CHAPTER XII
A DEER YARD
"Would you fellows like to visit a deer yard?" Pat asked at breakfastthe next morning when the subject of the day's program had been broughtup.
"Would we!" Upton fairly shouted it. "Say, Pat, do you mean that thereis a really, truly sure enough deer yard anywhere near here? I've readabout 'em, and I'd give all my old shoes to see one."
"Right O, my fine bucko! You shall see one, and it won't cost you somuch as a shoestring," replied Pat. "It's not over a mile from camp, andon the ridge just above it is one of those deadfalls for bear that Alecbuilt last fall. We'll take that in and kill two birds with one stone ifyou say so. There are some marten traps on that same ridge that I wantto have a look at. What do you say, Alec?"
"Verra good," replied Alec. "You show the laddies the yard and look overthat line, and I'll take the short line east. We'll get back here bynoon and this afternoon we can show them some other sets."
To this plan the others agreed with enthusiasm and preparations for animmediate start were begun. "Shall we take rifles?" asked Hal eagerly.
"For what?" demanded Pat. "We be going to visit a deer yard, and 'twouldbe tempting fate and flying in the face of Providence to let such abloodthirsty young gintleman in among the poor cratures with a gun inhis hands."
Hal joined in the laugh at his expense and then added rather lamely:
"We might run across that silver fox."
"And we might jump over the moon. The one is as likely as the other,"retorted Pat.
So the guns were left at the cabin. Pat led the way straight to theridge on which Spud Ely had missed his first chance to get a buck in thefall, but instead of climbing the ridge worked along the foot of it,skirting a swamp. They followed the edge of this for some distance andthen abruptly turned into it. The growth was dense in places, withthickets of young hemlocks which afforded both warmth and shelter insevere weather. Almost at once they came to a deeply trodden path whichled them presently to a maze of paths running in all directions.
"Here we are," said Pat.
Sparrer's face was a study. "Where's de yard?" he asked.
"All around here," replied Pat with a comprehensive sweep of his arm,"wherever you see these paths." Then, a sudden light breaking over him,he added, "Did you expect to find a fence around it, son?"
Sparrer grinned, not at all embarrassed by the general laugh andperfectly willing to confess his ignorance. "All de yards ever Oi seenhad fences round 'em. Oi thought a fence was what made a yard," heconfessed.
"Not a deer yard," replied Pat. "A deer yard is a place where the deertramp out paths in the snow and spend the winter. It is made where theyget both shelter and food. When the first deep snow comes they collectin such a place and start the paths while browsing for food. Then as thesnow gets deeper they follow the same paths because it is easier going,and make new paths only when they have to to reach new food supplies. Bycontinually using these paths they keep them open and manage to pick upa living browsing on twigs and pawing down to the ground moss. By thetime the heaviest snows come they can't very well get out if they wantto, especially when there is a crust like this. You see some of thosepaths are two to three feet deep. The more plentiful the feed and thesmaller the herd the smaller the yard. Before there were any laws toprotect deer and moose they used to be slaughtered in the yards bytrappers and lumber jacks because it is no trick at all for a man onsnow-shoes to run them down. Once get them frightened so that they breakout of the yard and they can be run down in no time. There's a deal ofpoaching goes on now when a yard is discovered near a lumber camp. It'sjust plain murder and nothing less. I've known a whole family of moose,bull, cow, yearling and calf, to be wiped out in one day by abloody-minded game-hog. Didn't even waste a shot on the calf, but ran itdown and cut its throat. Red Pete, the brute Walt helped to put in thepen the first year he came up here, used to make a business of locatingdeer yards and keeping lumber camps supplied with fresh meat all winter.The poor critters haven't even a running chance for their lives."
"Oi hope we'll be able to lamp some. Oi wud loike to put me peepers on areal live wild deer before we go home," said Sparrer, his eyes shiningwith suppressed excitement.
"I guess I can promise you that, my son," replied Pat. "We'll separatehere. Sparrer and I will work off to leeward, Hal will keep straightahead and Walt will swing to windward. If you two start any they willwork over to us and give Sparrer a chance to see em. Yell if you startany. I reckon you'll find 'em pretty tame. They haven't been botheredhere and they know as well as we do that the law protects 'em now. Watchfor fresh sign and follow it up."
They separated as suggested, Hal and Walter moving slowly so as to givePat and Sparrer time to gain a good position. Walter swung well to thewindward side. Of course this meant that his chances of getting a closeview of any deer which might be on his side of the yard werecomparatively slim. They would wind him and at once move on. He was ineffect a driver for the others. But he didn't mind this. Wild deer wereno new sight to him, and he was only too anxious to give Sparrer thepleasure which he knew a glimpse of Peaked-toes in the freedom of hisnative woods would be.
