoss a fly, and get’em, so much the better; but if they won’t whiff atthe feathered lure, why, then I turn to a frog, a minnow, artificialbait, a trolling spoon, and last, but not always least, the worm. I’mbound to get fish _some_ way or other, if they’re to be had.”

  “I wonder if we’ll meet up with him again?” mused Teddy, as he sank hispaddle deep into the running water of the Manistique, and started thecanoe up stream with a steady muscular push.

  “Meaning our big friend, Gabe?” inquired the other, following suit onhis side of the boat; while Amos was already some forty feet in thevan, being a most accomplished waterdog, for he had spent half of hislife swimming and paddling around.

  “Yes, Gabe. You see he headed upstream, and that would mean he meant tokeep on the same course we are following. I’d rather it was the otherway; for after my shooting at him, I’m afraid he’ll feel uglier thanever toward us.”

  “Let him,” remarked the good-natured Dolph, easily; “we’ve done nothingto him. Anybody would have a right to bang away, if they thought a bearor a cat was sneaking about the camp. And besides, he told us he wasgoing off; so he couldn’t very well make out that we knew it was himcreeping back. For one I’m going to forget all about Gabe, except thatat night-times perhaps I’ll remember to keep one eye open for intrudersthat ain’t cats.”

  “Too bad you didn’t have a chance to snap him off,” said Teddy. “He’dmake a fine addition to the pictures you’re gathering, to show whathappened to us on the trip.”

  “Gabe happened, all right. And we ought to keep that coffee, to presentto him if ever he shows up again,” Dolph went on to say, with a laugh.“I’d like to watch his face turn red, if it could get any more so thanit is now, when he saw from our looks that we were on to his littlewrinkle.”

  “Why not get a line out as we go along?” Teddy asked. “You might pickup a trout or two with an artificial minnow. There are lots of likelyplaces. Perhaps there are black bass here, too. Most of the rivers inMichigan are full of gamey fighters. I’ve taken them out of the St.Mary’s, that gave me all the fun anybody could ever want.”

  “Oh! I’m not so greedy as all that, or so fish hungry, either. I liketo attend to my rod when I’m fishing, and not trust to luck to have thetrout or bass hook himself. Besides, I’ve got about as much as I want,keeping tabs of your paddling, and making out to match you every time.We can camp on the lake a few days, and I reckon I’ll have all thefishing I want.”

  “Well, I take it that’s sensible of you, after all, Dolph. Some boys,and men too, are so cracked over fishing that they get on your nerves.And as you say, paddling a canoe against this fierce current is aboutall any decent fellow ought to think of doing at a time. Look out forthat snag; it’s got an ugly point, too. Thought at first it was thehead of a water snake sticking up; or a snapping turtle, mebbe. Did youever see any one handle a paddle like Amos? I never could learn likethat. He doesn’t seem to make half the effort that we do, and yet seehis boat, how it eats up against the stream.”

  “I suppose it’s just because he knows how to do it, and where to placeevery ounce of force expended. Some fellows are born paddlers; andothers seem to keep on bunglers all their lives. I guess I belong tothat class,” and Dolph Bradley laughed in his jolly fashion, as thoughhe did not mean to let such a little thing bother him, at any rate.

  “Oh! rats! when you know you’re better than I am by several degrees.But then we’ve got little to be ashamed of as things go. Only Amosis away up in a class all by himself. Look at the way he dips in,will you, not a sound, not a drop spilled. That’s the way to handlea paddle, when out at night after deer, with a jack; which way ofhunting is knocked on the head these days in most States though,because too many deer were wounded, and ran away, only to die. I neverhad a chance to try it, I must say, did you, Dolph?”

  “Once, down in Florida, and when I wasn’t hunting deer at all, butshining ’gators along the border of a swamp. I had a darky paddling me,and he pointed to a pair of eyes that he said must be a ’gator; so Ibanged away, having a scatter gun, and using buckshot shells. We heardsomething kick, and going ashore found a young deer lying there. I wasput out, because I wouldn’t have shot the little thing for any amountof money. And from that day to this I’ve kept the promise I made tomyself right then and there.”

  “What was that?” asked Teddy, although he thought he could guess.

  “Never on any account to shoot at something that I didn’t have a prettygood idea as to what it was. Why, it gave me the creeps to think thatit might just as well have been a little black pickaninny, staring outat our light; for there was a cabinful not far away.”

