What Happened at Quasi: The Story of a Carolina Cruise

by George Cary Eggleston

  VIII

  CAL BEGINS TO DO THINGS

  “WONDER what it all means,” said Tom, when the man had limped awaythrough the undergrowth and out of hearing.

  “It means, for one thing,” said Cal, “that we’re practically in a stateof siege here. We must all be on the alert and never all sleep at once.”

  “Yes,” said Larry, “and that isn’t enough. We must guard ourselvesagainst surprise by day as well as by night. As soon as it grows lightenough in the morning I’ll explore our surroundings and see what maybest be done. It is now a trifle after four o’clock, and we shan’t goto sleep again. Why not have breakfast and make a long day of it. Iwant to get some game, for one thing. I wonder if that fellow’s gang,whoever they are, have cleaned all the wild things out of these woods.”

  “You can rest easy as to that,” said Cal. “We’ll have something fitto eat for dinner to-day, and I’ll have it here in time to cook itproperly for that meal. What I am wondering about is who those fellowsare, and what they are doing around here, and why they don’t want usaround.”

  “Then you believe what that fellow said?” asked Dick. “You believe inthe existence of those others’ with whose vengeance he threatened us?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Well, I don’t. There may be another man down here with that one,fishing or hunting, but I don’t believe in the presence of a company ofthem.”

  “But why not, Dick?”

  “Simply because it is unlikely. On its face it seems to me more likelythat, as we had caught that fellow stealing, he invented the formidableand vengeful force theory just to scare us into letting him go. Whatwould there be for such a band as he suggests to do down here in theselonely woods? What is there here to attract such a band?”

  “I am not prepared to answer those questions,” said Cal. “I can’timagine what a gang of that sort could be doing here, or why they arehere, or anything about it. But it is my firm conviction that we haveneed to keep cartridges in our guns and about our persons.”

  “Oh, that’s of course,” answered Dick; “though if there is any suchgang and they don’t attack us early this morning, we needn’t look forthem before night, so we’ll have plenty of time for getting a goodsupply of game.”

  “All right,” said Cal. “And by way of making sure, as it’s coming ondaylight now, I’ll go and get that turkey gobbler I was speaking of.I’ll be back to breakfast.”

  With that Cal started off, gun in hand, leaving the rest to wonder.

  “How can he be so confident of finding game?” Dick asked, with a noteof incredulity in his voice.

  “I don’t know,” answered Larry, “but it’s nine chances in ten thathe’ll do it. He’s the wiliest hunter I ever knew, and with all hischatter, he never says a thing of that kind without meaning it;especially he never gives a positive promise unless he is confident ofhis ability to fulfill it. So I expect to see him back here before wehave breakfast ready, with a turkey gobbler slung over his shoulders.”

  “Why ‘gobbler,’ Larry?” Dick asked, looking up from the mortar in whichhe was pounding the coffee.

  “How do you mean, Dick?”

  “Why, it wasn’t just a turkey that Cal promised us, but specifically agobbler, and now when you speak of it you also assume that the bird heis to kill will be of the male sex. Why may it not be a turkey hen?”

  “Why, he wouldn’t think of shooting a turkey hen at this time of year.They’re bringing up their chicks now and they won’t be fit to eat for amonth yet. So if he brings any turkey with him it’ll be a bearded oldgobbler as fat as butter.”

  At that moment a shot was heard at some distance. The next instantthere was another, after which all was still.

  “I say, Larry, I don’t like that,” said Tom uneasily.

  “Don’t like what?”

  “Why, those two shots in quick succession. Maybe Cal has met some ofthat gang and they’ve shot him. Hadn’t we better go to his assistance?”

  “You may go if you are uneasy, Tom,” answered Larry; “but it isn’t atall necessary I think. Cal knows how to take care of himself.”

  “But how do you account for the two shots in such quick succession?”

  “By the fact that Cal usually hunts with cartridges in both barrels ofhis gun just as other people do. He may have missed at the first fire.In that case he would take a second shot if he could get it.”

  Tom was somewhat reassured by this suggestion, but he was not entirelyfree from anxiety until ten minutes later when he heard the cracklingof dry branches under Cal’s big boots. A moment afterwards Cal himselfappeared, with two huge gobblers slung over his neck.

  “So you got one with each barrel,” quietly commented Larry, feeling ofthe birds to test their fatness.

