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<body>
<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57230 ***</div>
<div class="img">
<img class="cover" id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="The Golden Boys Along the River Allagash" width="500" height="748" />
</div>
<div class="img" id="pic1">
<img src="images/p00.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="791" />
<p class="caption">“What do you make of them, Kernertok?” Bob
asked.</p>
<p class="caption">“Heap big tracks. No seen um before.”
(<i><a class="pgref" href="#Page_70">Page 70</a></i>)</p>
</div>
<div class="box">
<h1>THE GOLDEN BOYS
<br /><span class="smaller">ALONG
<br />THE RIVER ALLAGASH</span></h1>
<hr class="d" />
<p class="center"><span class="large"><b><span class="sc">By L. P. WYMAN, Ph.D.</span></b></span>
<br /><span class="small"><i>Dean of Pennsylvania Military College</i></span></p>
<hr />
<p class="center"><span class="small"><span class="sc">Author of</span>
<br />“<i>The Golden Boys and Their New Electric Cell</i>,” “<i>The Golden Boys at the Fortress</i>,” “<i>The Golden Boys in the Maine Woods</i>,” “<i>The Golden Boys with the Lumber Jacks</i>,” “<i>The Golden Boys on the River Drive</i>,” “<i>The Golden Boys Rescued by Radio</i>.”</span></p>
<div class="img">
<img src="images/p00a.jpg" alt="Series Logo, boys in motorboat" width="300" height="298" />
</div>
<hr class="d" />
<p class="center">A. L. BURT COMPANY
<br />Publishers <span class="hst">New York</span></p>
</div>
<div class="box">
<h2><span class="h2line1">THE</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">GOLDEN BOYS SERIES</span></h2>
<hr />
<p class="center">A Series of Stories for Boys 12 to 16 Years of Age
<br /><span class="large">By L. P. WYMAN, <span class="sc">Ph.D.</span></span>
<br /><span class="small"><i>Dean of the Pennsylvania Military College</i></span></p>
<dl class="undent"><dt>The Golden Boys and Their New Electric Cell</dt>
<dt>The Golden Boys at the Fortress</dt>
<dt>The Golden Boys in the Maine Woods</dt>
<dt>The Golden Boys with the Lumber Jacks</dt>
<dt>The Golden Boys on the River Drive</dt>
<dt>The Golden Boys Rescued by Radio</dt>
<dt>The Golden Boys Along the River Allagash</dt></dl>
<hr class="d" />
<p class="center smaller">Copyright, 1923
<br />By A. L. BURT COMPANY
<br />Made in “U. S. A.”</p>
</div>
<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
<dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="cn">I. </span><a href="#c1">Mr. Fixit</a> 3</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">II. </span><a href="#c2">Jack Investigates a Principle</a> 18</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">III. </span><a href="#c3">The Legend of the Umsaskis</a> 30</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">IV. </span><a href="#c4">Rex Learns How to Make a Carry</a> 47</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">V. </span><a href="#c5">A Cry in the Night</a> 67</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">VI. </span><a href="#c6">Rex Disappears</a> 86</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">VII. </span><a href="#c7">Rex Encounters Wild Cats</a> 109</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">VIII. </span><a href="#c8">A Mysterious Message</a> 127</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">IX. </span><a href="#c9">Bob Meets the Enemy</a> 149</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">X. </span><a href="#c10">Kernertok Gets His</a> 175</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">XI. </span><a href="#c11">Stebbins is Found</a> 194</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">XII. </span><a href="#c12">Besieged</a> 214</dt>
<dt><span class="cn">XIII. </span><a href="#c13">Kernertok to the Rescue—Conclusion</a> 233</dt>
</dl>
<div class="pb" id="Page_3">3</div>
<h1 title="">THE GOLDEN BOYS ALONG THE RIVER ALLAGASH</h1>
<h2 id="c1"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER I.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">MR. FIXIT.</span></h2>
<p>“What do you suppose can be the matter with
the pesky thing?”</p>
<p>The speaker, a freckled faced boy about eighteen
years old looked up from where he was kneeling on
the bottom of the boat in front of the engine.</p>
<p>“Search me,” his companion, a tall lanky boy of
about the same age, who was sitting in the stern,
replied. “Gas’s all right, spark’s all right, everything’s
all right and still she won’t go. Can you
beat it?”</p>
<p>“And I’ll bet I’ve cranked it enough to run her
the length of the lake,” the first speaker declared,
wiping the sweat from his face. “It’s the queerest
thing. An automobile engine can have a dozen
things the matter with it and still run but you can
get one of these little dinky marine engines all in
perfect order and then it’s ten to one she won’t
more than give a kick or two.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_4">4</div>
<p>“Reckon that’s just because it’s a motor boat engine,”
and the boy in the stern laughed.</p>
<p>“It’s all right to laugh, but suppose you come here
and give her a few spins. Mebby it won’t seem
quite so funny then.”</p>
<p>“Gladly, Sweet Cherub, and you just watch her
go.”</p>
<p>The two boys exchanged places and the lanky
one, kneeling in front of the refractory engine was
soon spinning the fly wheel while the freckled faced
boy sat back and grinned.</p>
<p>“There, she coughed six times. That beats your
record by one.”</p>
<p>“Keep it up and you may get her up to seven.”</p>
<p>But six seemed to be the limit of the engine’s willingness
and soon he gave it up.</p>
<p>“No use to crank your head off,” he panted as he
got to his feet. “She just won’t go that’s all, and—”</p>
<p>The freckled faced boy, who happened to be looking
toward the shore, interrupted him:</p>
<p>“There’s Jack Golden on the hotel porch. He can
fix about anything that’s fixable. Hello, Jack. Come
out here a minute, will you?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_5">5</div>
<p>Jack Golden, a sturdy well set up boy of about the
same age as the others, glanced up from the paper
he was reading, and, seeing who was calling him,
ran down the steps.</p>
<p>“Hello, Cherub. What seems to be the main difficulty?”
he asked as soon as he reached the end of
the pier.</p>
<p>“There’s no ‘seems’ about it. It just won’t go
that’s all.”</p>
<p>“Where there’s a result there’s always a reason,”
Jack declared as he jumped into the boat. “Sure
your gas and spark are all right?”</p>
<p>“Yep, and so’s everything else except that she
won’t go.”</p>
<p>“This is a make and break engine isn’t it?”</p>
<p>“Yep, but mostly break,” the lanky boy laughed.</p>
<p>Jack was busy removing a brass plate from the
top of the engine which covered the timing gear. He
then opened the pet cocks and slowly turned the
fly wheel.</p>
<p>“She seems to explode all right, but wait a minute
till I get this side plate off so I can see when the
pistons are up. There, that’s better. Number one
is hitting at just the right time but number two is
a trifle too soon,” he declared after turning the engine
over a few more times. “That timing arm has
been bent a little. Guess we’ll have to take it off
and straighten it.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div>
<p>It took but a minute to take the piece out and with
a strong pair of pliers Jack carefully bent the arm
very slightly.</p>
<p>“There, now let’s see what she’ll do,” he said as
soon as he had replaced the lever.</p>
<p>He gave the wheel a couple of turns and the engine
began purring as though it had never had the slightest
intention of stopping.</p>
<p>“Well, what do you know about that?” the lanky
boy gasped.</p>
<p>“It’s no more than I expected,” the Cherub
grinned. “Didn’t I tell you he could fix it if it could
be fixed. He’s the original Mr. Fixit around these
parts.”</p>
<p>Jack Golden laughed.</p>
<p>“I just happened to hit it right that’s all,” he
declared modestly.</p>
<p>“Well, mebby so, but I wish I could happen to hit
something like that once in a while. Usually the
more I tinker with this old tub the worse she runs.
But we’re awfully obliged.”</p>
<p>“You’re very welcome, I’m sure. Any time you
get stuck again just call out, but I may not be so
lucky next time.”</p>
<p>The two boys unfastened the boat and headed it
down the lake after bidding Jack good-bye and again
thanking him, and Jack walked slowly back toward
the hotel. He had reached the porch steps when
the front door opened and his brother Bob stepped
out.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div>
<p>“Hello, there, sleepy head. Had your breakfast.”</p>
<p>“Breakfast nothing. But what you been doing?”</p>
<p>“Oh, Cherub’s engine balked again and I fixed
it for him. Timing lever was bent.”</p>
<p>“Cherub has more trouble with that old two cylinder
of his than Mrs. Murphy had with her pig,”
Bob Golden laughed.</p>
<p>“I guess that’s about right. But if you’re ready
at last we might as well start for the cottage.”</p>
<p>“Just as soon as I get a couple of pounds of sugar.
I won’t be but a minute.”</p>
<p>He was back in but little more than the time
stated and the two boys walked out to the end of
the pier where their boat, The Sprite, was tied.
While Jack was unfastening the rope Bob took from
his pocket a brass cylinder about eight inches long
which he slipped into place beneath one of the side
seats.</p>
<p>“Let her go,” Jack cried from his place in the bow.</p>
<p>Bob touched a small lever and the boat began moving
through the water. There was no sound save
that of the water as it was thrown from the bows,
for the Sprite was equipped with an electric motor
instead of a gas engine. The brass cylinder which
Bob had taken from his pocket was a powerful storage
cell which the two boys had invented.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_8">8</div>
<p>“I’m glad we don’t have an engine to tinker with
half the time,” Bob said as the boat gained speed.</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s not so bad at that,” Jack laughed.
“That is when you can get them to go.”</p>
<p>The two boys, Bob and Jack Golden had come
up to the lake from their home in Skowhegan the
night before intending to go at once to their cottage
on the other side of the lake. But a heavy thunder
storm, which continued far into the night, had caused
them to change their plans and so they had spent
the night at the little hotel in the grove.</p>
<p>“There’s the Jenkins boys in their new speed
boat,” Jack said when they were a little more than
half way across the lake.</p>
<p>“And she’s sure coming. Look at the way she
throws the water. She must be making twenty-five.”</p>
<p>“Well, we’ll give her a wide berth. Fred ran
into me once and while perhaps he didn’t exactly try
to do it I never could believe that he tried very hard
not to.”</p>
<p>“He can be pretty mean but I hardly think he’d
do a thing like that on purpose.”</p>
<p>“Mebby not. Anyhow we’ll give him the benefit
of the doubt.”</p>
<p>While they were talking the other boat had been
coming rapidly toward them and now was only a
short distance off.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_9">9</div>
<p>“Out of the way with that old tub,” a voice called
across the intervening space.</p>
<p>“Don’t answer him,” Bob cautioned.</p>
<p>He saw that they intended to cut across their bow
so he turned back the switch and the Sprite immediately
began to loose headway, and had nearly
stopped by the time the other boat was about fifty
feet off their port side and as far ahead of them.</p>
<p>Suddenly Jack uttered a cry of surprise for, instead
of keeping straight on her course, the speed
boat made a turn and the next minute was coming
directly for them.</p>
<p>“Back her quick,” he shouted.</p>
<p>Bob at once threw his boat into reverse but too
late. The speed boat, still going at high speed, struck
the Sprite directly amidships and the light boat went
over like an egg shell. Fortunately it was a glancing
blow and not a head on collision.</p>
<p>Jack was thrown clear and struck the water
sprawling. His first thought was of Bob. Had he
gotten clear? As he shook the water from his eyes
he saw the Sprite, about ten feet away, settling
rapidly and before he could reach her she was gone.
But where was Bob? Not a thing was in sight
where the boat had gone down. For an instant he
trod water and gazed about him. Then, taking a
long breath, he dove.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div>
<p>The water was very clear and he had no difficulty
in seeing the Sprite as she lay in about twenty feet
of water. Then, just as he reached the boat, he
saw that for which he was searching. Bob lay just
back of the stern and Jack could see that his foot
was caught in the tiller rope. He was making no
effort to free himself and the thought flashed
through the boy’s mind that he must have been
stunned.</p>
<p>In a frenzy of fear he tugged at the rope. Would
it never yield? If he only had time to get his knife
out but he did not dare attempt it. Already his
lungs seemed nearly at the point of bursting. With
a prayer in his heart he gave a final desperate pull
and the foot was free. He had just strength enough
left to give a kick against the bottom of the lake as
he grabbed his brother in his arms. In spite of his
weakness it was a good strong kick and they shot
rapidly upward although, as Jack afterward said,
it seemed about a week before his head popped out
of the water. Eagerly the boy drank the life-giving
air into his lungs all the while making a desperate
effort to keep his brother’s head above water. He
knew that Bob was still unconscious and the thought
that he might be dead nearly overcame him. But,
as he realized that their safety depended upon his
not losing his head, he forced himself to keep calm.
But it was hard work supporting that dead weight
and he was tiring rapidly.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div>
<p>“We’ll have you in a minute,” he heard the voice
as from a great distance but almost instantly he felt
the weight taken from him and he was being dragged
into a boat.</p>
<p>“Bob,” he gasped.</p>
<p>But Bob had already opened his eyes.</p>
<p>“I—I’m alright,” he said faintly. “Where’s
Jack?”</p>
<p>“Right here, old man,” he whispered, the joy at
knowing that his brother was alive doing much to
restore his strength. It was some minutes, however
before he got to his feet. He noticed that both Will
and Fred Jenkins seemed very ill-at-ease and the
latter was as pale as his tanned skin would permit.</p>
<p>“What was the idea?” he asked as he got slowly
to his feet.</p>
<p>For a moment neither boy answered. Then Fred,
after a glance at his brother, said:</p>
<p>“Tiller rope caught.”</p>
<p>“That’s the excuse you made the last time,” Jack
said sternly. “Can’t you think of a better one?”
Then, without waiting for a reply, he turned to
Bob.</p>
<p>“Sure you’re all right, old man?”</p>
<p>“Head feels pretty wobbly, but I’m still worth a
dozen dead men,” the boy smiled as he looked into
his brother’s face.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div>
<p>“Shall we take you up to your cottage or back to
the grove?” Will Jenkins asked.</p>
<p>“Cottage,” Jack replied shortly.</p>
<p>No other word was spoken until they reached the
little pier in front of the Golden cottage, then Will
Jenkins said:</p>
<p>“I don’t suppose it’s any use to say anything but
what Fred said was the truth. We intended to cross
your bow the tiller rope stuck and before we knew
it the boat had struck. If you had backed a bit it
wouldn’t have happened.”</p>
<p>“Why didn’t you go straight ahead instead of
turning?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Why—er we were heading down for the grove
and turned a bit too far.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say you did,” Jack said dryly.</p>
<p>“Well, we’re sorry.”</p>
<p>“So are we, but that doesn’t raise our boat.”</p>
<p>“I suppose not.”</p>
<p>“What are you going to do about it?”</p>
<p>For a moment Will and Fred whispered together.</p>
<p>“We think you were as much to blame as we were
for not backing up when you saw us coming,” Will
finally said.</p>
<p>“Can you beat it?” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>“All right. We’ll let it go at that,” Bob said
as he turned toward the cottage closely followed by
Jack.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_13">13</div>
<p>Neither Will or Fred made any further statement,
but at once started up their boat and, after making a
broad turn, headed down the lake.</p>
<p>“Guess you saved my life for sure that time, son,”
Bob said as he threw his arm about his brother’s
neck.</p>
<p>“Thank God I had the strength to do it. I tell
you it was nip and tuck for a minute,” and he told
Bob how he had found him. “But what happened
to you?”</p>
<p>“Search me. I remember seeing that boat bearing
down on us and thinking that she might hit us and
then something hit me on the head and, and that
was all.”</p>
<p>“Guess you must have banged your head against
the stern of the boat as she went over.”</p>
<p>“More than likely.”</p>
<p>The boys lost no more time in getting off their
wet clothes.</p>
<p>“Let’s put on our bathing togs and then after we
rest up a bit we’ll take the row boat and see if we
can find her,” Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“Think you’re equal to it to-day?”</p>
<p>“Sure. I’m all right except for a slight headache
and that’s going away fast.”</p>
<p>“Think they meant to do it?” Jack asked a little
later as they lay in a hammock on the porch.</p>
<p>“I’d hate to think so.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_14">14</div>
<p>“I too, but that excuse about the tiller rope catching
is worn a bit threadbare.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I don’t believe a word of that. I rather
think that they intended to see how near they could
come to us without hitting and shaved it too close.”</p>
<p>“They shaved it close all right. Suppose we can
make them pay for our boat?”</p>
<p>“I doubt it. You see their word will be as good as
ours and I don’t think anyone else saw it. No, I
guess we’ll have to just take our medicine and let it
go at that. We’ve done it before.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say we have, but, believe me, once more will
be too many.”</p>
<p>“Well, we’ll hope it won’t happen again.”</p>
<p>“It better hadn’t.”</p>
<p>For an hour the two boys talked about the accident
and wondered how badly their boat was injured.</p>
<p>“Wait till I get the water glass and a buoy to
mark the place and I’ll be with you,” Jack said as he
swung himself out of the hammock.</p>
<p>“Must have been about here don’t you think,” he
asked a little later as he rested on his oars.</p>
<p>“I should say so. I happen to remember that we
were right out from that clump of cedars before they
hit us but I’m rather hazy as to how far out.”</p>
<p>“You take the glass and I’ll row around.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
<p>The water glass was simply a wooden box about
two feet long and four inches square, one end being
closed water tight with a piece of glass. By putting
the glassed end in the water and looking down
through the other the bottom of the lake could be
easily seen.</p>
<p>It is extremely difficult to locate an exact point on
a body of water and it was all of an hour before Bob
announced that he had it. They anchored the boat
at once.</p>
<p>“I’ll go down and see how she looks,” Jack said as
he stood up in the boat.</p>
<p>He disappeared beneath the surface making hardly
a ripple. Bob waited until he began to get anxious.</p>
<p>“Thought you’d decided to take up a permanent
residence down there,” he said as Jack’s head finally
popped above the surface.</p>
<p>“Not yet,” Jack laughed as he climbed over the
side of the row boat.</p>
<p>“How’d you find her?”</p>
<p>“Outside of a little paint rubbed off where she was
hit I don’t believe she’s hurt a bit.”</p>
<p>“That’s good news.”</p>
<p>“But do you suppose we can get her up?”</p>
<p>“We ought to be able to. She’s not very heavy
you know.”</p>
<p>“Not so heavy as she would be if she had a gas
engine in her.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div>
<p>They anchored the buoy with a heavy rock which
they had brought with them and then started back
for the cottage.</p>
<p>“Let’s get something to eat and then we’ll call a
meeting of the committee on ways and means,” Bob
suggested as he tied the boat up to the wharf.</p>
<p>“I’m voting yes on both counts,” Jack laughed as
he followed his brother up the path to the cottage.</p>
<p>A little less than an hour later, the dishes having
been washed and put away, Bob called the meeting
to order on the porch and announced that the chair
was open to suggestions.</p>
<p>“Suppose the chair makes one,” Jack retorted.</p>
<p>“Well, I’ve been thinking of a way that might
work and then again it might not. It’s merely a question
of gravity. Archimedes’ Principle, you know.”</p>
<p>“Never mind Archi. and his principle. Just explain
what you’ve got in mind.”</p>
<p>“All right. As you said awhile ago that boat is
pretty light for one of its size and I believe that if
we take a couple or perhaps three of those barrels
that are under our pier and fasten them to her she’d
come up. What do you think?”</p>
<p>“I guess she’d come up all right but how are you
going to get the barrels down to her? It seems to
me that part is going to be where the difficulty will
lie.”</p>
<p>“I’d thought of that of course.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_17">17</div>
<p>“I’m glad of that. I thought perhaps you had an
idea that they’d go down on your personal invitation.”</p>
<p>“Hardly. Remember Archimed—”</p>
<p>But that was as far he got.</p>
<p>“All right. I won’t forget him. But how are you
going to get ’em down? They’re pretty buoyant you
know.”</p>
<p>“I know but if we hang enough stones to them
they’ll have to go down sooner or later. Oh, I
know it’s going to be some job, and if you can think
of a better way I’ll be glad to adopt it,” he hastened
to add as he noticed the look of doubt on Jack’s face.</p>
<p>“It isn’t that, but have you any idea how much
weight it will take to sink one of those barrels?”</p>
<p>“Around three hundred pounds I should judge.”</p>
<p>“That would be six hundred for the two and nine
hundred if we have to use three.”</p>
<p>“Yes, and six thousand if we have to use twenty.”
Bob laughed. “Your arithmetic is all right. But
honestly, Jack, it isn’t going to be such an awful job
as you seem to think. We can easily take three
hundred pounds of stone and one of the barrels in
the boat at a time and that means only two or at the
most three trips. If we start in early in the morning
I believe we can have the boat here at the wharf by
noon. What do you say?”</p>
<p>“I say yes of course. I only wanted to be sure
that you know what you were doing.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_18">18</div>
<h2 id="c2"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER II.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">JACK INVESTIGATES A PRINCIPLE.</span></h2>
<p>“Now my idea is to take short pieces of rope and
to tie as large a rock as we can handle to each of
them. Then we can hang them over the barrel until
she begins to sink.”</p>
<p>“But won’t they slip off?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Not if we put a nail through the rope.”</p>
<p>It was nearly six o’clock the morning after the
accident. The boys had already had breakfast and
had gotten two of the barrels out from under the
floating pier.</p>
<p>“How are you going to hitch the barrels to the
boat after you get them down there?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“A very important question, son. I thought we
could find some kind of a hook which we could fasten
to the barrel and then we got them down all we’d
have to do would be to slip one under the top of the
bow and the other the same way at the stern.”</p>
<p>“No good,” Jack shook his head.</p>
<p>“Why not?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_19">19</div>
<p>“Son, I’m surprised at your ignorance. You’d
better go dig up Archi. and ask him about his
principle.</p>
<p>“But I don’t see why—”</p>
<p>“Of course you don’t and that’s the reason I’m so
surprised.”</p>
<p>“Well, when you get ready perhaps you will enlighten
me.”</p>
<p>“Certainly. But first let me ask you a question.”</p>
<p>“Shoot.”</p>
<p>“When you stick your finger in the water and pull
it out does it leave a hole?”</p>
<p>“Well that’s a question that would admit of considerable
argument from a theoretical point of view
but I think we can safely agree that the hole, if there
was a hole, would not remain for an indefinite period
of time.”</p>
<p>“Whew, that never touched me. Did you mean
that it wouldn’t leave a hole?”</p>
<p>“I guess that was the main idea.”</p>
<p>“All right then. Now that that is settled perhaps
you will tell me how you intend to bail the water out
of the Sprite while she is still under water. As you
have planned it she will still be a foot or more below
the surface after the barrels have brought her up.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div>
<p>“Well, I am dumb for a fact. Honestly, Jack, I
hadn’t thought of that. It’s a case of being up and
down at the same time. Well, that means that we
will either have to fasten them lower down or else
tow the whole shooting match into shore after we
get her up. What do you say?”</p>
<p>“Well, of course if we could get the barrels under
the boat that would solve the problem but I don’t
see how we could do it. No, I guess the best bet is
to tow her in.”</p>
<p>“I think so myself. Now suppose you be looking
for some stones while I run down to the boat house
and see what I can do about a couple of hooks.”</p>
<p>“And don’t forget to bring up the rope.”</p>
<p>Bob was back in the course of half an hour having
found two hooks which went with a hoisting tackle
and found that Jack had collected a sufficiently large
number of rocks most of them being about all he
wanted to lift.</p>
<p>“Now we’ll get them aboard and be off,” he said.</p>
<p>Thanks to the buoy they had no trouble in finding
the place where the Sprite lay and after an hour’s
hard work they had the pleasure of seeing the barrel
disappear beneath the surface, directly over the bow
of the boat.</p>
<p>“Now we’ll get the other one,” Bob said as he
started to row back up the lake.</p>
<p>“That wasn’t so bad,” Jack declared. “If only
that barrel landed on the bow.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_21">21</div>
<p>“It won’t be hard to lift it if it didn’t,” Bob assured
him. “You see we put on just barely enough
rocks to sink it so it’ll be light in the water.”</p>
<p>By nine o’clock the other barrel was down at the
stern.</p>
<p>“Let’s hook the one on the bow first,” Bob proposed
as he stood ready for the dive.</p>
<p>“Right. Got your knife?”</p>
<p>“Sure thing.”</p>
<p>“Then come on.”</p>
<p>They struck the water together and swam swiftly
for the bottom. To their great satisfaction they
found that the first barrel had settled in exactly the
right place on the bow and they had no trouble in
slipping the hook into a ring. Then, with their
knives they cut the ropes which held the rocks.</p>
<p>“Did you notice whether she lifted any?” Bob
asked as he was climbing into the boat. “I didn’t have
time to see.”</p>
<p>“I did. She came up a foot or two.”</p>
<p>“Good. Then she’ll come up when we get the
other one hooked on.”</p>
<p>“I guess so. But we’re going to have a harder
time with that other one.”</p>
<p>“How come?”</p>
<p>“I noticed going down that it was two or three
feet behind the stern, that means that we’ll have to
lift it on.”</p>
<p>“Well, I guess we can do it.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_22">22</div>
<p>They waited until they were thoroughly rested and
then again dove for the bottom. As Jack had said
the second barrel was resting behind the stern. But,
as Bob said, it was not hard to lift in the water and
they had little trouble in getting it onto the stern
before having to come up for air.</p>
<p>“I told you we could do it,” Bob panted as he
stretched out on the bottom of the boat.</p>
<p>“There’s no ring at the stern to hook into,” Jack
reminded him.</p>
<p>“That’s so.”</p>
<p>“Suppose we can hook into the tiller post?”</p>
<p>“Don’t see why not?”</p>
<p>But it was harder than they thought as they had
considerable trouble in making the hook reach and
they were obliged to come to the surface without
cutting the ropes.</p>
<p>“One more whack at it and she’ll come up,” Bob
declared after he had regained his breath.</p>
<p>“Perhaps.”</p>
<p>“Perhaps nothing. She’s got to.”</p>
<p>“Well, here’s hoping.”</p>
<p>“I’ll go down and cut the ropes. There’s only two
of them,” Bob said as soon as he was rested.</p>
<p>“Now watch her come up,” he said a moment
later as his head bobbed above the water.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_23">23</div>
<p>But to their great disappointment nothing appeared.
They waited several minutes, expecting to
see the barrels emerge but no barrels came.</p>
<p>“Guess Archi. has fallen down on this job,” Jack
said after some five minutes had clasped.</p>
<p>“Looks like it.”</p>
<p>“What’s next then?”</p>
<p>“Have to get another barrel, I guess.”</p>
<p>“I’m going down and have a look first,” and Jack
disappeared over the side of the boat.</p>
<p>Bob waited until he was beginning to be anxious
before Jack reappeared.</p>
<p>“Rudder’s caught between two rocks,” he said as
soon as he could speak. “That’s what’s holding her.
She must have gone down kinder sideways and then
righted a bit. Anyhow the rudder is pinched so that
I couldn’t budge it.”</p>
<p>“Are the rocks big?”</p>
<p>“Too big to move, I’m afraid, but we’ll try it together.”</p>
<p>But their united strength was not enough to accomplish
the task. The rudder of the Sprite had
settled neatly into a crevice between two rocks and
was there held fast and, although they pulled with
all their might, they were unable to budge it.</p>
<p>“We might do it if we had a crowbar,” Jack suggested
as they lay panting.</p>
<p>“I believe we could and there’s one at the boat
house.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_24">24</div>
<p>“Then we’d better go get it.”</p>
<p>They rested a few minutes and then rowed back to
the cottage and got the bar.</p>
<p>Back again Bob tied a strong cord to the bar and
fastened the other end to the row boat.</p>
<p>“Afraid that bar’d be too heavy to bring up,” he
explained.</p>
<p>Then he jumped in holding the bar in his hands
and trusting to its weight to carry him to the bottom.
Jack followed and soon they had the end in the
crevice and were tugging with all their strength.</p>
<p>To their great satisfaction they felt the big rock
give a trifle and after another mighty pull on the
bar the rudder slipped out and the boat began to
rise. They had hardly gotten into the row boat when
first one barrel and then the other came above the
surface.</p>
<p>“Hurrah for Archi.,” Jack shouted.</p>
<p>Bob grinned as he panted for breath.</p>
<p>“Science is a wonderful thing,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“You said it, son.”</p>
<p>The deck of the Sprite was some two feet beneath
the surface as she floated supported by the two
barrels.</p>
<p>“We’d sure have some job bailing her out as she
is,” Jack laughed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_25">25</div>
<p>“And it’s going to be some work to tow her in
shore. It’s nearly half a mile and she sure’ll pull
hard.”</p>
<p>He was correct in his estimate of the work still
ahead of them and it took them all of two hours to
tow the Sprite to the sandy beach directly opposite,
and about a mile below the cottage.</p>
<p>“I’m hungry,” Jack declared as the boat finally
scraped on the bottom.</p>
<p>“Ditto.”</p>
<p>“Then let’s leave her here and go up to the cottage
and get dinner.”</p>
<p>“My sentiment exactly.”</p>
<p>They preferred walking in place of rowing, Bob
declaring that his arms felt as though they were
nearly pulled out of their sockets. They made a hasty
meal as they were both anxious to get back to the
boat and in a little over an hour they were at work
again. It was not difficult to pull the boat up on the
gently sloping beach until it was far enough out of
water to be bailed out.</p>
<p>This was slow work, but it was finally accomplished
and once more the Sprite floated as proudly
as ever on the surface. A careful examination disclosed
that Jack had been right. Except for a little
paint rubbed off the side the hull was uninjured.</p>
<p>“Do you suppose the water has injured the motor?”
Jack asked.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_26">26</div>
<p>“Don’t see why it should. But we’ll have to overhaul
it and get it thoroughly dried, before we can
be sure.”</p>
<p>“Well, let’s get those barrels aboard and tow her
up to the cottage.”</p>
<p>It took them the rest of the afternoon to clean
and dry the motor but they were well rewarded for
their work when they found that it ran as smoothly
as ever.</p>
<p>“Now a little paint and she’ll be as good as new,”
Bob declared after they had taken a short run down
the lake to make sure that all was right. “But we’ll
let that go till to-morrow. Suppose you see if you
can get a mess of perch while I mix a batch of
biscuit.”</p>
<p>“How’d you guess it?” Jack laughed as he ran
up to the cottage for his rod.</p>
<p>Catching fish was, as Jack often said, the best
thing he did, and by the time Bob had his biscuits in
the oven he had six big perch sizzling in the frying
pan.</p>
<p>“These are pretty near as good as trout,” he
declared a little later as he reached for his third.</p>
<p>“To say nothing of the biscuits,” Bob grinned.</p>
<p>“They’re always the best ever. Melt in your
mouth,” Jack assured him. “I think this is my
sixth.”</p>
<p>“Well, we won’t starve so long as you can catch
fish and I can bake biscuits.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_27">27</div>
<p>“I’ll say we won’t.”</p>
<p>“I do hope that nothing will happen to disturb the
rest of the vacation,” Bob said as they were washing
the dishes.</p>
<p>“Had enough excitement, eh?”</p>
<p>“Enough for one summer.”</p>
<p>“It sure was pretty strenuous catching those liquor
smugglers.”</p>
<p>“You said it. I saw by the paper the other day
that they got five years at hard labor.”</p>
<p>“And that’s none too much according to my way
of thinking.”</p>
<p>Just then the telephone rang.</p>
<p>“I’ll answer it,” Bob said.</p>
<p>“This you, Bob?”</p>
<p>It was his father’s voice which came over the
wire.</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>“Well a telegram has just come for you from Rex
Dale. It says, ‘Meet me Skowhegan, 10.30 to-morrow.’”</p>
<p>“That’s funny. I thought he was going to sail
for Europe in a few days. That’s what he said in
his last letter.”</p>
<p>“I know, but something must have changed his
plans. Everything all right up there?”</p>
<p>“It is now but we had a bit of a mess yesterday.”
And he told his father about the accident.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_28">28</div>
<p>“Good boy,” Mr. Golden almost shouted as Bob
told him how Jack had saved his life. “I often wonder
what will happen to you boys next.”</p>
<p>“It’s all right so long as we land on our feet,” Bob
laughed.</p>
<p>“If only you always do,” Mr. Golden sighed.
“Really, Bob, I sometimes think I’d better put you
two in a glass case and set a watch over you. Then
I’d know that you were safe.”</p>
<p>“Who was it?” Jack asked as his brother joined
him down on the wharf where he had gone to replace
the barrels.</p>
<p>“It was Father. A telegram just came from Rex
saying to meet him to-morrow at 10.30.”</p>
<p>“Wonder what’s up. I thought he was going
abroad.”</p>
<p>“So did I but it seems that we were wrong.”</p>
<p>“Well, I’ll be mighty glad to see him again.”</p>
<p>“You bet.”</p>
<p>Rex Dale, the son of a prominent business man of
Philadelphia, was a few years older than Bob. The
boys had met him while at The Fortress, a military
college which they both attended, under circumstances
already related in a previous volume, and a
strong friendship existed between them.</p>
<p>“Must be something mighty important,” Jack
declared as they returned to the cottage, “to make
him give up that trip.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_29">29</div>
<p>“Mebby he’s only postponed it.”</p>
<p>“Mebby, but I reckon we won’t know till to-morrow.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_30">30</div>
<h2 id="c3"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER III.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">THE LEGEND OF THE UMSASKIS.</span></h2>
<p>The boys were at the station the next morning
when the train from Boston pulled in.</p>
<p>“There he is,” Jack shouted as he caught sight of
his friend as he stood bag in hand on the car platform.</p>
<p>Another moment and the three were shaking hands
heartily together.</p>
<p>“It’s a treat for sore eyes to see you again,” Jack
declared.</p>
<p>“And I’m mighty glad to see you.”</p>
<p>“Well, let’s get over to the house and you can tell
us all about it,” Bob said.</p>
<p>Their car was waiting at the station platform and
it was only a few minutes’ ride to their home, so in
less than twenty minutes from the time the train had
pulled in they were sitting on the porch listening to
Rex’s story.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_31">31</div>
<p>“As I wrote you a few days ago,” he began, “I
expected to sail from New York to-morrow on a
business trip to Europe. I had my plans all made
and even had my passage engaged and then like a
bolt out of a clear sky we found that Father’s cashier
had skipped with nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
John Stebbins had been with us for over twenty
years and we all thought him the very soul of honor.
It comes at a very hard time for Father. You see
business has been poor lately and he lost a lot of
money a few months ago through the failure of one
of our biggest customers and the loss of this money
will pretty badly cripple him.”</p>
<p>“Now I know that you are wondering what I am
doing up here in Maine but I have reason to think
that he’s up here. Did you ever hear of a lake by
the name Umsaskis?”</p>
<p>The boys thought a moment.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure,” Bob replied slowly. “But I think
there’s a lake by that name up some twenty or thirty
miles north of Chemquessbamticook. It’s up pretty
close to the border if I’m correct. But Father will
know and he ought to be home pretty soon.”</p>
<p>“Well just a few days ago I happened to pass
Stebbins’ office and heard him talking to some man
whom I didn’t know. I didn’t intend to listen but
I was getting some papers out of the safe and
couldn’t help hearing what he was saying. He
mentioned that lake and I heard him say that he had
been there some years ago and might be there before
long. As it was pretty near to the time he was to
leave for his vacation I thought nothing of it. In
fact I had forgotten all about it but after we found
that he had left with the money I remembered it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_32">32</div>
<p>“I told Father about it and I can’t say that he
seemed to attach a great deal of importance to it but
when we couldn’t find a single clue to his whereabouts
he consented to my coming up here to see if I could
locate him. You see Father’s business is in such
shape that if it was known that he had lost all the
money it would be sure to ruin him. So for that
reason, he has not let it be known.”</p>
<p>“Will you let us go up there with you?” Jack
asked eagerly.</p>
<p>“Will I? I was hoping that you’d propose it. I
hated to ask you but I sure do want you.”</p>
<p>“Of course we want to go,” Bob assured him.
