The Boy Scouts at the Canadian Border
Page 7
CHAPTER VII AN UNWELCOME INTRUDER
“Oh! what did you see inside the cabin, Andy?” gasped Tubby, beginningto look alarmed, and shrinking back a little, because he did not happento be carrying one of the two guns in the party.
“Wow! Talk to me about your Jabberwock!” ejaculated Andy, making hisface assume an awed expression that added to Tubby’s state of dismay.“He’s in there!”
“But how could a big bull moose get inside a cabin, when the door’sshut, and fastened with a bar?” questioned the amazed and incredulousfat scout.
“It isn’t any moose,” scoffed Andy, and, turning to Rob, he went on: “Itell you, the biggest bobcat I ever set eyes on is in there, and hasbeen having a high old time scratching around among the provisions leftby Uncle George and his party. Oh, his yellow eyes looked like balls ofphosphorus in the half gloom. I thought he was going to jump for me, soI slammed the door shut, and set the bar again.”
“A wildcat, do you say?” observed Rob, looking decidedly interested.“Well, one thing sure, Uncle George never meant that generous invitationfor this destructive creature. As he couldn’t very well read the notice,or lift that heavy bar, it stands to reason the cat found some other wayof entering the bunk-house.”
“How about the chimney, Rob?” asked Andy, as quick as a flash.
“Now I wouldn’t be much surprised if that turned out to be his route,”mused the scout leader. “They have a wonderful sense of smell, you know,and this fellow soon learned that there were things good to eat insidethe cabin. Finding the place deserted, so far as his two-footed enemieswere concerned, he must have prowled all around, and finally mounted tothe roof. Then the opening in the chimney drew his attention, andgetting bolder as time passed, he finally dropped down.”
Tubby, who had been listening with rapt attention, now broke out again.
“He must be a mighty bold cat to do that, I should say, fellows.Goodness knows how much damage he’s done to Uncle George’s preciousstores. Oh! doesn’t it seem like a shame to have a miserable pussycatspoiling the stuff you’ve gone and nearly broken your back to pack awayup here? But will we have to pitch a camp in one of those other smallerbuildings, and let the bobcat hold the fort in the comfortablebunkhouse, with its jolly cooking fireplace?”
Thereupon Andy snorted in disdain.
“I’d like to see myself doing that cowardly thing, Tubby!” he exclaimed.“Possession may be nine points of the law, but in this case there’ssomething bigger than the law, and that’s self-preservation. That beastis going to pay for his meddling, if I know what’s what. Rob, how’d webetter go at the job?”
“Just as you said a while back, Andy,” the scout master told him, “thehand of every man is always raised against such varmints in the woods aspanthers and bobcats and weasels and such animals as destroy heaps ofgame, both in the fur and in the feather. If I could have shot thatpanther without harming the deer I’d have been only too pleased to doit; but the whole thing happened too rapidly for us. As to just what ourplan of campaign now ought to be, that’s worth considering.”
They had deposited their bundles on the ground and stepped back, whileboth Andy and Rob held their guns ready for business. Tubby watching sawthat the former continued to keep his eyes fastened on the chimney ofthe low bunk-house all the while he talked; and from that he drewconclusions.
“You’re thinking, I expect, Rob,” Tubby ventured to say, “that what goesup in the air must come down again; and that as the cat dropped into thewide-throated chimney he’s just got to climb up again, sooner or later.Am I right, Rob?”
“A good guess, Tubby, believe me,” chuckled Andy. “What we want to donow is to respectfully but firmly influence that unwelcome guest to getbusy, and vamoose the ranch in a hurry. Say, I’m ready to give him thewarmest kind of a reception as soon as he shows the tip of his whiskerednose above the top of the chimney.”
“Here, Tubby, lend me a hand,” said Rob, “and we’ll try to coax Mr. Catto vacate his present quarters. Andy, I’ll lay my gun down alongside youhere, and if yours isn’t enough to finish the rogue, snatch up mine in ahurry.”
Andy agreed to that, and so the other two walked forward again to thefront of the long log building, where the door was situated. Tubby wascurious to know how his companion expected to work that “influence” hespoke of, and cause the ferocious intruder to depart as he came. Heawaited the outcome with considerable interest.
“First,” said Rob, as though he already had his mind settled, “we’llpick up a few handfuls of these chips and twigs that are so plentiful.”
“Whee! but burning the old cabin down to get rid of a cat that staysinside would be what they’d call heroic treatment, wouldn’t it, Rob?”
“I’m not doing anything as severe as that, Tubby,” said the other.“We’re going to try the smoke cure. All animals are in deadly fear offire, and smoke will cause even a horse to become fairly wild. We canmake our little fire close to the door, and the breeze which happens tobe just right, will carry some of the smoke under it, for notice thatwide crack there. When the cat sniffs that odor you’ll see how fast hescrambles up that chimney again.”
It all looked very simple to Tubby now; so those Spanish courtiers whohad been declaring that discovering America was no great task afterColumbus had shown them how to stand an egg on an end, doubtless sneeredand said it was easy enough.
The little heap of trash was ignited, and just as Rob had said, it beganto emit a pungent smoke that was driven against and under the door bythe breeze.
“Keep ready, Andy!” Rob called out. “I thought I heard a scratchingsound just then!”
