Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay; Or, The Disappearing Fleet

by G. Harvey Ralphson

  CHAPTER II.

  A WILD CHARGE.

  "Help! Help!" Jimmy was shouting, kicking wildly as he roared. "Keep offme, you wild elephant! Somebody shoot him, quick, before he steps onme!"

  "Here, stop that kicking, if you want to be helped up, do you hear,Jimmy!" exclaimed Frank, who had hastened to the assistance of thecomrade in distress. "Are you much hurt; and did the beast trample onyou any?"

  Jimmy began to feel of his legs and arms, and upon discovering himselfapparently as sound as a dollar, grinned sheepishly. Meanwhile the twoguides had hastened, with the help of Ned and Jack, to gather the firetogether again. Teddy had snatched up the nearest rifle and was down onone knee, peering out through the semi-darkness as though anticipating areturn rush on the part of the unknown monster that had created suchconfusion in the camp.

  "No great damage done, after all, seems like, if Jimmy says he's allright," remarked Ned, now beginning to let a broad smile creep over hisface, for seeing Jimmy doubled up and had been a ludicrous spectaclenot soon to be forgotten.

  "But what in creation was it that put the kibosh all over me like that?"demanded the one who had been knocked over by the mad rush of theinvader.

  Ned glanced toward Francois, and the voyageur simply said:

  "Bull moose--him very much mad, charge camp like that!"

  "Well, I should think he must have been," Frank Shaw declared. "Why, ifwe'd had a little more warning we might have met him with a volley ofhot lead that'd have laid him out dead. Now that Francois says so, I dobelieve he looked pretty much on the order of a monstrous moose bull. Icertainly saw his horns, and they were full grown, because the ruttingseason is long since past."

  "But what makes a moose get his mad up?" Jack asked. "We didn't do asingle thing to rile him, that I know of, but were sitting here as easyas you please, when all at once he charges through the camp. Why, say,he nearly carried off some of our property, when he knocked down thattent. Look at the rip his horns made in the tanned canvas, would you?Some more sewing for Teddy here, to mend the rip."

  "Francois, do bull moose often act in that way?" asked Teddy, stillgripping the repeating rifle, as though not fully convinced that theirwould be no repetition of the savage onslaught.

  The guide shook his head.

  "Know only few times when it happen, and then there be reason. He carryoff on horns what makes him rush our camp. I saw the same with my owneyes. Bull moose much like farm bull, and hate ze red color ver' mooch."

  At hearing this several of the boys gave a shout.

  "There, see what you get, Jimmy, for keeping that silly red sweateraround. The old bull saw it hanging there in the light of our fire, andit made him so furious, as it has us lots of times, that he lowered hishead and just charged us."

  "But he took it away with him, as sure as you live, fellows!" gaspedJimmy, as a sense of his deep affliction came over him. "My dear sweaterthat I loved so much."

  "Bully for the moose!" cried Jack.

  "He'd done us all a mighty good turn, even if he never meant to," addedFrank, "now we've seen the last of that terrible old garment, andJimmy'll just _have_ to get out the nice new one he's been carrying inhis bag."

  "Just think of the old fool, would you, a-tearin' around the woods withthat red flag hanging from his horns," Jimmy wailed. "Don't I hope itkeeps him wild right along, so that he'll smash into a tree, and breakhis blessed neck! But I'm glad he didn't take a notion to carry me offalong with my sweater, and that's no lie!"

  The little excitement soon died away. Not much damage had been doneafter all by that mad charge of the infuriated bull moose. The rent inthe canvas could be readily mended, and as for Jimmy's loss it was hiscompanions' gain, so that there would be no lament made save by the lateowner.

  "I didn't know moose ever roamed as far north as this," remarked Ned.

  "How about that, Francois?" asked Frank, who, it might be noticed, kepthis gun close beside him now, as though meaning to be ready in caseanother cause for excitement arose.

  "It is not often zat ze bull moose come up here," replied the FrenchCanadian, in his queer patois; "but sometimes in summer zey wander farafield. I haf seen ze same so mooch as three hundred mile north fromhere."

