CHAPTER XXI.
THE LITTLE FIRE BOW DOES ITS WORK AT LAST.
"Oh! what is it, Giraffe?" exclaimed Bumpus, in a quavering voice.
"I _told_ you I c'd do it! On'y gimme time, and I'll figger the oldthing out, I said; _and I have_!" cried the exultant Giraffe.
"Why, it's burnin'!" gasped the other, staring at the tiny flame thatwas playing hide-and-seek in the midst of the dry tinder that had solong awaited its coming.
"Sure it is; anybody with one eye could see that!" Giraffe sent back,about as happy a fellow as the sun ever shone on, because his longendurance test had in the end met with such grand success. "Hey! what'sthe matter, Bumpus? Get a move on, and collect some stuff to add tothis, before the thing goes out on me. Lively, boy, lively with you,while I shield it with my hands!"
He hugged the little blaze with his body and hands while Bumpus,dropping the now useless gun, eagerly gathered a lot of dry pineneedles, and made a pile of them close to his chum.
"Oh! glory! Bully for you, Giraffe! You're the scout who can stick to athing like a plaster. Don't it look good, though?" cried the shorterlad; but the fire-maker would not let him loiter.
Presently there was no longer any dread of the fire burning out; andboth of the scouts could get busy collecting fuel. Dead branches were indemand, and fortunately enough, there happened to be plenty of the sameclose by, so that without much effort they were able to get quite a heapnear the fire.
"Now let's sit down, and warm up a bit," suggested Bumpus; althoughtruth to tell, he was at that moment perspiring from his recentexertions.
"And if you want to talk about eating _now_, Bumpus, you're quitewelcome," the taller scout went on to say, with a grin; "because there'ssomething to it. We've got the birds, and we've got the fire to cook 'emby. Who said I couldn't start a fire by sawin' at my fiddle till I bursta blood vessel? Wasn't it Davy Jones? Well, you c'n just tell him forme, next time you see him, Bumpus, that he was all wrong. Why, it's justas easy as fallin' off a log; er, that is, after you know how."
"Shall we start in plucking the feathers off these birds, Giraffe?"
"Might as well, if we mean to eat 'em; and speakin' for my own feelingsI want to say that a partridge'd go mighty well about now. Yum! yum! getbusy with one, and I'll tackle the other."
Both boys knew how to do the job of plucking the birds, and soon had thefeathers flying.
Both of them were feeling a thousand per cent better than before; andBumpus even hummed as he worked. Giraffe's thoughts very naturally keptalong the line of his recent triumph. He had labored so long, andagainst such a handicap, that he might well be excused for feeling proudof his success.
"Good little bow!" he muttered; "you did the business, all right, didn'tyou? The trouble was, I didn't just know how to handle you; but I've gotit down pat now, and I'll never forget again, never. Wonder what theboys'll say when they hear about it? And Bumpus, it came in right pat,didn't it?"
"I should say it did, Giraffe," replied the other, enthusiastically;"when we didn't have a single match, night here, cold as the dickens,wolves howling pretty soon, and no way of cooking these plumppartridges. Why, if you'd gone and arranged all the particulars, I don'tbelieve you could a had it hit us at a better time. It's just great,that's what."
"And the cream is on you, Bumpus."
"Shucks! who cares for that? Why, a little while ago I'd given all thespending money I expect to get as my share of the rewards for returnin'those lost bank papers, for just one little penny box of matches. Why,I'll be only too happy to treat the whole crowd six times over, afterthis. There, my bird's done, Giraffe."
"Same here; and now how are we agoin' to cook 'em?" the other scoutremarked.
Bumpus looked at him rather blankly.
"That's so," he observed, "we ain't got a sign of a frying-pan, havewe?"
"But there must be a way of cooking 'em by keeping the birds close tothe fire. All old hunters cook their game that way. And don't youremember, Bumpus, Thad and Step Hen took sticks, and stuck 'em in theground, with chunks of venison on the other end. Step said it was justprime. Well, what's to hinder our trying that same old game?"
"But the partridges are too big and heavy; they won't ever cookthrough?" objected the fat scout, doubtfully.
"All right; I guess now we can manage to slice the same in half,"Giraffe continued, hopefully. "I've done the job for my folks at home,more'n a few times, when they wanted to broil a Spring chicken for somesick person. We'll have our game broiled, Bumpus, see?"
"Sure we will; and while you're about it, with that big-bladed knife ofyours, Giraffe, give mine a rip down the back, so I c'n split it open.It's easy to see you know how. Thad and Allan ain't got so very much onyou, when it comes to doin' things."
By this artful flattery did Bumpus manage to get his bird divided. Hespread it out carefully, and then started a hunt for the long sticks, bymeans of which the bird was to be held in a proper position before thehot fire.