He chose what appeared to be one of the most used paths and followedthis as quietly as he could. He soon found that still hunting onsnow-shoes and with moccasined feet on bare ground were two verydifferent matters. He was not yet sufficiently adept on the big webs tokeep them from clacking as the rim of one shoe passed over the rim ofthe other. The harder he tried not to the more noise he made, it seemed.Clack, clack, clack. It was most annoying. He stopped to consider. Thenon the impulse of a sudden idea he slipped his shoes off and droppeddown into the path he had been following. Here he could walk withoutnoise. The droppings of the deer, known as "sign" by all hunters, werenumerous, and the brush within reach from the path showed indications ofhaving been browsed on recently, and he found several places where sharphoofs had pawed away the snow since the last storm.
The path twisted and turned and doubled on itself, showing that it hadbeen made originally by aimless wandering in quest of food. Other pathscrossed it, but Walter avoided these, judging that the one he was on wasas likely as another to lead him to the quarry. At length after anabrupt turn it led straight into a thicket of hemlocks, young growth. Ashe approached this there was a sharp sound like the sudden release ofcompressed air, repeated a second later from a point a trifle to theright. It was the alarm warning of deer. Above the snow just to theright of and beyond the thicket he caught a glimpse of the heads andnecks of two does moving rapidly. The effect was most peculiar. It wasas if they possessed no bodies until one of them made a high jump forjust an instant, bringing the back and rump, with its snowy white flagstiffly erect, into view.
"From the way they go I should think it was the hunting season. I had anidea that they wouldn't be particularly timid, but those two lit out ina regular panic. Act like they'd been hunted until their nerves were allon edge," thought the boy as he hurriedly forced his way through thethicket.
He had no expectation of finding more there, but was eager to see wherethe two had been lying and then to follow them up as rapidly aspossible. So he burst through the screen of hemlocks in ratherprecipitate fashion, an unusual proceeding for Upton, whose naturalcaution had been supplemented by a very thorough training in woodcraftduring the three summers he had spent at Woodcraft Camp. The instant hewas through the barrier he realized the folly of his action. Facing him,not ten feet away, was a big buck with a splendid pair of antlers.
NOT TEN FEET AWAY WAS A BIG BUCK]
If the does were panic stricken their lord was not. On the contrary hewas the embodiment of vicious anger. The hair on his neck was raised,his eyes blazed with rage; and he was pawing the snow with impatience.These details were registered on Walter's mind to be recalled later, butat the time he was conscious of but one thing--that he had stumbled intoa predicament which might easily cost him his life. No sooner was heclearly in view than the buck charged. Telling of it at the
cabin thatnight Upton declared that in that fleeting instant it seemed to him thathe was staring at a whole forest of horns pointed straight for him.
Intuition is subconscious direction without the aid of conscious thoughtand is usually the result of wisely directed thinking in the past. As aScout Upton had tried to train himself to meet emergencies, to beprepared, and it was the result of this training that governed him now.Dropping his snow-shoes he leaped aside. Fortunately the snow had beentrampled down for a sufficient space at this point to allow of this. Asit was the buck swept past so close as to almost graze his clothing.
Indeed so narrow had been the margin that the shoes, released as hejumped, fell directly in front of the infuriated animal and the browantlers pierced the meshes of one of them. It was this luckycircumstance which was Upton's salvation. For a few minutes the buck'sattention was wholly engaged with this new adversary which bangedagainst his nose, obscured his vision and clung to him in suchinexplicable fashion. He tried to back away from it, but in vain. Thenhe plunged forward and sought to grind it into the snow, with the resultthat he only fixed it more firmly on his antlers. In vain he struck atit with his feet. The dangling tail offered nothing on which to get apurchase. Fear now began to replace rage. Here was an enemy that wouldneither fight nor run away. Nor could he in turn run away from it.
Meanwhile Walter had made the most of his opportunity. But a few feetdistant was a young hemlock tree. Floundering through the snow hereached this and scrambled up. It was a small tree, and his perch wasnone too secure, and anything but comfortable for an extended stay. Butit meant safety for the time being, and just then this was everything.With a sigh of thankfulness he turned his attention to the scene below,and his sense of humor for the moment overcame everything else. The buckwas plainly being worsted in his battle with the snow-shoe, and wasworking himself into a panic. His great eyes were wide with fright ashe backed and plunged and vainly reared in an effort to strike with hisforefeet. With every toss of his head the tail of the shoe rapped himsharply across his nose, adding injury to insult. It was so funny thatWalter fairly shouted with laughter, and the sound of his voice added tothe terror of the frantic animal.
With a desperate leap sidewise in an effort to get clear of histormentor he landed in the deep snow, his sharp hoofs cutting throughthe crust. Then followed a succession of floundering plunges which tookhim still further into trouble until at last, panting from fright andthe result of his efforts, he was forced to cease his struggles fromsheer weariness.
It was then that Upton thought seriously of his own plight. The buck wasnot much more helpless than he himself without his shoes. One lay belowhim in the snow, somewhat the worse for the trampling of the buck duringhis wild plunging. This he could retrieve without trouble or danger. Butthe other was still fast on those uncomfortably sharp horns, and he wasof no mind to make a closer acquaintance with them unaided. It was thenthat he remembered that in the subsequent excitement he had failed togive the view hallo when he had started the does and thus warn theothers that game was afoot. A yell now would mean to the others merelythat they were to be on the watch for deer headed their way unless theywere near enough to distinguish words, which he much doubted.