  "One thing sure, there are plenty of caribou around," Teddy went on tosay; "and when the meat's tender, it suits me all right. I'm runningacross new things every day up here, and don't feel sorry I came, sofar."

  "New things seem to be running across us also," chuckled Frank; "forinstance, the monster that just invaded our camp. But as our supply ofred sweaters has given out now, we'll hope not to have a repeat of thatcharge in a hurry."

  "Me for a tree if ever I hear anything on four legs heading this wayagain!" Jimmy told them. "Why, what would have happened to me if the oldfour flusher had set his hoofs square on my stomach? I'd be feelingpretty punk right now, believe me."

  "I think I'll take to the tall timber myself if this thing gets common,"was what Jack observed. "My stars! but he was a whopper. Looked like theside of a house to me when he sizzled past, scattering the fire,leveling our best tent, and kicking up a whole circus with a band wagonattached."

  "What was it we were talking about when we had that unexpected call?"asked Teddy.

  "Ned was telling us something more that trapper we met said to him aboutthe queer things that happen away up here in this uninhabited country,which is so different from any other known land. Didn't he say somethingabout a phantom fleet of vessels that kept bobbing up every now andthen, only to speed away like ghosts. What did you make of that sillyrot, Ned?"

  "I've been puzzling my head over it ever since," Ned replied, "but forthe life of me can't make head or tail of the story. I've almost cometo the conclusion that the trapper was a little dippy, and just imaginedhe saw those vessels."

  "Sounds like it to me, Ned," Jack declared. "Whatever would vessels ofany kind want up in Hudson Bay, if not to fish, or hunt whales, orseals, or walrus? And why should they flit around like ghosts, as hesaid? Chances are the old chap was using up his surplus stock of strongdrink, and saw things where they didn't exist."

  "Well, anyway," Jimmy ventured, reflectively, "it's me that hopes we'llrun foul of this same queer disappearing fleet, because if we do it's apipe cinch we'll scrape all the mystery off the story. We always managethat when we start into anything. It seems to be the scout way of doingthings."

  "For my part," declared Frank, "I take little stock in that yarn of thetrapper. I imagine it's in a line with the big story of the minesyndicate that wants to unload on Mr. Bosworth. This is the country forwhopping lies. Everything is on so big a scale up here, you know,stories have to keep along with them."

  "And moose are as big as houses," added Jimmy.

  "How is it we don't see you busy with your fish lines to-night, Jimmy?"asked Ned.

  "Yes, it's been three mornings now since we had fresh fish forbreakfast, and as that job was handed over to you, we all want to knowwhat's gone wrong?" Jack added.

  Jimmy shrugged his shoulders, and made a wry face.

  "I've soured on me job, if that's what you want to know," he replied."I've pulled in so many fish since we started that me arm is sore withthe work. Besides, I've lost me taste for fresh fish. Them that feel anitching for the diet c'n do the business. Here's me lines and hooks withpleasure."

  No one, however, seemed anxious to undertake the task on this particularoccasion. Truth to tell they were one and all pretty tired. It had beenan unusually arduous day, so that shoulders and legs ached more or less,from packing all their possessions across country to the bank of theriver on which they now found themselves, and which Francois, yes, andTamasjo ditto, affirmed would carry them all the rest of the way to thegreat inland sea known on the maps as Hudson Bay, in honor of the famousexplorer.

  It felt good to lie there at their ease on blankets and enjoy the warmthof the cheery campfire. There was more or less of a tang in the air mostof the time on account of being so far north; and this became more
evident when the sun had set, and the short night commenced, so thatthe young explorers were glad to have tents and warm blankets along.

  Once while they were talking Jack lifted his head and appeared to belistening.

  "A wolf pack hunting through the muskegs!" remarked Ned.

  "Just what it must be," declared Jack. "And wherever we go it seems asif there was no end to the hungry beasts. We ran up against them awayout in California, you remember; and they've given us no end of troubleon this present trip."

  "I only hope that swift bunch is hustling along on the trail of Mr. BullMoose, and that they overhaul the beggar right soon," grumbled Jimmyviciously.

  "What ails the little rascal now to make him feel so savage about thatmoose?" laughed Frank.

