The Ranger Boys Outwit the Timber Thieves

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER V

  EXTRA ENEMIES

  Hundreds of people joined in the shrieking, and a stampede from theseats started. Scores were trampled. The music had stopped for aninstant until the leader, true to tradition, called the men to order,and the musicians swung into a stirring march. Circus hands, aided bythe performers who were on the platforms and in the rings, ran to thesides of the tracks and endeavored to keep the people in their seats.

  The three chums were aghast for a minute, then Phil and Dickinstinctively turned to Garry to see what he would do. Garry had takenone look and saw the beast at the far end of the tent, lashing his tailand surveying the crowd, as though making up its mind as to what courseto pursue.

  The boys saw that Garry was hastily slipping his lasso from hisshoulder, and in a moment they had understood what he was going toattempt, and followed suit.

  "Now fellows, let's try it. We may save a lot of lives. I'll try for hishead, and you two try for a foot each. I think we can catch him allright. Let's go!" and Garry led the way.

  Calling to everyone to sit still as they ran, and swinging their lariatsover their heads, they struggled to the ground. Several people seeingthem make their way there, thought that it was perhaps a part of thecircus, and began to shout to each other that it was a feature of theprogram. The sight of the three boys making their way fearlessly towardthe beast did more than anything else to quiet the people. Many sat backin their seats, although others were escaping under the canvas wall ofthe tent.

  It was to Phil, however, that the greatest honor was to come. As he ran,swinging one arm, his hand hit against a pocket in his coat, and he felta hard lump within. In an instant he remembered that he bought pepperthe day before to replenish the condiment can that he generally carriedin his knapsack, but had not thought to take it out and transfer thecontents from the package to the can. He reached into his pocket andbrought out the can. Hastily opening the top, he kept on his way towardthe lion, holding the package out in front of him. The chums approachedwithin a few feet of the lion, who was showing signs of springingsuddenly at them. The effect of the boys' advance on him was to make himforget the crowds and center all his attention on those that werenearest him--the chums.

  The boys stopped short and were swinging their lariats, when suddenlyPhil darted ahead almost up to the lion, and, with a well directed aim,emptied the contents of the pepper package straight on the eyes of thelion.

  The infuriated beast gave a roar of pain and sprang, then fell to earthand stuck a great paw into his eyes, as though to rub away the torturingstuff that was blinding him.

  Garry, quick-witted, divined what Phil had done, and at the same momentthat the lion struck the ground, ran forward and threw the noose of thelariat over the animal's head.

  The animal was nearly helpless, owing to its inability to see, and inanother moment the boys had the rest of their lariats noosed about hisfeet.

  By this time the trainer and a number of the circus helpers had arrivedon the scene, and, dashing in, they tied the lariats securely about theanimal's feet.

  The crowd seeing that the animal was securely fastened and helpless,first breathed a sigh of relief and then became suddenly quiet. Manystill thought it was a part of the program, but a majority felt surethat it was a striking piece of bravery that they had just witnessed.

  Then cheer on cheer rolled through the tent, as the audience applaudedthe brave trio of chums. All the foregoing had taken much less time thanthe minutes necessary to describe it. In a moment the owner came puffingon the scene, and when he saw who had accomplished the capture, he wasspeechless for the moment.

  Then he said to the chums, as they stood watching the animal beingloaded into its cage:

  "This is twice today that you boys have done me a good turn, but thissecond time far outmatches the first. Will you please come back to theticket wagon with me." Then to the menagerie head, who had joined them:"I'd like you to come, too, please, Jones."

  The little group made its way to the ticket office, where the ownerfirst asked for an account of how the beast had made its escape.

  "The only man who can tell you that is the roustabout who cleans theanimal's cage. He was gashed by the lion evidently as its escape wasbeing made, and that and very likely a heart stroke killed him quickly.I think perhaps he thought it was near time for the transfer to thearena cage to be made and had unlocked the cage door, and the lionpushed its way out, sir," said Jones.

  The manager was silent for a moment. Then he said:

  "No one can know how sorry I am that the man lost his life, but I amthankful that the lion did no other damage, either by starting a greatpanic or by attacking some one of the audience. As for you boys, Ipropose to make you a substantial reward."

  "I assure you, sir," began Garry, "we have no thought of any reward fordoing what we did. It was luck on our part that enabled us to lasso him,and we get our satisfaction in knowing that we perhaps saved a greatmany lives."

