CHAPTER V
THE KNIFE WITH THE BUCKHORN HANDLE
"Everybody get out in a hurry!" called Elmer, suiting the action to theword himself by scrambling erect and making for the open door of thebig barn.
It was far from light in there; but as they could easily see theopening all they had to do was to make for it. Elmer had been carefulto make sure that there were no pitchforks lying around loose, to berun upon by accident.
Hardly had the scouts managed to stream from the interior of the barnthan they became aware of the fact that someone was running headlongtoward them. Toby threw himself into an attitude of defense, raisingthe piece of wood he had grasped for a club; but Elmer realized thatthe runner was approaching from the direction of the farmhouse andtherefore must be a friend rather than a foe.
"Steady, boys, it must be Johnny!" he told his comrades as theyclustered there.
Johnny it proved to be. The bound boy must have lain down on his cotfully dressed and equipped, for he had on even his cowhide boots, andwas minus only a hat. Of course, the boy was fairly brimming over withintense excitement.
"Didn't yuh hear him yell?" he was crying. "We've kotched the chickenthief fur sure, fellers. Whoop la! kim on, everybody, and nab himafore all the blood runs tuh his head!"
Lil Artha and Elmer, of course, had snatched up their guns, althoughthey hardly believed they would find any use for the weapons. All ofthem started on the run toward the spot where the turkeys roosted inthe favorite tree.
The sky was clouded over, and while it was not actually dark the boyshad some little difficulty in seeing as well as they might have liked.Now and then one of the sprinters would stumble over some impediment,and perhaps measure his length on the ground, only to scramble erectagain and tear after the rest.
It was usually clumsy Landy who met with these mishaps; but even suchthings did not seem to subdue his ambition to keep after the crowd.
Elmer was listening as he ran. He wondered why they did not alreadyhear the groans or whines of the wretched thief who had been hung up bythe heels without receiving a second's warning.
Remembering how Johnny had been whisked aloft, Elmer felt sure no onecould be blamed for letting out that shriek when the catastrophe cameabout. Nor would he have thought it queer if the suspended rascal keptup his groans as he writhed and twisted in a vain effort to reach up tothe limb; which only a circus contortionist would have been able to do.
He imagined he heard some sort of sound ahead of them. But even atthat Elmer could not be certain. It might be the night breeze sighingthrough the upper branches of the tall tree, or the alarmed turkeysholding a confab among themselves, for all he could tell.
But they were rapidly bearing down upon the spot now, and in anotherhalf minute ought to be where they could see the swaying figure of thecaught thief.
"I don't seem to get him, Johnny!" ventured Lil Artha, in adisappointed tone.
"Huh! somethin' gone wrong I guess!" grunted the inventor; and if thetall scout could feel chagrin, fancy what a shock it must have been toJohnny when he realized that there was no dangling figure to greet him,despite that wild yell so full of mortal agony.
Perhaps already wise Elmer had begun to hazard a shrewd guess as to thewhy and wherefore of this vacancy. He was a great hand to see throughthings long before the answer became apparent to his chums. If thiswere so, at least he did not venture to say anything to them about it.
By now all of them, save slow-poke Landy, had arrived at the tree.They could hear the alarmed turkeys making some twittering soundsabove, but if any of them had flown off the rest remained on theirroosts.
Johnny had been smart enough to fetch his lantern along. This he nowproceeded to light, and as soon as the wick took fire he began toexamine the trap.
"Dog-gone the luck, she went and broke on me!" he wailed, as though hisboyish heart were almost broken by the catastrophe.
"That's what comes of not testing things before-hand!" said Toby, withthe air of a wise-acre who knew it all; and yet Toby was himself a mostnotorious offender along those very same lines, as his chums could haveinformed the bound boy had they chosen to give a fellow-scout away.
"Gee whiz! he did test it, Toby," said Lil Artha, indignantly; "didn'twe all of us see him ahangin' head-down. There's some sort of amystery about it, that's what."
"Not much," said Elmer, who, while the others were talking, had beenexamining the end of the rope that lay on the ground near by; "it'sbeen cut, that's all."
"Cut with a knife d'ye mean, Elmer?" cried Johnny, aghast.
