by Quincy Allen
CHAPTER XVI
DID TEDDY KNOW?
"Well, wouldn't that jar you?" remarked Bluff, as he heard what wascontained in the brief communication from the lumberman.
"Tried to burn down the camp at Lumber Run, did they?" burst outJerry. "Well, if you asked me my opinion, I'd have to admit that Ididn't like the looks of a few of those lumberjacks."
"But nobody has accused any of the loggers of the crime," remarkedFrank, and at that the head projecting from the opening at the doorcame a little further into view; which was pretty good evidence, Frankthought, that the wounded boy must take considerable interest in thediscussion.
"Why, who else would try to turn on Mr. Darrel that way, and burn hisshanties down just when winter is setting in?" asked Bluff.
"We can only give a guess at that," Frank told him.
"Whew!" exclaimed Bluff, as he grasped the meaning back of those fewwords. "After all, I wouldn't put it past him, Frank."
"Who--what--where--how?" demanded Will, apparently confused, and notable to understand what all these strange hints portended.
"We had a specimen of his nasty temper, you know," continued Bluff."Yes, twice now we've heard him tear around like a bull in a chinashop."
"Oh! now I tumble to what you mean," cried Will, who did not often useany sort of slang, and must therefore have been unusually excited tofall into the habit. "It's Bill--Bill Nackerson!"
Frank nodded his head.
"He's the only party around that we know of who would be mean enoughto try to set buildings on fire, just to get even with a man hedisliked," he observed.
"Yes, and didn't we hear him threaten to do something before long, soas to hit back at Mr. Darrel?" Jerry wanted to know, as if he had allalong been suspicious of the big sportsman.
"That's what we did," asserted Will. "To think of him trying to burnLumber Run Camp; and as like as not it was when all the men were soundasleep! Why, he might have been the death of some of them!"
"Whoever started the fire didn't care a hoot whether it hurt or not, Ithink," Bluff gave as his opinion.
Frank noticed that the head had disappeared from alongside the opendoor. Evidently Teddy had heard enough. He must have limped from hischair to the doorway upon hearing strange voices outside. Perhaps hehad suspected that the others brought news of some startlingcharacter.
Frank did not tell all of his chums about what he had seen. At thesame time it gave him food for much serious thought.
"I wouldn't be at all surprised if Teddy knew something about thatfire business," he mentioned to Bluff, a short time later, when theywalked together down to the spot where the mink tracks had been seen,as the latter had shown more or less interest in the habits of theselittle animals.
"Do you really think so?" said the other, with a frown.
"He heard strangers talking outside when those two loggers came up,"Frank continued, "and even dragged himself to the door to listen. Isaw his head, though after a bit, when we had talked matters over, hewent back to the fire again."
"See here, Frank, you don't think Teddy could have set that fire, Ihope?" demanded Bluff, uneasily.
"Oh! no, it isn't so bad as that," he was assured. "Teddy is tellingus the truth when he says he ran away from the camp last night, afterNackerson had knocked him down."
"The big coward!" muttered Bluff, clenching his fists and shaking hishead, as though he would like nothing better than to get in a blow atthe bully.
"My opinion, as far as I have any, is about like this," Frankcontinued. "After Nackerson struck Teddy the boy happened to overhearhim boasting about what he meant to do to the camp at Lumber Run."
"Oh! I see now what you mean, Frank; when he found that Bill wasgetting in deeper and deeper, Teddy just made up his mind that was noplace for a decent fellow to stay, and so he skipped out."
"You've got it about straight, Bluff," Frank admitted. "Of course, I'monly guessing all this, remember. Don't say one word of it to Teddy.Let him worry over it, and perhaps after a bit he'll understand thatthere's no reason why he should keep a still tongue in his head, toshield a rascal who didn't hesitate to strike him a cowardly blow."
Bluff was not slow of comprehension. He saw what Frank's plan was, andwhile he may not have entirely agreed with such a course, there was nodisposition to interfere.
"You know best how to work it, Frank," he said simply. "I'll keep asmum as an oyster till you give me the tip that it's time to speak.Just as you say, Teddy couldn't have been the one to put the match tothe camp over at Lumber Run. When Nackerson had gone away, perhapswith one of his pals who agreed to stand back of him, that's the timeTeddy lit out."
"He struck it pretty hard at first, getting caught in that trap,"Frank mused; "but when you come right down to facts I guess it wasjust as well that it happened to him."
"Huh! that's a queer thing to say," remonstrated Bluff. "Getting hungup in an old bear trap a blessing in disguise, was it? I'd like toknow how you figure that out, Frank."
"This way," explained the other. "If he had missed connections withthat trap Teddy would have reached the skunk farm only to meet withdisappointment."
"Sure he would, because Old Joe, as he called the fur farmer, hadpulled up stakes and gone to town for some weeks," Bluff admitted.