  "I hope you will accept something as a recompense for your services. Hadthe lion done great damage, I would have had to pay out many thousandsof dollars," insisted the owner.

  "Let us ask you one question first. Was the workman that was killed afamily man?" asked Garry.

  "I can tell you that in a minute." Turning to the ticket seller, he toldhim to look the man up. A record of all the workers with their homeaddresses was kept in a card index and in a moment the ticket seller hadascertained that the dead man had a wife living in a small town in NewYork State.

  "Of course we will take care of the widow, as we have every workerinsured, and then the management always adds to the insurance," said thehead of the circus.

  "Then I wish that you would just take whatever you had thought ofoffering us in the way of a reward and add to the amount. I think mychums agree with me that this is the best thing that could be done. Isthat right?" and Garry turned to his friends. Both Dick and Phil wereemphatic in their agreement.

  "Well, if that is the way you boys feel about it, I will do so, but Iwill find some way to show you that I appreciate the great service thatyou have done me."

  The owner asked them several other questions and took their names andaddresses, and again he offered to take the boys along with them on thetour. Of course they refused, explaining that they were of the RangerService of the State and were only on detached duty at the time.

  They remained for supper at the cook tent, and watched the circus torndown and loaded in the teams preparatory to travelling to the next stop.

  After a hearty goodbye from the manager and owner they took their leave,and hiking beyond the town spread their blankets for the night.

  They woke with the rising of the sun, and building a fire soon hadcoffee, spider bread and bacon going, and made a hearty breakfast.

  "According to my reckoning we are about ten miles from the camp, and thewoods will begin in about a mile or two, so we had better get going. Itis now six o'clock and with three hours of easy hiking we will make ourdestination," said Garry. "Now I think we ought to hold a council of waras to how we shall conduct ourselves when we get to the camp. I think itbest that we just go to the manager and tell him we are going to campthere for awhile, either right at the lumber camp, or a short distancein the woods. Of course we shall give no inkling of the nature of ourvisit, not even to the manager, at least until we have sized him up. Tomy mind, everyone will be under suspicion until he has proven that thesuspicion is unfounded. We can go all over the camp and keep our eyesopen, getting all the information we can. When we ask questions weshould ask them simply as though it were from idle curiosity. I figurethat in a short time we ought to be able to tell who is actingsuspiciously and then bend all our efforts to watch them and frustrateany mischief that they may be up to. We shall, of course, get a lot ofhelp from Howells when he arrives, but even then I think we ought to doeverything possible ourselves to find out what is the trouble at thecamp."

  They walked steadily but easily, and true to their reckoning a
rrived atthe camp a little after nine o'clock. The boys looked about themcuriously. There were only three buildings, built of logs. One, thesmallest, was evidently the officers' bunkhouse and offices; the otherwas apparently the cookhouse, for the boys could see a youth sitting onan upturned tub in front of the door peeling potatoes, and a thin wispof smoke issued from the chimney. Since it was mid-summer and hot, therewould be no need for a stove in any place but the kitchen. The thirdhouse was a long, low log affair, bigger by far than either of theothers. This they decided was the bunk house, where the lumberjackslived.

  They made their way to the office and inquired for the manager. Onhearing the word "manager," a thin, sharpfaced man approached them, andgiving them a hasty glance, said in a sharp tone:

  "If you're here to ask for permission to camp on this tract you're outof luck. This is a lumber operation and not a free camp site for everyfool from the city."

  "Just a minute, please. Hadn't you better find out our business beforeyou make up your mind as to what you will or won't do?" asked Garry, asan angry red flush overspread his face. Garry was an extremely civilboy, and expected others to be the same, and when he receiveduncourteous attention was apt to resent it deeply.

  "Well, what do you want?" asked the manager, still in an ungracioustone.

  "My name is Boone, and the owner of these cuttings happens to be myfather. Didn't you get a letter from him telling of our expectedarrival?"

  A great change came over the manner of the manager. A smirking smiletook the place of the frown and he advanced with outstretched hand.

  "I hope you will pardon me. I have been bothered to death for the pastfew days by summer campers asking to pitch tents and build cabins andwhat not on the cutting, and I thought from your appearance that youboys were more of the same tribe," he said with an attempt to smooth outthe awkward situation and make up by a show of cordiality the blunder herealized he had made.

  Privately, Garry thought him very ill-mannered and felt he should havemade more inquiries before showing his temper. Still he said nothing andaccepted the hand of the manager, who said his name was Barrows.