  "Huh! if you had something you thought the world of carried away on thehorns of a rotten old bull moose, mebbe it's you that would be feelingsore on him too, me boy," growled Jimmy.

  "Well, they say that one man's food is another's poison," observedFrank; "and all of us feel that your loss is our gain. Red sweaters maybe all very well on a baseball field, but in the woods they don't cutsuch a wide swath."

  "Forget it," added Jack.

  The two guides were looking after the canoes. It was their customaryhabit to attend to the craft every night before lying down, because theyrealized the great value that lay in the only means of making progressthat the expedition possessed; while no one dreamed of robbery, still,the motto of a scout is to shut the door _before_ the horse is stolen,and not afterwards. An ounce of prevention is always much better than apound of cure, so Ned was accustomed to saying, and he was anexperienced patrol leader.

  While they left some things to the guides, still, the boys were pleasedto keep constantly in touch with whatever was transpiring around them.Long ago they had learned to enjoy making fresh discoveries in the fieldand forest whenever abroad. And in this new and to them unexploredcountry they were running across numerous interesting things every day.

  They had just two tents along, and as neither of the guides wouldconsent to be under cover save in a rain storm, it allowed the fivescouts a chance to sleep comfortably, three in one shelter and a couplein the other. Ned and Jack occupied the smaller tent, while Jimmy bunkedwith Teddy and Frank in the second one.

  Presently the guides came into camp again, though they had been withinsight all the time, as the canoes lay well inside the circle of lightcoming from the fire.

  "All well with the boats, Francois?" asked Ned, who was hugging hisknees now, and had been joking Frank over several weird pictures thephotographer of the expedition had lately developed.

  "Everything O. K.," replied the voyageur, as though satisfied with hislabor. "No danger we lose same this night, zat is sure. Still, Francois,me, and ze ozzer guide we expect to sleep wiz ze one eye open."

  "If you should happen to see some stranger meddling with our boats,Francois--what would you do?" asked Frank.

  The voyageur shrugged his broad shoulders in a very Frenchy fashion ashe replied.

  "I sall call out and ask ze same what he do, sare; and if so be he tryto run away, pouf; I ze gun will fire, taking aim to vound ze rascal inze leg, and not kill."

  "Sounds rather war-like, don't it, Ned?" remarked Jack.

  "Well, you must remember that this is a wild country up here," theleader of the expedition went on to say, soberly; "and that men areaccustomed to looking on all others as enemies until they prove to befriends. A man who would sneak up and hover over our boats, on beingaddressed, if he were honest would throw up his hand at once and comeinto camp. Only a sneak thief would try and cut for it. And from my wayof looking at it Francois would be justified in giving him a bullet inthe leg, or a charge of Number Sevens in the last place he could see asthe man galloped away."

  As several of the scouts were yawning at a prodigious rate it was nowconcluded that the time had come to crawl under their blankets and getsome sleep. This going to bed was never a very long-drawn-out operationwith the scouts when in the open. Each boy would remove his shoes, aftertaking off his leggings, then follow with his outer garments, and afterthat just snuggle down under his warm covering, and forgetting all histroubles until the summons came that breakfast was almost ready.

  On this especial occasion they vanished inside the tents, leaving theguides at the fire smoking their last pipe of tobacco, which both ofthem had to indulge in before they could think of sleeping.

  After that none of the boys knew a single thing until they were rudelyawakened by hearing some one call out roughly.

  Immediately afterwards there came a peremptory hail, and then a loudreport that must have come from a gun.

  Of course there was a hustle in both tents, and it was astonishing howquickly each scout managed to get some of his clothes on. Aprofessional fireman could hardly have shown more expedition aboutdressing than Ned and Jack did, though hampered more or less in theoperation by the darkness.

  They had been very careful to remember just where their guns had beenplaced, so that as soon as they donned clothes it was easy to snatch upthese weapons, after which they burst out of the tent.

  The fire was beginning to revive, showing that some one must have tossedfresh fuel upon the smouldering logs. One glance that way told Nedseveral hours must have elapsed since he lay down, and that it was evennow long after midnight. He would have been able to tell within an hourwhat time of night it was, had he been given a few seconds to look up atthe heavens to note the position of the new stars in sight.