"As Teddy didn't know where we hung out, and couldn't find his way toLumber Run Camp, you can see that he would have had to choose betweengoing back to Nackerson, or losing himself in the Big Woods."
"Whew! it does take you to see through things," Bluff declared, with alaugh. "I can understand now that it _was_ a big streak of luckfor Ted when he met with that bear trap. We never know when we're welloff, do we? But show me what you were telling about this mink, Frank;and how the old chap visits around in and out of these holes in thebank during the winter and early spring."
Frank was always accommodating, especially when anything connectedwith his knowledge of nature was concerned. He loved to watch thesmall woods folk when they did not suspect his presence, and learnmore and more of their interesting habits.
So that day passed. Another, and yet a third found the boys enjoyingthemselves to the limit. Teddy was showing decided signs ofimprovement. He could get around fairly well by now, Jerry having cuthim a walking-stick, with a crook at the end. He was beginning to getover the nervousness that had shown itself for a whole day followinghis advent in the new camp.
Perhaps the boy had feared that Nackerson might come storming along,and insist on his returning to his duties as cook. He feared thebrutal sportsman more than ever, now that he had found such a fineharbor of refuge with the outdoor chums. To go back to that otherdrudgery would have been torture.
As soon as he was able to get around he insisted on taking charge ofthe cooking. And the boys soon learned that Teddy could managesplendidly. He had to be shown very little so as to suit their tastes;and none of them regretted in the least that they had extended ahelping hand toward one in distress.
A new life was opening up to Teddy. He had never before come incontact with such an agreeable lot of companions and every hour of theday he tried to prove himself grateful.
Still, he did not mention a word about what he might possibly know ofthe dastardly deed, when some one attempted to fire the logging camp.Frank often saw a worried expression come over the boy's face, and atsuch times he suspected that Teddy was puzzling his brain as to justwhat his duty might be. He did not like to betray his kinsman, and yetfelt that it was not right to refrain from taking someone into hisconfidence.
"He may speak sooner or later," Frank told himself; "and if he does,it will not be the reward of a hundred dollars for information thatwill make him tell."
On the second day, about noon, some of the boys were busy near thecabin, laying in an extra supply of firewood. Frank had an idea theywould be visited by a big snowfall before twenty-four hours hadpassed.
"Of course that's only a hazard, fellows," he told Bluff and Jerry,who were helping him add to the handy heap close to t
he door of thecabin, "but there does seem to be a feeling of dampness in the air,for all it's so cold; and the sun, you notice, shines through a sortof hazy curtain."
"I think just the same way you do, Frank," Jerry remarked; "and if youasked me to say when, I'd guess it was going to strike us beforenight."
"We've got off pretty fortunately so far about storms," Bluff went on,as he threw another armful of fuel on the already huge pile.
"If it does come down on us," Frank continued, "we'll not lack forfresh meat, anyway. That was a lucky shot you made yesterday, Bluff.The buckshot shell did the business, too, for after you fired bothbarrels the buck went down with a crash."
"And to think it happened so near our camp that we managed to tote thewhole carcass to the cabin," and Bluff looked with pride in his eyestoward a deer that was hanging, in real sportsman style, from a limb,head downward.
"If we don't get another while we're up here in the Big Woods," saidJerry, suppressing the natural twinge of jealousy he felt, "we oughtto be satisfied with our bag. And Will is just wild over the bullypictures he's accumulating every day and night."
"It does seem as though he had met with nothing but success, so far,"Frank admitted. "I hope he gets that prize the railroads are offering.So far as I can tell he has a dandy collection already, and we've gotsome time ahead of us still."
"By the way, where is Will now?" asked Bluff,
"About half an hour ago he told me he was going off to the place wherewe discovered that comical colony of squirrels that amused usyesterday," Frank explained. "He hoped by keeping as still as a mouseto get a snap at them when they were carrying on that way. I thinkmyself it would be a fine woods picture, and add to his collection."
"Speaking of angels, and you're most sure to hear their wings,"chuckled Jerry; "for there's Will coming this way now."
"And on the run, too!" added Frank. "He looks excited, fellows. Iwonder what he's run across now?"
Will was almost out of breath. They could see that his face was redfrom his exertions, but filled with excitement as well; while his eyeswere, as Bluff expressed it, "sticking out of his head!"
"Oh! what a whopper!" he gasped, as he drew near the spot where theystood.
"What's that?" demanded Frank, wondering what was coming now.
"And such _tre_-mendous horns, too!" continued Will,involuntarily stretching out both hands until he had them wide apart.
"Horns, Will?" Bluff fired at him; "cows have horns, deer carryantlers!"
"I said _horns_, didn't I?" asserted the other withdetermination. "That's what they were, sticking away up over his headthat was like a mule's. But I snapped him before he turned and trottedoff!"
"What trotted off?" shrilled Bluff.
"The biggest old bull moose that ever lived in the State of Maine,"Will replied.