  Garry then introduced his chums and explained that they intended to stayawhile and camp somewhere in the vicinity and watch the lumbering aswell as getting some fishing.

  "I understand that there are two lakes in the neighborhood," remarkedGarry, "and so we ought to get some good fishing." At the mention of theword lakes, Barrows looked sharply at the boys, then said:

  "Oh, yes, you will get plenty of fishing, but you will find that thesmall lake to the west of here is better than the big one that lies tothe north of us. The state stocked the little lake sometime ago byspecial request of your father, and I hear there are some very good bassand pickerel to be found there. The reports about the larger lake arenot so encouraging. Also there are two or three small streams,--brooksperhaps it would be better to call them,--where you will find someexcellent trout. Then at the small lake there is a good stretch of sandybeach where you can swim whenever you want to. Altogether you will findthe small lake is the most likely place for a summer playground."

  For a moment Garry wondered at the insistence of the manager in alwaysbringing the "small" lake into the conversation, but dismissed thematter with the thought that the manager was simply trying to makeamends for his ungraciousness of the previous moment by showing themwhere they could best enjoy themselves. Later he was to find that he wasmistaken.

  The manager asked them what they intended to do for living quarters. "Iam sorry that I can't offer you quarters in the bunkhouse here, but theyare just built to accommodate the officers of the camp; that is myself,the sealer, the timekeeper and the bookkeeper. Of course you would notwant to live in the bunkhouse with the men, for they are a rough lot.All I can suggest is that we makeshift for you some way and I will sendto town and dig up a tent for you."

  "If you will just loan us an axe apiece, and tell us which spot we cancut a little timber from, we can throw ourselves up a cabin in a shorttime, so don't bother about a tent. If necessary we can sleep in theopen till we get our shack fixed up," answered Garry.

  "Why, I can do better than that. I can let you have a couple or threemen to help you and do the work if you can direct them as to the kind ofcabin you want."

  "I don't want to take any of the men away from their work," Garry toldhim, "but if we could have two or three for a few minutes to help usthrow up the cabin after we cut the stuff it would help greatly."

  "I will go and mark out some of the trees that you can cut. There is asmall growth here that isn't exceptionally good lumber, it's ratherscrubby, but will do very well for a cabin. I'll have to go myself, forI left the cruiser go a few days to do some business he had waiting him,and I have been scaling myself. In fact I do that often. Whenever he iscruising to mark trees for cutting I do the measuring and that saves alot of time, also it saves the pay of an extra man. You ought to have agood bit done by noontime and then after dinner I will detail a coupleof men to help you," and the manager led the way to the cookhouse, wherethere were several extra axes.

  When they arrived at the cookhouse, they looked about with quite a bitof curiosity. Two great ranges stood at one end of the kitchen, and onone of the ranges were two enormous kettles. The boys could smellappetizing pea soup and judged that one of the kettles contained this.

  The cook was an enormous man with a pair of fierce black moustaches, andthe one man on the whole range who was regarded as being just a littlebit better than the boss or even the owner of the timber tract.Lumberjacks always took care never to pick a quarrel with him, and thiswent the same for the manager and the camp officers.

  This is the same in every logging camp, for a cook can pay up anygrievances by cooking the food in an inferior fashion. Camp owners andmanagers always pay the greatest attention to the sort of man they pickfor this position, for while in a lumber camp, there is never a widelyvaried menu, it must be well cooked and plentiful.

  Nothing will drive the men away from a camp quicker than poor cooking.

  The manager introduced the boys to the cook, who shook hands with them,offering a hairy hand which the chums privately thought resembled a ham.For all his fierce looks he proved to be a genial chap, and the threeboys wondered whether he was one of the ring of trouble makers or not.They reserved any decision in their own minds to await futuredevelopments, but they had decided that everyone was under suspicionuntil he proved that he was clear of any blame in the mysteriousoccurrences that retarded progress at the lumber camp.

  In every camp there is a cookee, as the helper to the cook isuniversally called. His duty is to peel potatoes, wash dishes, wait onthe table--rather set the tables than wait, for everything is piled onat the beginning of the meal, and the only helping that is done is whena dish has to be re-filled.

  The cookee was a surly looking chap of about twenty-one years of age. Hewas slight of build and had violent red hair. He just mumbled a word ortwo when he was introduced, and went on with his work, which was slicingbread for the dinner hour that was near at hand. Garry and his friendsmentally put him down as one that might bear watching as soon as theyhad located themselves.