“You couldn’t keep us at home with a ten-horse
team.”</p>
<p>“And he was saying only yesterday that he hoped
nothing would happen the rest of the summer.”</p>
<p>“Oh, well this is different you know,” Bob laughed
just as his Father came up the steps.</p>
<p>Mr. Golden gave their friend a most hearty greeting;
indeed he was nearly as fond of Rex Dale as
were the boys.</p>
<p>“Welcome to the old Pine Tree State again,” he
said as he grasped him by the hand.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_33">33</div>
<p>“The Pine Tree State always looks mighty good
to me, sir,” he declared as he returned the grasp.</p>
<p>“Father, isn’t Umsaskis Lake up above Chemquessbamticook?”
Bob asked as soon as the greeting
was over.</p>
<p>“Yes. It’s some ways above if I remember rightly.
All of forty miles I should say. I know it’s pretty
close to the border.”</p>
<p>“I thought so,” Bob said.</p>
<p>“You aren’t thinking of going up there, are you?”</p>
<p>“Looks as though we might,” and he told his
father of Rex’s mission.</p>
<p>“I’m mighty sorry to hear that,” Mr. Golden declared
turning to Rex. “And you think he may be up
there at Umsaskis?”</p>
<p>“It may be a pretty slim chance but I believe it is
a chance and I just had to do something.”</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
<p>“Don’t you think yourself, sir, that it would be a
good place for a man to hide up there?”</p>
<p>“Don’t believe he could find a better. It’s about as
wild as you could wish for up there and I don’t suppose
there’s a white man lives within fifty or sixty
miles of that lake unless it’s some lone trapper. I
was up there once many years ago on a hunting trip
and I remember we didn’t see a soul for nearly two
weeks.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_34">34</div>
<p>“Then I’m more than ever inclined to think that
he has gone there. He is just the kind of a man who
would go off to a place like that and I know he came
from somewhere in the northern part of Maine.”</p>
<p>“There’s an old legend connected with that lake,”
Mr. Golden told the boys while they were waiting for
dinner. “Many years ago a large tribe of Indians
lived on the shore of Umsaskis. Moose and deer and
bear were very plentiful and the tribe was wealthy
and happy. Big Foot was chief and White Flower,
his daughter was the pride of the tribe. Straight
as an arrow she was and she could outrun and outshoot,
with the bow and arrow, any member of the
tribe.</p>
<p>“Many a hopeful young buck came to match his
skill with the bow and arrow and his speed both in
running and in paddling the canoe against her for it
was known that she had vowed that she would wed
only her master in these fetes. But one and all they
went away sorrowful, for her arrows always struck
nearer the mark than theirs and so swift were her feet
that although she even gave them considerable start
never was the race more than half run before she had
passed them. And it is related how she would paddle
her light birch canoe many lengths beyond the outer
mark set for the race and then beat her dusky wooer
in by a long margin.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_35">35</div>
<p>“Then one day in mid-summer came Spotted Tail
from a tribe far to the west with a message for Big
Foot. Never was such an Indian as Spotted Tail.
Cast in a perfect mold he was as beautiful a man as
was White Flower a woman. It was a case of love
at first sight when they met. For two days Spotted
Tail rested before pitting his strength and skill
against her whom he would wed.</p>
<p>“First came the shooting with the bow and arrow.
Frowns of disapproval settled on the brows of many
when White Flower’s arrow just brushed the thin
reed with the tip of the feather which guided its
flight and they watched her with hostile eyes when
a moment later the arrow of Spotted Tail split the
same reed in two. Did her eyes light up with hope?
Who can tell?</p>
<p>“Then came the foot race. When she motioned her
lover to take the customary fifty feet start loud
grunts of disapproval were heard on all sides and,
being appealed to, Big Foot ruled that they should
start together. Did White Flower run with less
than her usual swiftness or was Spotted Tail really
her master? Who could tell. But it was evident
that many suspected her when Spotted Tail crossed
the line a full foot ahead of her and she threw herself
panting onto the ground.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_36">36</div>
<p>“But one trial remained, the race with the canoe.
And now White Flower seemed to be putting all her
strength into her paddle. Not a foot did she go
farther than was necessary to make the turn and her
frail craft seemed almost to leap from the water as
she bore down toward the finish mark. Suspicions
were lulled as it seemed certain that she would win
by a good margin. Spotted Tail was doing his best
and his canoe, too, was rushing over rather than
through the water. But she rounded the turn a full
length ahead of him and this lead she had steadily
increased on the home stretch. Then with but a few
rods to go a gasp of horror was heard as her paddle
snapped fairly in the middle. There was no excuse
in an Indian race. The first over the line won regardless
of what might have happened.</p>
<p>“As Spotted Tail swept his canoe over the line the
winner by several lengths Big Foot waded out into
the lake and picked up the pieces of the broken paddle.
For a moment he examined them and then,
without a word he drew his bow and the next instant
his arrow was buried in the heart of White Flower.
It was so sudden that for a moment Spotted Tail
stood motionless then, as if galvanized into action,
he snatched a bow from a young brave and quicker
than the eye could follow an arrow sped to the heart
of Big Foot. Then with but a single glance at his
hoped-for bride, he bounded away into the forest and
was gone.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div>
<p>“That is the story of White Flower and Spotted
Tail. The tribe moved away soon after but tradition
tells that often on moonlight nights a pure white
canoe paddled by a figure dressed in snow white
buckskin can be seen skimming the waters of
Umsaskis Lake. No Indian will go near the place
and even the half-breeds give it a wide berth.”</p>
<p>“Did you see the ghost?” Bob asked as Mr. Golden
brought his story to a close.</p>
<p>“No. I did not see it,” Mr. Golden smiled.</p>
<p>“It’s a pretty story,” Rex declared.</p>
<p>“Perhaps you will have better luck if you go up
there,” Mr. Golden said just as the dinner bell rang.</p>
<p>“I would sure like to see it, or rather her,” Bob
laughed as he followed the others into the house.</p>
<p>“How would you advise us to go?” Bob asked his
father when they were again on the porch.</p>
<p>“If I were you I’d take the car up as far as North
East Carry. Then you can get a canoe there and
make a short carry to the West Branch of the Penobscot.
Follow that for about twenty miles or perhaps
a little more and it will bring you to the head of
Chesuncook Lake. Wait a minute till I get a map
and I’ll make out the rest of the course. Here we are
now,” he resumed after Jack had returned with the
map. “Now we’re right here,” pointing with his
finger, “at the head of Chesuncook. Now you take
this little stream up to Umbazooksses Lake. Then
you’ll have to carry across to Chamberlain Lake.
From there you see it’s clear sailing up through
Pomgoewahem Lake and Churchill Lake into the
Allagash River. You’ll find some pretty swift water
part of the way along the Allagash and you’ll
probably have to make a number of carries.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_38">38</div>
<p>“How far do we follow the Allagash?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Till you come to the big falls about fifty miles
where you enter the river from Churchill Lake.”</p>
<p>“But look here, Father, someone has got things
balled up a bit. Here’s Umsaskis Lake right here
just a few miles above Churchill.” And Jack pointed
with his finger.</p>
<p>“I know. That’s the Old or Big Umsaskis as it is
often called. The Little Umsaskis is a much smaller
Lake far to the north. Of course,” he said turning
to Rex, “I don’t suppose you can be sure which one
Stebbins referred to, can you?”</p>
<p>“I’m pretty sure that it was the one farthest
north,” Rex replied after a short pause. “I remember
hearing him say that there was no other lake within
twenty or thirty miles of it.”</p>
<p>“Then it must have been Little Umsaskis,” Mr.
Golden declared. “You can see that there’s a number
of lakes much nearer than that to the lower one.”</p>
<p>“I think so, sir. But we can take a look around
when we get that far and see if we can find anything.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_39">39</div>
<p>“That would be wise,” Mr. Golden agreed. “But
to come back where we were. When you come to
the big falls you will have to leave the canoe and
strike off due east. The Little Umsaskis is about
twenty miles from the falls and it is uphill most of
the way. Pick out the highest peak you can see and
head straight for it. The lake lies in a depression
between that peak and the one nearer the lake which
is much lower.”</p>
<p>“I guess we’ll be able to find it all right,” Jack
declared.</p>
<p>“Oh, you can’t miss it,” his father assured him.</p>
<p>“How large is the lake?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s nearly round and perhaps three miles
across.”</p>
<p>“Any trout in it?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“I know he’d want to know that sooner or later,”
Bob laughed.</p>
<p>“Plenty when I was there and I suppose there are
now. And we got some big fellows too. I wouldn’t
dare tell you just how large,” and Mr. Golden smiled.</p>
<p>“You might tell us how big the ones were that
got away,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>“They’re always the largest of course,” Mr.
Golden smiled. “But when are you intending to
start?”</p>
<p>“The sooner the better I suppose,” Bob replied
looking at Rex. “I thought we could put in this
afternoon getting the things together and get an
early start in the morning.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_40">40</div>
<p>“I guess that would be best,” Mr. Golden agreed.
“But I must be off to the office. I’ll see you at
supper.”</p>
<p>The boys had been on so many trips of a like
nature that they knew just what was needed and by
four o’clock everything was in readiness for the
start on the morrow.</p>
<p>They were to go as far as The North East Carry
on Moosehead Lake in the little car which they had
equipped with an electric motor run by the new cell
which the boys had invented.</p>
<p>“Well, how goes it?” Mr. Golden asked as he came
up the steps and found the boys pouring over the
map again.</p>
<p>“All set,” Jack replied.</p>
<p>“Sure you got everything?”</p>
<p>“So far’s I know.”</p>
<p>“Better take plenty of food.”</p>
<p>“I should think we had enough to last an army
a month,” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>“And you’ll need a lot. The Maine Woods is a
great appetizer as you’ll find out before you get back
and you can’t tell how long you may be gone. A
little too much is a whole lot better than a little too
little.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say it is,” Jack laughed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_41">41</div>
<p>“I’ll tell you what I’d do,” Mr. Golden said as if
struck by a sudden thought. “I’d take Kernertok
along. He knows all about that country up there and
I always feel safer when I know he’s along with you.
And then he’ll be a lot of help on the carries.”</p>
<p>“Just the thing,” Bob said enthusiastically. “We’ll
stop for him on the way up. It will only delay us
a couple of hours and we’ll more than make up for
the time by having him along.”</p>
<p>Kernertok, an old Indian trapper, had long been
a friend of the Golden Boys and it was he who had
taught them all they knew about woodcraft and the
hundred and one things so necessary to life in the
vast forest of northern Maine.</p>
<p>The sun had hardly lifted its head over the horizon
the next morning when they were off.</p>
<p>“Good-bye, good luck and be careful,” Mr. Golden,
who had gotten up to see them off, shouted as they
drove out of the yard.</p>
<p>“Sure thing,” Jack called back.</p>
<p>It was a beautiful morning early in August. The
night had been almost cold and the early morning
air, was, as Rex put it, decidedly snappy.</p>
<p>“I’ll bet this air’s loaded with ozone,” he declared
as he drew a deep breath into his lungs.</p>
<p>“It’s the best ever,” Bob agreed.</p>
<p>“Did you ever see any thing prettier than that?”
Jack asked a little over two hours later as they
reached the top of a high hill.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_42">42</div>
<p>“I never did,” Rex declared as he gazed down at
the broad expanse of Moosehead Lake spread out like
a mirror almost at their feet.</p>
<p>“That’s one of the Coburn fleet,” Bob said pointing
to a steamer which was making its way up the
lake.</p>
<p>“Looks like one of the boats I used to sail in the
bath tub from here,” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>“It’s the Kathadin,” Jack declared. “And she’ll
carry six hundred people besides a lot of freight.”</p>
<p>“How big is Moosehead?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Forty miles long and a little over eighteen miles
wide in the widest place,” Bob told him.</p>
<p>“Some lake.”</p>
<p>“Largest in New England,” Jack said proudly.</p>
<p>An hour later, when about half way up the lake
Bob brought the car to a stop.</p>
<p>“We turn off here,” he said as he pointed to a
narrow trail leading to the right.</p>
<p>“Do you mean to say that you can run the car over
that road?” Rex asked anxiously.</p>
<p>“It won’t be the first time,” Bob laughed. “But
you want to hang on with both hands.”</p>
<p>“Guess I’d better use my teeth also,” Rex laughed
a few minutes later as he struck the seat.</p>
<p>“If you go through the top be sure and come
down through the same hole so as not to make two
holes,” Jack shouted.</p>
<p>“I’ll do my best.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_43">43</div>
<p>At places the trail seemed impassable for a car but
Bob kept on much to Rex’s amazement.</p>
<p>“Do you ever climb trees with this car?” he asked
a little later, as it hit a particularly large bump.</p>
<p>“Not very often,” Bob laughed.</p>
<p>“I’ll bet she’d do it at that,” Jack added.</p>
<p>“Not a bit of doubt about it in my mind,” Rex
declared.</p>
<p>“Here’s where we have to abandon ship,” Bob announced
a little later as he brought the car to a stop.
“It’s about a mile through the woods to Kernertok’s
cabin.”</p>
<p>“I’m surprised that you don’t drive right up to
his door,” Rex said with a grin.</p>
<p>“Trouble is, the trees are too thick together to get
her through,” Jack explained.</p>
<p>“And you’d stop her for a little thing like that?”</p>
<p>“You might wait here, Rex, while we walk in,”
Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“Not on your life. I want to see his cabin.”</p>
<p>“All right then. Come on.”</p>
<p>“And make it snappy,” Jack added.</p>
<p>“I guess you would have some trouble in getting
even that car through here,” Rex laughed a few
minutes as he squeezed himself between two trees.</p>
<p>“We’re almost there,” Bob announced a little later.
“Give him a call, Jack.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_44">44</div>
<p>Jack put his fingers to his lips and the clear shrill
call of the whip-poor-will rang through the forest.
For a moment they listened.</p>
<p>“Afraid he isn’t home,” Bob said.</p>
<p>“I’ll try him again,” and once more Jack sent the
call from his lips.</p>
<p>“How in the world would he know that it wasn’t a
genuine bird?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>Bob smiled.</p>
<p>“Jack puts a peculiar touch to the last note which
is the real signal between us and Kernertok. I doubt
if any one else would notice it.”</p>
<p>“I should say not.”</p>
<p>For the third time Jack whistled and this time almost
at once the call came back to them.</p>
<p>“He’s home,” Jack shouted.</p>
<p>“Sure’s pop. Come on.”</p>
<p>Before they had taken more than a dozen steps a
dog came bounding toward them.</p>
<p>“Here, Sicum. Good old Sicum.”</p>
<p>The dog with a yelp of joy leaped upon them, but
uttered a low growl as he saw Rex.</p>
<p>“It’s all right, old fellow. He’s one of us,” Bob
said as he took Rex by the hand.</p>
<p>Thus assured the intelligent animal crouched at
Rex’s feet and allowed him to place his hand on his
head.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_45">45</div>
<p>“Sicum doesn’t take readily to strangers but if he
once accepts you he’s a friend for life,” Jack explained.
“You’re in good with him now and he’ll
never forget you.”</p>
<p>Old Kernertok was standing in front of his cabin
as they approached.</p>
<p>“Hello, there, Kernertok,” Jack shouted.</p>
<p>“How,” the Indian replied.</p>
<p>“Fine as silk, and you?”</p>
<p>“Injun heap well.”</p>
<p>“You look it,” Bob assured him as he shook
hands.</p>
<p>The boys then introduced their friend.</p>
<p>“Sicum has accepted him, so you can be sure he’s
all right,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>“Injun heap glad know friend of white boys,”
Kernertok assured him.</p>
<p>“And it’s a great pleasure for me to know you,”
Rex replied as he took the old Indian’s hand. “I’ve
heard so much about you from the boys that I feel
as though I had known you for a long time already.
Believe me, they never get tired of talking about
you.”</p>
<p>“White boys talk heap too much,” the Indian
grunted and the boys all laughed.</p>
<p>“What bring white boys up here now?”</p>
<p>“It’s a pretty long story and we’d better sit
down,” Bob suggested.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_46">46</div>
<p>Kernertok motioned to them to come inside the
cabin and as soon as they were seated on the floor
Bob told him as quickly as possible about their
mission.</p>
<p>Kernertok uttered no word until Bob had finished.</p>
<p>“Injun glad to go with white boys. Injun know
all that land. It heap big woods.”</p>
<p>“How soon can you be ready?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Ten minute.”</p>
<p>And to Rex’s great surprise it was but a very little
more than that time when he announced that he was
ready to start.</p>
<p>“I was afraid he might balk on account of that
ghost story your father told us,” Rex whispered
while the Indian was outside.</p>
<p>“Oh, Kernertok’s too civilized to take any stock
in that kind of stuff,” Bob told him.</p>
<p>“You got um heap much grub?” Kernertok asked
as they were about to make the start.</p>
<p>“I think we’ve got plenty,” Bob assured him.</p>
<p>It took some persuasion to induce Sicum to get
into the car, but by the time they had reached the
main road he was quite reconciled to the new method
of travel and seemed to enjoy it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_47">47</div>
<h2 id="c4"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER IV.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">REX LEARNS HOW TO MAKE A CARRY.</span></h2>
<p>Shortly before noon they reached the little settlement
at North East Carry.</p>
<p>“Well, well I’m glad to see you boys. How are all
your sorrows and joys?”</p>
<p>The storekeeper greeted them as they entered the
little general store.</p>
<p>“Fine and dandy. How are you and all the folks?”
Bob replied shaking him heartily by the hand.</p>
<p>“If I felt any better I’d be ashamed, but the Misses
she’s a trifle lamed.”</p>
<p>“That’s too bad. Hope it’s nothing serious,” Bob
said.</p>
<p>“Doctor said she’d be all right, but she’s got a foot
that’s sure a sight.”</p>
<p>“How about some dinner?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Dinner’ll be ready in half an hour. Plenty ter
eat if the milk hain’t sour.”</p>
<p>“Well I sure hope it isn’t,” Jack laughed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_48">48</div>
<p>While they were waiting for dinner they arranged
for the loan of canoe telling the storekeeper that they
were going up the Allagash. By the time dinner was
ready they had their supplies all ready for the carry
to the West Branch about five miles north through
thick woods.</p>
<p>“Jack, if you and Rex will take the stuff Kernertok
and I’ll tote the canoe,” Bob suggested as they were
ready for the start.</p>
<p>“All right. But I hope Rex won’t get discouraged
on the first lap,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>“We’ve seen the kind of stuff he’s made of before,”
Bob replied. “But we’ll take it a bit easy at first.”</p>
<p>Carrying forty pounds or perhaps a trifle more
does not sound very hard but unless one is used to it
the load gets pretty heavy by the time a couple of
miles have been passed and the weight seems to increase,
as Jack put it, by the cube of the distance.</p>
<p>Rex was tired before they had covered half the
distance but, as Bob had inferred, he was game and
would not ask them to stop on his account. But he
was very glad when, after they had covered three
miles, the Indian lowered his end of the canoe to the
ground saying,</p>
<p>“We rest um. White boy heap tired.”</p>
<p>Rex did not deny the accusation as he threw himself
on the ground.</p>
<p>“How many hundred pounds of stuff have we got
here?” he asked.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_49">49</div>
<p>“I’ll bet it feels like at least three,” Jack laughed.
“But after you get your second wind it won’t seem
so hard.”</p>
<p>They rested for about fifteen minutes at the end of
which time Rex declared that he was all right.</p>
<p>As they proceeded the going rapidly grew more
difficult as the forest became more and more dense
and the underbrush was very thick. This really made
it easier for Rex as Bob and Kernertok had hard
work to manage the canoe and their progress was
painfully slow.</p>
<p>“Hope we don’t have many carries like this,” Bob
panted as he lowered his end to the ground for another
rest.</p>
<p>“Heap more some heap bad,” the Indian declared
shaking his head.</p>
<p>“That’s very consoling,” Jack grinned.</p>
<p>But the hardest part of that carry had been passed
and as they went on the traveling rapidly became
easier as the trees thinned out and the underbrush
cleared.</p>
<p>“Here she be,” Jack, who was a few yards ahead
of the others, shouted as he caught sight of water
through the trees.</p>
<p>It was half past four when they reached the
stream.</p>
<p>“Three hours and a half covering five miles,” Rex
said as he swung his pack to the ground.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_50">50</div>
<p>“That’s nothing,” Bob assured him. “Sometimes
it takes several hours to carry a single mile. We
really made very good time. How about it, Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“Heap good time for white boys,” the old Indian
said.</p>
<p>“Carrying a load through the heavy woods is a
different matter from carrying that same load
through the streets,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“Don’t I know it?” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>The West Branch of the Penobscot River at this
point is a rapid stream of water which tumbles over
hidden rocks and sweeps around bends making it
dangerous canoing for any but experienced men.
About fifty feet wide here it often narrows to twenty-five
and a little further on opens up to as much as a
hundred feet.</p>
<p>“Had we better launch the canoe and make a few
miles or camp here for the night?” Bob asked Kernertok.</p>
<p>“White boy heap hurry, we go on,” the Indian
said nodding toward Rex.</p>
<p>“Guess we might as well,” Bob agreed. “It’s several
hours before dark.”</p>
<p>So they hastily loaded the supplies into the canoe
and carefully pushed it into the water.</p>
<p>“You and Rex get in the middle, Jack, and Kernertok
and I’ll handle the paddles.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_51">51</div>
<p>The supplies together with the four men and the
dog made a good load for the canoe and it seemed to
Rex that the water came dangerously near to the
rail. But he said nothing having perfect faith in the
knowledge and skill of his friends.</p>
<p>“All set?” Bob cried as he pushed and leaped into
the bow.</p>
<p>Almost immediately the swift current caught the
frail craft and whirled it around until it was headed
down stream.</p>
<p>Once out in the middle of the river the canoe
needed no urging from the paddles and all Bob and
the Indian had to do was to keep her straight and
away from the rocks. And it was not long before
Rex decided in his own mind that that was quite
enough.</p>
<p>Now a big rock would loom up directly in their
path and it would seem certain that they were going
to hit it when Bob, by a slight movement of his
paddle, would deflect their course just in time. And
again Rex would shudder in spite of himself as he
glanced over the side of the canoe and saw the jagged
points of ledges seemingly only a few inches beneath
the surface. Even he knew that it would need
but a brush against those teeth to rip a large hole in
the bottom of the canoe.</p>
<p>“And I sure would hate to have to try to swim
ashore here,” he thought more than once.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_52">52</div>
<p>He could tell by the rapidity with which the banks
seemed to fly past that they must be making fully
twenty-five miles an hour.</p>
<p>“If we should hit a good sized rock out here, that
is big enough to stop the canoe all at once, our momentum
might carry us all through the air to the
shore and we wouldn’t have to swim,” he thought as
they swept around a bend what seemed to him terrific
speed.</p>
<p>The course of the stream had been to the east but
the bend was nearly at right angles and now they
were heading almost due north.</p>
<p>“I thought streams always ran toward the south,”
he shouted turning his head.</p>
<p>“Not up here they don’t,” Jack laughed. “They’re
apt to run any old way.”</p>
<p>In spite of his determination not to be afraid and
his confidence in the Indian and Bob the first leg of
the trip down the river was a trying one to Rex and
his mind was greatly relieved when he heard Kernertok
shout something to Bob and the next moment
the canoe headed in toward the shore.</p>
<p>“Nice smooth run,” Bob said to Jack as the latter
stepped out of the canoe a few minutes later.</p>
<p>“Sure was,” Jack returned.</p>
<p>“Eh, what?” Rex asked turning to Bob with an
incredulous expression on his face.</p>
<p>“I said we’d had a nice smooth run,” Bob repeated.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_53">53</div>
<p>“Oh, yes. Wasn’t it smooth? And I suppose a
little farther on we get to shooting over falls several
hundred feet high you’ll remark casually that there
must have been a ripple on the water behind us.”</p>
<p>Both boys let out a roar of laughter and even
Kernertok’s stoical face lighted up a trifle while
Sicum cocked his head to one side as if trying to
ask what it was all about.</p>
<p>“You get used to it after a while and it don’t seem
so rough,” Jack assured him, still laughing.</p>
<p>“That’s what the Irishman said after he’d had his
second leg cut off,” Rex laughed. “But if you say
it was a quiet trip I’ll believe it only I hope we won’t
strike any rough ones.”</p>
<p>They had landed in a little cove where was a sandy
beach and for some distance out from the shore the
water was comparatively quiet.</p>
<p>“Jack, do your stuff,” Bob said as he started
gathering wood for the fire.</p>
<p>“What does he mean?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Trout.”</p>
<p>“Got an extra rod?”</p>
<p>“Sure.”</p>
<p>“All right. Lead me to it.”</p>
<p>They went a few rods down stream to where a
point of land jutted out.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_54">54</div>
<p>“Now you want to be careful,” Jack told Rex.
“They get some pretty big ones in this stream. If
you get a strike let him run with it after you’ve
hooked him. The only way to land an eight pounder
is to tire him out.”</p>
<p>“An eight pounder! Say what are we fishing for,
whales?”</p>
<p>“No, trout. But if you get hooked on to a big
fellow you’ll think it’s a whale.”</p>
<p>“You go ahead and let me see how you do it,” Rex
said and Jack threw a brown hackle far out on to the
tossing water.</p>
<p>Splash! Zip! And the line began to run out making
the reel whine and sing.</p>
<p>“You got him,” Rex shouted dancing about in
his excitement.</p>
<p>“Sure I got him,” Jack replied as he began slowly
to reel in his line.</p>
<p>“Is he a big one?”</p>
<p>“Only fair. Mebby three pounds.”</p>
<p>“If that’s only a three pounder what would an
eight pound fish do?” he gasped as the line again
began to run out.</p>
<p>Jack landed the trout without much difficulty a
few minutes later and, as he had guessed, it lacked an
ounce of weighing three pounds.</p>
<p>“Now you try it,” he said. “Throw out as far as
you can and just let the fly float on the water.”</p>
<p>Rex did as Jack said and the next minute was
nearly thrown off his balance as a monster trout
seized the fly.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_55">55</div>
<p>“Got him,” he gasped as he regained his balance.</p>
<p>“And a big one,” Jack shouted. “Let him run.
You can’t pull him in yet.”</p>
<p>Rex let the line run out until the reel was three
quarters empty.</p>
<p>“Now put on the brake but not too hard.”</p>
<p>“He’s going to take it all,” Rex cried as the brake
failed to stop the fish.</p>
<p>“If he does the only thing to do is to cling on and
hope the line will hold.”</p>
<p>The reel stopped clicking as the final layer of line
ran out and Rex braced his feet for the tug.</p>
<p>“He’s a big one all right,” Jack shouted as the
fish broke water far out near the middle of the
stream.</p>
<p>“If only this line doesn’t break,” Rex gasped.</p>
<p>“It’s a brand new silk line and ought to hold if
he isn’t over eight pounds,” Jack assured him.</p>
<p>“Now quick. Reel in,” he shouted as he saw the
line slacken.</p>
<p>And Rex reeled in the line as fast as he could turn
the handle. He had recovered nearly half of the
line when the trout again broke water and again
headed for the opposite shore.</p>
<p>“Let him have it again but keep the drag on,” Jack
shouted.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_56">56</div>
<p>This time, by pressing as hard as he dared on the
drag, Rex managed to stop the fish with several
layers of line still on the reel. As the fish turned he
rapidly reeled in for the second time and had recovered
fully three quarters of the line before having
to let him run again. Five times the reeling in and
running out were repeated. But each time the rush
of the trout was weaker than the one before and it
was evident to them both that the fish was rapidly
losing strength.</p>
<p>“Don’t give him a bit of slack,” Jack cautioned
as Rex reeled in for what proved to be the last time.
“I’ve had ’em break away after I thought they were
all in.”</p>
<p>Slowly, still fighting as foot by foot Rex recovered
the line, the big fish came in until Jack, reaching over
the bank, scooped him into the landing net and carefully
drew him in.</p>
<p>“He’s sure a beauty,” he declared as he held the
fish up by the gills.</p>
<p>“How much will he weigh?”</p>
<p>“Not much under eight pounds if any.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t know they grew that big.”</p>
<p>“You don’t often get one as big as this fellow for
a fact, but I’ve seen one which tipped the scales at
ten pounds,” Jack told him. “But eight was the
biggest I ever caught.”</p>
<p>“Well, I guess we’ve got enough for supper,” Rex
laughed as they started back.</p>
<p>“And some left over for breakfast.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_57">57</div>
<p>“Um heap big fish,” Kernertok grunted as he
caught sight of the trout which Rex was proudly
carrying.</p>
<p>“He’s a peach all right,” Bob joined in. “Who
caught him?”</p>
<p>“I did,” Rex puffed out his chest.</p>
<p>“All by his lonesome,” Jack added.</p>
<p>“He sure was some fighter,” Rex declared as he
looked at the fish. “But let’s see how much he
weighs.”</p>
<p>The boys always took with them on their trips a
small pocket scale and in another moment Jack announced
that the fish only lacked a fraction of an
ounce of eight pounds.</p>
<p>“And he’s just as good as he is big,” Rex said a
little later as he reached for a third helping.</p>
<p>And they all agreed with him, even Sicum who was
receiving his full share.</p>
<p>It was nearly dark by the time they had the dishes
washed and boughs cut for their beds.</p>
<p>“Do you think that fellow has the money up there
with him,” Bob asked as they sat around the fire.</p>
<p>The night air was cool and the heat of the fire was
very grateful to them all.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_58">58</div>
<p>“That’s pretty hard to say. He drew the cash
from the bank the day before he disappeared to make
a settlement with one of our big customers who is
a very peculiar man and always demands cash. It
was in thousand dollar bills and so wouldn’t make
such a very big bundle and he could easily take it
with him. Yes, I rather think he’s got it with him
wherever he is unless he’s hid it somewhere. But if
we find him you can bet your last dollar I’ll make him
give it up.” And the boys, by the light of the fire,
saw a look on Rex’s face which was foreign to his
usually pleasant countenance.</p>
<p>“We’ll find him if he’s up this way anywhere,”
Jack assured him.</p>
<p>Shortly after nine o’clock they were all asleep on
their beds of spruce boughs wrapped in their blankets.
Once Rex awoke, his sleep disturbed by the
cry of some wild animal but he was unable to tell
what it was.</p>
<p>“Probably a wild cat,” he thought as he turned
over and quickly drifted off again.</p>
<p>The next morning Jack insisted on taking his turn
in the bow and somewhat reluctantly Bob gave in to
him.</p>
<p>“You want to be mighty careful,” he cautioned him
as they pushed off. “There’s some ugly rocks out
there.”</p>
<p>“I’ll be on the watch for them,” Jack promised.</p>
<p>They had made only a short distance when, above
the noise of the rushing water, they heard the sound
of a loud roaring.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_59">59</div>
<p>“That heap big falls,” Kernertok announced as
he turned the canoe toward the shore. “Have to
make little carry,” he added as the bow scraped the
sand.</p>
<p>“And do you mean to tell me that you’d make a
carry for a little thing like that,” Rex asked a little
later as he stood on a huge rock and gazed at the
rushing water as it leaped high in the air and fell to
the whirling pool some twenty feet below. “Just for
a little ripple like that?”</p>
<p>“We’ll all wait here while you try it,” Bob
laughed.</p>
<p>“Not to-day, thank you. I’ll wait till I get a little
more used to some of your dips,” Rex laughed. “But
I say, that’s one of the prettiest sights I ever saw.
Look at the spray. Niagara Falls is larger of course
but when it comes to beauty, believe me, it’s got
nothing on this.”</p>
<p>Late that afternoon Kernertok announced that it
was only about a mile farther to the head of Chesuncook
Lake.</p>
<p>“We stay there to-night,” he said.</p>
<p>He had hardly spoken when the canoe for the
first time struck a rock. There was a ripping sound
and the next moment the water was pouring in
through a rent nearly a foot long.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_60">60</div>
<p>Almost before he had time to think Rex found
himself floundering in the water. Fortunately it
was not very deep, not more than four or five feet,
but the rapid current made it almost impossible to
keep one’s footing. As he shook the water from his
eyes, struggling to maintain his balance, he saw
Bob and the Indian a few yards below clinging on
to either end of the canoe. Jack was nowhere in
sight.</p>
<p>“Make for the shore,” he heard Bob shout.</p>
<p>Seeing that they would probably have the canoe in
to shore before he could reach them and doubting his
ability to be of any assistance even should he arrive
in time he bent all his energy to getting himself
ashore. A half a dozen times he went completely
under as his feet slipped on the rocks but finally
sputtering and blowing he drew himself out of the
water.</p>
<p>“What’s the first thing a fellow does when he falls
in the water?”</p>
<p>Rex looked behind him and saw Jack slowly wading
ashore just below him.</p>
<p>“I guess he tries to get out,” Rex panted.</p>
<p>“You’re wrong. The first thing he does is to get
wet.”</p>
<p>“Then I did the first thing to perfection.”</p>
<p>“And believe me you weren’t the only one who
did it either.”</p>
<p>“I believe you would joke if you were going to
be hanged,” Rex tried to force a smile but, as Jack
told him afterward, the effort was a dismal failure.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_61">61</div>
<p>Meanwhile Bob and Kernertok had succeeded in
getting the canoe to the shore a little way below and
when the two reached them they were busy lifting
out the bundles of provisions.</p>
<p>“Lucky we got all our stuff that water will hurt
in tight cans,” Bob said.</p>
<p>“Um, heap get wet,” Kernertok declared.</p>
<p>“I’ll say so,” Rex agreed.</p>
<p>As quickly as possible the blankets were wrung out
and spread out to dry.</p>
<p>“Too bad it didn’t happen sooner so the blankets
would have time to get dry before night,” Bob said.
“But, as it happens, you can’t choose the time for
such things.”</p>
<p>“Another thing we’re in luck about and that is
that our canoe is birch bark instead of canvas,” Jack
remarked.</p>
<p>“How come?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Because Kernertok’ll have this fixed in two
shakes of a dog’s tail, but if it was canvas it would
be a different matter.”</p>
<p>“You mean he can mend that big hole up here in
the woods?”</p>
<p>“Just watch him,” Bob laughed. “He’s after birch
bark now.”</p>
<p>“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Rex promised. “But if
he can mend that hole he’s good, that’s all.”</p>
<p>“He’s good all right as you’ll see before long.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_62">62</div>
<p>The Indian was back in a little less than a half
hour with several long strips of birch bark and a little
dipper made of the same material which Rex saw
was filled with some kind of pitch.</p>
<p>“Rex, here, thinks you can’t mend that hole,” Jack
told him.</p>
<p>“Heap big hole but Injun fix um.”</p>
<p>Rex watched the Indian fascinated as he smeared
the edges of the cut both inside and out with the
thick pitch. Then he put on a layer of birch bark
and smeared the entire patch with more of the pitch.
