"So be careful, and report anything strange that you hear or see in the woods," Mark said.
Just then, there was a loud crack in the woods behind the younger boys. They all jumped and turned around.
"What was that?" Ty whimpered.
The older boys laughed.
"What's the matter, Ty, getting a little scared?" Robbie asked.
"It's too early to get scared," Mark said.
"You four guys have to go on your snipe hunt yet. Go to your tents and get a flashlight and get back here in five minutes."
The boys got up from the campfire and walked back to their tents through the chilly night air. The moon was full enough to light their way, but the dark shadows of the trees made it hard to see far into the dense woods. They all got their flashlights from their packs and started back to the campfire.
"Was he telling the truth about the murderer?" Ty whispered to Paul on the way back.
"I don't know," Paul said. "And I don't want to find out."
"I wish this were over with!" Jimmy said.
Mark was waiting for them. He was standing by the fire with four burlap bags.
"These are the bags you use to catch the snipe," he said, handing one to each of the boys.
"How do we know it's a snipe?" Jimmy asked. "What's it look like?"
"Listen, you'll know when you see it," Mark said. "Now be quiet and listen to the rules."
The four boys clutched their bags in one hand and their flashlights in the other and listened.
"Each of you has to walk in a different direction from the campfire," Mark began.
"Count how many steps you're taking, and when you get to two hundred fifty, stop. That'll take you far enough away from the light of the campfire. Snipes are too smart to come near a fire."
"What about our flashlights?" Ty asked. "Won't they scare away the snipes?"
Some of the older boys started to laugh. But Mark cut them off.
"Use your flashlights while you're walking out the two hundred fifty steps. Then turn them off and wait."
"How long do we wait?" Brad asked.
"Till we call you in with this whistle," Mark said. He sounded three short whistles and then three long whistles.
"Any questions?"
The four boys looked at each other uneasily.
"What about those other animals you talked about?" Paul said. "What if we see them?"
"Or the murderer?" Ty added with a whisper.
Mark just shrugged his shoulders and looked at his watch.
"Time to start walking," he said. "And remember to count two hundred fifty steps. Then turn off your lights."
Ty glanced over at Paul and Brad and Jimmy. They looked as scared as he felt. Mark told Brad to start walking toward the north. Then he sent Jimmy off to the east and Paul to the west.
"Ty," he said, "you walk south."
Ty gulped, switched on his flashlight, and turned to face the south. He took a step away from the campfire and started counting. At first he took long steps; then he took shorter ones that wouldn't carry him so far into the woods.
Ty had counted a hundred steps when he first turned around. The campfire was just a yellowish glow in the darkness of the woods. He shone his light into the woods in front of him and started walking and counting again. The dead leaves that had fallen from the trees crackled under his feet. Several times a raised root caught at his foot and almost sent him sprawling onto the ground. Night animals scurried away as his light pierced the darkness. Once an owl swooped down across the moon and passed its shadow over him.
Ty had counted two hundred steps. He turned around. The thick trees blocked out the campfire now. He couldn't hear the older boys' voices and laughter anymore. He hoped he would be able to hear Mark's whistles.
Fifty more steps to go. Ty forced his legs to go on through the woods until he had counted to two hundred fifty. Then he swung his flashlight around in the place where he had stopped. It was a small clearing that had a thick carpet of leaves covering the ground.
The flashlight picked up the outline of a big tree stump about three yards from where Ty stood. Tall hickory trees with shaggy bark stood around the small clearing. Ty pointed the light up and saw their long limbs reaching up to the sky like the arms of skeletons. Then he flicked off the flashlight and crouched down on the ground. He clutched the burlap bag in both hands and waited. The snipe hunt had begun.
The wind blew through the tree branches above him, making a strange rattling sound. Ty waited and waited. Once he saw a big shadow move near the tree stump. He froze, not sure if it was a bear or a man. But the shadow disappeared and didn't come back again. Ty's hands were growing numb with cold and fatigue. He thought he would go crazy if he had to stay out in the dark alone one more minute.