  While the manager was asking the cook about borrowing a couple of theaxes that were stacked in the corner, a black-browed chap came to thedoor and asked for a pail of water to take out to where several of themen were trimming trees. The cookee brought the water and steppedoutside with the man. Garry and Phil were talking with the manager andthe cook, but Phil happened to be standing near the door.

  He heard the sound of talking in the French language and strained hisears to catch what was being said. Phil was not eavesdropping because ofa natural desire to do so; it was merely that he was on the watch everymoment for a possible clue that would lead them to the solution thatthey were in quest of,--the riddle of the mishaps at the lumber camp.

  What Phil heard was this:

  "Baptiste will be at the usual place at midnight tonight."

  Phil determ
ined then and there that he would be at the rendezvous,wherever it was, and hear what transpired. He could hardly wait to getthe others with him so that he could impart to them the information thathe had just overheard.

  He hoped that something else would be said, but at this moment the cookcalled for his helper, who came hustling back into the shanty, and wentabout preparing for the serving of the dinner.

  Phil went back to join his chums just in time to hear the manager say:

  "Unless you boys want the fun of throwing up a log house, I wouldsuggest a much easier and quicker way. You can cut enough poles for thesupports of the house, and then I'll have some sawed boards brought tothe spot. Also there is some tarred paper here that was brought herewhen the camp started just for such an emergency. That would mean thatyou could be all located before nightfall. As for heat, I have a Sibleystove, one of those small ones such as they use in army camps for tents,that will do very well. It isn't likely that you will want it often, forwe are in the hottest part of the summer, and only on a cold, wet nightwill you require heat. You won't be here such a long time, I presume,and we are in for a spell of good weather according to the cook here,who is the camp weather prophet."

  Garry thought for a moment, and wondered what made the manager presumethey would be there only a short time. He was anxious to get going aboutthe camp as soon as possible and see what there was to pick up in theway of information, so he decided that the board house would do as wellas one built entirely of logs.

  "That is a fine suggestion and we will accept. Building a hut is nothingnew to us, and we are anxious to begin fishing and wandering about, soif you will show us where we can cut enough good heavy saplings forsupports, we will start right at it. We can have them cut and in placebefore dinner and then the men can bring us the boards after dinner andwe will be all shipshape by nightfall," said Garry.

  "I think that is the best thing to do," the manager answered. "It isabout an hour to dinner time, and you will have ample time to do allthat can be done this forenoon."

  So saying, Barrows led the way to a spot near the camp, where there wasa clump of saplings that were not big enough to be used for sawedlumber.

  "You might as well pitch your shanty here as anywhere, and it will saveyou from dragging your saplings to any great distance. I'll gash each ofthe saplings that you will need. You will only want ten as I figure it."

  "No, we will want twelve so that we may have a window," interposedGarry.

  "That's a fact," answered the manager, looking sharply at Garry. "I seethat you know rather a bit about shanty building. Do you know much aboutlogging operations? I suppose you do, however, since you are of a familythat has always made logging a business."

  Garry felt that the manager was asking this question for a purpose, buthe promptly answered:

  "No, we know very little about logging, surprising as that may seem,since as you say it ought to run in the blood. About the only thing weunderstand about timbering operations is the log drive in the spring. Wewere up once to watch the fight for the river, and had a mighty excitingtime, but the entire business is something new to all of us."

  Garry finished speaking and then looked sharply but guardedly atBarrows. He thought he noticed a relieved expression on the face of themanager.

  The three boys set about felling the saplings, swinging their axes witha sure arm and hand. Barrows lingered to watch them at work, althoughPhil was on tenterhooks to have him get away in order that he mightimpart to his chums the information that he had gained from the sentencehe had overheard at the cook shanty.

  The poles being cut, four of them were erected in an upright manner toform the main support of the house. At the tops of these, four more wereplaced horizontally to support the roof. Then in the center of thefront, two were erected to form the sides of the door, while at a sidetwo others, in vertical position, allowed the making of a window.

  Still the manager made no show of leaving until fortunately for Phil,who would have almost exploded had he been forced to keep silent anylonger, he was called by the red headed cookee.

  "Now quick fellows, while I have a chance to tell you. I have found oneof the traitors in the camp; it is the cookee. He is going to meet someone tonight to hatch something out, and you chaps have one guess as towho it is."

  "Barrows?" hazarded Dick.

  "Wrong. Baptiste LeBlanc!"