After considerable waste of energy, they finally managed, after afashion, to get the birds placed so that they received a fair portion ofthe heat that came out of the fire. Several times the sticks eitherbroke, or else failed to hold properly, so that the game fell into theashes, to be hastily rescued, and wiped off before again being put overthe fire.
The minutes dragged, and to the hungry scouts it seemed as though thetwo partridges had tantalized them long enough. They gave forth an odorthat was positively appetizing; and finally Giraffe just could not standit another minute.
"Say, they must be done by now," he remarked, eying his bird ravenously.
"They look pretty brown," remarked Bumpus, "though that may come fromthe scorching they got each time they dipped in the red-hot ashes. But Ifeel just like you do, Giraffe; and if you say the word, it's a go."
At that the tall scout started to savagely tear at one-half of his bird;and not to be outdone the other boy copied his example. Perhaps at homethey would have complained long and loudly because the cook had sentfood to the table only half done; but then circumstances alter cases;and sitting there by their lonely camp-fire under the pines andhemlocks, those two boys munched away, and nodded toward each other in asuggestive way, that told how much they were enjoying it.
What if the meat was far from being well cooked, did not those who knewsay that game should never be browned; and as for the gray ash thatstill clung to the outside of each bird, why, the wood was sweet andclean that it came from; and every fellow has to eat his peck of dirtsometime or other, they understood.
And so they kept persistently at it until nothing but the bones remainedof the two partridges; and each boy was sighing because, like Alexanderof old, there were no more worlds to conquer.
"That was just prime!" declared Bumpus; "and to think that I shot thedandy birds too; so you owe your fine supper to me, Giraffe."
"I do, eh?" chuckled the other. "How about the fire, tell me that? How'dthem same birds tasted raw? You wouldn't have liked 'em as much, Ireckon. So, you see, after all, Bumpus, honors are about even; yousupplied the game, and I fixed up the fire. Better call it a drawnbattle, and end it."
"All right, just as you say; but the only trouble I can see is theywasn't near big enough to fit in with my capacity. There's a vacuumstill under my belt; even if I don't feel faint any longer."
"Oh! I guess we can hold out now till morning," said Giraffe. "Thenwe'll take our bearings again, and make another start for the camp. Andp'raps some of them might just be out looking for us right now; andseeing this bright fire, they'll head this way. So we'll act like we'rehavin' the time of our lives; and don't you ever go and let on that wefelt scared even a little bit, hear now?"
Bumpus, having a little pride of his own, readily promised. Besides, nowthat they had partaken of a very good supper, and had that bright andcheery fire to keep them company during the remainder of the cold night,things looked vastly different; so that it was hard to believe he hadever shivered and groaned as he contemplated th
eir forlorn condition.
They sat there, talking about various things, for quite a little time.Once or twice Bumpus fancied he heard some sort of sound in the woodsthat caused him to send a quick glance toward where he had laid his"trusty Marlin" down; but then, as Giraffe did not seem to pay anyattention to the noise, he soon forgot it.
But there came a time when both of them plainly heard a cough.
Giraffe grinned, and nodded his head.
"The boys are comin' all right," he said, as if pleased; "just like Isaid they'd be apt to do. Now, just sit where you are, Bumpus, and makeout to be as happy as a king. We'll make 'em believe we're quite at homeat this sort of thing; and the only thing we're sorry for is that wecan't offer 'em a nice hot bird apiece. Look pleasant, now."
Presently they caught what sounded like the low murmur of voices, andthey seemed to be approaching too. It did not occur to the two scoutsthat the parties were coming from a direction opposite to the camp wheretheir chums had been left; partly because they had not the remotest ideawhere that same camp lay.
Now they could hear the swishing of bushes, as though the newcomers werenot very particular about how they walked. Then it must be Step Hen orDavy Jones who made all the noise, because they were greenhorns, and didnot know how to walk noiselessly.
"I c'n see 'em comin'," remarked Bumpus, who happened to be sitting in aposition that allowed of his using his eyes.
"Remember, now, what I told you; just be feelin' as fine as silk, as ifthis camp business was an old story with us," and to further thedeception Giraffe started to stretch his arms, and yawn at a tremendousrate.
Bumpus did not answer; and thinking this a little strange the tall scoutturned his eyes that way. He discovered that Bumpus was staring asthough his eyes would almost pop out of his head. That, of course, madeGiraffe twist his long neck half way around, so that he might share inwhat had aroused his companion to such a state of excitement.
And Giraffe also experienced a decided thrill when he saw two men comehalf staggering into camp, who from their looks he knew must be Si Kedgeand Ed Harkness, the rough and lawless game poachers and bullies of thepine woods.
Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods; Or, The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol Page 21