Then he heard a strange noise come from the direction of the tree stump. It was a shrill animal sound, unlike anything he'd ever heard before. He strained his eyes to see in the moonlight. He glimpsed the pale, gray body of an animal walking toward him from the tree stump. It kept making its shrill call as it slowly wobbled across the bed of leaves.
Ty had never seen an animal like it before. He knew it must be a snipe. He leaned over and set the burlap bag down in front of where the animal was walking. It didn't seem to be able to see the bag and headed straight toward it. Ty held his breath until the small animal had walked into his bag. Then he shut the opening of the bag and gripped it tight.
A minute later, three short whistles and three long whistles cut through the stillness of the night. Ty picked up his flashlight and started to run in the direction of the sound. He held the sack away from his body and listened as the animal begin to make shrill noises in a panic.
Ty burst into the light of the campfire with his breath coming in short gasps. Everyone else was standing there, waiting for him. Paul, Brad, and Jimmy had already made it back.
"We thought the murderer might have got you, Ty," Mark said. The boys around the campfire laughed. Ty stood by the fire with his bag, waiting for Mark to ask about the snipe. But Mark didn't even look at his bag.
"The four of you did a great job," he said, looking at Paul, Brad, Jimmy, and Ty. "None of you chickened out. You all passed the test, and now you're in the club."
"But what about the snipe?" Ty asked.
"Come on, Ty, that was just a joke," Robbie said.
"Ty, what do you have in that bag?" Mark asked..
"A snipe," Ty answered.
Just then, the animal cried its weird call.
"He caught something!" Brad said. "Let's see it."
Everyone jumped up and crowded around Ty.
"Drop the bag into this box, Ty," Mark ordered, pulling over an empty food box.
Carefully Ty put the bag into the box and let go of its opening. The other boys peered down into the box. Slowly, the animal Ty had caught crawled out of the bag. It turned its face up at the boys staring down at it. Then it let out a hiss and a shrill screech.
The boys all jumped back.
"What is it?" Robbie asked.
"That's the strangest-looking animal I've ever seen," Mark said.
Again the boys stared down at the animal. It had short gray fur and a thick, stout body. Its paws had sharp white claws and its long tail ended in a jagged point. But its head was weirdest of all. The ears were high and pointed, and the mouth had four long, sharp teeth.
"I think it's a baby that was just born," Mark said. "Its eyes are still shut."
"Look, it's trying to open them," Ty said.
Suddenly the animal's strange eyes flew open. They were orange and glowed in the night.
"Is it a snipe?" Ty asked.
"I don't know," Mark said. "Nobody's ever seen a snipe. We just made up the snipe hunt to scare you guys."
"So what is it?" Brad asked.
The animal started to shriek louder and louder and show its pointed teeth at the boys.
One by one, they backed uneasily away from the box.
"What wa
a that?" Robbie suddenly asked, turning around to look into the woods. "I thought I heard something out there."
"Me, too," said Paul.
The boys fell silent and listened as the animal in the box made its shrill call over and over again. And from different parts of the woods, the same call came back.
"What are we going to do?" Ty asked.
"I don't know," Mark answered, looking scared.
The calls from the woods became louder and louder. Then the leaves on the floor of the woods started to rustle. The boys huddled closer together around the campfire.
Suddenly Ty screamed and pointed to the woods. A pair of strange orange eyes were glowing from the shadows of the trees. They were like the eyes of the animal in the box, only bigger. Then Brad screamed and pointed to the opposite side of the campfire. The boys whirled around and saw another pair of orange eyes glowing in the woods. Then they saw another and another and another.
The animal in the box made a weird noise from deep in its throat. Then from the woods, like a nightmarish echo, came the same noise from all around the boys.
Mark looked at Ty's face, which had turned white with fear.
"You caught a snipe, all right," he said.
Then they turned to look at the orange eyes in the woods. The eyes had started to glow brighter. And they were moving in closer and closer... toward the twelve boys huddled together around the campfire.
Still More Tales For The Midnight Hour Page 7