  “Yes, of course. That’s what I fired twice for. Did you imagine I’dshoot the second barrel just for fun? By the way, isn’t breakfastnearly ready? I’m pretty sharp set in this crisp morning air.”

  “I must say, Cal,” said Dick, as the little company sat on the groundto eat their breakfast, “you’re the very coolest hand I ever saw.Why, if I had shot two big gobblers out of one flock of turkeys I’dbe tiring the rest of you with minute descriptions—more or lessinaccurate, perhaps—of just how I did it, and just how I felt whiledoing it, and just how the turkeys behaved, and all the rest of it.”

  “What’s the use?” asked Cal between sips of coffee. “The facts aresimple enough. We wanted some turkeys and I went out to get them. Iknew where they were roosting and I got there before time for them toquit the roost. I shot one from the limb on which he had passed thenight. The others flew, of course, and I shot one of them on the wing.That’s absolutely all there is to tell. I like to get my game when Igo for it but I never could see the use of holding a coroner’s inquestover it.”

  “What puzzles me,” said Tom, “is how on earth you knew just where thoseturkeys were roosting. Did you just guess it?”

  “No, of course not. If I had, I shouldn’t have been so ready to promiseyou a gobbler as I was.”

  “Then how did you know?”

  “I saw the roost last night.”

  “When, and how?”

  “When you and I were out after the oysters. Do you remember that justbefore we came out of the woods and upon the beach, I stopped and heldup the lantern and looked all around?”

  “Yes, but you were looking for the oyster bed and you found it.”

  “I was looking for the oyster bed, of course. But I was looking foranything else there might be to see, too. I always do that. When I wasat the bow last night looking for the mouth of this creek I saw theoyster bed, and marked its locality in my mind. In the same way, whenI was looking for the oyster bed with the lantern above my head, I sawthe turkey-roost and carefully made mental note of its surroundingsso that I might go straight to it this morning. Is there any othergentleman in the company who would like to ask me questions with a viewto the satisfaction of his curiosity or the improvement of his mind?”

  “I for one would like to ask you what else you saw this morning whileyou were out after the turkeys,” answered Tom. “Apparently you neverlook for one thing without finding some others of equal or superiorimportance. Did you do anything of that sort this morning?”

  “Yes, I think so. I made two observations, in fact, and both of themseem to me to possess a certain measure of interest.”

  Cal paused in his speech at this point and proceeded to eat hisbreakfast quite as if the others had not been waiting for him to go onwith whatever it was that he had to tell.

  “You’re the most provoking fellow I ever saw, Cal,” said Tom,impatiently. “When you have nothing to say that is in the least worthsaying, you grind out words like a water mill, till you bury yourselfand the rest of us in the chaffy nonsense. But when you have somethingto tell that we’re all eager to hear, you shut up like a clam at lowtide. Go on, can’t you?”

  “I have always heard,” replied Cal, in leisurely fashion, as if hisonl
y purpose had been to prevent the conversation from flagging, “thatone of the most necessary arts of the orator is that of getting hisaudience into a condition of anxious waiting for his words before hereally says the thing they want to hear. I cannot myself claim thetitle of orator, but I’m practicing and—”

  “_Will_ you stop that nonsense, Cal, and tell us what you have in mind?If not we’ll duck you in the creek.”

  It was Larry who uttered this threat.

  “I’ve had worse things than that happen to me,” answered Cal,imperturbably. “The morning is sunny and the sea water on this coastclosely approximates tepidity. By the way, Dick, our higher watertemperature seems to mar the edibility of some fish that are deemedgood at the North. There’s what you call the weak fish—”

  He stopped suddenly, for the reason that Dick had approached him frombehind, seized his shoulders and toppled him over upon the ground.

  “Now tell us what we’re waiting to hear!” Dick commanded, still holdinghis comrade down upon his back.

  “My mouth’s full of sand,” Cal managed to say; “let me up and I’ll makea clean breast of it, on honor.”

  Dick loosed his hold, and as soon as Cal had rinsed his mouth, heredeemed his promise.

  “Well, the first thing I discovered was that there’s a promising youngdeer at present haunting this neck of the woods, and we’re all goingout to involve it in controversy with us to-day, and then shoot it asits just due for defying us in such impudent fashion.”

  “Venison!” exclaimed Tom enthusiastically; “how my mouth waters for ataste of its juiciness! But how do you know about it, Cal?”