"Just what it has," continued the patrol leader firmly; "you can seethat with one eye, for the edges are smooth, and not ragged as theywould be if the rope had broken a strand at a time."
Every fellow had to push up and examine it to make sure, and there wasno dissenting voice after that. They knew Elmer was right, as he verynearly always appeared to be in matters like this.
"But say, however could he have twisted up to get at the rope while hewas hanging here by one leg, I'd like to know?" demanded Landy.
"Mebbe the second thief helped him git loose," suggested the bound boy.
"Just what happened as sure as anything," assented Elmer. "They weretoo smart for you that time, Johnny. Instead of running away when thealarm went off, this second fellow whipped out his blade, and findingthe rope where it ran from the tree, he cut it."
"Then the other dropped down, and got his legs loose," added Toby."See, here's the loop lying on the ground."
Sure enough, it was just as he said. The loop was there in plainsight, just as it had apparently been hurled aside by the trapped thiefafter he had a chance to use his hands.
Johnny was the most bitterly disappointed fellow Elmer had come acrossin a long time. He kept muttering to himself as he examined thefragment of rope. Lil Artha said he was "chewing the rag," whateverthat might mean; but, at any rate, Johnny did not seem to be in a veryhappy frame of mind, so the operation could hardly have been of apleasant nature.
"Now, I understand that second little rumble I heard," said Elmer. "Itwas just as Johnny reached us in front of the barn, and sounded likethe barrel had started on again. That happened when the rope was cut,allowing the weighted hogshead to keep on a little further to thebottom of the drop."
"Let's see if you hit the nail on the head with that guess," suggestedToby, who liked to be convinced by his own eyesight when anything cameto pass.
So, led by the inventor of the trap, they hurried to where the hogsheadhad been perched on the brink of the steep little descent. It could beseen at the bottom; and this confirmed the theory Elmer had advanced.
"And we didn't get a glimpse of the thieves after all," lamented Landy;"now I was hoping I'd see a fellow dangling there when we came up. Notthat I'd like him to suffer too much, you know; but for Johnny's sake Iwanted him to be nabbed."
"Yes, it's all off now," admitted Lil Artha.
"Of course, after that row they wouldn't be silly enough to come againfor another try?" suggested Toby.
"Huh! that ole trap ain't no good after that mess," grunted Johnny,disdainfully. "I reckons as how I'll hev tuh think up sum other kind.But they ain't agoin' tuh git any o' them turks if I have to sot up allnight, and borry a gun frum you fellers in the bargain."
"What's the matter with tying Moses the bulldog to the tree here?"remarked Elmer; "he's barking now at the kennel near the house. I'dcertainly make use of the old dog if I were you, Johnny."
"Jest what I will do, Elmer. Moses ain't a great hand tuh bark, yuhsee; bulls do the business with their teeth 'stead o' with their noise.But he kin give tongue when he wants tuh. I'll fix him here fur therest o' the night."
"How does it come the farmer hasn't shown up?" asked Mark, who thoughtit a bit queer Mr. Trotter displayed so little interest in the safekeeping of his young turkeys.
"Oh! him," chuckled Johnny; "nobody never ain't agoin' tuh get himwaked up once he hits the hay. Talk tuh me baout s
leepin', he kin beatanything yuh ever met. I bet yuh the missus is up and waitin' tuh knowif we grabbed one."
"Do you think they got a turkey after all?" asked Landy, as he pickedup several feathers from the ground near the tree.
"What do you say about that, Johnny?" Elmer inquired.
"Well, it daon't stand tuh reason he did," replied the other, gravely;"even if he had holt o' one at the time, he never'd a held on tuh hitarter that rope had slung him head down'ards. Guess I ort tuh know.If any o' yuh wants tuh feel what it's like, I'll rig the trap up aginin the mawnin' for yuh. Hold a turkey nawthin'. He couldn't even holdhis breath, but had tuh give a yell like he was killed."
Indeed, they were all of pretty much the same opinion. No matter howbrave a fellow the trespasser might be, when he met with such a suddenand unexpected upheaval as that running noose brought about, his witswere bound to desert him for the time being at least.