Then he remembered the whistle which he always carried and the emergencycall for help of the Blue Tortoise Patrol. Both Hal and Sparrer wouldrecognize and understand that. Somehow it seemed less a compromise ofdignity than yelling for help. He raised the whistle to his lips andblew the signal, waited five seconds and blew again. A minute later heheard a reply from a lesser distance than he had expected, followedalmost at once by another which was rendered fainter by distance.
"Reached both of 'em," he muttered complacently. "Hal isn't so far awayas I was afraid he might be. Guess I better tell them what the troubleis."
With the whistle he spelled out in the Morse code "T-r-e-e-d b-y ab-u-c-k w-a-t-c-h o-u-t."
Back came the double reply "O. K.," followed by Hal's voice in a longdrawn "Hello-o-o." Shouting occasionally to give the others thedirection Upton climbed down from his perch, recovered the one shoe andthen waited with such patience as he could. Hal was soon within easyshouting distance and the anxiety in his voice as he inquired if Uptonwas all right was very evident. Set at rest on this point he whoopedjoyously and Upton grinned ruefully.
"This will be nuts for Hal. He'll never let me hear the end of it. I'mglad he didn't see me up the tree," he thought. Aloud he warned Hal notto come too near, but to wait until the others came up. While he feltthat the buck was so bedded in the snow as to be practically harmless hewanted no chances taken.
A few minutes later Pat and Sparrer came up, panting with the exertionof their long run, and the circumstances were briefly explained. Pattook in the situation at a glance and his eyes danced with enjoyment,and all three began to chaff Walter unmercifully. But there was littletime for this just then. The coming up of the others had furtheralarmed the buck, who had recovered wind and strength to some degree,and was now renewing his efforts to escape.
Pat ordered Hal to circle around and head off the animal, while hehimself came up from behind and endeavored to free the shoe. Sparrer wasto stand by in case of need and render any assistance he could. Uptonwas to stay where he was. Indeed there was nothing else for him to do,as once in the deep snow he would be more helpless than the deer. Thelatter was still floundering forward and there were stains of red on thecrust where it had cut the slender legs.
As Hal appeared in front of him, whooping excitedly, the buck ceased hisstruggling and stood shoulder deep in the snow, his sides heaving andhis steaming nostrils quivering as he labored for breath.
"Poor thing! He hasn't got another kick in him," Hal exclaimed, drawingso near that he could reach out and touch the slender muzzle.
"Don't be too sure of that, me bye. Betther shtand back a bit," warnedPat coming up from the animal's rear and leaning forward to get hold ofthe shoe.
Hardly were the words out of his mouth when the buck flung his head upand back. The tail of the shoe flew up, striking Hal a sharp blow on theside of his head. Instinctively he jumped back, forgetting that he wason snow-shoes. The result was immediate and decisive. With a wild yellhe pitched backward and disappeared in the snow. At the same instant Patgrabbed the buck's horns, one with each hand, and straddling his backcalled for Sparrer to free the shoe. This Sparrer succeeded in doingafter a few minutes' struggle and then turned his attention to Hal,whose muffled cries of "Help! Take him away!" bore evidence to the factthat he was under the impression that the buck had knocked him down andwas trying to trample him. In fact it was hard work to convince him thatthis was not the case until with Sparrer's help he regained his feet andgot the snow out of his eyes sufficiently to see Pat struggling with thedeer.
As soon as Hal and Sparrer were at a safe distance Pat let go and joinedthe others, breathing heavily from his exertions. The deer, freed ofthe hateful thing which had clung to his head and been the cause of allhis troubles, turned and with awkward jumps plunged back through the wayhe had broken in leaving the yard. Pat warned Walter to keep out ofsight so as not to turn the animal into new difficulties, and presentlythey saw him reach the trodden paths of the yard and with a shake of hisbeautifully crowned head bound lightly away.
Then while they took stock of damages Upton told his story. "An innocentbabe in the woods," murmured Pat when Walter told how he had removed hisshoes and taken to the deer paths. "If that had been a bull moose nowinstead of a buck 'tis loike yer frinds wud be weeping instead avlaughing at ye this very minut."
"That's true, Pat," replied Walter promptly. "It was a foolish thing todo, and I know it now. As it is you've got the laugh on me--and Hal," headded slyly. "How about it, Hal?"
"Oh, it's on me too, all right," returned that young gentleman, rubbingthe lump on his head. "I sure thought that brute was right on top ofme."
Pat meanwhile had brought out some stout twine and was making temporaryrepairs on the damaged shoes. Beyond some damage to the we
bbing wherethe horns had pierced it the one which had been the cause of the buck'sdiscomfiture was as good as ever, but the frame of the other had beenbadly split by the sharp hoofs of the plunging animal. Bringing thebroken parts together Pat wound them with the twine, and when he hadfinished pronounced the shoe fit for the trip back to the cabin, wherehe would undertake a more permanent job.
"We won't visit those traps now," said he in spite of Walter's protestthat he could go back while the others went on, and led the wayhomeward.
The Boy Scouts in A Trapper's Camp Page 13