  “It isn’t venison yet,” slowly answered the other. “You are much toohasty in jumping at conclusions. That deer will not be venison untilwe find it and convert it into meat of that justly esteemed sort. Nowto answer your question; I discovered its tracks and followed them farenough to know whither it was wending its way and about where to lookfor it when you fellows quit your ceaseless talking and are ready forthe chase. There’s no great hurry, however, as the tracks were madethis morning and—”

  “How do you know that?” interrupted Tom.

  “I smelt them.”

  “But how? I don’t understand.”

  “It oughtn’t to be difficult for even you, Tom, to make out that if Ismelt the tracks, I employed my nose for that purpose. I usually smellthings in just that way.”

  “Oh, pshaw, you know what I mean. I didn’t imagine any creature but awell-trained hound could discover a scent in a deer’s track.”

  “Obviously your imagination is in need of a reinforcement of factsthen. I’ll furnish them. In the middle of a deer’s foot there is alittle spot that bears an odor sweeter than that of attar of rosesand quite as pronounced. For that reason many young ladies, and somewho are not so young perhaps, like to keep a deer’s foot among theirdaintiest lingerie. Now, when a deer puts his foot down it spreadssufficiently to bring that perfumed spot in contact with the earthand the track is delicately perfumed. When the odor is pronounced itindicates that the track is newly made.

  “Now that I have fully answered your intruded, if not intrusivequestion, Tom, perhaps I may be permitted to finish the sentence youinterrupted.”

  “Certainly, go on. Really, Cal, I didn’t mean—”

  “I know you didn’t. I was saying that there is no need of haste ingoing after that deer, because the tracks were made this morning,and the marshy thicket toward which the deer was making his way issufficiently rich in succulent grasses and juicy young cane to occupyhis mind for the entire day, and several days. A little later we’ll cutoff his retreat on the land side of the point, and if we don’t get himthe fault will be with our inexpertness with our guns.”

  “That’s all right, Cal,” broke in Larry, “and I’m glad you’ve markeddown the deer; but just now I must be off to plan our defense. You’vetaken so long to tell us about your first discovery that I can’t waitto hear about the second.”

  “Oh, yes, you can,” replied Cal. “It will save you a lot of trouble,and I can tell it in about half a dozen words.”

  “Go ahead and tell it, then.”

  “It is simply that I have solved the whole problem of defense.”

  “How? Tell us about it!”

  “Why, just above our camp—up the creek a few hundred yards, there’sa big gum tree, with an easily accessible crotch, comfortable to sitin, from which the one playing sentinel can see everything we want tosee. He can look clear across this point and half a mile or more upthe creek, and by turning his head he can see the camp itself and the_Hunkydory_ and even the soiled spots on your coats. All we’ve got todo is to keep a sentinel in that gum tree, and nobody can approach ourcamp unseen, whether he comes by land or by water. Come on and I’llshow you.”

  The whole company followed Cal, and after a minute inspection found thelookout to be quite as satisfactory as he had represented it to be. ButTom, who had made up his mind to acquire Cal’s habit of observation,noticed some things about the place that aroused his curiosity. Hesaid nothing about them at the time, but resolved to read the riddleof their meaning if he could. To that end he asked to be the first toserve as sentinel.

  “All right,” said Larry. “You can stay here till we’re ready to goafter that deer. Then I’ll take your place.”

  “But why?”

  “Oh, so that you may have your share in the deer hunt.”

  “You needn’t either of you bother about that,” said Cal. “Our camp canbe seen all the way to the cane brake where the deer is browsing, andalso from one of the points at which a man must stand with his gunwhen we drive the deer. So we shan’t need any other sentinel and we’llall go. With all of us together over there we’ll be ready to repel anyattack on ourselves, and if anybody invades the camp we’ll swoop downupon him and exterminate him.”

  There was a good deal to be done at the camp before going after thedeer. The turkeys were to be picked and dressed and one of them to beroasted. Some fishing was to be done and it was necessary to put upsome sort of bush shelter for use in case of rain. So, leaving Tom assentinel, the other boys went back to the anchorage, and Tom began hisscrutiny of the things he had observed.

  As a last injunction Larry said: “You can come in to dinner, Tom, whenI whistle through my fingers. If there’s nobody in sight then, we canrisk the dinner hour without a sentry.”