Then came a second layer of the bark followed by
more pitch. This was repeated until not less than
six layers of the bark had been applied. Then, after
smearing the edges of the patch thickly with what
remained of the pitch, he grunted:</p>
<p>“Um all fixed.”</p>
<p>“How long will it take it to dry so we can use it?”
Rex asked anxiously.</p>
<p>“Be all right in morning,” the Indian assured him.</p>
<p>Fortunately it was a hot day and none of them
suffered from their wet clothes which they had not
removed. But they knew that the night would be
cool and so, as soon as the canoe was finished, they
built a big fire close against a ledge of rock which was
back some twenty feet from the edge of the stream.
There was an abundance of drift wood all about so
they did not lack for fuel. They kept the fire going
full blast until they were ready for bed and the rock
reflected the heat to such an extent that they felt no
need of the blankets.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_63">63</div>
<p>Jack and Rex again caught trout for supper but
did not hook what Jack called a big one, the largest
weighing but three pounds.</p>
<p>As the blankets and other things were not thoroughly
dried out in the morning they were obliged to
delay their departure until after nine o’clock.</p>
<p>“It’s too bad, but it can’t be helped.”</p>
<p>“A few hours more or less isn’t going to make any
difference,” Rex assured him.</p>
<p>Soon after they started they reached the head of
Chesuncook Lake.</p>
<p>“We cross this,” Bob explained, “and then there’s
a small stream that runs out of Longley Pond which
we can go up if the water’s high enough. Then
we’ll have a seven or eight-mile carry across to
Chamberlain Lake.”</p>
<p>And now, for the first time, they had to make use
of the paddles other than steering. But Bob in the
bow and Kernertok in the stern sent the light canoe,
heavily laden as it was, at a rapid pace through the
water and in a little over half an hour they were at
the mouth of the stream which was not much more
than a brook.</p>
<p>“Think there’s enough water?” Bob called back as
he headed the canoe up the stream.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_64">64</div>
<p>“No heap much. Mebby she go mebby not. We
try it.”</p>
<p>“Always try anything once.” Bob laughed.</p>
<p>The stream was not swift but very crooked and
more than once Rex fancied that he could feel the
bottom of the canoe scraping. Their pace was very
slow but, as Jack said, it was a whole lot better than
walking and carrying all the stuff.</p>
<p>The distance from Chamberlain Lake to Longley
Pond is not over five miles as the bird flies but Bob
was positive in his assertion that they must have gone
twenty before they came out on the tiny pond. At
any rate it was almost noon and they decided to eat
their dinner before starting on the long carry.</p>
<p>“This a hard carry?” Bob asked Kernertok as they
were taking the things out of the boat.</p>
<p>“Heap big hill. Heap hard.”</p>
<p>“Sounds encouraging,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>“Mebby it isn’t so bad as it sounds,” Rex said
hopefully.</p>
<p>“If Kernertok says it’s bad you can depend on it
that it is worse,” Bob assured them.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_65">65</div>
<p>Long before three o’clock Rex decided that Bob
was not far wrong. It seemed to him that they must
have traveled not less than fifteen miles when Kernertok,
as they stopped for one of their frequent
rests, announced that they were nearly half way
across. Pushing through underbrush so thick that
it required about all the strength he could muster,
climbing over and around rocks nearly the size of a
small house and climbing over or crawling under
fallen trees had proven a form of exercise wholly
new to him.</p>
<p>“I thought we were just going to the next lake and
not up to the North Pole,” he panted as he threw
himself on the ground and wiped the sweat from
his face. “How in the world you ever manage to get
that canoe through these woods is a mystery to me.”</p>
<p>“Heap badder places nor this,” Kernertok said
solemnly.</p>
<p>“Hope I never see one of them,” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>The second half of the portage proved even worse
than the first, though Rex insisted that such a thing
was impossible, and even Kernertok was panting
when, a little after six o’clock, they suddenly emerged
from the thick woods and found themselves on the
shore of Chamberlain Lake.</p>
<p>“Talk about the strenuous life,” Rex declared
leaning against a big rock. “This has got anything
I ever tried beat seven different ways.”</p>
<p>“It was a bit rough for a fact,” Bob agreed.</p>
<p>“Rough! You call that rough? I’d call it absolutely
precipitous.”</p>
<p>“You mean all up and down?” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>“Right. But mostly up.” Rex assured him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_66">66</div>
<p>“Well, let’s get supper. I believe I can eat a bite,”
Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“You said something,” Rex said. “I don’t believe
there’s fish enough in this lake to satisfy me let alone
the rest of you.”</p>
<p>“Careful,” Bob laughed. “This is a pretty big
lake, nearly twenty miles long, and I’ve heard that
there are some mighty large fish in it.”</p>
<p>“Well, come along Jack and we’ll get a sample or
two.” And the two quickly jointed their poles and
started for a point a short distance away.</p>
<p>“I reckon we aren’t out far enough for the big
ones,” Jack declared a little later. “But I guess
we’ve got enough for supper.”</p>
<p>“I suppose these would make good bait for the big
fellows farther out,” Rex laughed as he picked up
a string of twelve or fourteen trout averaging about
a half a pound.</p>
<p>Sometime during the night Bob awoke suddenly.
He sat up on his bed of boughs and listened. He
was quite certain that some sound had disturbed him
as he seldom wakened in the night except for good
cause.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_67">67</div>
<h2 id="c5"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER V.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">A CRY IN THE NIGHT.</span></h2>
<p>Yes, there it was again. A shrill cry far away
sounding like a young child in pain. He listened to
see if the cry had disturbed any of the others but
everything was perfectly still, save for the murmuring
of the spruce boughs as they swayed gently
in the light breeze.</p>
<p>“Nothing but a wild cat,” he thought as he sank
back and closed his eyes. But the next moment he
had sat up again.</p>
<p>“Now that’s mighty funny,” he mused. “If that’s
a four legged animal then I’m an alligator.”</p>
<p>Again the strange sound rang through the night
seeming to be a little nearer. And now he heard
Jack, who was close by his side, move.</p>
<p>“What was that noise?”</p>
<p>“Just what I’ve been wondering,” Bob replied in
a low whisper.</p>
<p>“Sounded like a wild cat.”</p>
<p>“Just what I thought at first but you never heard
a wild cat make a noise exactly like that. Listen.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_68">68</div>
<p>“It’s a bit too shrill and kinder wobbly like for a
genuine cat.” Jack was quite positive in his statement.</p>
<p>“Think it’s a signal?”</p>
<p>“Might be, but there doesn’t seem to be any
answer.”</p>
<p>For some little time the cry was repeated at frequent
intervals but it did not seem to come any nearer
and finally each time it sounded farther away until
they could barely hear it. Nothing which could be
interpreted as an answer, if it indeed were a signal,
had reached their ears.</p>
<p>“Mebby it was a cat after all,” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>“Perhaps so. Anyhow I’m going to sleep.”</p>
<p>“I say, any you fellows seen my rifle?”</p>
<p>It was early the following morning. Bob was busy
frying flap jacks and the Indian and Rex were rolling
the bedding. Jack asked the question after he made
a thorough search of the camp.</p>
<p>“Where’d you leave it?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure but I thought I placed it right beside
my bed.”</p>
<p>“Well, you know what thought did. You’ll probably
find it right where you left it if you look long
enough.”</p>
<p>“It’s mighty funny,” Jack mused as he made another
search. “Come to think of it I’m dead certain
I put it there.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_69">69</div>
<p>Just then Bob called that breakfast was ready and
as soon as the meal was over all joined in the search
for the rifle. But they failed to locate it.</p>
<p>“Now what do you know about that?” Jack asked
after he had looked under his bed of boughs for the
fourth time.</p>
<p>“Heap queer. Rifle she gone.”</p>
<p>“You’re right it’s heap queer and then some,” Bob
agreed. “But who’s seen Sicum this morning?”</p>
<p>“Sicum heap gone too,” Kernertok said, a look of
puzzled amazement on his stoical face.</p>
<p>“Mebby he’s chasing a rabbit,” Rex suggested.</p>
<p>“Sicum no leave camp till Injun up,” Kernertok
shook his head.</p>
<p>“Well, that rifle’s gone and Sicum’s gone. Wonder
what’ll go next,” and Jack, too, shook his head.</p>
<p>“But that gun never walked away of its own accord,”
Bob assured him.</p>
<p>Jack was about to make some reply when an
exclamation from Rex, who had gone down by the
shore, halted him.</p>
<p>“Come here a minute.”</p>
<p>“Now what?” Bob asked as they hastened to
where Rex was gazing at something on the sand.</p>
<p>“What kind of tracks do you call them?” he asked
as soon as they had reached his side. He pointed at
some marks the likes of which neither of the boys
had ever seen.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_70">70</div>
<p>The tracks, at which the boys looked in amazement,
were nearly circular in shape and plainly
showed the imprint of six toes. They led from the
water’s edge along the shore for a distance of some
twenty feet then turned sharply to the left and were
lost in the dense woods.</p>
<p>“What do you make of them, Kernertok?” Bob
asked.</p>
<p>But the old Indian shook his head.</p>
<p>“Heap big tracks. No seen um before.”</p>
<p>“Nor I,” Bob agreed. “I never heard of an animal
in Maine, or anywhere else for that matter, that
would make a mark like that.”</p>
<p>“Mebby that’s the bug that swiped my gun,” Jack
suggested.</p>
<p>“Mebby um eat up Sicum, one mouthful,” Kernertok
joined in.</p>
<p>“I reckon it could do it,” Jack asserted. “Just
see how far apart they are: all of five feet, and that
means some beast for size.”</p>
<p>For nearly two hours they hunted for the lost dog
but not a trace of him could they find. Time and
time again the Indian sent through the forest the
peculiar whistle with which he was wont to summon
him.</p>
<p>“He ought to hear that if he’s within ten miles,”
Rex declared.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_71">71</div>
<p>Finally they were obliged to give over the search
and reluctantly began to pack the things in the canoe.
There was but little talk each being busy with his
own thoughts. All, including the Indian, sensed a
mystery in the air which seemed unexplainable. Both
Bob and Jack knew that Kernertok was in the depths
of despair, not only because of the loss of his beloved
dog but because something had happened in
the woods for which he could give no accounting. It
was a severe blow to the old man’s pride.</p>
<p>“Do you think that those cries we heard in the
night had anything to do with it?” Jack whispered
to Bob, Rex and Kernertok being a short distance off.</p>
<p>“Don’t see how, do you?”</p>
<p>“Hardly. And yet—” Jack paused, leaving the
sentence unfinished.</p>
<p>“And yet what?”</p>
<p>“Bob, do you believe an animal made those
tracks?” he asked.</p>
<p>“Frankly no.”</p>
<p>“Neither do I. But if that’s right, what’s the
answer?”</p>
<p>“Somebody’s trying to scare us.”</p>
<p>“You said it.”</p>
<p>It was nearly ten o’clock when they finally pushed
off and started up the lake.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_72">72</div>
<p>Chamberlain Lake is nearly twenty miles long but
they had hit about half way up and after a little
more than ten miles of paddling they reached Eagle
Lake.</p>
<p>Eagle Lake is really a part of Chamberlain Lake
and is nearly fifteen miles long.</p>
<p>“I wonder why they gave the two parts of this
lake different names,” Rex said.</p>
<p>“Oh, I suppose they had more names than lakes,
although, goodness knows, there are more lakes
around here than there are fleas on a dog,” Jack
laughed.</p>
<p>“How many more carries have we got to make?”
Rex asked.</p>
<p>“According to the map we haven’t any,” Bob replied.
“How about it, Kernertok? Any more carries
before we strike Allagash?”</p>
<p>“No more. We paddle um all way now,” the Indian
told them.</p>
<p>“That’s certainly good news,” Rex declared.
“About one more carry like that last one and I’m
afraid you’d have to carry me out on a stretcher.”</p>
<p>“Look ahead there, Rex!” Jack cried a little later.
“Isn’t he a beaut?”</p>
<p>“What is it?”</p>
<p>“A bull moose, and a big one.”</p>
<p>The huge animal was perhaps a hundred yards
from the canoe when Jack first sighted him and
was swimming at right angles to their course.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_73">73</div>
<p>“Make it snappy, Bob, and let’s see how near we
can get to him before he reaches the shore,” Jack
cried, and the two paddlers dug their blades deep
into the water.</p>
<p>“Are they dangerous?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Not at this time of the year,” Jack told him.
“But in the late fall, when they are mating, you want
to give them a wide berth unless you are well armed
and then you want to shoot to kill the first time.”</p>
<p>“I reckon so,” Rex mused. “I wouldn’t like to
get tossed with those horns.”</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t,” Jack laughed. “In fact, quite
the opposite, as the sea-sick passenger said when one
asked him if he had had breakfast.”</p>
<p>“What would he do to you then? Do they bite?”</p>
<p>“Hardly. He’d trample you to death with his
sharp hoofs and, believe me, they are some tramplers.”</p>
<p>By this time they had cut down the distance between
them and the moose by nearly one half, although
the big animal was ploughing his way rapidly
through the water.</p>
<p>“I’ll say he’s some swimmer,” Rex declared.
“Gee, but I wish I had my camera along. What a
picture that would make.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_74">74</div>
<p>They had come to within about twenty yards of
the moose when he reached the shore. As he waded
out onto the rocks he turned for an instant and
stood looking at them as much as to say, “Well, I
guess I beat you to it all right,” then turned and
bounded away into the thick forest.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t have missed that for a good deal,”
Rex declared as soon as the moose had disappeared.</p>
<p>“You’re lucky,” Bob told him. “It isn’t very
often that you get to see one of those fellows now
days.”</p>
<p>It was late afternoon and they had nearly reached
the upper end of the lake. They had made no stop
for dinner but had eaten a light lunch in the canoe,
as they wished to make up for lost time. Rex and
Jack had, for short stretches, relieved Bob and the
Indian at the paddles and, although Rex was not
very skillful at it, nevertheless he was rapidly catching
the knack and they had made excellent progress.</p>
<p>“Look over on the shore opposite here, Bob,” Jack
said suddenly. “See, on that big rock just in front
of that tall pine.”</p>
<p>“I see. It looks like a dog.”</p>
<p>“It’s either a dog or a wolf. What do you think
Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“Injun no see good enough. Mebby um Sicum.
You think?”</p>
<p>“It’s too far away to tell,” Bob replied. “But
we’ll paddle over that way and see.”</p>
<p>They changed their course and headed toward the
opposite shore.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_75">75</div>
<p>“Upon my soul, I believe it is Sicum,” Jack declared
a little later.</p>
<p>The Indian raised his paddle for a moment and
a shrill, peculiar whistle floated over the lake.</p>
<p>“Hark,” he warned.</p>
<p>“It’s Sicum,” Bob and Jack spoke in the same
breath as a low but distinct bark answered the Indian’s
call.</p>
<p>“Now what do you know about that?” Rex asked
as soon as all doubt regarding the identity of the
animal was settled. “Where do you suppose he’s
been and why?”</p>
<p>“Don’t know to both questions,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>Although the Indian gave no outward show of
emotion, all three boys knew that the old man was
overjoyed at the return of his companion. As for
Sicum, he made no concealment of his emotions.
As the canoe approached the rock on which he stood
he jumped up and down in a perfect frenzy of joy,
all the time giving utterance to short, happy barks.
When the canoe at last touched the rock he nearly
upset it as he leaped aboard.</p>
<p>“You one fool dog,” the Indian grunted as he
seized him by his collar. “Where you been, eh?”</p>
<p>“If he could only talk he might clear up some of
this mystery,” Rex declared.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_76">76</div>
<p>“I wish he had brought my rifle back with him,”
Jack laughed.</p>
<p>A little later they reached the head of the lake
where a small stream entered and there they made
camp for the night.</p>
<p>“I think we’d better set a watch to-night,” Bob
suggested as they were making their beds. “We
don’t want any more of our stuff to disappear and
for some reason which I can’t explain, I don’t feel
like depending on Sicum,” he added in a low voice so
that the Indian could not hear.</p>
<p>“It’s a mighty funny thing,” Jack said. “Before
last night I’d have felt perfectly safe with that dog
here. How in the world anyone could have gotten
into camp without him letting us know about it is
a mystery to me.”</p>
<p>“Same here. There’s something positively uncanny
about it.”</p>
<p>“Well, I’ll take the first watch till eleven o’clock,
and then I’ll call you,” Jack proposed.</p>
<p>But when the matter was mentioned to Kernertok,
the Indian shook his head.</p>
<p>“I fix Sicum so he no get away dis time,” he declared.</p>
<p>But later the boys resolved that they would keep
watch just the same, without letting Kernertok know
of it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_77">77</div>
<p>“I’ll call you at three,” Bob said to Rex. “Kernertok
hates to give up confidence in Sicum, and I
can’t blame him at that. He can’t bear the thought
that we’re not perfectly safe with the dog in camp
and it would about break his heart to know that we
were on guard, so we’ll have to be mighty careful
not to disturb him, and it doesn’t take very much, let
me tell you.”</p>
<p>“But how about the dog?” Rex asked. “Won’t he
hear us and make a rumpus?”</p>
<p>“Oh, he’ll hear us all right, but as he knows us,
I guess he won’t make any fuss,” Bob assured him.</p>
<p>“How are you going to fix Sicum so he can’t get
away?” Bob asked the Indian a little later.</p>
<p>They were about to retire for the night and the
Indian made no reply, but from his pocket took a
small chain about four feet in length. One end he
fastened to the dog’s collar and the other he tied
about his wrist.</p>
<p>“That ought to hold him,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>“Me think so. Take heap much get him away,”
he grunted.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_78">78</div>
<p>Jack waited until, from his deep breathing, he was
certain that the Indian was asleep, and then he crept
softly from his bed of boughs. Sicum uttered a low
growl once which woke his master, but the latter
spoke to him in a low tone and the dog remained
quiet. Jack crept on his hands and knees to a
big spruce about ten feet from where they were
sleeping and toward the shore and sat down with his
back against it.</p>
<p>The night was cloudy, not even a star showing in
the heavens, and it was intensely dark, so that he
was unable to see even his hand when he held it in
front of his face.</p>
<p>“Guess I’ll have to trust entirely to my ears,” he
thought. “Eyes are no good to-night.”</p>
<p>It was so still that he could plainly hear the beating
of his own heart. Not a sound save the gentle lap
of the water against the stones on the shore of the
lake, some twelve feet from where he sat, reached his
ears. There was no wind and even the usual sighing
of the branches was absent.</p>
<p>“I believe you could hear a pin drop if there was
anyone here to drop it,” he mused.</p>
<p>Several times he caught himself yawning, but he
was afraid to get up and move around for fear of
disturbing the dog. However, he managed to keep
awake with a good deal of difficulty. Along toward
eleven o’clock a light breeze sprang up and a little
later it began to rain.</p>
<p>“Looks like we were in for a storm,” he told himself.</p>
<p>It started to rain as if it meant it, but soon settled
to a thin drizzle.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_79">79</div>
<p>“Thought you promised to wake me at eleven,” a
voice whispered almost in his ear.</p>
<p>“I didn’t promise at all. It was simply proposed.”</p>
<p>“Heard or seen anything?”</p>
<p>“Haven’t heard a thing, and as for seeing, a regular
menagerie could pass within a foot of you and
you’d never know it.”</p>
<p>“I guess that’s right, but you get to bed now.”</p>
<p>“I don’t believe there’s any use in watching any
longer to-night.”</p>
<p>“I’ll bet you wouldn’t say that if it was your turn,”
Bob grinned.</p>
<p>“Huh, don’t you fool yourself.”</p>
<p>“Never do.”</p>
<p>“Looks like we were in for a spell o’ weather.”</p>
<p>“Sure does. But this isn’t getting to bed.”</p>
<p>“I’ll bet you go to sleep,” Jack whispered, as
he crept off toward his bed.</p>
<p>“And I’ll bet I don’t,” Bob replied, but Jack was
too far away to hear him.</p>
<p>It was nearly one o’clock, as he saw by the luminous
face of his wrist watch, when he heard the same
cry that had awakened him the night before. It was
very faint at first, but each time it was repeated it
came nearer, till he judged that it was within a half
a mile.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_80">80</div>
<p>“Funny it doesn’t wake any of them,” he thought
as he crept softly down toward the lake.</p>
<p>As he approached the water’s edge he felt, rather
than saw or heard, that something was near him.
He listened intently. Not a sound, save the lap of
the water and the gentle sough of the rain as it
fell on the trees, came to him. And still that vague
feeling of the nearness of some large object persisted.</p>
<p>“Wonder if I’m going bugs,” he thought, as he
tried in vain to pierce the darkness.</p>
<p>For several minutes he had not heard the cry,
but now it came again, and so near was it that all the
sleepers were awakened.</p>
<p>“For goodness sake, what was that?” he heard
Rex ask.</p>
<p>“Was that a wild cat, Kernertok?” Jack put the
question.</p>
<p>“Listen,” he heard the Indian order.</p>
<p>For a moment all was still and then the cry was
repeated, even nearer than before.</p>
<p>“Heap like cat almost, but not quite,” he heard
Kernertok reply.</p>
<p>“That’s what I thought when I heard it last
night,” Jack told him.</p>
<p>“You hear um las’ night?”</p>
<p>“Yes, but it wasn’t so near then.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_81">81</div>
<p>“Injun no hear. Sleep heap too sound,” Bob could
distinguish the note of disgust in the Indian’s voice.
“Where, Bob?” he heard him ask.</p>
<p>“Guess he’s around somewhere,” Jack replied evasively.</p>
<p>“I’m down here by the lake,” Bob shouted. “Bring
a flash light here a minute.”</p>
<p>“See anything?” Jack asked, as he joined him a
moment later.</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Hear anything?”</p>
<p>“Not a thing, but I’d take my oath that there was
something here just the same.”</p>
<p>“How do you know, when you couldn’t see it or
hear it?”</p>
<p>“Guess I felt it.”</p>
<p>“Well, what did it feel like?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t exactly feel it, you know. I guessed it
was here perhaps would be nearer the truth?”</p>
<p>“Well, here’s the light. What are you going to
do with it?”</p>
<p>“I want to see if there are any of those tracks.”</p>
<p>“They’re here, sure as guns,” Jack cried a moment
later as, by the aid of the flash light, he pointed
to a row of tracks identical with those they had
seen before. They seemed to emerge from the water
and led a short distance along the shore, till they
disappeared in the woods.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_82">82</div>
<p>“It’s a cinch that no four-footed native of Maine
ever made those tracks,” Jack insisted.</p>
<p>“Guess we’re agreed on that,” Bob assured him.</p>
<p>“Then the big question is, what or who did make
them.”</p>
<p>“Suppose you answer it?”</p>
<p>“I will before the summer’s over.”</p>
<p>Kernertok shook his head when he saw the tracks.
It was clear that he was thoroughly puzzled.</p>
<p>“Suppose we wait till daylight and then try to
track it with Sicum,” Bob suggested. “He ought
to be able to follow that trail. How about it Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“Sicum no same dog. Him heap fool now,” and
Kernertok shook his head mournfully.</p>
<p>For the first time the boys noticed that the dog
was acting strangely. Keeping as close as possible
to his master’s feet, he showed every evidence of
fear.</p>
<p>“That’s the first time I ever saw Sicum with his
tail between his legs,” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>“Well, don’t blame him,” Bob cautioned. “It is
plain that something has happened to him which has
frightened him about to death, and remember, it
would take a good bit to scare that dog.”</p>
<p>“I’ll tell the world it would,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>As it now lacked but a couple of hours until day
break, they decided to stay awake and keep watch.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_83">83</div>
<p>“I don’t believe we could go to sleep any way,”
Rex said.</p>
<p>The rain had stopped, although it had not as yet
cleared off. They returned to their beds and rolled
themselves in their blankets, which were fairly dry,
despite the rain, so thick were the branches overhead.
For a time they talked in low tones, but the conversation
soon died out, seemingly of its own accord,
and, in spite of their determination to stay awake,
one after the other they drifted off until only the
Indian was awake. Although, as he had said, he
slept soundly he needed but little sleep, and it was
not difficult for him to keep his eyes open.</p>
<p>Kernertok was deeply troubled. It hurt his pride
to be unable to explain anything found in the forest.
But he had been obliged to acknowledge that the
mysterious tracks were entirely new to him and the
disappearance of the rifle and dog the night before
was no less puzzling to him. Added to these was
the strange behavior of the dog since his return.
Never before had he known the dog to show the
slightest sign of fear. Always eager to attack anything,
no matter what its size. The Indian had more
than once saved the life of his companion when the
latter was exhausted after making a desperate stand
against heavy odds. But now he cringed when
spoken to, as though he expected a mortal blow.
Sicum’s spirit was broken. Of that the Indian was
sure. But what could have happened to so quickly
change an animal without fear into a cringing coward?
Long the Indian brooded over the question.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_84">84</div>
<p>The dog lay by his master’s side and mechanically
the Indian reached out one hand and ran his fingers
through the shaggy coat. Almost immediately he
felt the animal shrink from his touch, at the same
time giving vent to a low whine as of pain. And
suddenly one question was answered in the mind of
the Indian, or rather partly answered. He knew
why the dog was afraid. As his fingers felt the hide
beneath the curley hair they encountered great
whelts, which seemed to run nearly around the body.
Sicum whined softly as his fingers touched the sore
places, and then, creeping closer, he laid his head
across his lap as though glad that his master at last
understood.</p>
<p>“Heap good dog,” the Indian grunted as he
stroked the broad head.</p>
<p>It was broad daylight when the boys awoke. It
was not raining, although heavy leaden colored
clouds covered the sky and a strong wind was blowing
from the northeast.</p>
<p>“We’re a lively bunch, not,” Jack declared as he
got slowly to his feet and shook the kinks out of his
legs.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_85">85</div>
<p>“And then some,” Bob agreed sheepishly.</p>
<p>“Count me in on that,” Rex insisted as he, too,
jumped about to get the stiffness out of his limbs.</p>
<p>Getting up in the morning in the woods when
everything is wet and the temperature hovering
around fifty-five is not conducive to high spirits,
and, as Jack put it, they were about as cheerful as a
wet blanket. But Kernertok already had a good fire
going and the odor of boiling coffee did much to
banish the blue devils.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_86">86</div>
<h2 id="c6"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER VI.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">REX DISAPPEARS.</span></h2>
<p>As Bob approached the fire, Sicum raised his head
and whined softly.</p>
<p>“Good old boy, what’s the matter,” Bob said as he
placed his hand gently on the animal’s head.</p>
<p>“Feel um hide,” Kernertok said.</p>
<p>Bob did as directed.</p>
<p>“Great guns! No wonder he’s afraid. Why he’s
been licked.”</p>
<p>“Heap big lickin’.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say so. Look here, Jack and Rex.”</p>
<p>“I’ll never blame a dog for being scared again,”
Jack declared, after he had run his hand over the
whelts.</p>
<p>“It’s a wonder he wasn’t killed,” Rex said. “What
or who could have done it?”</p>
<p>“Problem number one,” Jack replied. “But whoever
did it did a good job.”</p>
<p>“And if I ever find out who it was, believe me,
he’ll appreciate that fact,” Bob promised.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_87">87</div>
<p>“Will he get over it?” Rex turned to the Indian.</p>
<p>Kernertok shook his head.</p>
<p>“Him get well bimby.”</p>
<p>“But will he get his courage back, I mean?”</p>
<p>“Mebby, mebby not. Take um long time.”</p>
<p>“I suppose so, and it’s no wonder. A licking
like that would take the starch out of most men, let
alone a dog,” Rex declared.</p>
<p>“I don’t suppose it will be any use trying to get
him to follow that trail,” Bob said as they were eating
breakfast.</p>
<p>“No heap good now,” Kernertok assured them.</p>
<p>“How about the weather? Is it going to rain?”
Jack asked turning to Kernertok.</p>
<p>“Heap much, heap soon. Wind northeast.”</p>
<p>“Then we’d better get off and make as many
miles as we can before it comes,” Bob advised.</p>
<p>They made quick work of washing the few dishes
they had used and in rolling the packs, and in less
than twenty minutes they were ready to push off.
Their way led up the little stream which was hardly
wide enough to permit the use of the paddles,
and in places they were obliged to push the canoe
with a long pole against the strong current. But
Kernertok encouraged them with the assurance that
it was only a little over three miles to Churchill
Lake.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_88">88</div>
<p>Although they did not have to make a regular
carry between the two lakes, they were obliged, no
less than eight times, to take the canoe from the
water and drag it around big rocks or places where
the stream was too shallow to allow of its passing.</p>
<p>“This is most as bad as a carry,” Jack panted as,
for the eighth time, they were obliged to disembark.</p>
<p>“They do make awful long miles up here,” Rex
grinned as he lifted the front of the canoe from the
water.</p>
<p>“Well, I reckon we’re holding our own,” Bob
laughed.</p>
<p>It was nearly noon when at last they paddled out
into Churchill Lake. The rain, which had been
threatening all the morning, had began to fall as
they were dragging the canoe around the last obstruction
nearly an hour before, and was now coming
down in big drops.</p>
<p>“Guess we’ll have to look for a good camping
place and hang up,” Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“Rain heap cold,” Kernertok shivered as he
spoke, and Rex, whose teeth had been chattering for
the last hour, heartily agreed with him.</p>
<p>They paddled for a few minutes along the shore
until Jack spied a good place to make camp.</p>
<p>“There’s just the place,” he declared, pointing.
“Right there in that clump of spruce.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_89">89</div>
<p>“See if you can find some dry wood, Jack,” Bob
said a moment later, as he sprang to the shore and
pulled the canoe up. “The rest of us’ll get the stuff
under the trees.”</p>
<p>Jack took the little axe and started off. He was
obliged to hunt for some time before finding a dead
tree, which, lying beneath a thick spruce, was fairly
dry. Fifteen minutes later he returned, carrying
a large armful of wood, and soon a cheerful fire was
as Rex declared, thawing the frost out of their bones.</p>
<p>“Kernertok and I’ll get dinner if you and Rex’ll
get some more of that wood,” Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“Righto. Come on, Rex. We’ll bring in a load
big enough to build a house.”</p>
<p>“Better make that house a wood shed,” Rex
laughed as he followed him into the forest.</p>
<p>It rained hard all that afternoon, but only a few
drops now and then found their way through the
thick spruce branches, and they were fairly comfortable.</p>
<p>“It’s too bad to lose all this time,” Bob said late
in the afternoon. “But it’s a whole lot better than
getting soaked and catching cold. I tell you, Rex,
it’s no fun being sick in the woods.”</p>
<p>“Although I never had that experience and never
want to for that matter, I can readily believe you,”
Rex replied soberly.</p>
<p>“Injun heap sick alone in woods one time. White
boys save him,” Kernertok told Rex.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_90">90</div>
<p>“And Kernertok has more than paid the white
boys back,” Jack declared, but the Indian only shook
his head.</p>
<p>“We could use a good trout for supper, Jack,”
Bob announced a little later.</p>
<p>“All right. Come on, Rex. The rain has about
stopped. Guess we’ll take the canoe, though. It’s
pretty shallow along the shore here.”</p>
<p>“I believe I’ve got a whale this time,” Rex declared
a few minutes later, as his rod bent until the
tip was in the water.</p>
<p>“Probably a salmon,” Jack said. “Play him easy,
now. That’s it, let him run. Now reel in as fast
as you can. Don’t give him any slack if you can
help it. Now let him run again. That’s the stuff.
He’ll soon tire at that rate.”</p>
<p>For all of a half hour Rex played the big fish.
Now getting him almost up to the canoe, only to
have to let him have the line again, as he made a
frantic rush for freedom. Jack stood up in the
canoe with the landing net ready.</p>
<p>“You almost had him that time,” he cried, as the
fish turned for what proved to be the final rush.
“He’s a dandy, all right. If only you don’t lose
him.”</p>
<p>“If I do I’ll go over after him,” Rex panted, as
he again began to reel in the line.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_91">91</div>
<p>It was evident now that the fish was nearly at
the end of its strength, although he fought every foot
of the way.</p>
<p>“Steady now. Hold him tight. I’ll have him in
a minute.”</p>
<p>Suddenly Jack made a dip with the net and the
next instant the fish was in the canoe.</p>
<p>“It’s a salmon all right, and the largest I ever
saw,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“Isn’t he a beauty?” Rex said as he gazed proudly
down at the silver white fish. “And didn’t he put
up a fight? If we didn’t need him for supper I’d
put him back and let him live.”</p>
<p>“But, unfortunately for him, we do need him,”
Jack said as he picked up the paddle and started
for the shore.</p>
<p>“Goodness! I didn’t say we wanted a whale,” Bob
declared as Rex came up to the fire carrying the
fish by the gills.</p>
<p>“Let’s see how much he weighs,” he said.</p>
<p>“Sixteen pounds and four ounces,” Bob announced
a moment later. “Some fish.”</p>
<p>“Heap big un,” Kernertok added.</p>
<p>“I didn’t know they grew as big as that,” Rex
said.</p>
<p>“Injun catch one in this pond ten twelve year
ago, him weigh nineteen pound. Heap big salmon.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say it was,” Rex laughed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_92">92</div>
<p>Soon after supper the rain began again and Kernertok
expressed the opinion that it would keep up
all night. They decided to risk the night without
keeping watch.</p>
<p>“It’s a bad night for ghosts,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“But the trouble is, we don’t know what species
this particular ghost belongs to,” Bob reminded
him.</p>
<p>Along about midnight Bob awoke. It was still
raining hard and the wind remained in the same
direction that it had held all day.</p>
<p>“It’s not apt to quit till the wind changes,” he
thought as he turned over.</p>
<p>At that instant, above the sound of the wind, he
heard the strange cry which had disturbed him the
two nights previous. It was, however, a good ways
off, and although it was repeated a number of times,
it did not seem to come any nearer. None of the
others woke so far as he could tell, and he soon
drifted off to sleep again. When he again awoke
day was just breaking and, to his great joy, he
saw that the weather had cleared.</p>
<p>“Wonder if we’ll have any tracks,” he thought
as he rolled out of his blanket.</p>
<p>Early as it was, Kernertok had a fire going and
the coffee pot on.</p>
<p>“See any more of those tracks?” he asked, as he
joined the Indian.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_93">93</div>
<p>“Just same last night, heap big ones.”</p>
<p>“Do you have any idea of what it is, Kernertok?”