It may have been noticed also that no one, even bold Lil Artha, themost venturesome of them all, volunteered to make the additional testwhen morning came. They seemed perfectly satisfied to accept the willfor the deed. They had witnessed the speedy working of Johnny's trap,and evidently had no itching to try what it felt like to hang headdownward from the limb of a tree, with a leg almost dislocated by asudden jerking, powerful lever.
"Well, 'tain't no use acryin' over spilt milk, they sez," remarkedJohnny, who, after all, seemed to be of a philosophical turn of mind;"the thing's done, an' that's all they is tuh hit. Might as well gitMose and fix him here tuh the tree. Them turks has jes' gut tuh besaved, no matter how much trouble it takes."
"Elmer, what are you thinking about?" asked Mark just then; for beingused to the ways of his best chum he could see that the patrol leaderwas pondering something in his mind.
"If you want to know it was about that yell," Elmer admitted.
"A pretty husky whoop in the bargain, let me say," observed Lil Artha;"I used to think I could beat all creation letting out a yell, but thatwent one better, you hear me talking."
"Yes," added Toby, "it sounded as if the top of the world had blownoff, the fellow made such a howl. Anyway, that's how it seemed to mewhen I was waked up so suddenly."
"Have we ever heard a whoop like that before?" asked Elmer.
"Now you're thinking of Hen Condit, of course, Elmer," came from Toby.
"Well, Hen's got a good strong pair of lungs, let me tell you,"admitted Landy. "I remember the time that cow tossed him when he was asmall boy, and say, he made everybody inside of half a mile runoutdoors to see what was the matter. They found Hen straddlin' a limbof a tree, and whooping it up for all he was worth. It might have beenhim, Elmer, no telling."
"And just as well any other person badly scared," Mark observed. "Ithink I'd be able to do some fine work along those lines under the sameconditions."
"Then it seems that we'll never be able to identify Hen by that shout,"laughed Elmer; "but there's a way we can find something out, as allscouts ought to know."
That remark immediately put them all on their mettle.
"Sure thing, Elmer," agreed Lil Artha, "for, of course, you mean if wecould find a trail around here we might pick out the differentfootprints; and one of us ought to know something about the kind ofshoes Hen wears."
"That's me," admitted Landy, "because I happened to be going with Henmore or less lately. Show me the footprints and I'll tell you soonenough if it's him."
Of course, nothing could be done without the lantern, so they keptclose to Johnny, who carried the same. From time to time he was giveninstruction how to hold the light so they might examine certain spots.
"Hello! Elmer's found something!" suddenly exclaimed keen-eyed LilArtha, when he saw the scout leader stoop over almost under the tree,and alongside the large drygoods box.
"That so, Elmer; what was it?" several asked him in a breath.
"Gather around me," the other commanded, "and let's see if you canrecognize what I picked up."
"Huh! bet you it fell from his pocket when he was dragged upside-down,"was the way Lil Artha put it; quick to guess the truth, though he hadnot himself thought of this possibility before.
"Correct for you, Lil Artha, for that's what happened," Elmeracknowledged.
"Is it a knife, Elmer?" continued the tall scout.
"Once more you hit it," said the other; "and Landy, since you sayyou've been going more or less with Hen lately, perhaps you'd be apt toknow his knife if you happened to set eyes on it?"
"To be sure I would, Elmer."
"You've handled it then, have you?"
"Lots of times, because you see I lost my own frog-sticker some weeksback, and I ain't had a birthday since to get a new one," Landyconfessed.
"That sounds good to me," Elmer told him; "so now take a look at this,and tell us what you think."
With that he brought his hand around, having been keeping it behind hisback all this time. When he opened it there was disclosed a common,every-day jack-knife with a buckhorn handle, such as might be expectedto be found in the pocket of almost any lad, and capable, when given akeen edge, of performing miracles in the way of shaving sticks andcutting up apples.
So Landy gravely, though eagerly, took up the knife. He opened the bigblade and seemed interested in a certain nick he found there.
"Elmer, that settles it," he said, finally; "it's Hen's knife, I'mpositive; and it must have been him that was hanging from this tree abit ago!"
Afloat; or, Adventures on Watery Trails Page 5