  Talking in this fashion, the boys beguiled the time away. Often Amoswould hold up, it might be to join in the conversation; or possiblyto draw their attention to some interesting object that had caught hiseye. For although Amos had lived his entire life in the woods, save theshort time he chanced to attend school, he had an artistic temperament,and his eye unerringly picked out beautiful vistas through the woods,which seemed to fairly ravish his soul. Indeed, more than once Teddyhad openly declared that if Amos failed to become a doctor, one ofthese days, as his ambition led him to hope he would, he would surelyturn out to be a painter; for he discovered beauties in Nature thatneither of the others noticed until the woods boy called attention tothem.

  They kept this constant motion up hour after hour. It was tiresome,of course, but then these boys had persistence well developed, andknew that if they hoped to camp that night on the lake, they must keepeverlastingly at it.

  And just before the sun had climbed to the zenith, or as near as hemeant to ascend, Teddy gave a squawk of delight.

  “There’s the place we’re going to spend an hour or two at, fellows,just ahead, yonder, where that tree bends down over the water.”

  “That’s a point of land marked on my chart. Just back of it lies a bignatural cranberry marsh, where the reds grow thick in the fall; but yousee, it’s so far from everywhere, that few of them ever get to market.”

  “I want to step back, and take a look at that same marsh myself,”remarked Dolph. “Don’t believe I ever saw a real wild cranberry bog,though I’ve been in one down in New Jersey near Barnagat, where theycultivated the berries. I was having one of those f
amous sneakboatsbuilt by an old bayman, and paid him a visit to try how it worked thatfall, on the waters there, with a few ducks coming in. Going to landright here, Teddy?”

  “Amos has picked out the best place; trust his eagle eye for seeing it.Run her up alongside his canoe. That’s the ticket. Now, all ashore andstretch!”

  It certainly felt good to be able to stand up, and get what Teddycalled the “kinks” out of their legs.

  As it had been decided to spend some little time here, seeing theycould now easily reach their intended destination ere nightfall, Amosstarted a fire, meaning to have a pot of cheering coffee. Teddy busiedhimself about something that he had laid out to do, while on the riverthat morning; and Dolph, to pass the time away, sauntered back, to finda way of looking over the cranberry marsh.

  He came back presently, and began to take out a fishing rod, quite astiff one in the bargain.

  “What’s up?” demanded Teddy, watching these preparations curiously.“Thought you said you didn’t expect to catch a fish until we got to thelake?”

  “Well, I don’t,” replied the other, chuckling, “you wouldn’t call frogsfish, now, would you?”

  “Frogs! Oh! I see, you’ve discovered that the grunting we heard backthere came from a colony of big greenbacks, eh? Well, I hope you’ve gotsome red flannel, or if not, then a red ibis bass fly along with you.They’ll jump at it like hot cakes; and you’ll nearly die laughing tosee the circus that takes place when they find that they just can’t letgo. But I see you know all about it, because you’ve shortened your lineto a foot, and fastened it around your reel handle. Going to put ’em inthat covered bucket, are you? Well, good luck! A dozen saddles wouldn’tbe any too big a mess, Dolph. Call you when the coffee is boiling.”

  So Dolph went away, hurrying, for he was considerably excited over thechance to capture a mess of the frogs; because if there was one dish hewas fond of, it could be set down as frogs’ legs, nicely browned; why,in his mind they were better than the finest spring chicken ever grown.

  Teddy went on with the task he had set out to perform; while Amosbusied himself with his cooking fire, which of course differed from theusual big camp fire about which the canoe cruisers liked to sit, aftertheir evening meal was over.

  Amos found stones to suit him, and built a cairn that was somethinglike fourteen inches wide at the mouth, tapering along until at theother end it did not exceed four inches. On this he could place bothfrying-pan and coffee-pot, if both were to be used. And in the cavity,he proceeded to coax a red fire by adding just the proper kind andamount of small fuel.

  Not more than six or seven minutes had passed when the two boys werestartled by hearing Dolph shouting wildly at the top of his voice; andthey judged that he was coming toward the camp with all the speed hecould command.

  “Bear! Big black bear! and chasing after me! Hurry up, and bring a gun,somebody! Quick! he’s right after me, I tell you! Whoop!” No wonderthat both boys hurriedly snatched up a gun apiece, never looking to seewhose these happened to be, and ran toward the spot from whence the cryfor help proceeded.