Bob asked in a low tone.</p>
<p>“No know um,” the Indian grunted.</p>
<p>“You can just bet your last dollar that I’m going
to camp right down by the lake to-night, wherever
we camp, and find out what it is that makes those
tracks,” Jack declared as he joined Bob down by
the shore a few minutes later.</p>
<p>“You want to look out that it don’t find you first.”</p>
<p>“Not if I see him or it first it won’t.”</p>
<p>“Won’t what?” Rex, who joined them just as
Jack spoke, asked.</p>
<p>“Oh, Jack’s going to put some salt on the tail of
whatever it is that makes these tracks and catch it
to-night,” Bob told him laughingly. “And he said
it wouldn’t get him if he saw it first.”</p>
<p>“Well, you’d better shoot that salt with a three
hundred kilometer gun, judging by the size of those
tracks. I’d sure hate to meet the thing that made
’em in the dark,” Rex advised.</p>
<p>Just then Kernertok announced that breakfast
was ready.</p>
<p>Churchill Lake is not large and they reached the
upper end shortly after nine o’clock.</p>
<p>“What’s the next lake we strike, and how far is
it?” Bob asked Kernertok.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_94">94</div>
<p>“Him Big Umsaskis. Him ’bout ten mile up um
stream.”</p>
<p>“How’s Sicum this morning?” Jack asked, leaning
back to pat the shaggy head.</p>
<p>“Him heap better. No well yet. Not so much
scared now.”</p>
<p>They found the stream joining Churchill Lake
with the Big Umsaskis, a little larger than the one
they had traversed the day before, but it was very
swift and rocky and their progress was painfully
slow. It seemed to the eager boys that they would
hardly more than get into the canoe when they
would have to clamber out and drag it around some
obstruction.</p>
<p>“What time is it?” Jack asked late in the afternoon,
as they were resting, after dragging the canoe
over a particularly difficult place.</p>
<p>Rex laughed.</p>
<p>“That reminds me of the darkie who was in jail
for life. A friend went to see him and as he was
leaving the prisoner asked him what time it was.
The friend replied, “Wha’ for you wan’ know the
time? Youse ain’t going nowhere.”</p>
<p>“And it doesn’t seem as though we were doing
much better just at present,” Jack laughed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_95">95</div>
<p>They entered the foot of Big Umsaskis just after
five o’clock and decided to make camp for the night,
as they were all very tired.</p>
<p>“I feel as though we had made about a hundred
miles instead of ten to-day,” Jack declared, as he
threw himself down on the ground.</p>
<p>As soon as the early supper was over they began
to discuss plans for trying to find out what it was
that was making the mysterious tracks. They all felt
that it had gone far enough and that they were actually
in danger and that it was high time to do
something.</p>
<p>“Now, how are we going about catching that
lalapaloosla?” Jack asked, as they sat around the
fire.</p>
<p>“What’s that you said?” Rex gasped.</p>
<p>“I said how are we going to catch the lalapaloosla?”</p>
<p>“And what’s that?”</p>
<p>“That’s a second cousin to a ringed-tailed
squeeler,” Jack replied with a perfect sober face.</p>
<p>“Oh, now I understand. I had one of them
once,” Rex said equally sober.</p>
<p>“Eh, what?”</p>
<p>“I said I had one once.”</p>
<p>“One what?”</p>
<p>“Why a ringed-tailed squeeler. That’s what we
were talking about, wasn’t it?”</p>
<p>Jack burst out laughing.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_96">96</div>
<p>“I’ll come down as the squirrel said when it saw
Davy Crockett. Anybody’s got to get up early in
the morning to get ahead of you.”</p>
<p>After some discussion, it was decided that they
would divide the night into two watches: Jack and
the Indian to watch until twelve o’clock, when Bob
and Rex would relieve them. None felt that it
would be safe for one to stand watch alone.</p>
<p>“If those tracks are made by some four-footed
animal it’s a mighty big one, as I said before, and
if it’s a two-legged animal, in other words, a man,
he’s going to a whole lot of trouble to scare us, and
the chances are that he’d be desperate if he was cornered,”
Bob said, and all agreed with him.</p>
<p>“If I only had my rifle,” Jack said. “I’d feel
safer.”</p>
<p>“But they had only brought the one rifle and its
disappearance left them unarmed, except for their
automatics.</p>
<p>“Now, remember, there’s to be no funny business
to-night. You are to call us sharp at twelve. That
will give us all plenty of sleep and we all need it.
Promise,” Bob said, as they were all about to separate.</p>
<p>“All right, I promise,” Jack replied, and Bob
knew that he would keep his word.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_97">97</div>
<p>It was a lonely watch down by the shore of the
lake. It was not so dark as on the previous night,
although there was no moon. The sky was studded
with stars, and by their light they could see dimly
for a distance of several feet. Sicum lay curled up
close beside his master, and every little while a low
growl or a faint whine indicated that his dreams
were troubled.</p>
<p>“Guess he’s dreaming about that beating he got,”
Jack thought, as he rubbed his eyes.</p>
<p>Slowly the minutes and hours passed, until after
what seemed an eternity, his watch told him that it
was time to call the others. Nothing had happened
and they had not heard the strange cry.</p>
<p>“All quiet along the Potomac,” he announced after
he had awakened Bob and Rex. “Hope you have
better luck.”</p>
<p>“What day is it?” Rex asked as soon as they had
taken their places down by the lake.</p>
<p>“Search me. It’s funny how one loses all track
of the time up here in the woods. But it must be
Sunday, I think. Wait a minute, till I reckon up.</p>
<p>“Yes,” he said a moment later, “it’s Sunday. We’ll
have a good long rest if nothing happens. We never
travel on Sunday if it can be helped, you know.”</p>
<p>“And that’s right too. A man needs one day in
seven to rest.”</p>
<p>“I think so.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_98">98</div>
<p>“About one day in two would be even better,”
Rex laughed, “according to the way we’ve been going
the past two days.”</p>
<p>“It’s been pretty strenuous, for a fact, especially
when you’re not used to it. It’s been a wonder to
me that you’ve stood it so well.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I’m fairly tough when I get my second
wind.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say you are.”</p>
<p>“It’s a good thing it isn’t so dark as it was last
night,” Rex said a little later. “It’s a comfort to
know that that lalapaloosla can’t get us without us
seeing him.”</p>
<p>“You said something. Believe me it was dark
last night.”</p>
<p>“Listen. Did you hear it?” Rex asked about an
hour later.</p>
<p>“Sure did. It’s that fake wild cat again.”</p>
<p>“Are you sure it’s a fake?”</p>
<p>“N—o,” Bob replied slowly. “I’m not certain,
but I never heard a cat make just that kind of noise.
It’s a bit too shrill and drawn out at the end to be
genuine. Still, of course, they don’t all sound exactly
alike.”</p>
<p>“My experience with wild cats has been pretty
limited, so my opinion is no good, but if a cat is
making that noise, it must be some cat that’s all.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_99">99</div>
<p>“Oh, they can make noise enough so far as that
is concerned. If you ever hear one close to you,
you’ll never forget it. It’s enough to raise the hair
on a bald man’s head.”</p>
<p>“As bad as that?” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>“You’ll think so if you hear one, and you may have
the chance, because that fellow, whatever it may be,
is coming closer and coming at a pretty good clip,
too.”</p>
<p>The cry was now being repeated at close intervals,
and each one was distinctly nearer than the
one before.</p>
<p>“I don’t know whether there is any connection between
those yells and the making of the tracks or
not, but we want to keep our eyes peeled pretty
sharp, because they seem to happen at about the
same time,” Bob cautioned as he looked sharply
about him.</p>
<p>“I believe the cat’s going farther away,” Rex said
a little later.</p>
<p>“Sounds like it,” Bob agreed.</p>
<p>The cries had for some time been growing fainter
and soon they died out altogether.</p>
<p>“Guess the show’s over for to-night,” Bob said,
as he got to his feet and stretched his arms. “Let’s
take the flash and see if Jack’s lalapaloosla has
slipped anything over on us.”</p>
<p>“You bet.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_100">100</div>
<p>For some minutes they searched about close to
the shore of the lake, but somewhat to their surprise
no tracks were to be seen.</p>
<p>“Well, he may come yet,” Rex said as they once
more sat down.</p>
<p>“You never can tell,” Bob agreed.</p>
<p>The time dragged slowly on, until Bob’s watch
told him that it was nearly three o’clock.</p>
<p>“Goodness, but I’m sleepy,” he said as he got to
his feet.</p>
<p>“Same here.”</p>
<p>“I’m going to take a look up back, if you don’t
mind,” Bob said. “I’ll only be gone a few minutes.”</p>
<p>“Go ahead. I’ll keep watch here.”</p>
<p>Bob was gone a little longer than he expected.
He was very thirsty, and running across the tiny bed
of a stream, he followed it up hoping to find a spring.
He soon located it and, after drinking his fill, he
stopped to cut a strip of birch bark from a tree.
With this he fashioned a dipper that he might take
some water back to Rex.</p>
<p>“I’ll bet he’s thirsty,” he thought as he started
back.</p>
<p>To his surprise Rex was nowhere in sight when
he returned. He sat the birch bark dipper down and,
with the aid of the flash light, looked about all
around the place where they had been sitting.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_101">101</div>
<p>“Guess he thought he’d take a stroll,” he thought.
“But it’s rather strange he didn’t wait till I got
back.”</p>
<p>Not really alarmed, but a trifle uneasy regarding
his friend’s absence, he sat down and leaned back
against the trunk of a tree. The minutes passed and
Rex did not return.</p>
<p>“Hope he hasn’t gone and got lost,” he thought.
“I’m afraid he doesn’t realize how easy it is to get
lost in these woods.”</p>
<p>When a half hour had passed and still no Rex, he
began to be really uneasy. Taking the flash light, he
made a wide detour of the camping place, calling
every few minutes as loudly, as he dared for fear
of waking Jack and Kernertok.</p>
<p>“This is getting serious,” he told himself, as he
returned to his previous position. “Wonder if I’d
better call the others.”</p>
<p>Somewhat against his better judgment he decided
to wait a while longer, hoping that Rex would return.
He knew that it would be light in a little more
than an hour, and he hated to disturb his brother and
the Indian. But when the first tinge of the coming
day lighted up the eastern sky and Rex had not returned,
he was really alarmed, and decided to wait
no longer.</p>
<p>“Eh, what’s up?” Jack asked sleepily, as he sat
up and rubbed his eyes.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_102">102</div>
<p>“Rex has gone.”</p>
<p>“Gone where?”</p>
<p>“That’s what I’d like to know,” and Bob told him
what had happened.</p>
<p>“It’s mighty funny how he could get lost so
quickly.”</p>
<p>“I wasn’t gone over thirty minutes,” Bob assured
him.</p>
<p>Their talking awakened Kernertok, and Bob
quickly told him of Rex’s disappearance.</p>
<p>“That heap bad,” the Indian grunted. “Him get
lost take long time mebby find him.”</p>
<p>“Well, to-day’s Sunday, so we won’t be losing any
time,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“Do you think Sicum can track him?” Bob turned
to Kernertok.</p>
<p>“We try um.”</p>
<p>But although they let the dog sniff at Rex’s cap
and took him to where he had been sitting when
Bob left him, the dog refused to stir.</p>
<p>“Him heap fool dog,” Kernertok declared disgustedly.</p>
<p>“You mustn’t blame him,” Bob cautioned. “Remember,
we don’t know what he has been through.”</p>
<p>“It doesn’t seem as though he could have gone
very far in the darkness,” Jack said, “and we ought
not to have a great deal of trouble in finding him.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_103">103</div>
<p>By this time it was nearly daylight even in the
woods, and, after a short discussion, it was decided
that they would separate. Jack was to go up along
the shore of the lake and Bob in the opposite direction,
while Kernertok was to strike off at right angles
to their course.</p>
<p>“Remember now, two shots will mean that he’s
found and three that there’s trouble and help
needed,” Bob told them. “It’s now a quarter to five,
and we’ll keep on till seven o’clock, if we don’t find
him. He wouldn’t go very far in the dark, and if
we don’t locate him in that time it’ll mean that we’ve
probably passed him. And don’t be afraid to yell.
He may have fallen into a bear pit or something.”</p>
<p>After Bob had left him, Rex fell into a light dose
for a moment, but was quickly aroused by a slight
noise to his right. Instantly he was wide awake and
straining his eyes. Was that something moving up
along the shore of the lake? He was not sure at first,
but a moment later he was certain that there was
something there. Getting to his feet as quietly as
possible he stole softly through the darkness. He
could just make out a dim shape which seemed to
glide rather than walk a few yards ahead of him.
He followed slowly, careful to make no sound. If
this was Jack’s lalapaloosla he had no wish to come
into close quarters with it. But here was a chance
to solve the mystery he felt, and the thought of not
doing his best never entered his head.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_104">104</div>
<p>For some thirty yards the shape led him along
the shore of the lake and then seemed to turn and
plunge into the thick woods nearly at right angles.
As the shape disappeared he ran quickly forward to
where it had turned, and listened. He could hear
it as it made its way between the trees and, after a
moment’s hesitation, he struck off after it. It never
occurred to him that he could get lost so near the
camp, and to wait for Bob might mean that he
would lose the chance entirely.</p>
<p>It was pitch dark in the thick woods and he had
only his sense of hearing to guide him as he hurried
along. It seemed to him that, for so bulky a form,
the thing moved with amazing swiftness, and he was
hard put to it to keep in hearing distance. So intent
was he on not losing track of the thing that he
was wholly unaware of the passage of time, and it
was with a start of surprise that he noticed that it
was getting light. He had no idea as to how far he
had come.</p>
<p>Rex stopped and listened. Not a sound of his
quarry could he hear. Either the thing had stopped
or else it had outdistanced him.</p>
<p>“Guess I’ll have to wait till it gets a little lighter
and see if I can follow his tracks,” he thought. “It
ought not to be hard if he makes as big ones in here
as down by the lake.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_105">105</div>
<p>He sat down on a dead tree trunk and waited for
perhaps a half hour.</p>
<p>“Guess it’s light enough now,” he said half aloud.</p>
<p>He began his search for the trail of the mysterious
creature, full of hope that he would quickly
pick it up. But in this he was disappointed, for he
was unable to locate it.</p>
<p>“It’s a case of now you see it and now you don’t,”
he muttered as he looked about him. “Well, guess
I might as well get back to camp. I’ll bet they are
wondering what has become of me,” he chuckled.</p>
<p>But which way should he go? Not until he was
ready to start had it occurred to him that there could
be any question about so simple a matter. He would
simply go back the way he had come. But now, as
he paused and looked about, he was forced to admit
to himself that he had no idea as to the direction of
the lake.</p>
<p>“I wonder if I’m lost,” he thought.</p>
<p>He remembered now how many times the boys
had warned him how easily a man could get lost in
the big Maine woods. But he was not worried. He
would, of course, find his way out in a short time.
It would at the most mean only a few hours’ delay.</p>
<p>“I’ll go in a straight line till I run across a brook,
and then all I’ll have to do will be to follow it to
the lake, and then follow the lake round to the camp,”
he told himself as he started off.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_106">106</div>
<p>He pushed his way through the woods as rapidly
as possible, for he wanted to get back without any
unnecessary delay. But he came to no stream, and
after more than an hour had passed, he decided to
take another short rest.</p>
<p>He again sat down on a fallen tree trunk.</p>
<p>“Brooks don’t seem to be as thick up here as I
thought they were,” he said to himself, as he took
his jack knife from his pocket.</p>
<p>It had long been a habit with Rex to carve his
initials on the trunk of a tree whenever he was in the
woods, and now he started to do it almost without
thinking. He had cut an R through the bark close
to his side, when he happened to raise his eyes to
meet the log a little farther toward the end. There,
only a few feet from where he sat, were some initials
cut in the bark. He moved over so that he
could read them. His eyes opened wide with astonishment
as he saw R. D. in large letters.</p>
<p>“It’s sure a wonderful coincidence that another
fellow having my initials should cut them on this
very same tree,” he thought. “Don’t look as though
they had been cut very long, either,” he muttered, as
he moved over to examine the marks closer.</p>
<p>Then suddenly the truth came to him. They were
the marks he had cut only an hour or two before.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_107">107</div>
<p>“And that means that I’ve been traveling round
in a circle and have come back to where I started,”
he muttered. “Now what do you know about that?”</p>
<p>He remembered then that he had heard that a
person lost in the woods is very apt to walk in a
circle, owing to the tendency to take a slightly longer
step with the right foot than with the left.</p>
<p>“Right back where I started from,” he mused, as
he stared at the letters. “How the dickens is a fellow
going to keep a straight line? If the sun would
only come out from behind those clouds I might go
by it, but it doesn’t look as though it had any intention
of doing it. Well, here goes for another try
at it. I may be back later,” he grinned as he looked
again at the log.</p>
<p>Starting off in the same direction that he had
taken before, he picked out a tree as far away as he
could see through the thick woods and made his
way to it.</p>
<p>“I’ve come straight so far at least,” he smiled, as
he leaned against the tree and with his eye picked
out another for his second goal.</p>
<p>In this way he kept on for what seemed to him a
long time. He kept looking about half expecting to
find himself back where he started from a second
time. But as the time passed and he saw no sign
of the fallen tree he began to take heart.</p>
<p>“I really believe I’m going straight this time,” he
told himself.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_108">108</div>
<p>It was nearly noon and he knew that he must have
gone many miles before he thought of being hungry.
But now the thought came to him with striking force.
He remembered that he had eaten nothing since the
night before and, as he expressed it, he felt empty
clear down to his toes.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_109">109</div>
<h2 id="c7"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER VII.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">REX ENCOUNTERS WILD CATS.</span></h2>
<p>Bob was the first to get back to the camp. He
had, in the three hours, covered nearly ten miles, he
thought. He had called Rex’s name till he was
hoarse, but only the echo of the forest had answered
him.</p>
<p>“Hope one of the others has had better luck,” he
thought as he reluctantly turned back.</p>
<p>It was nearly eleven o’clock when he got back, and
he was somewhat surprised to find that neither Jack
or Kernertok had returned.</p>
<p>Jack, however, was only a few minutes later and
Kernertok, with Sicum following close to his heels,
came just before half past eleven. All reported the
same. No trace of Rex had been found.</p>
<p>“This is a serious matter,” Bob declared. “It
isn’t as if he were used to the woods. Any one of
us could live almost indefinitely in the woods, but
it’s altogether different with a fellow who doesn’t
know the ropes, so to speak.”</p>
<p>“Heap bad,” Kernertok shook his head.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_110">110</div>
<p>“If only Sicum was all right, we’d have found him
long before this,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“No doubt about that,” Bob agreed. “But that
doesn’t help just now. The big question is what are
we going to do next?”</p>
<p>“Did he have a revolver with him?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“I’m pretty sure he didn’t,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>“I reckon he didn’t or we’d have heard him shooting
before this.”</p>
<p>“What gets me is where he could have gotten to
in so short a time,” Bob mused.</p>
<p>“You don’t suppose that thing that made those
tracks has carried him off, do you?”</p>
<p>“Reckon I’d have heard him yell if anything had
attacked him,” Bob shook his head, but Jack knew
from his expression that the thought had been in
his mind.</p>
<p>“White boys stay here an’ Injun go out again,”
Kernertok suggested.</p>
<p>“Not much,” Bob replied quickly. “We’ll get dinner
and then we’ll all have another try at it and this
time we must hunt till we find him.”</p>
<p>“You said something,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>“Heap good,” Kernertok added.</p>
<p>They made short work of dinner and by twelve
o’clock they were ready to start off once more.</p>
<p>“White boys be careful no get lost,” Kernertok
warned them.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_111">111</div>
<p>“We’ll be all right,” both assured him.</p>
<p>“Now we must go slow and really hunt this time,”
Bob said as they were about to start. “We must have
passed him somewhere the other time. He couldn’t
have gotten so far as we went in the short start he
had.”</p>
<p>“Doesn’t seem likely for a fact.”</p>
<p>Each of the three took with him a small amount
of food, not so much for himself, but they knew that
Rex would be nearly starved when he was found.
Not one of them had admitted even to himself that
there was a possibility of never finding him.</p>
<p>“Well, so long and good luck,” Bob waved his
hand as he disappeared in the woods.</p>
<p>“Here’s hoping,” Jack called back.</p>
<p>“We find um,” Kernertok encouraged them.</p>
<p>Each had taken the same direction as he had
on the first trip, judging that they would save a little
time, having gone over the ground before.</p>
<p>It was just four o’clock when Rex finally came to
a brook.</p>
<p>“Now I’ve got something to go by,” he told himself
as he knelt down and drank for a long time. It
was the first water he had found and his throat was
nearly parched. He had hoped that he would find
some berries of some kind, but had not, and he was
beginning to feel weak from lack of food.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_112">112</div>
<p>The cold water refreshed him somewhat, and
after a short rest he started to follow the brook. It
was a very crooked stream and the underbrush and
bushes were thick along its banks, so that his progress
was slow. But he did not dare to try any short
cuts, as he feared he might lose it. It had been
cloudy all day and darkness came on early.</p>
<p>“Guess I won’t be able to reach the lake to-day,”
he panted, as he stumbled and fell headlong over a
stick. “Guess one place is as good as another to
camp and I’m going to stop right here. My but I’d
give a lot for something to eat,” he muttered, as he
picked himself up.</p>
<p>Only a few feet to his right was a thick clump of
cedars, and he was moving toward it, thinking it
would be a good place for a bed, when an ear-splitting
yell made him jump back with a suddenness,
which caused him to strike his heel on a stick and
send him sprawling on his back. In falling his head
struck a rock and for a moment he lay half stunned.
Another yell from the clump of cedars brought him
to his senses and he slowly got to his knees.</p>
<p>“I’ll bet there’s no fake about that wild cat,” he
thought, rubbing the back of his head.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_113">113</div>
<p>Bob had told him that a wild cat will seldom attack
a man unless it is cornered, but if there should be
two of them together they will sometimes take the
initiative. All this passed through his mind as he
was getting to his feet. He stood for a moment, his
head still reeling from the contact with the stone.
Another fierce shriek sent him rushing away toward
the brook. He fancied that the last yell differed
somewhat from the others, indicating that there
were two cats in that clump of cedars.</p>
<p>“All right kitty-cat. You got there first, and I
have no intention of turning you out of your bed,”
he said as he reached the brook and crossed over to
the other side. Somehow he felt safer with the brook
between him and the cat.</p>
<p>In spite of the rapidly increasing darkness, he
stumbled along down the stream, determined to put
as much distance as possible between himself and
the wild cat. Many times he fell headlong as his
foot tripped on a root or hit against a stone. He
stopped and listened every few minutes to determine
whether or not the cat was following him.</p>
<p>“I don’t suppose I could hear it if it was,” he
thought.</p>
<p>In a short time it grew so dark that he was obliged
to stop whether or no. He thought that he had come
at least a half mile from the clump of cedars. He
had not heard the yell again and hoped that the cat
had not followed him.</p>
<p>“I never knew what it was to be really hungry,”
he thought as he drank once more from the brook.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_114">114</div>
<p>Climbing up the steep bank, which at this point
was about eight feet high, he groped his way about
until he felt an open space at the foot of a large tree.
The ground was hard, but he did not mind it, as he
stretched himself out at full length.</p>
<p>Fortunately the night was warm and he did not
suffer from the cold. His head ached slightly from
the blow he had received, but he was asleep almost
at once.</p>
<p>It was still dark when he awoke, and for some minutes
he lay trying to make out where he was. Then
as memory returned he raised himself on one elbow
and looked about him. It was very dark and he
could hardly see his hand before his face. He was
about to sink back again when a slight rustle to his
right caught his ear. He turned his head and the
next moment his blood seemed to freeze in his veins.
There, not ten feet from where he lay, he saw two
balls of greenish fire. They were about four feet
from the ground and his horror increased as he saw
the next moment two more similar balls a few feet
to the left of the first pair.</p>
<p>“There are two of them and they have followed
me,” he thought.</p>
<p>It would be hard to find a more ferocious animal
for its size than the wild cat of northern Maine.
Growing often to a weight of forty pounds, their
long claws are like needles and pitted against an unarmed
man the latter is almost helpless against their
furious clawing and biting.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_115">115</div>
<p>As he lay there too unnerved to think, suddenly
one of the cats gave a blood-curdling yell, and before
it had died out the other joined in. Galvanized into
action he started to get to his feet, and as he did
so his hands touched a rock about the size of his
fist. Hardly realizing what he was doing he picked
it up and, taking hasty aim, threw it with all his
might at the nearer pair of eyes. He did not wait to
see what the effect of his throw might be, but turned
and ran toward the brook. Another, and if possible,
a more terrifying shriek followed him as he fled.
He did not realize how near he was to the bank, and
before he could stop himself he was rolling over and
over, landing somewhat bruised, but otherwise unhurt
in about two feet of water. He scrambled to
his feet and, shaking the water from his eyes, for
his head had gone completely under, started to wade
to the opposite bank. The stream at this point was
about twelve feet wide, with a rocky bottom.</p>
<p>He had gotten about half way across when he felt
with his outstretched hands a large rock just in front
of him. Quickly he clambered up onto it.</p>
<p>“Reckon I’d better anchor here awhile till I get
the lay of the situation,” he thought. “I don’t believe
those cats will swim for the sake of sampling
me.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_116">116</div>
<p>Another shriek interrupted his thoughts, and looking
toward the shore he could again see the balls of
fire.</p>
<p>Sitting on the rock in his wet clothes was anything
but comfortable, but under the circumstances Rex
felt very well satisfied with the situation.</p>
<p>“I’d a whole lot rather be wet than clawed into
ribbons,” he told himself.</p>
<p>Soon the pair of eyes were joined by the second
pair, and the two big cats whined as if they realized
that they had, for the time being at least, lost the
game.</p>
<p>The weather had turned slightly colder during the
night and Rex shivered as he crouched on his perch.</p>
<p>“Pretty pussy,” he called. “Sorry to disappoint
you, but safety first, you know.”</p>
<p>While he felt that he was safe for the time at
least, his position was anything but comfortable.
The rock was barely large enough for him to sit on
and he did not dare leave it. In his wet clothes his
teeth chattered with the cold, although it was not
what he would have called a cold night under ordinary
circumstances. Water must have gotten into
his watch when he went under, for it had stopped,
and he had no way of telling the time.</p>
<p>“Not that it would have made much difference,”
he told himself as he held the watch to his ear.
“Every match that I’ve got is as wet as I am.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_117">117</div>
<p>From time to time, first one of the cats and then
the other would shatter the silence with its agonizing
yell.</p>
<p>Rex wondered with a great deal of anxiety if
they would go away with the coming of daylight.
He had heard that the wild cat did most of its hunting
during the night, but, as he told himself, he
was not at all certain that they kept union hours.</p>
<p>“It seems to me that with all the rabbits and other
small animals running around here you fellows ought
to be able to keep from starving without serving
me up. Guess you don’t know how tough I am,” he
told the cats, and was answered by an angry snarl.</p>
<p>“Don’t agree with me, eh? Well, we won’t argue
the question. I suppose we have different points
of view on the subject, but I do wish that we could
arbitrate.”</p>
<p>Slowly the time passed, although he had no way
of telling just how slowly. But it seemed almost
an eternity before he noticed the first hint of the
coming dawn. So slowly as to be almost imperceptible
the darkness began to lift, and he knew that day
was at hand. Would the cats give it up and go?
That was the question which he asked himself over
and over again.</p>
<p>“If they don’t, I guess I’ll have to close with them
and have it out. The winner can eat the victim. No
use of all of us starving,” he said half aloud.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_118">118</div>
<p>Soon he was able to make out the form of one
of the cats as it paced back and forth close to the
water’s edge. He was surprised at the size of the
beast.</p>
<p>“Gee, I didn’t know you grew that big,” he said.
“Guess I’ll have to revise my last statement. You
can stare as long as you like, so far as I’m concerned.”</p>
<p>Only the one cat was in sight and he concluded
that the other must have given up and gone off.</p>
<p>“Mebby he’s gone to get breakfast for his companion,”
he thought. “And that reminds me that
I haven’t had mine yet. Ugly as you look, kittie,
I don’t believe you want to eat me a bit more than I
want to eat you. Wish I had a fish line along,” he
thought, feeling through his pockets without success.
“I believe I could relish a trout raw. But I don’t
suppose they’d take a hook without any bait on it
even if I had one.”</p>
<p>As soon as it was light enough for him to see distinctly
he determined to wade down the brook—cat
or no cat.</p>
<p>“Might as well take a chance as to stay here and
starve,” he thought as he let himself down from
the rock into the water, which came a little above
his knees.</p>
<p>The cat, seeing him move, gave an angry snarl.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_119">119</div>
<p>“Can’t help it if you don’t like it, pussy. You
can’t have everything your own way in this cold
world.”</p>
<p>He found that he could make fairly good progress
and keep to the middle of the stream. In
places there were rocks where he could leap from
one to the other for some distance. Again he would
have to wade, at times nearly to his waist. The big
cat followed him along the bank, snarling and at
times giving its yell.</p>
<p>“There’s no use getting so mad about it, kitty,”
he told him as he paused waist-deep in the water.
“You don’t have to do this, you know. I didn’t ask
you to come along. Why don’t you run along home
if you don’t like it? I won’t be lonesome without
you. In fact, I’d rather you would go.”</p>
<p>But for along time the cat evidenced no intention
of giving up. Rex estimated that he had jumped and
waded for all of two miles, and the cat seemed as
determined as ever.</p>
<p>“Believe I’ll try taking the offensive,” he thought,
as he came to a shallow place near the middle of the
stream.</p>
<p>He stooped down and picked up a rock about the
size of his fist, and with all the force he could muster,
threw it. The rock caught the cat in the side and
bowled it over. But it was up in a second, snarling
and yelling.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_120">120</div>
<p>“Take your base,” Rex shouted, as he stooped for
another rock.</p>
<p>The cat was not more than seven feet away, and
the second stone caught it square on the nose. Without
a sound, save for a lone whine, the cat fell on its
side and gave a few convulsive kicks and was still.</p>
<p>“Batter’s out,” Rex yelled, as he stood and
watched the animal. “I really believe I’ve killed it,”
he mused a moment later, as the cat gave no sign of
life. “Now what do you know about that? Didn’t
know I was that good, but I guess the old wing
hasn’t forgot how it used to strike ’em out.”</p>
<p>Convinced after some moments of watching that
the cat was really dead, he waded over and stood
gazing at it.</p>
<p>“You’d never take a prize in a beauty show, but
I’m sure glad I got you instead of you getting me,”
he muttered. “If I only had some way of making
a fire, I believe I’d sample you, ugly as you look,
but I don’t believe I can quite go you raw just yet.
But that friend of yours had better stay away, unless
he wants to get sampled.”</p>
<p>With renewed courage he started off down the
stream once more, after pulling his belt up a couple
of notches.</p>
<p>“Hope I find something to eat before this belt
buckle meets itself,” he grinned.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_121">121</div>
<p>This time his hopes were realized, for he had gone
not more than a hundred yards when he came upon
a raspberry patch. The bushes hung red with the
big, luscious berries, and his heart leaped for joy as
he saw them. It was characteristic of him that before
eating a berry he knelt down and whispered a
brief but earnest prayer of thankfulness.</p>
<p>“I never knew that anything could taste so good,”
he thought, as berry followed berry into his mouth.</p>
<p>He ate as many as he dared, but far from what
he wanted, knowing that it would be dangerous to
overload his stomach in its present condition. Then
he made, not without considerable difficulty, owing
to his inexperience, a basket of birch bark, which
would hold several quarts. This he filled in a short
time, and after eating a few more, he again set off
down the stream.</p>
<p>As he trudged along he wondered that his friends
had not found him, but he failed to take into account
the vastness of the forest and the fact that sound
waves, broken by the thickly growing trees, do not
carry so far in the woods as in the open.</p>
<p>From the position of the sun he judged it to be
about noon, when he suddenly emerged from the
thick woods and found himself on the shore of a
lake.</p>
<p>“Now the big question is whether or not this is the
right lake,” he thought as he looked out upon its
surface.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_122">122</div>
<p>He fancied that it was not so large as the lake
where they had camped two nights before, but
he could not be sure.</p>
<p>“Guess the only thing to do is to follow the shore
around,” he mused, as he sat down on a rock to eat
his dinner of berries. “They are mighty good, but
not what you’d call filling, and as for variety, it reminds
me of the butcher who said he had pig, pork,
hog and swine.”</p>
<p>He rested for an hour, knowing that it was necessary
to conserve his strength, and then started off
to circle the lake. It was hard going from the first,
as the shore, in many places, was marshy and he had
to make long detours.</p>
<p>“Reckon it’ll take about a week at this rate,” he
thought as he noticed that the sun was getting low
in the west.</p>
<p>He stopped to eat a few more of the berries and
was about to start again when he was electrified by
a sound. It came from what seemed a great distance.
He was not sure that he had really heard
the call. He realized that it is easy to imagine that
one hears his name called, so he waited and listened.