Tubby ran back so as to be able to see the crown of the low chimney. Hewas only in time, and no more, for even as he managed to glimpse theapex of the slab-and-hard-mud vent something suddenly came into view. AsTubby stared with round eyes he saw a monstrous wildcat crouching there,looking this way and that, as if tempted to give battle to its humanenemies, by whom it had been dispossessed from the scene of its royalfeast.
Then there came a loud crash. Andy had fired his gun. Tubby shivered ashe saw the big feline give a wild leap upward and then come strugglingdown the slight slope of the roof, clawing furiously, and utteringscreams of expiring fury.
Andy was ready to send in a second shot if it chanced to be needed, butthis proved not to be the case, for the struggles of the stricken beastquickly ended. The three boys hurried forward, and stood over the victimof Andy’s clever marksmanship. The cat was one of the largest Rob hadever run across, and even in death looked so terrible that Tubby had anodd shiver run through his system as he stared in mingled awe andcuriosity down at the creature.
“Too bad in one way that the poor old thing couldn’t finish his feast inpeace,” Tubby was saying, “but then I suppose it’s the chances of war.There’s always a state of open war between these bobcats and all men whowalk in the woods.”
“Well, I should say yes!” cried Andy, patting himself proudly on thechest. “I’ll always call this one of the best day’s jobs I ever did.Think of the pretty partridges, the innocent squirrels, the boundingjack-rabbits and such things, that I’ve saved the lives of with that onegrand shot. If this beast lived three years longer it’d surprise you,Tubby, to count up the immense amount of game that it’d devour in thattime. I never spare a cat under any circumstances.”
“Do you think it was all alone in the cabin?” asked the timid one.
“We’ll soon find out,” Andy told him, as he saw to it that his gun wasin condition again for immediate use, and then started toward the closeddoor.
Cautiously this was opened a trifle, and one by one the boys peeredthrough the crevice; all agreed that there was nothing stirring, and soeventually they made bold to pass inside.
It was discovered that the uninvited guest had made free with some ofthe stores of the party, but after all, the damage did not amount to agreat deal, possibly owing to the coming of
Rob and his two chums on thescene shortly after the cat started chewing at the half of a ham it haddragged down from a rafter.
The boys quickly removed all signs of feline presence. Andy declaredthat he intended skinning his prize, for the pelt if properly curedwould make quite an attractive mat for his den at home. It would bepleasant of a winter evening, when resting in his easy chair, to gazedown upon the trophy, and once again picture that stirring scene upthere in Maine, under the whispering pines, hemlocks and birches.
They adjusted themselves to the new conditions with that free and easyspirit so natural in most boys. It was next in order to pick out thebunks they meant to occupy while in the logging camp; for there weresigns to tell them which had been already chosen by Uncle George and histwo guides; and of course, no one thought to settle upon any of theseparticular sleeping-places.
They soon had a fire burning, and the interior looked quite cheerful.Sitting there Tubby could easily picture what a stirring scene it musthave been in those times long gone by when a dozen, perhaps even ascore, of muscular lumber jacks lounged about that same dormitory andliving room, waiting for the cook’s call to supper.
Later on Tubby came up to Rob while the other was arranging some of thecontents of his pack, “scrambled” more or less, as he called it, bybeing carried for several days on his back, and thrown about “everywhich-way.”
“Look here, Rob,” the fat scout said, “I happened to run across UncleGeorge’s fresh log of the trip. He always keeps one, and I’ve even hadthe pleasure of reading about some exciting adventures he’s met with informer years. So that’s my only excuse for glancing at what he’s jotteddown here. The last entry is where he made up his mind to go over to theTucker Pond to try again for that giant moose. And by the way, Rob, Iwas wondering whether our excited visitor of last night could be thisbig chap Uncle George is so wild to get?”
“Now that might be so,” admitted the scout leader, “though the thoughthadn’t occurred to me before. He certainly was a buster of a beast,though he went off so fast none of us more than got a glimpse of hissize. Anything of unusual importance in the beginning of your uncle’slog, Tubby?”
“Oh, he got a deer on the opening day of the season, and we’ll probablyfind some of the venison around, if we look again sharply. Something didhappen it seems, something that gave my uncle considerable unhappiness,too. He lost one of his two guides.”
“What! did the man die here?” ejaculated the astounded Rob.
“Oh! my stars! no, Rob, not quite so bad as that,” Tubby hastened toadd. “He had to discharge the man because of something he’d done. Uncledoesn’t say what it was, but he was both indignant and pained; becausehe thought a heap of Zeb Crooks, who had been with him many seasons. Theman was stubborn, too, and wouldn’t ask Uncle George to forgive him, orit might have all been patched up. So he sent him flying, and startedoff to Tucker’s Pond with his other guide, a Penobscot Indian namedSebattis.”
“Well, that’s interesting, Tubby,” remarked Rob. “It doesn’t meananything to us, though I can understand how sorry your uncle must havebeen to part with a man he used to consider faithful. So it goes, andlots of things happen that are disagreeable. I suppose he’ll have justas good a time with the one guide to wait on him as when there were apair.”
Apparently Uncle George’s troubles did not bother Rob to any extent; butthere were things weighing on his mind though, during that afternoon,and these had a connection with the flight of that man in the aeroplane,over across the Canadian boundary line.