CHAPTER XXX
JACK'S HAZARDOUS PLAN
The boys crowded up around Jack and peered through an opening in thetent flap.
"Blizzard! I should say so!" exclaimed Nat. "It's fierce! How are wegoing to cook any breakfast?"
"Me show," answered Long Gun with a grin. Then he pointed to where heand Budge, the day before, had constructed, inside the living tent, asmall fireplace of stones and earth. There was a piece of pipe thatextended outside the canvas wall, and in the improvised stove a blazewas soon started, over which coffee was made, and some bacon fried.
"Let's go out and see what it's like," proposed Sam, as he wrappedhimself up warmly.
"No go far," cautioned Long Gun. "No git back if yo' do. Heap badstorm."
"There's no danger of Sam going too far," said Jack. "He's too fond ofthe warm stove."
"Get out!" replied Sam. "I can stand as much cold as you can."
But none of the boys cared to be long in that biting cold, for the windsent the snowflakes into their faces with stinging force, and the whitecrystals came down so thickly that had they gone far from the tent it isdoubtful if they could have found their way back again.
The horses were sheltered in a shack that had been built of saplings,with leaves and earth banked around it and on the roof, and the animals,huddled closely together, were warm and comfortable.
Inside the big tent, where the members of the gun club stayed, it wasnot cold, for Long Gun and Budge kept the fire going in the stone stove,and as the tent was well banked around the bottom, but little of thebiting wind entered.
Nothing could be done, as it was not safe to venture out, so the boysput in the day cleaning their guns, polishing some of the horn trophiesthey had secured, and talking of what had happened so far on theircamping trip.
Toward evening Long Gun went out to the supply tent to get some meat tocook. He came back in a hurry, his face showing much surprise.
"What's the matter?" asked Jack quickly.
"Meat gone!" exclaimed the Indian. "Something take him from tent."
The boys rushed out into the storm toward the smaller canvas shelterwhere their food and supplies were kept. One side had been torn down,and within there was a scene of confusion.
In the fierceness of the storm, while the campers had been in the bigtent, some wild beast, or, perhaps, several of them, had stolen up andcarried away most of the food on which Jack and his chums depended. Norcould it be said what beasts had robbed them, for their tracks wereobliterated by the snow that had fallen since.
"Well, this is tough luck!" exclaimed Jack. "What are we going to donow?"
"There's some bacon left from breakfast," said Budge. "Have to eat that,I guess."
"Yes; and, thank goodness, the thieves didn't care for coffee," addedNat. "We sha'n't starve, at least, to-night."
"There's some canned stuff left, too," went on Will.
"But it won't last long, if this storm keeps up," spoke Jack seriously."I guess we're going to be up against it, fellows."
"Like fish?" asked Long Gun suddenly.
"What have fish got to do with it?" inquired Bony.
"Catch fish through ice soon. Storm stop," replied the Indian. "Riverplenty full fish."
"That's a good idea," commented Jack. "But when will the blizzard stop?"
It kept up all that night and part of the next day. The campers were onshort rations, as regards meat, though there was plenty of canned bakedbeans, and enough hardtack for some time yet, while there was flour thatcould be made into biscuits. But they needed meat, or something like it,in that cold climate.
It was late the next afternoon when Jack, looking from the tent,announced:
"Hurrah, fellows! It's stopped snowing, and the wind has gone down. Nowfor some fish through the ice. Long Gun, come on and show us how."
The Indian got some lines and hooks ready, using salt pork for bait.Then the whole party went down to the river, traveling on snowshoes, forthere was a great depth to the snow, and it was quite soft.
It was no easy task to scrape away the white blanket and get down to theice that covered the river, but they managed it. Holes were chopped inthe frozen surface of the stream, and then they all began to fish. Theyhad good luck, and soon had caught enough of the finny residents of theShoshone to make a good meal.
"Um-um!" exclaimed Bony, as they sat down to supper a little later."Maybe this doesn't taste fine!" and he extended his plate for some moreof the fish, fried brown in corn meal, with bacon as a flavoring.
The next day Jack, Nat and Sam went out and killed some jack-rabbits,and this served them until two days later, when Jack killed a fat ramand Will a small deer.
All danger of a short food supply was thus obviated, and, the damagedtent having been repaired, the boys prepared to resume their hunt.
"We've only about three weeks more," announced Jack one night. "If westay much longer we may get snowed in and have to stay until spring."
"Well, that wouldn't be so bad," spoke Bony.
"I know why Jack wants to start back," spoke Sam. "He is going to stopat Pryor's Gap and see a certain party with brown eyes, who----"
Then Sam dodged to avoid the snowshoe which his chum threw across thetent at him.
"When are we going to make another try to discover the secret of thestrange camp?" asked Nat when quiet was restored.
"That's so. When?" asked Will. "We haven't heard that queer noiselately."
"We'll see what we can do to-morrow," answered Jack.
That night the lads were startled by again hearing that strange sound inthe air over their camp. But this time it seemed farther away, and onlylasted a short time, while Jack, who rushed out the moment he heard it,could discover nothing.
Jack, Nat, Sam, Bony and Will started off early the next morning onsnowshoes for the top of the mountain, in accordance with a plan Jackhad formed of trying to reach the camp of the men from a point directlyback of the place whence they had been ordered away.
They reached the summit of the mountain and found, as Long Gun had saidthey would, a trail leading directly down. But it was so steep and socovered with snow that it seemed risky to attempt it.
"We can never get down there," said Nat.
"Sure we can," declared Jack.
"We might if we had some of those long, wooden snowshoes, likebarrel-staves, which the Norwegians use," spoke Sam. "Otherwise I don'tsee how we're going to do it."
Jack did not reply. Instead he was walking slowly along what seemed tobe an abandoned trail. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation.
"The very thing!" he cried.
"What?" asked Bony.
"That old sled," answered Jack, pointing to a sort of bobsled, that hadevidently been made by lumbermen. It consisted of a platform of slabs,on long, broad, wooden runners, and stood near an abandoned camp.
"How can we use that?" asked Nat.
"Get on it and slide down the mountain," daringly proposed Jack."There's plenty of snow. The old sled will hold us all, and maybe we canride right into their camp lickity-split. Then they can't put us outuntil we've seen what's going on. Will you go?"
The boys hesitated a moment. It was a hazardous plan, one fraught withdanger, but they were not the lads to draw back for that. It seemed theonly feasible way of getting down the mountain.
Jack Ranger's Gun Club; Or, From Schoolroom to Camp and Trail Page 31