In a moment it came again, and this time he was
sure that it was no fancy.</p>
<p>“Hello-o-o-o,” he shouted at the top of his voice.</p>
<p>“Rex-x-x-x,” came back the answer.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_123">123</div>
<p>“It’s Bob for a fact,” he exulted. “Here I am,”
he called.</p>
<p>“Stay right where you are and I’ll find you.”</p>
<p>Rex sat down calling from time to time to guide
his friend, and in about fifteen minutes Bob came in
view.</p>
<p>“Thank God, I’ve found you at last,” the latter
cried as he grasped Rex by the hand. “It’s sure been
a long trail.”</p>
<p>“It has seemed so to me,” Rex assured him.</p>
<p>“Had anything to eat?”</p>
<p>“Only these,” and he held up the half-filled basket.</p>
<p>Bob quickly threw off his pack and in another moment
they were both eating sandwiches.</p>
<p>“Um, lapping good,” Rex declared as he reached
for another.</p>
<p>“Better wait a bit before you tackle a second one,”
Bob advised.</p>
<p>“All right. You’re the doctor, but I’ll tell you
right now, that I could eat all you can carry and
then holler for more.”</p>
<p>“I don’t doubt it. But if you did I’d have you
to carry in place of the grub.”</p>
<p>The first pangs of hunger appeased, Rex told of
his adventures.</p>
<p>“You say you killed that cat with a stone?” Bob
asked when he had come to that part of the narrative.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_124">124</div>
<p>“Well, he seemed dead to me. Of course, if he
had nine lives like domestic cats, he may have eight
left to enjoy, but I’m dead certain that I deprived
him of one of them.”</p>
<p>“Sometimes you think they’re killed when they’re
only stunned. They sure are tough customers, and
whether they have nine lives or only one, they certainly
take a lot of killing. All I’ve got to say is
that you were mighty lucky.”</p>
<p>“Guess you’re right.”</p>
<p>“I’d rather run into a bear any day than one of
those fellows when he is on the war path.”</p>
<p>“I’ll leave them alone in the future if they’ll return
the compliment,” Rex assured him.</p>
<p>“Just a minute,” Bob said, “I forgot something,”
and taking his revolver from his pocket, he fired
two shots close together.</p>
<p>“That’s the signal that you’re found,” he explained,
as he fired twice more. “Don’t know
whether the others are near enough to hear ’em or
not, but it’s the best I can do.”</p>
<p>“Is this the lake we were on?”</p>
<p>“Not much. This is Priestly Lake.”</p>
<p>“How far away are we?”</p>
<p>“About ten miles, I should judge.”</p>
<p>“Can we make it to-day?”</p>
<p>“That’s up to you. We’ve got about three hours
of daylight left.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_125">125</div>
<p>“Well, if you’ll let me have one more of those
sandwiches I’ll make a big stab at it.”</p>
<p>“All right. But you eat it slowly.”</p>
<p>“Which way would you say it is?” Bob asked as
they were about to start.</p>
<p>Rex looked about a moment and then pointed.</p>
<p>“You’d have to go just twenty-five thousand miles
in that direction to get there,” Bob laughed.</p>
<p>“Then let’s go the other way by all means.”</p>
<p>They struck off through the forest. Bob, knowing
that Rex was already tired, set a slow pace. To
tell the truth, he was pretty tired himself, but he
was more used to tramping through the woods. Still
they made good time and it was only partly dark
when Bob announced that it was only about a mile
more to the camp.</p>
<p>“How you can find your way through these woods
is a mystery to me,” Rex panted, as they stopped for
a short rest.</p>
<p>Bob laughed. “I guess it’s a kind of an instinct
that one acquires after a while, and then Kernertok
has taught us a lot about it. You see, you can always
tell the points of the compass by the bark on the
trees. I’ll show you how to do it sometime.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_126">126</div>
<p>Neither Jack or the Indian had returned when at
last, tired almost to the point of exhaustion, they
reached the camp. They had been in but a short
time, however, when Kernertok, followed by the
dog, carrying his tail between his legs, arrived. The
old man looked very downcast at first, but his stolid
face lighted up as he caught sight of Rex.</p>
<p>“You find um, heap good,” he grunted.</p>
<p>The Indian did not seem at all tired, and he at
once set about building a fire. He would not listen
to the boys’ offer to help, insisting that they were
“heap tired,” an accusation which they did not even
try to dispute.</p>
<p>“Injun have supper heap soon,” he promised as
he hurried about his work.</p>
<p>“I do hope Jack isn’t lost,” Rex said anxiously, as
he stretched on his bed of spruce boughs.</p>
<p>“You needn’t worry any about him. He—”</p>
<p>Before he had time to finish the sentence the shrill
call of the whip-poor-will rang through the woods.</p>
<p>“There he is now. Listen!”</p>
<p>“Whooo! Whooo! Whooo!”</p>
<p>“I’d swear that was an owl if I didn’t see you do
it,” Rex declared.</p>
<p>“Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will!”</p>
<p>“Jack can beat me all to hollow when it comes to
imitations, but that is a signal we’ve had for a long
time,” Bob told him.</p>
<p>It was only a few moments before Jack came
trudging in and he gave a loud whoop of joy as he
caught sight of Rex.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_127">127</div>
<h2 id="c8"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER VIII.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE.</span></h2>
<p>“Well, you sure did give us a good scare,” Jack
declared, as he shook his friend’s hand and threw
himself down on the ground by his side. “Tell us all
about it.”</p>
<p>“Do you think that thing, whatever it was, knew
that you were following it?” he asked as soon as Rex
had finished his story.</p>
<p>“I don’t know, but it made off through the woods
mighty fast. That’s what made me get so far away
before I knew it.”</p>
<p>“You might not have been so far away at that,”
Bob laughed. “You don’t have to go very far in
these woods to get lost if you’re not used to them.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say you don’t,” Rex agreed, and then added:
“Believe me, little Rexie is going to stick close to
the fireside after this until he learns the ropes a bit
better.”</p>
<p>They were all too tired to think of setting a watch
that night.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_128">128</div>
<p>“We’ll take a chance on it,” Bob declared. “But
we’ll make it pretty hard for anyone to get any of
our things just the same.”</p>
<p>So as soon as supper was over they rearranged
their beds in the form of square, and piled all their
supplies in the middle.</p>
<p>“Now Mr. Lalapaloosla has got to step over one
of us in order to get away with any of our stuff, and
I don’t believe even he can do it without waking at
least one of us,” he declared, and Kernertok grunted
approval.</p>
<p>They were up with the first break of day and found
that nothing had been disturbed nor did a careful
search disclose any additional tracks.</p>
<p>“I guess you scared him off,” Jack declared as
they gathered about the fire for breakfast.</p>
<p>Breaking camp as soon as possible, they started
for the upper end of Lake Umsaskis, which they
reached about an hour later. Then, turning slightly
to the right, they entered a long narrow pond, which
Bob informed them was called Long Pond.</p>
<p>“And it looks as though it were well named,” Rex
declared.</p>
<p>“When we get to the upper end of it we’ll enter
the Allagash and then it’s only about forty miles to
the Little Umsaskis,” Bob told him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_129">129</div>
<p>It was nearly noon when they reached the upper
end of the pond, and they decided to land and eat
dinner before starting down the river.</p>
<p>“We made one big mistake, Jack, when we started
on this trip,” Bob said while they were eating.</p>
<p>“Only one?” Jack smiled.</p>
<p>“Well, I’ve only thought of one so far.”</p>
<p>“All right, spring it.”</p>
<p>“We should have left one of the pocket phones at
home and brought the other with us.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean, phones?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Why, early in the summer we finished a couple
of what we call pocket radio phones,” Bob explained.
“We had been working on them for some time.”</p>
<p>“And let me tell you they came in mighty handy
awhile ago.” Jack interrupted, and he told Rex and
the Indian about their trip along the Canadian border
in their search for liquor smugglers.</p>
<p>“And you didn’t bring them with you?” Rex
asked.</p>
<p>“Oh, I brought them, but the trouble is that I
brought both instead of leaving one at home, so we
could talk with the folks.”</p>
<p>As Bob was speaking he took the two cases out of
his pack and explained how they worked.</p>
<p>“Well, you boys do beat the bugs. And you never
said a thing about it. Why, it’s wonderful. Mebby
we’ll have a chance to use them before we get back.”</p>
<p>“Quien sabe,” Bob smiled.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_130">130</div>
<p>The Allagash River flows from the upper end of
Long Pond, nearly due north. In places nearly an
eighth of a mile wide, it narrows in others to a small
space through which the water rushes with the speed
of an express train.</p>
<p>They had just finished dinner and were about to
clean up when suddenly they heard a loud twang
from a thicket near by, followed by a whirring sound
as a feathered arrow flew just over their heads and
stuck quivering in a white birch.</p>
<p>“What-do-you-know-about-that?” Jack gasped.</p>
<p>“I thought this was the twentieth century,” Rex
whispered, as he gazed fascinated at the arrow. “A
bit lower and you’d have been scalped, Bob.”</p>
<p>Only Kernertok seemed for the moment to retain
his wits. Hardly had the arrow hit the tree than he
leaped for the thicket whence it came. But even his
swiftness was too slow, for he could find no trace
of the shooter. For several minutes he beat about,
but at length was forced to acknowledge that whoever
had been responsible for the shot had been too
quick for him.</p>
<p>Meanwhile Bob had noticed something peculiar
about the arrow.</p>
<p>“Looks as though a piece of paper was wrapped
about the end,” he declared, as he got to his feet.
“There is, too,” he said a moment later, as he tried
to pull the arrow from the tree.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_131">131</div>
<p>So deep had the head of the arrow sunk into the
tree that he broke it in pulling it out.</p>
<p>“That’s too bad,” he muttered. “Would have
liked to keep that for a keepsake. Only time I ever
had an arrow shot at me.”</p>
<p>“What does it say?” Jack asked impatiently.</p>
<p>“Just a minute and I’ll have it off.”</p>
<p>The slip of paper was tied tightly about the shank
of the arrow with a short length of waxed thread,
and it took him some time to get it off.</p>
<p>“Why it isn’t paper at all,” he declared, as he
unwrapped it. “It’s a piece of white birch bark.”</p>
<p>“Any writing on it?” Jack asked impatiently.</p>
<p>“There’s something,” Bob replied as he smoothed
the sheet of bark out.</p>
<p>“Well of all things.” Rex, who was peeping over
Bob’s shoulders, made the remark.</p>
<p>There was no writing on the bark, but, drawn with
a bit of charcoal, were a number of crude figures.</p>
<p>“You’d think this was back a hundred years ago,”
Jack said, as he studied the drawings.</p>
<p>Three figures, evidently intended to represent
white boys and one Indian, followed by a dog, were
seen fleeing from a band of Indians. The air was
filled with flying arrows.</p>
<p>“It seems to be a fairly broad hint to say the
least,” Bob said.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_132">132</div>
<p>“Whoever did it sure knows how to come to the
point,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>“Let’s see what Kernertok thinks about it,” Rex
suggested.</p>
<p>“Good idea.”</p>
<p>The old Indian studied the drawing intently for
several minutes, then handed it back shaking his
head.</p>
<p>“What about it?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Injun no mak’ um.”</p>
<p>“You sure?”</p>
<p>“Heap sure.”</p>
<p>“What makes you think so?”</p>
<p>“Injun no mak’ many Injuns, mebby two, mebby
three, no more.”</p>
<p>“Who did it then?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“No can tell. Some white man.”</p>
<p>“Well, it’s dead sure that whoever did it wanted
us to think that it was Indians,” Bob declared.</p>
<p>“That heap so,” Kernertok agreed.</p>
<p>“It all seems to fit in,” Bob said slowly.</p>
<p>“Fit in what?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Why some one is trying to scare us away from
here. First they tried it with those tracks and
then when that didn’t work they tried this warning.”</p>
<p>“And do we scare?”</p>
<p>“We do not.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_133">133</div>
<p>“Not so you’d notice it,” Rex joined in.</p>
<p>“But we’ve got to be on our guard every minute,”
Bob insisted. “What do you say, Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“Must be heap sharp.”</p>
<p>“And then some,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>“Well, it isn’t the first time we’ve been up against
it and I guess we can take care of ourselves fairly
well,” Bob declared.</p>
<p>“I reckon,” Jack joined in.</p>
<p>“They say that variety is the spice of life,” Rex
said. “If that’s right, I’ll recommend Northern
Maine to anyone who’s looking for spice. There’s
more of that article to the square inch up here than
any place I ever saw or heard of.”</p>
<p>“I guess you’re about right there,” Bob laughed.
“But before we start, I move we take a look about
and see if we find out anything about who shot that
arrow.”</p>
<p>“I guess Kernertok made a pretty good search,”
Jack said.</p>
<p>“Injun hunt quick. No look careful. We mak’
heap good look,” Kernertok advised.</p>
<p>But although they searched for the better part of
half an hour beyond locating the place from which
the arrow had been shot as indicated by a few
broken twigs, they found nothing to help them.
There was no trace of a trail to show in what direction
the man had departed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_134">134</div>
<p>“He’s foxy all right,” Bob declared, as they gave
up the search.</p>
<p>“Righto,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>“Him heap good,” Kernertok added, shaking his
head.</p>
<p>It was plain to the boys that the old man was worried.
He always felt a keen sense of responsibility
when in the woods with his boys, although he had
great confidence in their ability to look out for themselves.
“Them most as good as Injun,” he had once
told Mr. Golden.</p>
<p>“Rex, do you think that this business can have
any connection with that fellow who stole your
money?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>Rex thought for some time before replying.</p>
<p>“That’s a pretty hard question to answer,” he said
finally. “I do know that he came from somewhere
up here.”</p>
<p>“But would he have any way of knowing that we
were after him?”</p>
<p>“That’s what I don’t know. You see, he must
know more or less people around here, and it’s possible
that some one may have put him wise.”</p>
<p>“Well, it must be one of three things,” Bob declared
after a moment’s thought. “It’s either he or
some of those whiskey runners who think we are
after them, or—”</p>
<p>“Or what?” Jack asked as he paused.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_135">135</div>
<p>“Or a real lalapaloosla,” he said with a grin.</p>
<p>“Oh, rats,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>“Mebby,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>“Mebby what?”</p>
<p>“What you said.”</p>
<p>“You know that you don’t believe in any lalapaloosla
business,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“Who said I did?” Bob smiled.</p>
<p>“You came pretty near to it,” Rex broke in, but
Bob only laughed.</p>
<p>“Well, this isn’t getting us anywhere,” Jack said
as he started toward the canoe.</p>
<p>“Great Scott! Look at this, will you,” he shouted
a moment later, pointing to the canoe.</p>
<p>All rushed to where he was standing.</p>
<p>“Well, I’ll be jiggered,” Bob said, and Rex added:</p>
<p>“Of all things.”</p>
<p>“Him heap big cut,” Kernertok shook his head
slowly, as he gazed at the slit in the bottom of the
canoe.</p>
<p>“Who could have done it?” Rex gasped.</p>
<p>“Same one who has done all the rest of this
monkey business,” Jack snapped angrily.</p>
<p>“You mean who shot that arrow?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Well, I hope there isn’t more than one party
after us.”</p>
<p>“That’s a consummation devoutly to be desired,”
Bob declared.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_136">136</div>
<p>“This is no time for verboseness,” Jack told him,
and Bob apologized.</p>
<p>“But when could he have done it?” he asked.</p>
<p>“While we were hunting for him back in the
woods, of course,” Jack told him.</p>
<p>“Of course,” Bob repeated. “We were big dunces
not to have left one of us to watch the canoe.”</p>
<p>“You said a mouthful,” Jack declared, adding:
“Seems to me we’re always locking the door after
the horse is stolen.”</p>
<p>“You can’t think of everything,” Rex consoled.</p>
<p>“It beats me why he didn’t smash it all to pieces
while he was about it,” Bob mused.</p>
<p>“Perhaps he intended to, but didn’t have time,”
Rex suggested.</p>
<p>“I think you hit it,” Jack told them. “See. Here’s
the big cut and right back of it is a little one. Looks
as though he had just started on the second one
when he saw us and had to beat it. I’ll bet he intended
to cut it all up, so that it would be impossible
to fix it.”</p>
<p>“That heap right,” Kernertok said sadly. “Him
start to spoil boat.”</p>
<p>“Well, we can thank our lucky stars that we
didn’t stay back there any longer,” Bob said.</p>
<p>“And we mustn’t let this canoe out of our sight
for a single minute after this,” Jack added.</p>
<p>“We won’t,” Bob assured him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_137">137</div>
<p>They lifted the canoe from the water and carried
it up the bank, where they placed it bottom up. Kernertok
at once went off in search of bark and pitch,
and, as there seemed nothing else to do, the boys
threw themselves on the ground to await his return.</p>
<p>“Guess we might as well get some trout for supper
while we’re waiting,” Jack said after a while.</p>
<p>“I’ll go with you if Bob don’t mind staying alone,”
Rex said.</p>
<p>“Sure. Go ahead. I’ll watch the canoe and
things,” Bob assured them.</p>
<p>Kernertok was gone longer than Bob expected and
he was beginning to get a bit uneasy when the Indian
returned.</p>
<p>“Pitch heap few,” he explained his long absence.
“Have to go heap long ways before find.”</p>
<p>“Didn’t see any sign of anyone, did you?”</p>
<p>“No sign,” the Indian replied, as he set about the
work of repairing the canoe.</p>
<p>He had it nearly completed when Rex and Jack
returned with a dozen fair-sized trout.</p>
<p>“She be right in mornin’,” he assured them.</p>
<p>“Another half day lost,” Bob sighed.</p>
<p>“Never mind. We’re lucky to have the canoe at
all,” Rex declared.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_138">138</div>
<p>The afternoon, or what was left of it, passed slowly
to the boys, eager to be on their way. They arranged
to keep watch by twos that night, Bob and
the Indian to take the first turn until twelve o’clock.</p>
<p>“And mind you, don’t go to taking any midnight
strolls,” Bob cautioned Rex as the latter said good-night
and wrapped himself in his blanket.</p>
<p>“Don’t you believe it,” Rex assured him. “I’m
going to stick closer than any brother you ever
saw.”</p>
<p>“You’d better,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>It was a clear night, with a new moon, which, although
it did not give much light, relieved the intense
darkness of the previous nights.</p>
<p>“It’s a whole lot better than nothing,” Bob told
the Indian.</p>
<p>“Heap much,” Kernertok grunted.</p>
<p>Twelve o’clock came and nothing had happened.</p>
<p>“Reckon he or it or whatever it is knows we are
on the watch and is afraid to try anything,” Bob
told the Indian as he started to call Jack and Rex.</p>
<p>The moon had disappeared and it was very dark
when the two latter came on watch.</p>
<p>“Keep your eyes peeled,” Bob cautioned, as he
threw himself on his bed.</p>
<p>“Don’t you worry,” Jack assured him. “Nothing
is going to get away with any monkey shines to-night.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_139">139</div>
<p>Two o’clock came and they had heard no sound
to alarm them. It was almost three when a slight
sound down close to the shore attracted Jack’s attention.</p>
<p>“Did you hear it?” he asked, trying to pierce the
darkness.</p>
<p>“Yep. Let’s make a rush for it.”</p>
<p>“Come on.”</p>
<p>Together they ran for the lake, some twenty feet
distant.</p>
<p>“There it goes,” Rex cried.</p>
<p>“After it,” Jack echoed.</p>
<p>But, although they ran as fast as they dared in
the darkness, the thing had disappeared in the thick
woods before they could reach it.</p>
<p>“Mebby it’s just as well at that,” Rex said as they
paused at the edge of the forest.</p>
<p>“What do you mean, just as well?”</p>
<p>“Well, if we had caught up with it we might
have more than we could have handled,” Rex said
slowly.</p>
<p>“You may be right at that. Anyhow it’s no use
running after it in the dark. But wait till next time,”
he shouted.</p>
<p>Was it fancy or did they hear a low cackling
laugh float back to them from the depths of the
thick woods?</p>
<p>“What was it?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Never heard anything like it before,” Jack replied.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_140">140</div>
<p>“And I hope I’ll never hear it again.”</p>
<p>“Did it look like the thing you chased the other
night?”</p>
<p>“I guess so, but it was too dark to see much both
times. All I could see the other time was an indefinite
shape.”</p>
<p>Bob and Kernertok were up as soon as it was
light.</p>
<p>“Well, you’re all here I see,” Bob greeted them.</p>
<p>“Yes, and we came pretty near catching the lalapaloosla,”
Rex said.</p>
<p>“How near?”</p>
<p>“Well, as a matter of fact, I guess we really came
about as near as the Irishman did to selling his pig,”
Rex laughed.</p>
<p>“How was that?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Pat had a pig to sell, and after a trip to town
with it, he told a friend that he came mighty near
to selling it. His friend asked him the same question
that you asked me, and he replied, ‘Sure an’ I asked
a feller didn’t he want ter buy a foine pig, an’ he said
no, but if he’d a said yes, sure an’ I’d sold him.’”</p>
<p>“And if you’d caught it, why you’d have caught
it, eh?”</p>
<p>“That’s about the size of it,” Rex laughed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_141">141</div>
<p>After a hurried breakfast Kernertok announced
that the canoe was in good shape for use, and packing
up their stuff as quickly as possible, they pushed
off. There is but little current to the Allagash, as
it runs out of Long Pond, but with Bob and Kernertok
at the paddles, they made good time.</p>
<p>“It seems strange to be going down river and
north at the same time,” Rex said.</p>
<p>“Everything this side of Chamberlain Lake flows
north and empties into the St. John River,” Bob
told him.</p>
<p>A paddle of about fifteen miles brought them to
another small lake some four miles long.</p>
<p>“What lake is this?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Pataquongamas Pond,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>“Pata who?”</p>
<p>“You pronounce the first syllable and then sneeze
the rest,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>“Can you tell me why they give the smallest lakes
up this way the longest names?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“It’s an Indian idea,” Bob told him. “They are
great on big names.”</p>
<p>As they entered the pond, Rex, who had by this
time acquired considerable skill with the paddle, and
Jack took their turn, and the canoe shot out onto the
pond in a fresh burst of speed.</p>
<p>“How long do you think you can keep that pace
up?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Don’t know,” Rex laughed, “but we’re sure going
while we do.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_142">142</div>
<p>“Well, look out that the friction doesn’t set the
bottom of the canoe on fire.”</p>
<p>“If it does, there’s plenty of water here to put it
out,” Jack laughed.</p>
<p>Although it was not quite noon when they reached
the end of the pond, they decided to land for dinner
before entering the river again.</p>
<p>“Now we don’t want to lose sight of the canoe
for a single minute,” Bob said, as he dragged it up
onto the sandy beach.</p>
<p>“I move that one of us stays right here by it
while the rest get dinner,” Jack proposed.</p>
<p>To this plan all agreed and it was decided that
Rex should be the one.</p>
<p>“Looks as though we were going to get a shower,”
Jack said a little later as they were eating dinner
close by the shore. “How about it, Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“Heap big rain coming,” the Indian replied, as he
closely scanned the sky. “Be here heap soon, too.”</p>
<p>For some time a dark bank of clouds had been
gathering in the west and even as the Indian spoke
a low rumble of distant thunder was heard.</p>
<p>“Think we’d better wait till it’s over,” Bob asked
him.</p>
<p>“Me think so. It coming heap big.”</p>
<p>“Guess he’s right,” Jack declared, as a louder
rumble reached their ears.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_143">143</div>
<p>“And she’s coming mighty fast,” Bob added.
“We’d better get the things under cover as soon as
we can.”</p>
<p>They quickly carried the canoe well up from the
shore, and turning it over, packed all their provisions
beneath it.</p>
<p>“Here it comes,” Jack cried, as the big drops began
to beat on the bottom of the boat.</p>
<p>Before they could get beneath the boughs of a
spruce tree near by, the drops had changed to hail
stones, many of them the size of a filbert nut.</p>
<p>“Whow! Those fellows sting,” Rex shouted as he
ran for the tree.</p>
<p>“They’re getting the heavy artillery into action up
above,” Jack said, as a sharp flash of lightning followed
by a heavy crash of thunder lighted up the
sky.</p>
<p>Soon the hail changed back to rain, and the water
fell almost in sheets.</p>
<p>“It’s a regular cloud burst,” Bob declared.</p>
<p>“And our roof’s beginning to leak,” Rex laughed,
as a few drops of water found their way down his
back.</p>
<p>“Better speak to the landlord about it,” Jack advised.</p>
<p>Flash! Bang!</p>
<p>“Hit that tree right over there,” Bob said.</p>
<p>Flash! Bang!</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_144">144</div>
<p>“This is getting a bit too close for comfort,” Rex
declared. “Hope it doesn’t pick out our tree for a
target.”</p>
<p>“Look at that buck down by the shore,” Jack cried.
“Isn’t he a beauty?”</p>
<p>“Guess he’s wondering what it’s all about,” Rex
declared.</p>
<p>They had seen so many deer that the appearance
of one, unless a particularly large one, hardly excited
comment.</p>
<p>The storm passed almost as quickly as it had
come up, and in another half hour the sun was
peeping through the clouds.</p>
<p>“Well, I guess the fireworks are over,” Bob said,
as he stepped out from beneath the tree.</p>
<p>White caps were running as they pushed off, and
the spray flew over them as they drove the canoe
through the water.</p>
<p>“Might as well have stayed out in the rain as to
get soaked after it’s all over,” Jack grumbled.</p>
<p>“But this water isn’t so wet,” Bob laughed.
“Guess I’ll have to take that back,” he gasped a moment
later, as the top of a big wave broke and
dumped itself in his lap.</p>
<p>But they were in the river in a few minutes and
here the water was not so rough.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_145">145</div>
<p>“Life sure is getting mighty monotonous,” Jack
declared a couple of hours later. “Not a single adventure
outside of the thunder storm all day.”</p>
<p>“You must want a thrill a minute,” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>“You may have more excitement than you want
before we get back,” Bob reminded him.</p>
<p>The excitement began even sooner than he expected.
It was only a few minutes later, as they
rounded a sharp bend, that they met another canoe
carrying three men. That they were half-breeds
was evident from their swarthy skins, and all three
were much above the average man in size. So sharp
was the bend that the canoes were within a few feet
of each other before the occupants of either were
aware of the others’ presence.</p>
<p>“You try heet us?” the man in the bow shouted
angrily, as Bob dug his paddle in the water and
swung the end of his canoe round just in time to
avoid a collision.</p>
<p>“Certainly not,” he replied pleasantly.</p>
<p>“Eet look ver’ much like eet,” the man growled
as he swung his canoe so as to bring it close to the
other.</p>
<p>“I don’t think so.”</p>
<p>“You mak’ call me liar, oui?”</p>
<p>“No. I’m simply trying to make you understand
that I think you are mistaken.”</p>
<p>“Me non mak’ meestake. Me all der time right.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_146">146</div>
<p>“All right, we’ll let it go at that,” Bob replied,
anxious to avoid a quarrel if possible.</p>
<p>“Whar you go?” the man, who appeared to be the
spokesman of the three, asked.</p>
<p>“Down the river.”</p>
<p>“For why?”</p>
<p>“That’s our business,” Bob replied a bit sharply,
for the man’s attitude was getting on his nerves.</p>
<p>“Mebby we mak’ heem our beesiness, oui?”</p>
<p>“Do as you please about that,” Bob snapped.</p>
<p>For a moment the man made no reply. One of his
companions said something to him in a tone so low
that they were unable to hear. The man scowled
and asked:</p>
<p>“Mebby your name Golden, oui?”</p>
<p>“Mebby,” Bob repeated.</p>
<p>“I thot so. You better turn an’ geet back where
you come from.”</p>
<p>“What for?” Jack asked, before Bob had time to
speak.</p>
<p>“For cause me say so.”</p>
<p>“Afraid you’ll have to give us a better reason than
that,” Bob said, as he shook his head.</p>
<p>“You no go we mak’ you,” the man declared
angrily.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_147">147</div>
<p>It was plain to the boys that the man was a bully
of a type common among the half-breeds of northern
Maine, and they could also see that he was spoiling
for a fight. They well knew that many of them
had rather fight than eat, especially when the odds
were on their side.</p>
<p>“Better beat it,” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>“While the beating’s good, eh?”</p>
<p>“They’re ugly.”</p>
<p>“I know it and I guess your advice is good.”</p>
<p>As he spoke, Bob dug his paddle into the water
and swung the bow of the canoe away from the other.
At the same time, Kernertok, who was in the stern,
sent it ahead. Two of the men in the other canoe
reached out in an effort to grasp hold of it as it shot
past. So violent was their motion that their canoe
narrowly escaped capsizing, and it was only the
expert handling by the one who had done the talking
that prevented it.</p>
<p>“Dig into it, Kernertok,” Bob cried.</p>
<p>“You make um think we scat,” Kernertok replied.
“We go slow.”</p>
<p>“Kernertok’s right, Bob,” Jack broke in. “If they
think we’re afraid of them they’ll be more apt to
follow us.”</p>
<p>“Guess you’re right, but they’re coming anyway,”
Bob said glancing back over his shoulder. “But we
won’t run away from them. They’d probably catch
us if that’s their game.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_148">148</div>
<p>They paddled along at about their usual speed
for a few minutes, when Rex, who happened to be
facing the rear, said:</p>
<p>“They’re not making any effort to catch us.”</p>
<p>“What are they doing?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Just keeping along about the same distance
away.”</p>
<p>“What do you make of it, Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“Them heap bad mans.”</p>
<p>“No doubt about that, but what do you suppose
they want with us?”</p>
<p>“Mebby steal.”</p>
<p>“I say, Bob,” Jack said suddenly, “how do you
suppose that fellow knew your name?”</p>
<p>“Ask me something easy. I never saw the fellow
before, to the best of my knowledge.”</p>
<p>“Well, it seems mighty strange that they should
follow us. Their time can’t be very valuable, or else
they’re up to some kind of a game that we aren’t
in on.”</p>
<p>For some time the two canoes kept nearly the same
distance apart, the half-breeds making no effort to
catch up with them.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_149">149</div>
<h2 id="c9"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER IX.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">BOB MEETS THE ENEMY.</span></h2>
<p>“We’ve got to camp pretty soon,” Bob announced
a little later, as it began to get dark.</p>
<p>“What do you suppose those fellows will do when
we stop?” Rex asked anxiously.</p>
<p>“I reckon they’ll stop too,” Jack replied dryly.</p>
<p>“I don’t like it at all,” Bob shook his head.</p>
<p>“Him heap bad,” Kernertok agreed.</p>
<p>“Well, we might as well land as soon as we come
to a good place,” Bob declared. “They evidently intend
to keep it up.”</p>
<p>“Don’t you think the four of us could handle
them in a rough and tumble?” Rex asked, as they
paddled slowly along close to the shore.</p>
<p>“That all depends,” Bob replied slowly. “So far
as brute strength is concerned any one of them could
probably handle two of us, but as a rule they don’t
know much about either boxing or wrestling.”</p>
<p>“And it’s a mighty good thing they don’t,” Jack
broke in. “If some of those fellows were properly
trained they’d be world beaters.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_150">150</div>
<p>Just as Jack spoke Bob saw a good place to land,
and a moment later the canoe was pulled up on the
bank. When they landed the other canoe was about
a hundred feet behind them, and they all waited
anxiously to see what the half-breeds would do. They
were not left long in doubt, for no sooner did the
men see their intention than they headed for the
same place, and, a few minutes later, landed only
a little distance below.</p>
<p>“Let me do the talking,” Bob said a moment later,
as he saw that they were coming toward them. “And
don’t let them see that we have revolvers, unless I
give the word.”</p>
<p>The man who had done all the talking before was
in the lead, and as soon as he came near enough
for the boys to see his face clearly, it was evident
that his temper had not improved.</p>
<p>“You no go back, non?” he snapped.</p>
<p>“It would be useless to deny it,” Bob answered
with a smile, which seemed to madden the man still
more.</p>
<p>“You know me, oui?” he asked.</p>
<p>Bob looked at the man closely for a full minute
before speaking.</p>
<p>“No. I don’t remember that I ever saw you before
to-day.”</p>
<p>“My name Jacques Harbaugh.”</p>
<p>“Well?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_151">151</div>
<p>“You know mine broder, Pierre, oui.”</p>
<p>It was a statement rather than a question.</p>
<p>“I have met him, yes.”</p>
<p>“And you send heem to jail, you an’ dat oder kid
dar.”</p>
<p>“Not guilty. He went to prison because he was
smuggling whiskey.”</p>
<p>“But you catch heem.”</p>
<p>“I don’t deny that we were instrumental in having
him arrested,” Bob replied firmly.</p>
<p>“An’ you beeg sneak.”</p>
<p>“As you please about that. We all have a right
to our opinion.”</p>
<p>“Me Jacques Harbaugh. Me beeg fighter. No
mans ever leek me.”</p>
<p>“Interesting, if true,” Bob smiled.</p>
<p>“Me geeve you one beeg licking, oui.”</p>
<p>“That’s as may be,” Bob shrugged his shoulders.</p>
<p>“Me show you ver’ queek.”</p>
<p>“One moment,” Bob held up his hand and the
man stopped. “We are all armed and know how to
protect ourselves. But we don’t want any more
trouble than is absolutely necessary. So if you must
have a fight I’ll fight you on the condition that the
others keep hands off. How about it?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_152">152</div>
<p>The big half-breed looked at Bob, as Jack afterward
declared, in much the same way that Goliath
must have looked at David when the latter came out
with his little sling. He stepped back and spoke
with his companions for a moment and Bob could
see that they were laughing as though at a huge
joke.</p>
<p>“All right. We fight. Them no touch.”</p>
<p>“Will they keep their word?” Rex whispered to
Jack.</p>
<p>“No telling.”</p>
<p>“Can Bob handle that big brute?”</p>
<p>“I’ve seen him handle as big a proposition and get
away with it, but you never can tell. If this guy
happens to know much about boxing, it’ll go hard,
but, as he said, not many of them do.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile Bob and the half-breed had been stripping
off their coats.</p>
<p>“Me spoil dat face in one leetle minute,” Jacques
taunted, as he stepped forward.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s all ready for the spoiling,” Bob laughed
in a way that seemed to exasperate the half-breed,
for he suddenly sprang forward and aimed a vicious
blow at Bob’s face.</p>
<p>So sudden was the movement that it all but caught
the boy off his guard and he felt the wind as the
man’s fist shot by within an inch of his nose. The
man recovered his balance before Bob had time to get
in a blow.</p>
<p>“Nearly got me the first time,” he declared with
a smile.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_153">153</div>
<p>“For goodness sake be careful,” Jack cautioned.</p>
<p>He, as well as Bob, knew that should one of those
sledge-hammer blows land where it was aimed the
fight would stop automatically. The continuance depended
on Bob’s ability to dodge them.</p>
<p>But he was on his guard now and Jack knew that
he would not be caught napping a second time. The
man rushed again, almost at once and, from the way
he handled himself, Jack saw that he possessed little
if any knowledge of scientific boxing.</p>
<p>“Bob can handle him all right, barring an accident,”
he whispered to Rex.</p>
<p>This time the man had struck with even more
force than at first, and the momentum carried him off
his balance. Before he could recover, Bob’s right
fist had landed just back of his right ear. A loud
grunt, more of astonishment than of pain, followed
the blow. The bully stepped back a pace and glanced
at his followers as if to ask what it was all about.</p>
<p>“Go on an’ beat heem up,” cried one of them.
“Heem’s only a kid.”</p>
<p>As if ashamed of his indecision the man rushed
back to the attack, and for a time Bob had all he
could to do to protect himself from the avalanche
of blows which were showered at him. The man’s
two arms were working like piston rods, and so rapidly
that the boy had no time to even attempt to get
in a blow.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_154">154</div>
<p>“Hope he won’t be able to keep that up very long,”
Jack whispered. “In that kind of fighting there’s
always a possibility of a blow landing and one of
those punches, if it is struck fair, would pretty near
stop a train of cars.”</p>
<p>“Him not got heap much wind,” Kernertok declared,
as he caught the sound of the man’s quick
breathing.</p>
<p>“Why you no heet heem?” one of the other breeds
shouted.</p>
<p>The man paused an instant.</p>
<p>“Why you no stand still an’ fight?” he sneered.</p>
<p>“This suits me,” Bob laughed. “Remember this
is your fight.”</p>
<p>Again the man rushed and once more he had his
hands full to protect himself. But he knew that the
harder the man worked the sooner would come the
time when he could force the fighting. “Safety first,”
he thought, as he dodged about.</p>
<p>“Bob’s tiring him out,” Jack whispered, as he
listened to the heavy breathing.</p>
<p>But the next second he gave a gasp of fear. In
backing away from a vicious rush Bob’s heel had
struck a root, and before he could recover his balance,
a blow had caught him on the chin and over he
went.</p>
<p>A shout of encouragement came from the two half-breeds.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_155">155</div>
<p>“Bon boy, Jacques! Jump on heem queek. You
got heem.”</p>
<p>But fortunately Bob’s chin had been too far away
to catch more than a small fraction of the force of
the blow, and he was not even dazed. However, the
breed was quick to take advantage of his opportunity,
and before Bob could scramble to his feet he was
upon him.</p>
<p>Bob knew that his only chance now depended on
his ability to prevent the man from getting a hold.
It required quick work, for the breed proved to be
better at wrestling than at boxing. Throwing himself
upon the boy he wrapped his arms about him in
a hold that Bob had all he could do to break. It
was fortunate indeed for him that he knew nearly all
the important holds. Once the man got a grip on
his neck, but it was quickly broken and, exerting all
his strength and skill, Bob managed to roll the man
over until he was on top. In another second he was
on his feet.</p>
<p>“Good boy, Bob!” Jack shouted, jumping about
in his excitement.</p>
<p>“Heap some boy,” Kernertok grunted.</p>
<p>“I’ll say he is,” Rex agreed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_156">156</div>
<p>The breed, angered anew at the failure of his attempt,
got more slowly to his feet, and for a moment
stood scowling at Bob. He was breathing hard, and
it was evident to the boy that he was not in the best
of physical condition. The easy life of the summer
had softened his muscles, and twenty or more pounds
of surplus fat had shortened his wind.</p>
<p>“Me geet you this time,” he shouted, as he started
toward him.</p>
<p>Evidently realizing that he was not in Bob’s class
when it came to boxing, he had decided to change
his tactics and made a lunge at him with outstretched
arms. Bob had little difficulty in eluding the grasp,
and succeeded in placing a stiff punch on his nose.
The breed started back with a grunt of pain and
surprise, as the red blood gushed from his nostrils.</p>
<p>“First blood for Bob!” Jack shouted.</p>
<p>“Me keel you for dat,” the man shouted, now maddened
beyond control.</p>
<p>“Look out for his foot!” Jack shouted.</p>
<p>But Bob was on the watch for just that move, and
as the breed kicked, he stepped back and caught the
foot as it was at its highest point. The man fell on
his back, the wind knocked entirely out of his body.</p>
<p>At that moment one of the other breeds stepped
forward.</p>
<p>“You keep out of this,” Jack said sternly, as he
drew his automatic from his pocket.</p>
<p>On seeing the gun the breed stepped quickly back.</p>
<p>“This was to be a fair fight with no interference,”
Jack told him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_157">157</div>
<p>For a minute or two the fighter lay writhing on
the ground in an effort to regain his breath. As he
struggled to his feet a look of astonishment mingled
with one of fear was on his face. He could not
understand why Bob had not finished him when he
had him helpless.</p>
<p>“Had enough?” Bob asked pleasantly.</p>
<p>The man glanced at his companions and then at
the automatic in Jack’s hand.</p>
<p>“I’ll put the gun back,” Jack said quickly, as he
caught the glance. “There will be no use made of
it so long as your friends play fair.”</p>
<p>“How about it?” Bob asked again.</p>
<p>The man still hesitated.</p>
<p>“Take your time. I’m in no hurry.”</p>
<p>But the fall had knocked the fight as well as the
wind out of the bully, and muttering something
which the boys failed to catch, he slouched off
toward his canoe, followed by the other two.</p>
<p>“Did he hurt you any?” Jack asked anxiously, as
soon as they were out of hearing.</p>
<p>“Nary a scratch,” Bob laughed, as he drew on
his coat.</p>
<p>“Well, you’ve got about the biggest nerve I ever
saw,” Rex declared, as he held out his hand.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_158">158</div>
<p>“It’s not so much nerve as you think,” Bob explained.
“You see, these fellows don’t know how
to use their strength when it comes to fighting along
scientific lines. Most all of them rely entirely on
their strength, and a fellow who knows the rules
can handle them easily enough.”</p>
<p>“It listens good the way you say it,” Rex declared,
shaking his head, “but excuse me, and I know a
little about boxing myself.”</p>
<p>“You could handle one of them,” Bob assured
him, but Rex again shook his head.</p>
<p>“Just the same I hope we’ve seen the last of them,”
he said, as he watched the three men shove off their
canoe and paddle slowly away up the river.</p>
<p>“That is a consummation devoutly to be desired,”
Bob said slowly, “but I’m very much afraid that—”</p>
<p>“That the consummation won’t be consummated,”
Jack interrupted.</p>
<p>“Don’t you know that it is very impolite for small
boys to interrupt their elders,” Bob turned to his
brother with a look of mock severity on his face.
“How many times have I told you that children
should be seen and not heard?”</p>
<p>“You mean you think they’ll come back?” Rex
asked anxiously.</p>
<p>“Mebby,” Bob nodded.</p>
<p>“To-night?”</p>
<p>“Quien Sabe?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_159">159</div>
<p>“Seems to me there are several loose ends to this
problem,” Jack declared some time later, as supper,
having been finished, they sat around the camp fire.</p>
<p>“Meaning?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Well, in the first place we’re not at all sure that
the guy we’re after is within a thousand miles of
here. Then there’s that funny business of the big
tracks, the likes of which no mortal man ever saw
before, and the stealing of the rifle. And now those
breeds are to be reckoned with. The big question is
whether they just happened to meet us or had been
after us.”</p>
<p>“Is that all?” Bob smiled.</p>
<p>“I should think that was enough.”</p>
<p>“Mebby.”</p>
<p>“Mebby what?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Oh, just mebby,” Bob laughed.</p>
<p>“Well, it seems that eternal vigilance is the price
of safety up here on this trip, so I suppose it means
that we keep watch again to-night, eh?” Rex asked,
as he threw more wood on the fire.</p>
<p>“Right you are, son,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>But the night passed without incident, so far as
they were aware. Again they watched by twos, but
in spite of all their care the now familiar tracks
were once more to be seen on the bank of the river
in the morning.</p>
<p>“What-do-you-know-about-that?” Jack asked, as
he gazed at the imprints. “I’d take my oath that
nothing moved round here while I was on watch.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_160">160</div>
<p>“How’s Sicum?” Bob turned to the Indian as he
asked the question.</p>
<p>“Sicum, him big fool dog yet.”</p>
<p>“But he’s getting better, isn’t he?”</p>
<p>“Some, but heap slow.”</p>
<p>“Suppose he’d track that thing?”</p>
<p>Kernertok shook his head: “We try um. Here,
Sicum, you smell um track.”</p>
<p>But the dog only whined, and with his tail between
his legs, slunk away from the tracks.</p>
<p>“Never mind, old fellow. We understand that it
isn’t your fault,” and Bob, kneeling down, took the
dog’s head between his hands and looked into his
eyes.</p>
<p>The dog whined and eagerly licked his hand, as
if fully appreciating the sympathy.</p>
<p>“He’ll come around in time,” Bob assured them.
“Remember, he saved our lives once,” he added with
a glance toward Jack.</p>
<p>“And he deserves our thanks and care if he never
does another thing so long as he lives,” Jack declared,
but Kernertok only shook his head sadly.</p>
<p>It was midafternoon when Rex, who at the time,
was paddling in the bow, lifted his paddle and asked:</p>
<p>“What’s that roaring noise?”</p>
<p>“Him heap big falls,” Kernertok replied.</p>
<p>“Can we shoot them?”</p>
<p>“No. Have mak’ carry.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_161">161</div>
<p>The boys noticed that for some time the current
had been growing swifter as the river narrowed.
The banks on either side were very steep and from
ten to thirty feet high.</p>
<p>“We land right round this curve,” Kernertok told
them, as they approached a sharp bend in the river.
“No other place before falls.”</p>
<p>“Which side?” Rex shouted.</p>
<p>“Right.”</p>
<p>As the canoe swept around the bend it was traveling
at a speed of some fifteen miles or more an hour.
The roar of the falls could now be plainly heard.
Rex caught sight of the landing place, a narrow strip
of sand between two large rocks, and dug his paddle
into the water to turn the bow toward it. How it
happened, he could never tell, but the paddle slipped
from his hands just as he had the canoe headed for
the shore. He made a frantic effort to recover it,
nearly upsetting the boat, but the swift water whirled
it away.</p>
<p>So quickly did it happen that the canoe swung
around parallel with the shore before Jack, who was
in the stern, realized what had happened.</p>
<p>“Dig into her, Jack boy,” Bob shouted.</p>
<p>But even as he spoke they all heard a loud snap
above the rush of the water. Bob turned his head,
his heart in his throat. Jack’s face was as white as
chalk, as he held up the end of the broken paddle.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_162">162</div>
<p>“God help us!” Bob groaned.</p>
<p>The canoe was nearly in the middle of the stream,
which at this point is about sixty feet wide, and
now was rushing with the speed of a race horse
toward the falls, not more than a hundred rods
away.</p>
<p>“Shall we try to swim it?” Rex shouted in a voice
which was strangely calm.</p>
<p>“No can do,” Kernertok shouted back.</p>
<p>The boys realized the truth of the statement, as
they glanced down at the swirling water.</p>
<p>“I wonder if this is the end,” Bob thought, as he
gripped the sides of the canoe.</p>
<p>“Do we have a chance, Kernertok?” Jack shouted.</p>
<p>“God know,” the old Indian answered, so low that
only Bob caught the words.</p>
<p>“Cling on tight,” Bob shouted, as the bow seemed
to pause on the very brink of the falls where the
water fell to the pool some twelve feet below.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_163">163</div>
<p>So rapidly were they moving that the canoe seemed
fairly to shoot off the top of the falls before it fell.
Then down it dropped like a stone. As the canoe
hit the water, Bob, who was sitting in the middle,
tried to keep it on an even keel, but the weight carried
it beneath the surface. As the water closed over
his head he kicked himself free and struck out. But
some unseen force seemed to be pulling him down.
Struggle as he might, it seemed impossible to shake
off the grip of the whirlpool. But with dogged determination
he fought and finally, just as it seemed
as though his lungs seemed on the point of bursting,
his head emerged from the water. Shaking the
water from his eyes he glanced about him. He was
only a few feet from the rocky shore, and in another
minute his feet touched bottom. He was safe,
but where were the others?</p>
<p>He stood waist deep in the water gazing over the
surface of the pool. Was that a head over there
close under the falls? As he watched the object
moved slowly and soon the form of the Indian rose
from the water.</p>
<p>“Me on heap big rock,” he shouted as he caught
sight of Bob.</p>
<p>“Where’s Jack and Rex?” Bob shouted back.</p>
<p>“Me no see um.”</p>
<p>“I’m all right,” a voice shouted from the opposite
side.</p>
<p>It was Rex, and he waved his arms as he caught
sight of Bob.</p>
<p>“Seen Jack?” Bob shouted at the top of his voice.</p>
<p>“No; haven’t you?”</p>
<p>Before Bob could answer Kernertok pointed
down the stream. Bob followed his gesture and
saw, some twenty feet from where he was standing,
a small object moving slowly through the water.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_164">164</div>
<p>“It’s Sicum,” he shouted.</p>
<p>“Him got something in him mouth,” Kernertok
cried, still pointing.</p>
<p>Bob could see that the dog was tugging at something,
and he quickly waded down to meet him.</p>
<p>“He’s got Jack,” he gasped as he reached the
struggling dog.</p>
<p>Bob saw at once that his brother was unconscious,
and fear that he might be dead gripped his heart
as he laid him tenderly down on the sand. Blood
was oozing from a cut at the back of the head, and
Bob shuddered as he knelt and placed his ear over
the heart.</p>
<p>“Don’t tell me that he’s dead,” Rex, who had
crossed over some rocks a short distance below the
falls, cried as he came running up.</p>
<p>“I—I can’t feel his heart beat,” Bob groaned, as
he turned the boy over onto his stomach.</p>
<p>“Him hurt heap bad?” Kernertok panted, as he
joined them.</p>
<p>“I’m afraid so,” Bob replied, as he placed his
hands beneath Jack’s body and slowly raised him
up.</p>
<p>A quantity of water ran from the boy’s mouth,
and Bob repeated the movement as long as there
was any result. Then turning him onto his back he
said, “Now we’ll have to try artificial respiration. If
we only had a pulmotor.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_165">165</div>
<p>Slowly he raised and lowered his arms, but the
boy lay as dead. Rex and Kernertok stood with
bowed heads, watching for the first sign of returning
life.</p>
<p>“Come, Jack boy, you must come,” Bob repeated
over and over again, as he continued the movement.</p>
<p>His heart began to grow faint when fully half an
hour had passed, and still the boy gave no sign of
life.</p>
<p>“I won’t give up,” Bob declared over and over,
as he redoubled his efforts. “God won’t let him die.”</p>
<p>Rex had several times tried to make Bob let him
relieve him, but he steadily refused and he could only
kneel by his side and watch his face and pray.</p>
<p>“He’s coming, Bob,” he whispered suddenly, as he
noticed a faint tinge of color in the boy’s cheeks.
“Easy now.”</p>
<p>Rex placed his ear on Jack’s breast.</p>
<p>“He’s breathing,” he announced, as he raised his
head.</p>
<p>“Thank God,” Bob cried, as he began the movements
again. “Where’s Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know. Haven’t seen him for some time,
but I didn’t notice it.”</p>
<p>“It’s funny where he’s gone.”</p>
<p>The color in Jack’s cheeks slowly increased, and
his breathing became deeper and more regular. Soon
his eyes opened and he groaned.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_166">166</div>
<p>“Jack boy,” Bob cried.</p>
<p>“Bob.”</p>
<p>The whisper was so faint that Bob hardly heard
it, but never had any sound seemed sweeter.</p>
<p>At that moment Kernertok emerged from the deep
woods behind them. He was rubbing something in
his hands as he ran towards them.</p>
<p>“Him heap better?”</p>
<p>“Yes, thank God, he’s come to,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>“Heap good,” the Indian bowed his head and the
boys saw his lips move.</p>
<p>Soon Jack again opened his eyes and smiled as
he glanced about him.</p>
<p>“White boy chew,” Kernertok ordered, as he knelt
beside him and forced something between his teeth.
“Injun had heap big hunt before find it,” he said,
looking up at Bob.</p>
<p>At first Jack’s jaws moved but slowly, but as his
strength began to return, he chewed faster.</p>
<p>“That heap good,” the Indian declared, as he put
more of the crushed leaves in the boy’s mouth.</p>
<p>Rex was astonished at the rapidity of Jack’s recovery,
but Bob, who knew something of the medicine
which Kernertok had found, took it more as a
matter of course. It was not long before Jack was
able to sit up.</p>
<p>“How’d I get out?” he asked.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_167">167</div>
<p>“If it hadn’t been for Sicum—” Bob began, but
Rex interrupted him.</p>
<p>“Look at the dog,” he cried.</p>
<p>Sicum stood a few feet away wagging his tail
violently, a thing he had not done since he had been
beaten. It was the first time Bob had thought of
the dog, and now he sprang toward him, and taking
his shaggy head in his arms, he hugged him to
his breast. Sicum accepted the caress with a low
whine.</p>
<p>“Good old boy,” Bob whispered. “If it hadn’t
been for you Jack would have been a goner for sure
that time.”</p>
<p>Sicum wagged his tail as much as to say he understood.</p>
<p>Jack’s recovery was rapid, and they found that
the cut on his head was slight, although it bled freely
for a time.</p>
<p>“I remember feeling a bang on the back of my
head just after I went under, and that was the last
I knew until I saw you bending over me,” Jack told
them. “But who pulled me out?”</p>
<p>“Your rescuer is standing there wagging his tail,”
Bob told him, pointing to the dog.</p>
<p>“You mean he pulled me out?”</p>
<p>“Just that.”</p>
<p>“And in saving your life, I really believe he has
gotten back his old self again,” Rex added.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_168">168</div>
<p>“Jimminy crickets, but I’ll bet you’re right,” Jack
declared. “Just look at him.”</p>
<p>It was a fact that the dog had lost all sign of his
recent behavior, and as Jack spoke to him he bounded
to him and nearly knocked him over in his eagerness.</p>
<p>“Good old fellow,” Jack said, as he patted his
head. “Perhaps I’ll be able to return the compliment
some day.”</p>
<p>“Wonder what’s become of the canoe,” Rex said.</p>
<p>“That’s so; first I’ve thought of it,” Bob added.</p>
<p>They all looked about the pool beneath the falls,
but no canoe in sight.</p>
<p>“Would it stay down?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Not likely,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>“Her no stay down, no get caught on rock,” Kernertok
confirmed Bob’s opinion.</p>
<p>“What’s that sticking up just around that point?”
Rex asked, pointing to a place a little below them,
where a point of land jutted out into the stream.</p>
<p>“Wait a minute and I’ll see,” Bob said, as he
started toward the point.</p>
<p>“Here she is—what is left of her,” he shouted a
moment later.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_169">169</div>
<p>All except Jack, who was still too weak to move
around much, hurried to the place. It was evident
that the canoe, having risen to the surface, had been
carried down until, caught in the little eddy, it had
been whirled onto a sharp pointed rock, which had
pierced the bottom near the bow. It was out several
feet from the shore.</p>
<p>“Just a minute and I’ll have her in,” Bob said, as
he waded out into the stream.</p>
<p>“I don’t think she’s damaged so much after all,”
he said, as he pulled it up onto the shore. “But
every bit of our stuff is gone.”</p>
<p>“That heap bad,” Kernertok shook his head sadly.</p>
<p>“I’ll say it is,” Bob agreed. “Here we are, miles
from nowhere and nothing to eat. Oh, we won’t
starve,” he added quickly, as he saw the look of
alarm on Rex’s face.</p>
<p>“Suppose we look around and see if we can’t find
some of the stuff,” the latter proposed.</p>
<p>“Afraid it’s not much use, but we’ll try.”</p>
<p>But although they hunted for some distance down
the stream on both banks, they found nothing.</p>
<p>“That whirlpool at the foot of the falls has probably
held it down as I thought,” Bob said ruefully.
“I suppose it was knocked out of the canoe when
it struck. If it hadn’t been it might have held the
canoe down too.”</p>
<p>“No loss without some gain,” Rex declared, trying
to speak cheerfully.</p>
<p>They lifted the canoe from the water and carried
it back to where they had left Jack.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_170">170</div>
<p>“Guess you’ll get a taste of real roughing it,” Bob
said to Rex, as they placed the canoe on the ground
bottom up.</p>
<p>“Reckon I can stand it if the rest of you can,”
Rex smiled.</p>
<p>“You’re game all right,” Bob assured him.</p>
<p>“Let’s take an account of stock and see what we’ve
got,” Jack proposed.</p>
<p>“That heap good,” Kernertok nodded his head.
“Mebby we got much, mebby not.”</p>
<p>“I’m afraid the mebby not has it,” Bob said a moment
later, after they had all searched through their
pockets. “Still it might be worse.”</p>
<p>Each of them had a jack knife and Kernertok a
small hatchet, which he usually carried strapped in
his belt. The boys had their automatics, but all the
ammunition save what was in the guns was lost.
Bob had a water-proof match-safe containing a dozen
matches and Jack found a short fish line and three
hooks. That was all that they felt would be of
any help to them.</p>
<p>“Well, if Jack Knowles could live six weeks in
the Maine woods with absolutely nothing but his
bare hands to depend on, I reckon we’ll make out,”
Bob declared optimistically.</p>
<p>“It’s a cinch,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>“Whatever you say goes here,” Rex added.</p>
<p>It was decided that Kernertok should set to work
at once repairing the canoe.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_171">171</div>
<p>“How about paddles?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Injun make um,” Kernertok assured him.</p>
<p>“It looks as though there might be some raspberries
over there on the other side,” Bob pointed
to a small clump of bushes a short distance back from
the edge of the river. “If you’ll make a birch bark
basket and see if you can find any I’ll see what I
can do with this fish line.”</p>
<p>“Righto.”</p>
<p>“And what am I to do?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“You lay right where you are for the present,”
Bob commanded.</p>
<p>In spite of his protests that he was all right,
neither Bob or Rex would hear to his attempting to
do any work, and after some argument he agreed
to wait till he was stronger.</p>
<p>“It’s all bosh though,” he growled, as he leaned
back against a tree and threw his arms about Sicum.</p>
<p>Rex went off in search of a birch tree and Bob
after cutting a stout alder pole and fastening the line
to it, began to dig under a stone, which he turned
over, for angle worms. He had nothing but a stick
with which to dig and the worms were, as he told
himself, scarcer than hens’ teeth. But after nearly
a half hour of persistent work he succeeded in getting
six small worms.</p>
<p>“Be careful of that line,” Jack cautioned him.
“A whole lot depends on it.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_172">172</div>
<p>“Don’t I know it,” he grinned, as he started off
down the river.</p>
<p>He soon reached a promising looking place and,
scrambling on to a large rock, he carefully lowered
the hook into the water.</p>
<p>“Hope I don’t hook onto one of Jack’s whales,”
he thought. “I’m afraid it would be good-bye line.”</p>
<p>Just then a sharp tug informed him that he had
hooked onto something, and he pulled out a trout
weighing a little over a pound. Each of the six
worms served as well as the first, and in a few minutes
he started back with six fish, all about the same
size.</p>
<p>“We won’t go to bed hungry to-night at any rate,”
he told Jack, as he held up the trout for his inspection.
“Although,” he added, “our bill of fare will be pretty
limited.”</p>
<p>“Reckon we can stand it,” Jack assured him.</p>
<p>Neither of the others had returned and Bob started
to clean the fish. Kernertok returned just as he had
finished, carrying birch bark and pitch, and a little
later Rex came with nearly two quarts of large raspberries.</p>
<p>“Glad you didn’t get lost, old man,” Bob told
him.</p>
<p>“You bet, I kept my eye on that tall tree there,”
Rex laughed. “I see you got some fish.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_173">173</div>
<p>“Fish and raspberries for supper to-night,” Bob
said.</p>
<p>“And enough is as good as a feast,” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to be mighty sparing of these
matches,” Bob said, as he gathered some dry leaves
for a fire.</p>
<p>“How are you going to cook without anything to
cook with?” Rex asked, after Bob had the fire going.</p>
<p>“If all our problems were as easy as that, I
wouldn’t worry a bit,” he replied, piling on more
wood. “One thing we aren’t short of and that’s
wood.”</p>
<p>Bob found a place near the falls where there was
a small amount of clay, and he soon had enough for
his purpose.</p>
<p>“Going to make mud pies?” Rex laughed, as he
saw him mixing the clay with water.</p>
<p>“Just that,” Bob laughed, as he smeared the clay
over the fish until each one was incased in the mud.
“We’re going to have trout served a la mud,” he
declared.</p>
<p>Waiting until the fire had burned to a good bed
of coals he dug a hole in the very center of them
and buried the fish in it.</p>
<p>“I’m afraid they won’t be very good though without
salt,” Bob said ruefully, as he raked away the
coals a little later.</p>
<p>“Injun got salt.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_174">174</div>
<p>“You have?”</p>
<p>“Injun never go way in big woods no salt,” and
he took from his pocket a small water-tight box.
“Get long no have most anything, no get long no
salt.”</p>
<p>“You’re right there,” Rex agreed. “Most things
taste pretty flat without salt.”</p>
<p>By the time supper was ready Kernertok had the
hole in the canoe repaired.</p>
<p>“Your mud pies are a great success, Bob,” Rex declared,
after he had taken his first taste of the trout.
“I never tasted anything quite so good as these.”</p>
<p>“Hope you won’t get sick of them before we get
out of the woods.”</p>
<p>As soon as he had eaten Kernertok announced that
he was going to find material out of which he could
make paddles.</p>
<p>“There’s no great loss without some gain,” Bob
declared, after the Indian had gone.</p>
<p>“What’s the gain?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Bet I can guess,” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>“Give you two guesses.”</p>
<p>“Only need one. There are no dishes to wash.”</p>
<p>“Right the first time.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_175">175</div>
<h2 id="c10"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER X.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">KERNERTOK GETS HIS.</span></h2>
<p>“Well, I suppose this means the end of this expedition.”
Kernertok had not returned and the boys
were sitting around the fire.</p>
<p>“What do you mean, end of the expedition?” Bob
asked.</p>
<p>“Why, we’ll have to turn back now, won’t we?”
Rex asked, with a note of sorrow in his voice.</p>
<p>“Turn back nothing. Have you any idea how long
it would take us to paddle back up that river?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t think of that. I suppose it would take
us longer to go back than it did to come down.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say it would,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“What’ll we do then?”</p>
<p>“Unless I’m mistaken, that lake we’re after is not
very far from here, and believe me, we’re going to
make it if it’s a possible thing, after coming this far.
If he’s there he’ll probably have a good stock of provisions
and trout and raspberries will get kinder monotonous
after a few meals.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_176">176</div>
<p>“I sure hope we’ve shaken off that lalapaloosla,”
Jack said. “Sure and we’ve got trouble enough without
that to help it along.”</p>
<p>“Perhaps we can track it if it comes around again,
now that Sicum has got his nerve back,” Rex suggested.</p>
<p>“Mebby,” Bob agreed.</p>
<p>“Do you know it’s the strangest thing about that
dog,” Rex said thoughtfully. “Do you suppose that
plunge in the water made him forget all about his
trouble?”</p>
<p>“Possibly he had gotten the idea in his head that
he was old and of no more use and then when he
pulled me out it convinced him that he had been
mistaken and was as good as ever, all his old spunk
returned.”</p>
<p>Just then Kernertok returned, carrying on his
shoulder a small spruce tree about ten feet long and
four inches through at the larger end.</p>
<p>“No could find cedar,” he said, as he threw the
trunk down on the ground. “But spruce she do heap
well.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_177">177</div>
<p>It was nearly dark, but the fire, which they kept
burning brightly, gave a good light and he began
work at once hewing out the paddles. Fortunately
the little hatchet was sharp, but even so, it was slow
work. It was late when at last he pronounced them
finished. They were rough, to be sure, but Rex was
amazed that they could be made so well with only
a knife and a hatchet as tools.</p>
<p>“There’s not much outside of the canoe to watch
to-night,” Bob said, after he had praised Kernertok’s
skill.</p>
<p>“But that’s a very important article just now,”
Jack asserted.</p>
<p>“Sicum him keep watch now him all right.” Kernertok
was very positive in his statement.</p>
<p>“Then to make things doubly safe, I move that
we make our beds two on each side of the canoe,”
Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“Heap good think,” Kernertok grunted.</p>
<p>“Hope the weather stays warm till we get out,”
Bob said. “If it should turn cold it would be mighty
uncomfortable without blankets, and we’d better
make the beds as close to the fire as possible, because
it’s not going to be very hot round the edges along
toward morning.”</p>
<p>It was nearly twelve o’clock by Rex’s watch,
which, as it had a water-proof case, had not stopped,
before they were ready for bed.</p>
<p>“It’s a mighty lucky thing that we went over in
time to get our clothes dry before night,” Jack declared,
as he stretched himself out on his bed of
fragrant spruce boughs.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_178">178</div>
<p>Bob and Rex had dragged onto the fire two good
sized logs which they had found near the bank of
the river, and Bob declared that they ought to keep
it going until morning.</p>
<p>It was still dark when a low growl from the dog
made Bob start up wide awake. He could see Sicum
by the light of the fire, which still burned, standing
a few feet away.</p>
<p>“What is it, boy?” he whispered.</p>
<p>The dog gave another low growl and Bob could
see that the hair on his back was bristled. Just then
Kernertok, who was on the same side of the canoe,
awoke.</p>
<p>“Sicum hears something,” Bob whispered.</p>
<p>The dog paced back and forth, giving vent to low
rumbling growls from time to time.</p>
<p>“White boy stay here, watch; Injun go see,” Kernertok
whispered, and in another minute without
making the slightest sound he was gone.</p>
<p>“Here Sicum,” Bob ordered in a low whisper.</p>
<p>The dog somewhat reluctantly came to his side.</p>
<p>“You stay right here. Remember what happened
the last time you left camp alone.”</p>
<p>Bob strained his ears to listen, but except for the
roaring of the water as it rushed over the falls, he
could hear nothing. He had no way of telling the
time, but it seemed to him a long time since the Indian
had left, when he noticed that the east was beginning
to lighten.</p>
<p>“Wonder why he doesn’t come,” he thought.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_179">179</div>
<p>Soon it was daylight and Kernertok had not returned.
He waited until he judged that another hour
had passed and then woke Rex, but was careful not
to disturb his brother.</p>
<p>“He needs all the rest he can get,” he told himself.</p>
<p>“S——h; don’t wake Jack,” he whispered, as he
placed his hand on Rex’s arm. “Come over here a
bit.”</p>
<p>As soon as they were far enough away so that
they could talk without disturbing the sleeping boy,
Bob told him what had happened.</p>
<p>“I can’t imagine what can be keeping him,” he
finished.</p>
<p>“How long did you say he had been gone?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t say, but I should say not less than four
hours. You know my watch isn’t going, so I had
to guess at the time.”</p>
<p>“Sicum seems mighty uneasy.”</p>
<p>“He knows something’s wrong.”</p>
<p>The dog whined and showed an increasing disposition
to take to the woods, but Bob restrained
him with a word of command.</p>
<p>“If you’ll get some more of those berries, I’ll hook
a few more trout, and if he doesn’t come by the time
we’ve had breakfast we’ll have to go after him.”</p>
<p>They called Jack as soon as breakfast was ready.</p>
<p>“What’s the big idea?” he asked, sitting up and
rubbing his eyes.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_180">180</div>
<p>“We thought you needed to sleep,” Rex replied.</p>
<p>“Well, I want it distinctly understood from now
on that I’m no invalid and don’t want to be treated
like one. Where’s Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“I wish we knew,” Bob replied, and then told him
of the happening in the night.</p>
<p>“Did you look to see if there are any more of
those tracks?”</p>
<p>“No; I never thought of it to tell the truth.”</p>
<p>“Then let’s go see.”</p>
<p>As they reached the sandy spot, there, close to the
water’s edge, were three of the imprints.</p>
<p>“Just as I expected,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“Well, let’s get breakfast over with and if he
hasn’t shown up by that time we’ll start out after
him,” Bob said, as he turned back.</p>
<p>Breakfast was quickly cooked and eaten. Still
there was no sign of the Indian.</p>
<p>“Suppose he has got lost!” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Kernertok lost! You couldn’t lose that Indian
in the State of Maine if you should blindfold him,
let me tell you that,” Jack replied.</p>
<p>“Jack’s right about that,” Bob declared. “Kernertok
knows the country up this way about as well
as any man living, I reckon. No; it’s not a question
of him being lost.”</p>
<p>“What then?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_181">181</div>
<p>“That’s it. What then?” Bob repeated. “But
come on, let’s not lose any time. Here Sicum.”</p>
<p>After some argument and a good deal of objection
on the part of Jack, who insisted that he was as
strong as ever, it was decided that Bob and Rex
should take up the search while Jack remained to
guard the canoe.</p>
<p>“Now don’t you go too fast, boy,” Bob said to
the dog, as he told him to go find Injun.</p>
<p>Sicum started off with a yelp of joy, and in spite
of Bob’s warning, they had hard work to keep him
in sight or hearing.</p>
<p>“Wish I’d had a leash to put on him,” Bob panted,
as he called the dog back for the twentieth time.</p>
<p>Their course led them straight back from the river
into the forest, and before they had gone far the
ground began to rise, and the going became more
and more difficult as they advanced.</p>
<p>“Does this hill have any top, I wonder?” Rex
panted, as he pulled himself up by a bush. “I really
believe we’ll be up in the clouds before long if we
keep on going.”</p>
<p>It was nearly two hours since they had left Jack,
and they were still climbing, when they heard the
dog a few yards ahead give voice to a bark which
Bob was quick to interpret.</p>
<p>“He’s found him,” he cried, as he hurried on closely
followed by Rex.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_182">182</div>
<p>A moment later they reached the spot where the
dog was jumping frantically about, and, for the moment,
they could scarcely believe their eyes. There,
securely tied to a small spruce tree was the Indian.
Over his head was a meal sack.</p>
<p>“Of all things!” Bob gasped, as he sprang forward.
“Kernertok!”</p>
<p>But the old man made no reply, and Bob’s heart
nearly stopped beating, as the fear came to him that
his old friend was past help.</p>
<p>In an instant he had snatched the bag from his
head. The old man’s eyes were closed and his head
drooped low on his chest. Anxiously Bob placed his
ear over his heart. To his joy he could hear the
heart beats steady and fairly strong.</p>
<p>“He must have fainted,” he told Rex. “Here, you
hold him, while I cut the ropes.”</p>
<p>In another moment the old Indian was lying on the
ground, while Bob and Rex chafed his wrists. Presently
his eyes opened.</p>
<p>“Don’t talk,” Bob cautioned. “Just lie still and
rest. You’ll be all right in a minute.”</p>
<p>“Back heap sore,” he groaned.</p>
<p>They carefully turned him over onto his side and
pulled up his shirt.</p>
<p>“Well-what-do-you-know-about-that?” Rex
gasped.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_183">183</div>
<p>“I know that whoever did it is going to settle accounts
with me if I ever find him out,” Bob said and
a look into his eyes told Rex that he was uttering no
idle threat.</p>
<p>Criscrossed on the old man’s back were many
broad whelts, evidently made by a heavy piece of
rope.</p>
<p>“Oh, the brutes,” Bob groaned, as he carefully
turned the Indian back. “Who did it, Kernertok?”</p>
<p>“Injun no know. No see um.”</p>
<p>“You mean that you didn’t see anybody?”</p>
<p>“No see um.”</p>
<p>“But what happened?”</p>
<p>“Injun walk along, him heap dark. No see um, no
hear um. Bag drop on head. Two three men jump
on Injun. No chance fight, heap too many.”</p>
<p>“But did they keep the bag on your head while
they beat you?”</p>
<p>“No take bag off. Beat heap lot, then bang on
head an’ no more.”</p>
<p>“I should say you did get a bang on the head,”
Bob declared, as he felt a big lump on the back of the
old man’s skull. “If I ever find out who did it I’ll,
well he’d better look sharp, that’s all.”</p>
<p>After resting for about a half hour Kernertok
declared that he was able to start back.</p>
<p>“Now you take it easy,” Bob cautioned him. “Remember,
you are not as young as you were once.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_184">184</div>
<p>“Injun heap tough,” the old man grunted. “Take
heap lot to kill him.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say it will,” Rex laughed.</p>
<p>Rex was astonished at the quick recovery of the
old man and at his endurance. Indeed he was panting,
when about an hour and a half later they got
back to where Jack was waiting for them. The latter
was overjoyed to see his old friend safe once
more and was loud in his expression of indignation,
as Bob told him what had happened.</p>
<p>“We’ll get those brutes sometime,” he declared,
“and when we do, look out.”</p>
<p>While they had been away Jack had caught a good
mess of trout and had picked several quarts of raspberries,
so it took them but a short time to prepare
dinner.</p>
<p>“Hadn’t we better rest the remainder of the day
and start out good and early in the morning?” Bob
asked Kernertok.</p>
<p>“We go now,” the Indian replied. “Injun all
right. It only twenty mile more more down river,
then twelve mile through woods to little lake.”</p>
<p>“All right, you’re the doctor,” Bob said.</p>
<p>“We’re sure traveling light, all right,” Rex
laughed as they shoved off.</p>
<p>“Light is right,” Jack agreed. “A little too light
for comfort. Hope we strike some grub soon.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_185">185</div>
<p>For the remainder of the distance down the
stream the current was rapid, and they made splendid
time. It was only a little after two o’clock
when the Indian guided the canoe to a sandy spot
and informed them that they were at the end of their
trip, so far as travel by water was concerned.</p>
<p>“We better hide the canoe in a safe place,” Bob
declared, as he stepped onto the shore.</p>
<p>“You bet,” Jack agreed. “We don’t want to
come back here and find it gone. We sure would
be in a pickle then.”</p>
<p>“We find um good place hide him,” Kernertok
assured them.</p>
<p>Bob and Rex insisted on carrying the canoe, although
Jack declared that he was getting tired of
being treated like a baby and Kernertok insisted
that he was all right.</p>
<p>“Injun heap tough,” he said several times, but
the boys would not give in to him.</p>
<p>So with the Indian leading the way, they plunged
at once into the dense forest of spruce and pine.
For fully a quarter of a mile they carried the canoe
before they found a hiding place which satisfied
them. A thick clump of cedars, growing so closely
together that it was impossible to see more than a
few feet into it, offered what seemed to all of them,
a secure place.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_186">186</div>
<p>Using the utmost care to break no branches, they
dragged the canoe into the center of the clump.
After they emerged, Kernertok carefully removed
all traces of their presence.</p>
<p>“Nobody find um now,” the Indian assured them,
as he looked toward the cedars.</p>
<p>“I’ll say they won’t,” Rex declared. “But are
you sure that we can find it again?”</p>
<p>“Trust Kernertok for that,” Bob reassured him.</p>
<p>Their way led through a forest more dense than
Rex ever seen. The immense pines and spruce grew
so closely together that at times it was only with
great difficulty that they were able to make their
way.</p>
<p>“I should think that there was lumber enough
around here to supply the world for the next thousand
years,” Rex declared, as they stopped for a
short rest.</p>
<p>“There won’t be any great shortage for the next
few years at any rate, I reckon,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>“Is this what you call virgin forest?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“How about it, Kernertok? Ever been any lumbering
here?” Bob turned to the Indian.</p>
<p>Kernertok shook his head.</p>
<p>“No think so. Injun no remember it.”</p>
<p>After they had been walking about two hours
the ground began to rise and the boys noticed that
the trees were a little farther apart.</p>
<p>“How high is this hill, Kernertok?” Jack panted,
after they had been climbing for some time.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_187">187</div>
<p>“Him big hill, heap high.”</p>
<p>“Is the lake on the other side of it?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Lake on top, ’bout two three mile long.”</p>
<p>“How big is it?”</p>
<p>“Him no heap big. Mebby one mile long.”</p>
<p>As they neared the top their way became more
and more steep, as the trees gave way to large rocks
and cliffs, many of them so steep that they were
obliged to make long detours to get around them.</p>
<p>“I’d call this a big hill,” Jack panted, as he pulled
himself up by a bush.</p>
<p>“More like a mountain,” Rex declared.</p>
<p>“We near top now. Better keep heap still,” Kernertok
cautioned.</p>
<p>“Mum’s the word,” Bob whispered.</p>
<p>There was no more talking as they struggled upward,
now clinging to friendly bushes and then
creeping carefully around an immense rock. Finally
they reached a small plateau only a short distance
from the summit, and here Kernertok advised
that they eat their supper and wait until after dark
before going farther.</p>
<p>“No want man see us first,” he said.</p>
<p>“Righto,” Bob agreed.</p>
<p>Eating supper was a very simple affair, as they
had only fish and raspberries left from dinner.</p>
<p>“The larder’s pretty near the vanishing point,”
Jack groaned.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_188">188</div>
<p>“Well, I guess we can catch some more fish in
that lake, but I don’t think we’ll be able to find any
berries up here,” Bob declared.</p>
<p>The sun was sinking like a big ball of fire in the
west as they ate, and soon the shades of night began
to steal over the forest, while a new moon gave
promise of a small amount of light. They had not
heard a sound since stopping, save the gentle rustle
of the wind, as it swept through the branches of
a tall pine which grew a little to their right.</p>
<p>“We go now, heap still,” Kernertok announced
about eight o’clock.</p>
<p>On the mountain top the moon gave sufficient
light to enable them to see for some distance, and
they were only a few minutes in reaching the top.</p>
<p>Rex happened to be next to the Indian and suddenly
he started with a gasp of surprise.</p>
<p>“It’s fairyland.”</p>
<p>“You’re not far off,” Bob whispered, as he seized
his friend by the arm. “Did you ever see anything
more beautiful?”</p>
<p>There in a hollow, seemingly about twenty feet
from where they stood, lay the lake. It was nearly
circular in shape and bordered by a fringe of trees,
and at that moment the moon shed a silvery pathway
directly across the center.</p>
<p>For some minutes not another word was spoken
as they looked on the scene.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_189">189</div>
<p>“I’m afraid it’ll vanish if I speak,” Jack finally
whispered.</p>
<p>At that moment Rex caught his arm in a firm
grip.</p>
<p>“Look.”</p>
<p>Jack drew in his breath sharply, as he gazed out
over the little sheet of water.</p>
<p>“What is it?” he asked.</p>
<p>It was no wonder that he asked the question, for
out there seemingly floating in the air about three
feet above the surface of the lake was the dim outline
of a canoe, and in it was a figure in white, lazily
wielding a paddle. The light was not sufficient to
afford them more than a hazy outline of the strange
craft and its ghostly occupant, and soon it passed
out of the moon’s path and vanished in the shadow
of the tall pines at the edge of the water.</p>
<p>“White Flower,” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>“White Flower your eye,” Bob mocked. “I’ll
bet a thirty-eight would make short work of that
ghost.”</p>
<p>Rex looked anxiously at Kernertok to see how he
took the vision, and was relieved to note that there
was an expression of contempt on the old man’s
face.</p>
<p>“But that canoe was floating above the water,”
Jack insisted.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_190">190</div>
<p>“Seemed to be, you mean,” Bob replied. “Refraction
of light could cause that.”</p>
<p>“I suppose so, but, believe me, it looked spooky,
all right.”</p>
<p>“And no doubt that’s just the effect whoever’s doing
it wanted to produce.”</p>
<p>“Well, I congratulate him on his success,” Jack
laughed. “He’s sure got the goods, all right, when
it comes to effects.”</p>
<p>“What’ll we do, Kernertok?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“We go round where white canoe went. Go
heap easy.”</p>
<p>The point where the canoe had vanished was
about half way to the other side of the lake from
where they were standing. They started, Kernertok
leading the way, and had gone perhaps a little over
a mile when he stopped.</p>
<p>“White boys stay here, Injun go see what to see,”
he whispered.</p>
<p>“Look out you don’t get another crack on the
head,” Bob cautioned.</p>
<p>“Injun look heap sharp,” he grunted, as he disappeared
in the darkness, which, now as the moon
had set, was intense.</p>
<p>“That guy in that canoe was never John Stebbins,”
Rex whispered, as they stretched out close
together beneath a large spruce.</p>
<p>“What makes you think so?” Jack asked.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_191">191</div>
<p>“Because he hasn’t got enough originality in his
makeup to plan a thing like that. He’s the most
prosaic fellow you ever saw. Steady and all that,
but I don’t believe he ever doped out a scheme of
any kind in his life. It simply isn’t in his make-up.”</p>
<p>“And yet he got all that money,” Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“I know, but I’ll bet my hat that some one else
planned it.”</p>
<p>“Any idea who?”</p>
<p>“Nary an idea, but it must have been some one
besides him. You’d say the same thing if you knew
him as I do.”</p>
<p>“Still waters run deep,” Jack reminded him.</p>
<p>“Not always,” Rex declared. “Stebbins was still
enough, goodness knows, but he absolutely was not
deep.”</p>
<p>“Well there’s some one connected with this affair
who’s deep enough,” Bob said. “You know as well
as I that somebody has been trying to scare us away
from here. There’s that arrow and those tracks.
It’s mighty lucky for us that Kernertok knows
enough to be above superstition. I’ll bet there’s not
another Indian in the state that wouldn’t have turned
back long ago.”</p>
<p>“I dare say you’re right,” Rex agreed. “But I
still insist that John Stebbins is not the one who is
managing the fracas.”</p>
<p>“I wonder,” Bob mused.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_192">192</div>
<p>“That idea’s been in the back of my mind ever
since he skipped,” Rex continued. “I’d have banked
on his honesty and I know that Father felt the same
way about him.”</p>
<p>“Well, if we have any luck and if he’s up here
we ought to clear the mystery up pretty soon or—”</p>
<p>“Or go hungry,” Jack interrupted.</p>
<p>“You said it,” Bob added.</p>
<p>“It’s about time Kernertok was getting back, I
should think,” Jack said a little later.</p>
<p>“Hope he hasn’t gotten into trouble again,” Rex
declared.</p>
<p>“I don’t think he has,” Bob assured him. “He
got caught once and he won’t be likely to let ’em
put it over on him a second time.”</p>
<p>As if in confirmation of Bob’s words the Indian,
without making a sound, was at their side.</p>
<p>“What did you find?” Bob asked in a whisper.</p>
<p>“Little log cabin close to lake ’bout three four
hundred feet away. Injun creep up close. No hear
sound. Injun wait close under window. Pretty
soon hear breath. Injun listen. No more sound.
Injun come back.”</p>
<p>“Then you don’t know how many there are?”</p>
<p>“Injun no tell.”</p>
<p>“Sure no one saw you?”</p>
<p>“Heap sure. Injun no make noise.”</p>
<p>“I’ll bet you didn’t,” Jack muttered.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_193">193</div>
<p>“What’s next?” Bob whispered.</p>
<p>But before the Indian could reply a sound broke
the silence.</p>
<p>“What in the world was that?” Jack gasped.</p>
<p>“Listen,” Bob whispered.</p>
<p>Again the sound came to their ears. Beginning
with a low rumble it grew louder until it ended in
a piercing shriek.</p>
<p>“What is it, Kernertok?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Injun no know,” he replied.</p>
<p>“It’s only some more of their attempts to scare
us,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“And we don’t scare worth a cent,” Bob added.</p>
<p>Four times the cry rang out over the lake, and
then all was still.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_194">194</div>
<h2 id="c11"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER XI.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">STEBBINS IS FOUND.</span></h2>
<p>“Does a lalapaloosla make a noise like that?” Bob
asked, as the last strain of the weird cry died out.</p>
<p>“Only the red ones, and they don’t raise that
kind in Maine.”</p>
<p>“But what’ll we do next?” Bob turned to the Indian
once more.</p>
<p>“We find good place watch cabin,” he replied.</p>
<p>“That’s a good plan, I should say,” Jack agreed.
“We may find out just what we’re up against.”</p>
<p>Led by the Indian, they crept softly toward the
lake, until they reached the edge of the forest.</p>
<p>“Here heap good place,” Kernertok announced in
a loud whisper.</p>
<p>It was so dark where they stood that they could
scarcely see each other when standing close together,
but Kernertok told them that the cabin was only
a few yards from them.</p>
<p>“White boys go sleep, Injun and Sicum keep
watch.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_195">195</div>
<p>“Not so you’d notice it,” Bob insisted. “I know
you haven’t got over that beating and you need the
rest.”</p>
<p>Kernertok insisted that he was all right, but Bob
wouldn’t listen to him. However, it was only after
he told the Indian that he wouldn’t go to sleep anyhow
and that if he sat up he would do the same
that the old man finally yielded the point. Both Rex
and Jack tried to get him to let them watch, but
he was firm, and as usually the case, made them give
in to him.</p>
<p>“Now stop your fussing and get to sleep like good
children,” he said.</p>
<p>“But you’ve got to promise to call me at one
o’clock,” Jack persisted.</p>
<p>“And me too,” Rex broke in.</p>
<p>“All right, I’ll promise.”</p>
<p>“I could eat a bit more supper if I had it,” Jack
said, as he stretched out on the ground.</p>
<p>“That’s all right,” Rex added. “But how about
breakfast?”</p>
<p>“Sufficient unto the day is the food thereof,” Bob
grinned.</p>
<p>“Yes, but there wasn’t sufficient,” Jack growled.</p>
<p>“Well, there’ll be less to-morrow unless we strike
something,” Bob assured him.</p>
<p>“There can’t be very much less than there is right
now,” Jack retorted with a long sigh.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_196">196</div>
<p>Bob called Rex and Jack according to his promise
at one o’clock and reported that everything had been
quiet.</p>
<p>“No more lalapalooslas howling around?” Jack
laughed.</p>
<p>“Haven’t heard any.”</p>
<p>“Well, here’s hoping they will keep quiet for the
rest of the night.”</p>
<p>“How still it is,” Jack whispered a little later, as
he and Rex sat with their backs against a spruce
tree.</p>
<p>“It’s so still you can almost feel it,” Rex agreed.
“I’d give a good bit to know who’s in that cabin,”
he added in a whisper.</p>
<p>“Well, we’ll probably find out before many hours.
It’ll be light now in about three hours.”</p>
<p>“And I’ll bet they’ll seem like three years.”</p>
<p>“What did you think of that spook out on the
lake?” Jack asked a few minutes later.</p>
<p>“It did look spooky for a fact, but I imagine that
Bob’s explanation was about right. Things often
look displaced in the night and especially in the
moonlight, you know.”</p>
<p>“But what would anyone be doing out there at
that time?”</p>
<p>“Ask me something easy. It’s quite evident that
someone knows we are up here and is trying to throw
a scare into us, and—”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_197">197</div>
<p>“No doubt about that,” Jack interrupted.</p>
<p>“And there are two questions in my mind regarding
it.”</p>
<p>“And I’ll bet I can guess them both first time.”</p>
<p>“All right, go ahead.”</p>
<p>“First you’d like to know who it is and second
you’d like to know what they know about us, or
rather what they think they know. How’s that?”</p>
<p>“You’re pretty near right on both counts. The
main thing that’s puzzling me is whether or not
Stebbins is mixed up in it.”</p>
<p>“What makes you think he isn’t?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t say I did think so, but as I was saying
awhile ago, he’s not that kind of a guy.”</p>
<p>“Well, it seems to me—” Jack began, when he was
interrupted by a sound which seemed to come from
the direction of the lake.</p>
<p>“Listen,” he whispered.</p>
<p>“Sounds like a groan,” Rex replied after a moment.</p>
<p>“Let’s get up a bit nearer the cabin,” Jack suggested.</p>
<p>Followed by Rex he crept carefully forward on
his hands and knees. It was very dark now, as the
moon had set some time before and they had to feel
their way as they advanced foot by foot.</p>
<p>“I think I can see the cabin,” Jack whispered,
after they had gone a few yards.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_198">198</div>
<p>The groaning had been repeated several times
since they had first heard it, and now they were certain
that the sound came from the cabin.</p>
<p>“Sounds as though someone was having a nightmare,”
Rex whispered.</p>
<p>“What had we better do?” Jack asked, as he
stopped a moment later. “We’re only a few feet
away from the cabin now.”</p>
<p>“We want to be mighty careful for one thing,”
Rex cautioned in a low whisper. “If we should get
caught now all our work would probably go for
nothing.”</p>
<p>“Let’s camp right here then.”</p>
<p>They stretched themselves flat on the ground behind
a small clump of small cedars and listened.</p>
<p>“That’s no nightmare, if you ask me,” Jack declared,
after a few minutes had passed and the sound
still continued.</p>
<p>“Guess you’re right,” Rex agreed. “Who ever’s
making that noise would have waked up before this
if he was asleep.”</p>
<p>“My idea exactly. But somebody in there’s pretty
bad off, unless it’s being done for our special benefit.
The trouble is, we can’t tell which is right.”</p>
<p>“What do you think we’d better do?”</p>
<p>“I think we had better get back, if you ask me.
It’ll be light in a short time now, and if we stay here
much longer we may spill the beans, and it’s too
much of a risk to do any investigating in the dark.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_199">199</div>
<p>So they crept back to their former position and
waited with what patience they could summon until
daylight stole over the forest.</p>
<p>“I hate like the dickens to wake Bob and Kernertok
so early,” Jack whispered. “But I feel it in my
bones that something is going to happen before
long.”</p>
<p>“What you call a hunch, eh?”</p>
<p>“Something of the sort.”</p>
<p>“You did just right, son,” Bob declared a few
minutes later, after Jack had apologized for calling
him and Kernertok so early. “We don’t want to
lose a single bet now.”</p>
<p>After a brief whispered conference it was decided
to separate two and two and keep a close watch at
both the front and back of the cabin.</p>
<p>“Jack, you and Kernertok stay here where you
can see the rear, and Rex and I’ll get round where
we can see the front. If either sees anything the
whip-poor-will call will be the signal. All right?”
Bob asked.</p>
<p>“All right is right,” Jack nodded his head.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_200">200</div>
<p>Bob and Rex crept slowly toward the lake and
soon found a position where they had a fair view
of the front of the cabin without much risk of being
seen. They could hear nothing of the groans and
Rex whispered that he hardly thought they would be
able to hear them at that distance. For over an hour
they watched, and both boys were beginning to get
uneasy, when suddenly the door opened and a man
stepped out, and a moment later he was followed by
two others.</p>
<p>“I thought as much,” Bob whispered. “You remember
them, don’t you?”</p>
<p>“Sure; it’s Jacques Harbaugh and his two
friends.”</p>
<p>“And the plot thickens,” Bob whispered, as he
bent slightly forward to get a clearer view. “But
I must signal the others.” And the clear shrill call
of the whip-poor-will floated out in the still air.</p>
<p>For ten minutes or a little more the three men
stood in front of the cabin talking in tones too low
for the boys to catch any of the conversation. Then
they went inside and a few minutes later smoke
began to pour from the chimney.</p>
<p>“They’re getting breakfast, and I guess we might
as well go back and tell Jack and Kernertok who’s
here,” Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“I had a good-sized hunch that those fellows were
mixed up in the case,” Jack declared, as soon as he
learned of the presence of the three men. “What
do you make of it?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_201">201</div>
<p>“Well, of course, it’s largely guesswork, but my
guess is that they have Stebbins in that cabin and
are holding him prisoner for some reason or other,
hence the groans which you heard,” Bob said.</p>
<p>“And I’ll say you’re some guesser,” Jack replied,
casting a questioning glance at Kernertok.</p>
<p>“Him heap good at guess,” the Indian agreed.</p>
<p>“What’s the next move then?” Rex whispered.</p>
<p>“I guess it’s their next move,” Bob said. “You
see, they’re all powerful as well as desperate men,
and we don’t want to come to a showdown with
them if we can help it, until we have bigger odds on
our side. I tell you those fellows would put a bullet
through one of us as quick as lightning if he thought
his safety depended on it.”</p>
<p>“Then you think—”</p>
<p>“That we’d better lay low for a while in the hope
that they’ll go away and give us a chance to see
what’s inside that cabin without meeting them,” Bob
interrupted.</p>
<p>“That heap good plan,” Kernertok nodded his
head.</p>
<p>“Then we’d better get back where we were, I suppose,”
Rex suggested.</p>
<p>“Right away I should say,” Bob agreed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_202">202</div>
<p>It was nearly eight o’clock before the three men
again emerged from the cabin. This time they did
not hesitate, but made their way at once down to
the shore of the lake, and by parting the bushes in
front of him, Bob saw that they got into a canoe
and started swiftly down the lake.</p>
<p>“Come on,” he whispered to Rex. “Let’s get
back and tell Jack and Kernertok.”</p>
<p>“So you think the coast is clear,” Jack said, as
soon as they had told what they had seen.</p>
<p>“It is, so far as those three are concerned.”</p>
<p>It was quickly decided that Kernertok should
stay outside and keep watch while the three boys
went into the cabin.</p>
<p>“Me an’ Sicum keep heap good watch,” the Indian
assured them, as they started off.</p>
<p>They paused to listen, as they were close beside
the cabin, but all was still. The tiny windows were
too high to permit them to peep in from the ground,
and besides they were so covered with dirt that Bob
declared it would be impossible to see through them
even if they got up high enough. So they quickly
made their way around to the front. The door was
closed and fastened with a heavy padlock.</p>
<p>“No getting in here without breaking that lock,”
Bob declared. “Let’s see what it looks like around
back.”</p>
<p>But the prospect was not much more promising,
as the small door evidently was fastened with a bar
on the inside, and although they pushed against it
with all their strength, they were not able to make
the slightest impression on it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_203">203</div>
<p>“Guess we’ll have to try the windows after all,”
Bob declared, as he stepped back after a final push.</p>
<p>“All right, let’s make it snappy,” Jack agreed, as
he started around to the side.</p>
<p>Here there were two small windows, each of a
single pane of glass about twelve by fourteen inches.
Bob took a stand under one of them and in an instant
Jack was on his shoulders.</p>
<p>“Can’t see a blamed thing,” he declared a moment
later.</p>
<p>“Is it puttied on the outside?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“No; it’s just set into the frame from the inside.”</p>
<p>“Then we’ll have to smash it, I reckon.”</p>
<p>“How about cutting it with this diamond ring?”
Rex asked, as he pulled the ring from his finger and
passed it up to Jack.</p>
<p>It was but the work of a moment to make a deep
scratch on the four sides of the glass close to the
edge. Then by hitting it lightly with his pocket
knife, he soon started a crack, and a moment later
the pane fell in with a loud smash. Eagerly the boy
pushed his head in and looked about.</p>
<p>“What about it?” Bob whispered loudly.</p>
<p>“Not much,” Jack replied, as he withdrew his
head and leaped to the ground. “It’s about the
same as you’d expect. An old stove, a table and a
few old chairs and lots of dirt.”</p>
<p>“There’s no one there?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_204">204</div>
<p>“I didn’t say that. There are some bunks on the
other side of the room, but it’s not light enough to
see whether there’s any one in them or not.”</p>
<p>“Can you squeeze through?”</p>
<p>“Mebby, but it’ll be pretty close.”</p>
<p>“We’ll pull you out if you get stuck,” Rex assured
him, as Jack again mounted to Bob’s shoulders.</p>
<p>It was but a minute’s work to pick out the thin
strips of glass from the frame, and this accomplished,
he began the task of squirming through.
It was, as he said, a mighty close squeeze, but he
was an adept at squirming through small openings.
Indeed, Bob had often declared that he believed
Jack could squeeze his way through a key hole if
he had to. Once he thought he was stuck, but he
managed to free himself, and after a few minutes
he dropped lightly to the floor. In another moment
he had unbarred the back door and admitted the
others.</p>
<p>As they stood in the open doorway, a low groan
reached their ears. Bob quickly ran to the side of
the room where the bunks were. After a single
glance he started back in amazement. Then, recovering
himself, he stepped forward again and bent
over for a closer look.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_205">205</div>
<p>Bound hand and foot, his mouth tightly gagged,
lay the form of a man. His eyes were closed and
his face, covered with a stubble of several days’
growth, was gaunt almost to the point of emaciation.
It was evident to Bob that the man was unconscious,
if not at the point of death.</p>
<p>“Is this Stebbins?” he whispered to Rex, who was
close behind him.</p>
<p>“I—I think so,” Rex stammered. “But it’s hard
to tell, he’s so changed. Let me see his right hand.
Yes, it’s he all right,” he declared a moment later,
as he held up the man’s right hand. “See that middle
finger.”</p>
<p>The first joint of the finger was gone and the fact
settled the identity of the man beyond all question.</p>
<p>“See if you can find some water, Jack,” Bob ordered,
as he drew out his knife and cut the ropes.</p>
<p>Jack was back almost immediately with a pan of
water, and dipping his handkerchief in it, Bob proceeded
to wet the man’s forehead, while Jack and
Rex rubbed his wrists. In a few minutes their efforts
were successful. The man groaned, and a moment
later opened his eyes. At first there was no recognition
in them, but as he glanced from one to the
other, his eyes finally rested on Rex.</p>
<p>“Do you know me, old man?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>The man was too weak to reply, but from the look
in his eyes they knew that he had recognized him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_206">206</div>
<p>“Don’t try to talk now,” Rex said bending over
him. “It’s all right and we’ll have you on your feet
in no time.”</p>
<p>“He’s nearly starved to death,” Bob whispered to
Jack. “See what you can find. Some condensed
milk mixed with water will be all right if you can
find it.”</p>
<p>In the back of the room was a small closet, and
Jack was delighted to find it well stocked with provisions,
including several cans of milk. He quickly
opened one of the latter with his knife, and pouring
the contents into a dipper, he thinned it with water.</p>
<p>“Drink a little of this,” Bob cautioned. Then
turning to Jack he ordered: “You get the fire going
and I’ll see if I can find some oatmeal or something
to make some gruel of. He’s got to have something
a bit more substantial than that condensed milk.”</p>
<p>“But how about those fellows seeing the smoke?”
Rex asked.</p>
<p>“We’ll have to take a chance on that. This man
will die if we don’t get something inside him, and
if they return we’ll have to do the best we can. Anyhow
Kernertok’ll give us the word so they can’t take
us by surprise.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_207">207</div>
<p>An hour later, after the man had taken as much
of the gruel as Bob dared to give him, he seemed considerably
stronger and the boys began to remember
that they had had no breakfast themselves. Thanks
to the provisions in the cabin this condition was soon
remedied and a goodly portion taken out to Kernertok
and Sicum. Stebbins was sleeping quietly as
they returned to the cabin.</p>
<p>“What’s the next move?” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>“That’s the big question,” Bob replied. “That
man won’t be fit to move for two or three days at
the most, and they’ll probably be back before night
at the longest.”</p>
<p>“That’s a safe bet at any rate,” Jack agreed. “And
it’s another safe bet that they’ll make mince meat of
us if we give them the chance.”</p>
<p>“Well we mustn’t give them the chance, that’s
all,” Bob said, shaking his head.</p>
<p>“I think we’re unanimous on that point,” Rex
broke in. “The only question seems to be how we’re
going to help it.”</p>
<p>“We’ve got three good persuasive automatics,
which will help some if it comes to a show down,”
Bob declared. “I wish we had the rifle, but there’s
no use worrying over that.”</p>
<p>“And there’s food enough here to stand a siege
for two or three weeks if we have to,” Jack said
slowly.</p>
<p>“Well it seems to me about the only thing we can
do,” Rex said in a tone of resignation.</p>
<p>About eleven o’clock Stebbins awoke and Bob fed
him some more of the gruel, and he seemed much
stronger and inclined to talk.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_208">208</div>
<p>“Better wait a little longer,” Bob continued. “You
want to get your strength back as soon as you can,
you know, and it will tire you to talk now.”</p>
<p>With a sigh, the man lay back on the bed and
closed his eyes.</p>
<p>“He’ll be strong enough to tell us his story when
he wakes up again and has had one more feed,” Bob
whispered.</p>
<p>They prepared a good dinner, with the help of
some trout which Jack got from a little brook a short
distance up the lake. They had just finished cleaning
up when Stebbins again opened his eyes and asked
for food. As soon as he had finished eating, he declared
that he was much stronger and insisted on
talking.</p>
<p>“All right, but take it easy and stop as soon as
you begin to feel tired,” Bob cautioned.</p>
<p>“I took the money,” he began slowly, looking at
Rex, “but I want you to believe that I’m not so bad
as you must think. It started the year before I went
to work for your father. I was cashier in a bank
in Waterville, and a large sum of money disappeared.
No, I didn’t take it, but I knew that they
suspected me and I was unable to prove that I was
innocent. They never found out who took it, and
after a time I resigned. At the time a big half-breed
by the name of Jacques Harbaugh was janitor
of the bank. He never liked me, as I had to reprimand
him many times for poor work. Although
Jacques is a half-breed, he is a pretty sharp fellow.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_209">209</div>
<p>Here Stebbins paused and the boys urged him to
rest before telling more, but in a few minutes he
insisted that he was strong enough to proceed.</p>
<p>“Well, I was happy in Philadelphia, and had
nearly forgotten all about the matter, when suddenly,
about three months ago, I met Jacques on Chestnut
Street. He knew me at once. As a matter of fact,
he had been hunting for me for some days. To
make a long story short, he had found or made up
a bit of evidence which seemed to prove conclusively
that I had stolen that money so many years ago.
I realize now that I was weak, but at that time I
was scared so that I hardly knew what I was doing.
Jacques promised that he would keep still about it,
provided I paid him a large sum of money. Otherwise
he declared that he would go back to Waterville
and give me away. The sum, fifty thousand
dollars, was entirely beyond my means, and I told
him so. But he had learned in some way of my position
and hinted that I could get the money all right.
Finally I yielded, and it was arranged that we should
meet up here, a place we both knew about.”</p>
<p>“But the amount you took was a good deal more
than fifty thousand,” Rex interrupted.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_210">210</div>
<p>“I know it, but as I had the chance, I thought
I might as well take all I could get. As well be
hanged for an old sheep as a lamb, you know. But
I’ve got the money safe, and if possible, you shall
have every cent of it back. You see, I got here first
and had a day to think things over and made up my
mind that I would give the money back and let
Jacques do his worst. So I hid it in a place where
no one can ever find it. I had just finished when
Jacques and two other men arrived. I told them
that I didn’t have the money and that they could do
what they pleased about it. Of course, he was
furious and insisted that I was lying and that I had
the money. They have kept me here ever since and
have done all sorts of things to make me tell where
it is, but I made up my mind that I wouldn’t even
if they killed me. If you hadn’t come just about
when you did I’m afraid it would have been—”</p>
<p>Before he was able to finish the sentence the back
door opened and Kernertok stole softly in.</p>
<p>“Men coming,” he announced. “Be here heap
soon.”</p>
<p>“How far away are they?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Mebby quarter mile, no more.”</p>
<p>“All three of them?”</p>
<p>“All three.”</p>
<p>“All right. Bar that back door, Jack.”</p>
<p>“What are you going to do?” Rex asked anxiously.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_211">211</div>
<p>“The only thing we can do. Just wait and see
what they will do,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>“One thing’s on our side, and that is that we’ve
got all the food and I reckon we can stand a siege
longer than they can,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“I’m not so sure about that,” Bob said slowly
shaking his head. “Remember, they are skilled
woodsmen, and I guess they can find plenty to eat
such as is. They won’t starve.”</p>
<p>“They’re just landing,” Rex, who was watching
from a little front window, announced.</p>
<p>“Quick! Get that front door barred,” Bob said.
“I nearly forgot that.”</p>
<p>Fortunately the front door as well as the back
was made to be fastened with a heavy bar of wood,
and it was but an instant’s work to slip the bar in
its place.</p>
<p>“Now keep quiet,” Bob cautioned, “and be sure to
keep out of range of the windows. Remember,
they would shoot us quick as a wink if they got the
chance.”</p>
<p>The men were evidently in good humor, for they
could hear them talking and laughing as they approached
the cabin. Soon they heard one of them
fumbling with the lock, and a moment later there
came a heavy shove against the door, followed by
an oath in French.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_212">212</div>
<p>“We’ve got them guessing,” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>“Hush,” Bob cautioned.</p>
<p>For a moment all was still, then they could hear
the man talking rapidly in broken French. Then
came another push against the door, followed by
more excited talking.</p>
<p>“They’re coming round back,” Rex whispered.</p>
<p>A moment later a shout from one of the breeds
announced the discovery of the broken window. For
several minutes after that they could hear no sound.</p>
<p>“Wonder what they’re up to,” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>“Guess they’re trying to make out what it means,”
Bob replied.</p>
<p>Almost as he spoke there came the loud report
of a revolver, and a bullet buried itself in a log on the
side opposite the open window.</p>
<p>“They’re at a loss to know whether their prisoner
has got free or some one has got in,” Bob suggested.</p>
<p>For another moment all was silent, then from
directly beneath the open window came the voice of
Jacques Harbaugh.</p>
<p>“You open dat door, oui, or we bust heem in.”</p>
<p>Bob held up his hand as a signal not to answer.</p>
<p>“When we geet in we keel you you no open door.”</p>
<p>Again Bob signaled for silence.</p>
<p>“Keep him guessing,” he whispered.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_213">213</div>
<p>“You Stebbins, what you mean, eh?” Jacques’s
voice now had more of a coaxing note in it.</p>
<p>“Guess he’s afraid to peep in,” Jack whispered.</p>
<p>After a short time they heard the man moving
away from the cabin, and for fully half an hour
there was no sound from outside.</p>
<p>“They’re hunting for a log with which to batter
in the door, I reckon,” Bob whispered.</p>
<p>“Can they do it?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s a pretty strong door, but with a heavy
log, I suppose they can knock it from the hinges
give them time enough,” Bob answered.</p>
<p>“Which we won’t,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“Well, you’d better make up your mind just how
you’re going to stop them, for here they come,”
Rex cried a few minutes later.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_214">214</div>
<h2 id="c12"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER XII.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">BESIEGED.</span></h2>
<p>Bob jumped to Rex’s side and looked out the
little window just in time to see the three men running
toward the cabin with a log nearly ten feet
long, and as big around as his leg.</p>
<p>“Get out your guns and be ready to cover them
if she gives way,” he cried, in a low but distinct
voice.</p>
<p>He had hardly finished speaking when the end of
the log propelled by the great strength of the three
men smashed against the door with a bang, which
seemed to fairly shake the cabin. An ordinary door
would have been shivered to pieces by the blow, but
up in the Maine woods they make things to hold, and
the only effect, so far as they could see, was a slight
loosening of one of the hinges.</p>
<p>“About three more of them will knock out the
hinges,” Bob declared, as he saw the men stepping
back for a second rush.</p>
<p>“’Bout time to stop ’em, isn’t it?” Jack asked.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_215">215</div>
<p>“Yes, I guess so, if we can,” Bob replied somewhat
doubtfully.</p>
<p>As he spoke he pushed open the little window and
looked out. The men had stopped about twenty
feet from the door and had placed the log on the
ground to recover their wind before making the
second trial.</p>
<p>“Better not try it again,” he shouted, holding his
automatic in his hand in such a way that the men
could not fail to see it.</p>
<p>All three men gave a sudden start of surprise, and
for a moment no one spoke. Then the leader, Jacques
Harbaugh, stepped slowly toward the window.</p>
<p>“That’s near enough,” Bob told him, when he
had advanced about half way to the window.</p>
<p>“So it’s you, oui?”</p>
<p>“Looks like it.”</p>
<p>“What you want up here?”</p>
<p>“Do you need to ask?”</p>
<p>“Me ask jess the same.”</p>
<p>“All right. I don’t mind telling you. We came
for Mr. Stebbins.”</p>
<p>“Oui? You find heem, eh?’</p>
<p>“Sure we did.”</p>
<p>“What you tink you do with heem?”</p>
<p>“We’ll take him back with us.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_216">216</div>
<p>“Non!” And Bob could see a look of fierce determination
on the face of the man as he spat out
the word. “You never tak’ heem back till heem
tell us where dat monies.”</p>
<p>“You may be right, but we’re going to make a
big try for it just the same, and in the meantime
don’t forget that we are well armed, and the first
man who comes within ten feet of this cabin will
get a hunk of lead in him.”</p>
<p>“We see ’bout dat.”</p>
<p>“All right, but remem—”</p>
<p>A violent pull which jerked Bob back into the
room interrupted the sentence, and it was not a second
too soon, for as he fell back onto the floor a
shot rang out and a bullet buried itself in a log at
the back of the room.</p>
<p>“That was pretty close,” Bob gasped, as he picked
himself up.</p>
<p>“I’ll say it was,” Jack agreed. “If I hadn’t been
peeping out through that crack and see that other
fellow pull his gun, we’d have had two invalids
on our hands.”</p>
<p>“To say nothing of a dead one,” Bob returned
soberly. “It was very careless of me to take my
eyes off those other two fellows. I might have
known.”</p>
<p>“Well, let’s hope that those fellows haven’t much
ammunition with them,” Jack said, as he again
peeped out through the crack.</p>
<p>“What are they doing?” Bob asked.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_217">217</div>
<p>“Just standing there talking.”</p>
<p>“It’s a lucky thing for us that this cabin is made
of good big logs and not of thin boards. We’re
safe for the time being if we keep out of line with
the windows.”</p>
<p>“But those fellows aren’t going to give up easy,
and don’t you kid yourself that they are,” Jack declared,
with his eyes still at the crack. “They’re
playing for big stakes.”</p>
<p>“I know,” Bob replied. “But don’t forget that
we are playing for the same stakes.”</p>
<p>“You bet.”</p>
<p>“And what’s more, we’re going to win out.”</p>
<p>“You bet.” It was Rex who responded this
time.</p>
<p>“They’re going down toward the lake,” Jack announced
a moment later. “They’re getting into their
canoe and pushing off. They’re paddling up the
lake.”</p>
<p>“What do you suppose they’re up to now?” Rex
asked.</p>
<p>“Hard to say,” Bob replied, “but one thing is
sure, they’ll be back before long and they won’t go
far; not far enough but they’ll know if we leave the
cabin.”</p>
<p>“They’ve gone out of sight around the point,”
Jack said, as he straightened up.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_218">218</div>
<p>“And that’s about as far as they’ll go,” Bob declared.
“Now we ought to have a peep hole on
each side of the room. That crack is all right for
the front, but there doesn’t seem to be any at the
back and sides.”</p>
<p>“Then I guess it’s up to us to make ’em,” Jack
declared.</p>
<p>“Spoken like a general,” Bob laughed. “Go to
it.”</p>
<p>In the closet Jack soon found a long, slim knife,
and with it set to work digging out the clay and
moss between two logs near the center of the back.
It was slow work, as the clay was almost as hard
as cement, but he stuck at it and in the course of
an hour had a hole through large enough to give a
clear view of the ground at the back.</p>
<p>“Now for the sides,” he said, as he selected a
point near the middle.</p>
<p>Meantime Stebbins had been fed small amounts of
the gruel at frequent intervals and was gaining his
strength rapidly, although he had been forbidden to
get out of the bunk.</p>
<p>“I don’t suppose it’s any use to tell you how
sorry I am,” he said to Rex, who was sitting by his
side.</p>
<p>“That’s all right, old fellow, I think I understand
what you were up against and your resolve to make
good, even though it cost you your life has wiped out
all the fault,” Rex assured him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_219">219</div>
<p>A look of great joy lighted up the thin face of
the man.</p>
<p>“Then you can forgive me?”</p>
<p>“Sure thing, and forget it, too.”</p>
<p>“But your father.”</p>
<p>“Will feel exactly as I do about it,” Rex assured
him, as he took his hand.</p>
<p>“Thank God,” Stebbins murmured, as he sank
back and closed his eyes.</p>
<p>“There, we’ve got peep holes on all four sides,”
Jack announced awhile later, “and I, for one, am
mighty hungry.”</p>
<p>“Which is a chronic condition if I know anything
about you,” Bob laughed.</p>
<p>“But dinner’ll be ready in about fifteen minutes.
Think you can hold out that long?”</p>
<p>“I’ll try,” Jack sighed.</p>
<p>During the afternoon they kept close watch at
the peep holes, but nothing was seen of the three
men.</p>
<p>“All the same, I’ll bet a cent they’re not far off,”
Bob declared.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t take you,” Jack said.</p>
<p>“They watch heap sharp, see if we start go way,”
Kernertok suggested.</p>
<p>“My idea exactly,” Bob agreed. “They think
that if they can only get us out of the cabin we will
be at their mercy.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_220">220</div>
<p>“Well, we’ll just fool them,” Jack declared.</p>
<p>“That’s all right so far as it goes, but the trouble
is it doesn’t go very far,” Bob said. “I don’t know
how you fellows feel about it, but it seems to me that
we’re up against it good and hard. Those fellows
aren’t going to let all that money slip through their
hands if they can help it, and I think it’s about time
that we were taking account of stock and finding
out where we’re at.”</p>
<p>“No doubt about it,” Rex said, adding, “I’m
mighty sorry—”</p>
<p>“Now nix on that stuff,” Jack interrupted. “We
know all about it, and again I say nix.”</p>
<p>“Then we’d better go into executive session and
discuss ways and means,” Bob suggested. “Kernertok,
you’re the oldest and wisest. What’s your
idea?”</p>
<p>For a time the old Indian sat with bowed head,
then he got to his feet and said:</p>
<p>“Injun think only one thing do. It get heap
dark pretty soon. Heap cloudy, no moon. Injun
creep out, get canoe, go down river to St. Francis.
Get help, back soon as can.”</p>
<p>“How far is it to St. Francis?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“’Bout twenty mile from canoe.”</p>
<p>“Then you ought to get back some time to-morrow.”</p>
<p>The Indian nodded his head.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_221">221</div>
<p>“What say, fellows?” Bob turned to Rex and
Jack.</p>
<p>“I’d say it’s our best bet,” Jack agreed readily.</p>
<p>“Same here,” Rex joined in.</p>
<p>“Then Injun go soon as dark come.”</p>
<p>“Do you suppose there’s any possibility of getting
any one with our radio?” Jack asked a little later.</p>
<p>“I doubt it,” Bob replied, shaking his head.
“Wave length’s too short, but it won’t do any harm
to try. If we’d only had brains enough to have
left one of them at home we’d have had some help
on the way before this.”</p>
<p>For a long time Jack tried to reach a station by
means of the pocket set, but finally was forced to
admit it was of no use.</p>
<p>“If we get out of this scrape, the first thing I’m
going to do is to lengthen out that wave,” he declared,
as he placed the case on the table.</p>
<p>As Kernertok had predicted, the night came on
early and dark, for which they were very thankful.
Had it been moonlight it would have been extremely
difficult for him to get away, provided their enemies
were on the watch, as the cabin stood in a clearing
and on no side did the forest come nearer than
twenty feet.</p>
<p>It was shortly after half past eight o’clock when
he started, and all wished him good luck.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_222">222</div>
<p>“Injun be back by noon to-morrow. No get
caught,” he said, as he slipped out the back door.</p>
<p>“Pray God he may get through safely,” Bob murmured,
as he put the bar back in its place.</p>
<p>Sicum had whined to go with his master, but on
being ordered to stay he seemed to understand, and
made no further protest.</p>
<p>The Indian had been gone not more than ten minutes
when a shot rang out in the forest back of the
cabin. The four looked at each other and a look of
terror was on every face. For a moment no one
spoke, then Jack gasped.</p>
<p>“They’ve got him.”</p>
<p>“Let’s hope not,” Bob said in a low tone.</p>
<p>For a long time they listened hardly daring to
breathe, but no more shots were heard and no sound
from outside, save the creaking of the boughs as
they rubbed in the light breeze, came to their ears.</p>
<p>“Suppose I sneak out and do a little scouting,”
Jack proposed.</p>
<p>“I suppose you won’t,” Bob shook his head. “If
they got him you could do him no good, and the
chances are that they’d get you. No, our best bet is
to stick close to the cabin and play it safe.”</p>
<p>“I suppose you’re right,” Jack acknowledged.
“But it’s simply awful to sit here and do nothing
with Kernertok out there perhaps dying.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_223">223</div>
<p>“I know,” Bob soothed, “but it’s only perhaps.
That shot may have meant nothing and he probably
got through all right. Everything was in his favor,
and you know Kernertok.”</p>
<p>“Yes, I know; but he’s human at that.”</p>
<p>Slowly the time passed. There was nothing they
could do except listen for the faintest sound. So
dark was it that the peep holes were of no use. But
about half past ten Jack, who was near the broken
window, announced that the clouds were breaking.</p>
<p>“It’ll be moonlight in a few minutes. She’s trying
to peep through the clouds now.”</p>
<p>“That’ll help Kernertok,” Bob declared.</p>
<p>“Provided he got through,” Jack added mournfully.</p>
<p>“Well, I’m going to believe that he did till I
find out that he didn’t,” Bob insisted.</p>
<p>In a short time Jack’s prediction proved true.
The moon peeped out from behind the clouds and
by eleven o’clock was riding in a clear sky, making
it almost as light as the day outside. In a way it
was a great relief to them, for they had feared to
have a light in the cabin, and waiting so long in
the intense darkness was trying to their nerves.</p>
<p>“I reckon we’d better get an eye at those peep
holes now,” Bob suggested. “There’s one apiece,
that is if Mr. Stebbins feels strong enough to take
one.”</p>
<p>“Certainly I am,” Stebbins insisted.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_224">224</div>
<p>“Any of you smell anything?” Rex, who was
sniffing the air, asked, as they were about to take
their places at the holes.</p>
<p>“Seems to me that I do,” Bob said. “Smells
like something burning.”</p>
<p>“’Tis too,” Jack cried, “and what’s more, it’s
birch bark.”</p>
<p>“You don’t suppose—” Bob began, but Jack interrupted.</p>
<p>“I suppose they’ve set fire to the shack, if that’s
what you mean.”</p>
<p>“I’m afraid you’re right,” Bob said slowly, as the
odor of burning bark became more pronounced.</p>
<p>“That’s apt to be serious, isn’t it?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“There’s no apt to be about it. Unless we can
get it out we’ll be at their mercy in a mighty short
time,” Bob told him. “How much water is there in
the place, Jack?”</p>
<p>“About half a bucket full.”</p>
<p>“Hum, not much to fight fire with. We should
have got all we could.”</p>
<p>“I did, but there were only two buckets, and
we’ve used a bucket and a half.”</p>
<p>“Well, let’s see if we can locate it.”</p>
<p>“It’s right in this corner,” Jack declared a moment
later. “I can hear it when I put my ear close
to the logs and see, there’s a little smoke working
its way in.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_225">225</div>
<p>“If we could get at it the half bucket of water
would probably put it out right now, but it would
be sure death to go out there.”</p>
<p>“And it’s equally sure to stay here and let it
burn, isn’t it?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“While there’s life there’s hope,” Bob reminded
him.</p>
<p>“I know, but we’ve got to do something.”</p>
<p>“And if we can find an axe we’ll be doing it.
Do you know if there is one in the cabin?” he asked,
turning to Stebbins.</p>
<p>“I think so,” Stebbins replied, and to their great
joy he pulled one from beneath one of the bunks.</p>
<p>“Now we’ve got a chance at least,” Bob cried, as
he grabbed the axe. “Jack, light that lantern and
hold it for me.”</p>
<p>Jack sprang to obey, and in another minute Bob
was making a vigorous attack on the logs in the
corner where Jack had located the fire.</p>
<p>“It’s gaining pretty fast,” he gasped a few minutes
later, as he paused to get his breath.</p>
<p>“And so are you,” Jack encouraged him. “That
log’s most through, and then it’ll be easier. Here,
let me have a try at it.”</p>
<p>“Not yet. I’m all right,” Bob panted, as the axe
sank deep into the log.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_226">226</div>
<p>Chopping a log out of a cabin is an entirely different
matter from cutting that same log in two in the
open, where one could get at all sides of it. It was
slow hard work, as the cut had to be made very
wide, and it was impossible to get the full benefit
of the swing. But he kept doggedly at it, and at
last the axe sank completely through the six-inch
log. He had made the cut about three feet from
the corner and a few blows with the back of the
axe sufficed to knock out the short end.</p>
<p>“Now my turn,” Jack said, as he sat down the
lantern and took the axe from Bob’s hand.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t seem to be burning very fast now,”
Bob panted. “One more log will be enough, I
reckon.”</p>
<p>The next log was not quite so large, and Jack
soon had it out. Bob was ready with the bucket
and a large dipper.</p>
<p>“Now if only it hasn’t got too big a start,” he
said, as he thrust his head out in an effort to see
where to throw the water.</p>
<p>For the moment he had forgotten all about the
men outside in his eagerness to put out the fire, but
memory returned in a flash as he heard a sharp ping
and a bullet struck the log just over his head. He
pulled his head in with a jerk.</p>
<p>“That was pretty close,” he gasped.</p>
<p>“I’ll say so,” Jack agreed; “but how’s the fire?
Did you see it?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_227">227</div>
<p>Instead of replying, Bob threw himself on the
floor directly beneath the opening, and filling the
dipper with water, he reached out and poured it
down the side of the logs.</p>
<p>“It’s hardly more than started to catch on the
logs,” he explained, as he reached for a second dipper
of water. “If I can hit the right spot this will
put it out all right.”</p>
<p>Bob’s glance out of the opening had revealed
the situation to him. The men had piled considerable
birch bark and other light stuff against the
cabin, but the logs had, fortunately, been slow in
catching fire, and the kindling had nearly burned out
before the cabin itself was fairly on fire.</p>
<p>He had just reached out with the third dipper of
water when another shot was heard, and a bullet
struck the dipper and knocked it from his hand.</p>
<p>“Be careful and don’t get in front of that hole,”
he cried, as he drew back his arm. “I think it’s
out,” he added; “but I guess we’ll have to wait a few
minutes and see. It’d be pretty risky to look out
just now.”</p>
<p>“You mean it’d be sure death,” Jack declared
grimly.</p>
<p>Fifteen minutes passed, during which they
watched closely at the peep holes, one on each side
of the room.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_228">228</div>
<p>“I think we put it out,” Bob finally announced.
“It would be burning up in good shape by this time
if we hadn’t.”</p>
<p>“Seems to be pretty quiet along the Potomac,”
Jack said.</p>
<p>“Seems is right,” Bob returned. “But we must
not let them have a chance to start another fire. We
haven’t water enough left to put out a match, and
if they get another one going it’s curtains for us.”</p>
<p>“Then they mustn’t start it, that’s all,” Rex said.</p>
<p>“I don’t believe they’ll try it while it is as light
as it is now,” Bob declared. “They know that we
can see them and they have a good deal of respect
for their skins. It’s the time after the moon sets
that’s worrying me. It’ll be mighty dark again along
about two o’clock.”</p>
<p>“You think they’ll try it again?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“I imagine it depends some on whether or not
they got Kernertok. If they know that he has gone
and they failed to get him, they of course know that
he’s gone for help and they’ll be in a hurry to get us
before he can get back. On the other hand, if they
didn’t get him or don’t know that he’s left they’ll
think that they have plenty of time. But, of course,
it’s all guesswork on our part.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_229">229</div>
<p>But the intense darkness which he dreaded came
even sooner than he had expected. It was shortly
after twelve o’clock when the moon slipped behind
a cloud, and it was only a short time until the rapidly
gathering clouds had blotted out all the stars
as well.</p>
<p>“No use trying to see out of these holes any
longer,” Jack declared, as he crossed the room. “It’s
as black as the ace of spades out there and getting
darker every minute.”</p>
<p>“What can we do?” Rex asked. “I don’t fancy
the thought of staying here and being burnt out.”</p>
<p>“If it wasn’t for Stebbins, I’d be in favor of sneak-out
and having a try at getting away, but he could
never do it, and of course we can’t go and leave
him.”</p>
<p>“Of course not,” both Rex and Jack agreed.</p>
<p>“There’s only one thing to do that I can think of,”
Bob began.</p>
<p>“What is it?” Jack interrupted.</p>
<p>“It’s for the three of us to go outside and stay
there till it begins to get light. I know it sounds
risky, and it is, but it’s a chance and we haven’t even
got that cooped up here. It’ll be three against three
and I believe we’ll have a slight advantage over
them.”</p>
<p>“How so?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Well, we’ll be looking for them and they’ll naturally
think we’re still inside.”</p>
<p>“Righto,” Jack said; “it’s the dope all right. Let’s
not lose any time or we may be too late.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_230">230</div>
<p>Mr. Stebbins vigorously opposed the plan when
they made known their intention to him.</p>
<p>“The thing for you to do,” he insisted, “is to get
away and leave me here. I don’t believe they will
kill me so long as they don’t know where the money
is.”</p>
<p>“Nothing doing along that line,” Jack declared
emphatically, and Bob and Rex quickly agreed with
him.</p>
<p>“But it’s not right for you to risk your lives for
me,” Stebbins insisted.</p>
<p>“Right or wrong, we’re going to stick together,”
Bob said in a tone which told him that it would be
useless to argue further.</p>
<p>“Then I think your plan is probably best,” he
acknowledged reluctantly; “but please be careful.
If anything should happen to any of you I’ll never
be able to forgive myself.”</p>
<p>“We’ll be careful, all right,” Bob assured him.</p>
<p>Stebbins at first insisted that he was strong enough
to go out and watch with them, but the boys finally
convinced him that three would be as good as four,
and the more there were the better chance the enemy
would have of finding out that they had left the
cabin.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_231">231</div>
<p>“You see, we’ve only three guns,” Bob argued,
“and if you go one of us will be out there unarmed.
If it comes to a rough and tumble fight, of course,
you can come in as a kind of reserve force.</p>
<p>“Now then, fellows, when we get out we want
to keep close to the cabin, and much depends on not
making the slightest noise. Don’t shoot unless you
have to, and if you do, aim low. I don’t want to
kill one of them, even if they do deserve it. We’ll
go out the front door. Mr. Stebbins, you fasten it
after us, but be ready to let us in on short notice
if it’s necessary.”</p>
<p>“Do we keep together?” Rex asked, as Bob was
about to slip the bar.</p>
<p>“Guess we’ll have to,” Bob replied, then after
a moment’s thought he added, “I believe we’re going
at this all wrong after all. If we all three go out
we’ll have to keep close together or we’ll be unable
to tell who’s who. It’s so dark you can’t see your
hand before your face. No, the proper thing is for
me to go alone. So far as watching is concerned,
one will be as good as three, and if I call, you can
come.”</p>
<p>“What’s the matter with me going?” Jack asked.</p>
<p>“Or me?” Rex put in.</p>
<p>“No, I’m going,” Bob insisted. “I don’t want to
brag, but this is no time to stand on ceremony, and
you both know that if it should come to a rough
and tumble fight, as it may, I’ve had more experience
than either of you. Now please don’t say anything
more about it, because I’m going.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_232">232</div>
<p>It was no reflection on the courage of either Rex
or Jack that they recognized the force of Bob’s argument
and made no more protest.</p>
<p>“But before I go, I think it would be well for
Mr. Stebbins to tell us where he has hidden that
money,” Bob suggested.</p>
<p>“I should have told you before,” Stebbins said.
“About a hundred yards down the lake there is a
gray birch, which leans over the water. You can’t
help finding it, and the money’s buried right at its
foot, on the side away from the lake. It’s about
eighteen inches down.”</p>
<p>“Now you be careful and don’t go to taking
chances,” Jack cautioned, as Bob again reached for
the bar.</p>
<p>“You know me,” he whispered, as he swung open
the door and slipped out into the night.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_233">233</div>
<h2 id="c13"><span class="h2line1">CHAPTER XIII.</span>
<br /><span class="h2line2">KERNERTOK TO THE RESCUE—CONCLUSION.</span></h2>
<p>“Well, I guess there’s nothing we can do except
wait,” Jack said, after he had slipped the bar back
in its place.</p>
<p>“And that’s often the hardest work of all,” Stebbins
declared. “That brother of yours is a very
brave lad.”</p>
<p>“I’ll tell the world he is, and then some,” Jack
agreed.</p>
<p>“He doesn’t know the meaning of fear,” Rex
added.</p>
<p>“And to think that it was my weakness that’s the
cause of it all,” Stebbins groaned.</p>
<p>Outside it was as dark as the proverbial pocket.
For a moment Bob stood still and listened. A
slight murmur as the tree tops swayed in the light
wind was all the sound that reached his ears. Careful
to make not the slightest noise, he crept around
the corner of the cabin, keeping close to it until he
reached the back. Here again he paused to listen.
No sound came, and after a moment he continued.
Perhaps fifteen minutes had passed when he once
more stood by the front door.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_234">234</div>
<p>Again and again he made the circuit, stopping
every few feet to listen. Once he thought he heard
a sound as of some object moving a little in front
of him, but as he paused to listen, he decided that
it had been only his imagination. Nearly an hour
had passed since he had come out, and he had passed
around the cabin many times, when, as he crept
around the front right-hand corner, his foot struck
something. Stooping down he felt about with his
hand. A small pile of what felt like birch bark
was lying close up against the corner.</p>
<p>“Now I wonder if that’s been there all the time,”
he thought, as he straightened up. “I’ll just camp
around this corner for a while,” he decided, as he
sat down and leaned his back against the logs.</p>
<p>It seemed to him that he had sat there a long
time, and he was thinking that he had better make
another round of the cabin, when his sharp ears
caught a slight sound. Instantly he was all attention,
trying to pierce the darkness. He could, however,
see nothing, but in a moment he again heard the
same noise. Someone was creeping slowly and carefully
toward the cabin. He crouched ready for a
sudden spring. Suddenly he heard a scraping sound
and instantly a match flared up. And then he
sprang.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_235">235</div>
<p>Bob was not more than four feet from the man,
and he landed fairly on his shoulders. With a grunt
of surprise the man went over backward, with Bob
on top, trying his best to get a hold on his throat.
After the first grunt, neither made a sound, save
for their heavy breathing. Over and over they
rolled, each trying in vain to get a decisive hold on
the other. Once Bob secured a half Nelson, but
the great strength of his antagonist served to break
it. A moment later the man got a hold on Bob’s
throat, and for an instant he thought he was done
for, but, exerting all his strength, he managed to
free one hand, and grasping the other’s wrist, he
tore his hand away, just in time to save his breath.
The man was breathing heavily, and Bob was encouraged
to believe that he would get the better of
him shortly, provided his friends did not come to
his assistance.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_236">236</div>
<p>The end came sooner than he had dared hope for.
Feeling his chance, Bob succeeded in getting a hold,
which he had learned some years previous, from a
Jap friend at college. The hold was such that the
man’s right arm was forced back from the elbow
and he was helpless to free himself. Slowly, inch
by inch, Bob bent the arm back, until finally he
heard the bone snap. With a sharp cry of pain the
man struggled to his feet as Bob released his hold
and in an instant was lost in the darkness. Bob,
fearing that he would be back with the others, quickly
ran to the front door of the cabin and calling
softly, was at once admitted.</p>
<p>“I thought I heard a noise like someone rolling
about on the ground,” Jack said, as soon as he had
barred the door.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t be surprised if you did,” Bob
grinned.</p>
<p>“What happened?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Jacques and I had a little set to. That is, I think
it was he, although it was so dark that I couldn’t be
sure.” And he told them about the fight.</p>
<p>“I hated to break his arm, but it was he or I, and
I was afraid that the others would hear us and come
to his help,” he concluded.</p>
<p>“You don’t need to waste any sympathy on him,”
Stebbins said, “they’re a bad lot and it would have
been a mighty good job if you had killed him.”</p>
<p>“Now, I think the three of us had better go out
together and hang around,” Bob proposed. “They’ve
got another fire all ready to light, and they may do
it, although I doubt it. Anyhow, we’d better be on
the safe side. I reckon we won’t run much risk
with one of them with a broken arm.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_237">237</div>
<p>Keeping close together, they circled the cabin until
the first streaks of light appeared in the east,
but they heard nothing from their enemies.</p>
<p>“Guess we’d better go inside,” Bob said; “they
might take a shot at us as soon as it gets light
enough to see.”</p>
<p>They acted on the suggestion none too soon, for
just as Rex, who happened to be the last one in,
stepped inside, a bullet whistled past his head and
struck the wall at the back of the room.</p>
<p>“I heard that one sing all right,” he said, as he
banged the door shut and slipped the bar in its
place.</p>
<p>“Now we’ve got to watch mighty close at those
peep holes,” Bob declared.</p>
<p>“And I, for one, don’t think we ought to hesitate
to shoot if we see one of them trying to set fire to
the place, not after that last shot,” Rex declared.</p>
<p>“I hardly think they’ll try it again,” Bob said.
“I kicked all that stuff they had piled up away, and
I don’t believe they’ll risk it again, now that it’s
getting light.”</p>
<p>“Mebby not,” Jack broke in, but we’ll play it
safe and not give ’em the chance.”</p>
<p>Rapidly the light increased, and soon they were
able to see plainly for some distance.</p>
<p>“I wonder if they’ve got any more tricks up
their sleeves,” Jack said, as he took his eye from
the hole.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_238">238</div>
<p>“I’ll say they have,” Bob replied almost immediately.</p>
<p>Even as he spoke a slight sound as of something
striking on the roof was heard.</p>
<p>“What was that?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Just what I’ve been afraid of, a fire arrow,” Bob
told him.</p>
<p>“What do you mean by that?” Rex asked
anxiously.</p>
<p>“They’re trying to set fire to the roof by shooting
arrows which they have wrapped with birch bark
and smeared with pitch. It’s an old Indian trick.”</p>
<p>“But will the roof catch?”</p>
<p>“I’m afraid it will. It’s made of pretty light
stuff, I suppose. Most of them are, but let’s hope
that this one’s an exception.</p>
<p>“There’s another one,” Jack said a moment later,
as a second thud sounded on the roof.</p>
<p>“Is there nothing we can do?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Not a thing so far as I can see, except hope and
pray that it doesn’t catch,” Bob answered sadly.</p>
<p>“Hark!” Jack whispered, about five minutes later.</p>
<p>“What is it?” Bob asked.</p>
<p>“Don’t you hear it?”</p>
<p>“It’s caught sure as guns,” Bob declared, after
listening intently.</p>
<p>“It sure has,” Jack agreed, “and by the sound it’s
going in good shape.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_239">239</div>
<p>Bob moved about the room, stopping every few
feet, to listen and cautioning the others to keep quiet.</p>
<p>“I think it’s right here,” he announced, pointing
to the roof about half way down one side. Quick,
now, get that table under here and make it snappy.”</p>
<p>Without waiting to question his intention Rex
dragged the table to the place where Bob was standing,
and in almost less than no time, as Jack would
say, he was on a chair which he had placed on the
table, hacking away at the roof with the axe.</p>
<p>As Bob had said, the roof was made of light material,
covered with bark and moss, and he made short
work of cutting through it, and he soon had a hole
large enough to admit his head.</p>
<p>“Don’t you poke your head out of that hole,”
Jack ordered.</p>
<p>“I’ve got to, so don’t argue, but hand me that
box there—quick.”</p>
<p>“They’ll take a shot at you.”</p>
<p>“Not the first time they won’t. I’ll be too quick
for them.”</p>
<p>Placing the box on the chair he was tall enough
to be able to get his head through the opening. As
he had hoped, the fire was only about a foot away.</p>
<p>“Hand me that small shovel,” he ordered, as he
withdrew his head.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_240">240</div>
<p>With the shovel he soon succeeded in beating out
the blaze, but as he again looked out to make sure
that it was out a bullet sang past his head, making
him duck back quickly.</p>
<p>“I told you,” Jack said, as he jumped down.</p>
<p>“I know, but I got the fire out, although I don’t
expect it will do much good.”</p>
<p>“How come?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“They’ll have another one going in a minute, and
it’ll be pretty risky to try that stunt again, as they’ll
be on the watch.”</p>
<p>“It seems kinder funny to me that as many times
as they have shot at us not a bullet has hit. I thought
that all those fellows up here were dead shots,” Rex
said.</p>
<p>“Most of them are good shots, all right,” Bob declared,
“but most of the time the light has been
bad, and then I’m inclined to think that perhaps they
haven’t yet shot to hit. You see, although they
won’t hesitate to kill if they think their safety depends
on it, they’d rather get that money without
killing us if they can, and I reckon it looks to them
just now as though they could.”</p>
<p>“And to tell the truth, it kinder looks that way to
me,” Jack grinned.</p>
<p>As Bob had predicted, it was only a few minutes
before they could tell by the sound that the roof was
burning, not only in one place, but in at least three.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_241">241</div>
<p>“It’s no use trying it again,” Bob sighed. “Even
if they didn’t shoot, they can start those fires a good
deal faster than we can put them out.”</p>
<p>“Then our only hope is that Kernertok’ll get
back in time,” Rex suggested.</p>
<p>“I guess that’s about the size of it,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>“I wish I knew that he got through all right.
What do you think about it?” Jack asked turning to
Bob.</p>
<p>“I feel pretty sure, that unless they got him, they
don’t know that he’s gone,” Bob replied.</p>
<p>“What makes you think that?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Because if they knew that he had gone for help,
they wouldn’t have waited till now to start firing the
roof,” Bob assured him.</p>
<p>“Sounds reasonable,” Rex said.</p>
<p>“But that shot—” Jack began, but Bob interrupted.</p>
<p>“Might not have had anything to do with it.”</p>
<p>“And then again it might,” Jack insisted.</p>
<p>By this time the roof was burning fiercely, as
they could tell by the sound, and, to make matters
worse, a stiff breeze had sprung up.</p>
<p>“It won’t take it long to go in this wind,” Jack
declared.</p>
<p>“Well, the only thing we can do is to wait as long
as we can in hopes that Kernertok will come with
help. If he doesn’t, we’ll have to make a rush for
it and trust to luck,” Bob said sadly.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_242">242</div>
<p>“By the way, Mr. Stebbins, did you ever hear
the legend connected with this lake?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“Yes, I’ve heard it. Why?”</p>
<p>“I was just wondering. You see the other night
we saw a canoe with a white figure in it out on
the lake, and it looked kinder spooky.”</p>
<p>“That was Jacques. He knows about the legend,
and every night he would wrap a sheet about himself
and go out on the lake. He knew that you were
headed up this way some how or other and he
thought it would scare you away.”</p>
<p>“We have known for several days that someone
was dogging us,” Bob told him, and then he explained
about the mysterious tracks.</p>
<p>“I guess I can clear up that part of it also,” Stebbins
said, as he stepped over to the bunks and knelt
down on the floor. He reached far under the lower
bunk and dragged out two objects, which he held
out to Bob.</p>
<p>“Well, I’ll be jiggered,” he said.</p>
<p>The things which Stebbins had in his hands were
two large frames made to strap on to a shoe.</p>
<p>“They made those tracks all right,” Bob declared,
as he examined them.</p>
<p>“No doubt about that,” Jack agreed.</p>
<p>“Well, there’s two mysteries cleared up,” Rex
said.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_243">243</div>
<p>“And there’s only one left to be solved,” Bob
said grimly.</p>
<p>“And what’s that?” Rex asked.</p>
<p>“How we’re going to get out of this scrape.”</p>
<p>“Never say die,” Jack said trying to make his
voice sound hopeful. “We’ve been in some tight
places before, and something tells me that this isn’t
the last one.”</p>
<p>By this time the roof was burned through in a
number of places, and charred fragments were falling
to the floor.</p>
<p>“It’s getting pretty warm in here,” Jack declared,
wiping the perspiration from his face.</p>
<p>“And what’s more, that roof is going to come
down in a bunch before very long,” Bob added.</p>
<p>Just then a loud voice was heard from outside.</p>
<p>“Hey, there in der cabin.”</p>
<p>“What do you want?” Bob called at the top of his
voice.</p>
<p>“You geet warm, oui?”</p>
<p>“Well, we’re not actually freezing,” Bob yelled
back.</p>
<p>“Non? You roast ver’ queek you no tell where
money be.”</p>
<p>To this Bob made no reply, and after a moment
the man shouted:</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_244">244</div>
<p>“You come out geet shot, stay in geet roast, oui.
You tell where money you all come out go way, no
geet hurt.”</p>
<p>“I’ll be—” Bob began, but Rex caught him by
the arm.</p>
<p>“Just a minute, Bob. They’ve got us, and what’s
the money compared to our lives? Tell him where
it is.”</p>
<p>“Not just yet,” Bob replied. “We’ve got a few
minutes yet before the roof will fall and Kernertok
may come at any moment. We’ll think it over,”
he shouted to the men outside.</p>
<p>The roof was now a roaring mass of flames and
they had great difficulty in keeping clear of the falling
embers. In several places the side logs had
caught, and fanned by the wind, were burning with
great vigor. Bob knew, as did the others, that it
could be but a matter of minutes now when they
would have to leave the cabin.</p>
<p>“I guess we’ll have to give in,” he said sadly, a
few minutes later, as a portion of the roof fell in
with a crash, narrowly escaping Jack’s head.</p>
<p>“It’s the only thing to do,” Rex urged.</p>
<p>“Hello, outside there,” Bob shouted.</p>
<p>“You tell, oui?” Jacques’s voice called back.</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s—” Bob began, when suddenly above the
crackling of the fire a rifle shot rang out.</p>
<p>“Hark!” Jack cried, catching Bob by the arm.
“That may be Kernertok.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_245">245</div>
<p>They waited with bated breath for a moment, and
then, to their great joy, Kernertok’s voice reached
them.</p>
<p>“Bob, Jack, you come out heap soon.”</p>
<p>“Heap soon is right,” Jack shouted, dancing about
like a wild man. “I told you I had a hunch.”</p>
<p>In another minute Bob had withdrawn the bar and
they were outside breathing the pure, cool air. Just
on the edge of the clearing they saw Kernertok beckoning
to them, and they lost no time in hastening
to his side.</p>
<p>“You got here just in time, thank God,” Bob
cried, as he grasped his friend’s hand.</p>
<p>“Heap little time spare,” Kernertok declared
gravely.</p>
<p>“I’ll tell the world it was,” Jack cried. “But
where are the breeds?”</p>
<p>“Come.”</p>
<p>They followed the Indian a few feet into the forest,
and there they found the three men surrounded
by four sturdy Yankees. Bob quickly noted that one
of the prisoners carried one arm in a sling, made
from a large red handkerchief.</p>
<p>“So it wasn’t you, Jacques,” he said, turning to
the leader, who was standing with dejected mien a
little apart from the other two.</p>
<p>Jacques made no reply, but gave the boys a look
of fierce hatred, to which they paid little heed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_246">246</div>
<p>“Come on, Jack,” Bob cried, turning to his
brother, “let’s see if we can save enough of the food
for breakfast.”</p>
<p>“Make it snappy,” Jack replied, as he followed
Bob, who had started on a run toward the cabin.</p>
<p>As they had hoped, the part of the cabin containing
the food closet was not as yet on fire, so far as
the walls were concerned, and after a hurried struggle,
they succeeded in tearing it out and saving all
it contained.</p>
<p>“There,” Bob panted as they placed it on the
ground beyond the reach of the flames. “I reckon
we’ll have enough grub to last us till we get back
to civilization.”</p>
<p>It did not take them long to prepare a hearty meal
and in less than an hour they were ready to take
the back trail. They found the money where Stebbins
had said he had buried it and the latter
breathed a deep sigh of relief as he saw it restored
to the son of the man who owned it.</p>
<p>“That sure is a big relief off my mind,” he declared
as he handed the bag to Rex.</p>
<p>A little later they were back again on the banks
of the Allagash where they found their canoe together
with two others which Kernertok and his
companions had brought up with them. The trip
down the river was uneventful and they arrived at
the little town of St. Francis shortly after noon,
highly elated with the successful ending of their
adventure.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_247">247</div>
<p>“I owe you boys and Kernertok a lot,” Rex declared
as they walked down the street toward the
little hotel.</p>
<p>“Bosh,” Jack exclaimed. “Never had a better
time in my life.”</p>
<p>They left for home by train the following morning
after making arrangements to have the canoe
shipped back to North East Carry.</p>
<p>“Heap hard trip,” Kernertok grunted as he sank
into his seat just as the train started.</p>
<p>“I didn’t think you had minded it,” Jack said in
surprise.</p>
<p>“Trip up here all right. Trip back on train heap
hard,” and the old Indian shook his head while the
boys laughed.</p>
<p class="tbcenter">THE END</p>
<hr />
<h3 id="c14"><i>SAVE THE WRAPPER!</i></h3>
<p>If you have enjoyed reading about the
adventures of the new friends you have
made in this book and would like to read
more clean, wholesome stories of their entertaining
experiences, turn to the book
jacket—on the inside of it, a comprehensive
list of Burt’s fine series of carefully selected
books for young people has been placed for
your convenience.</p>
<p><i>Orders for these books, placed with your
bookstore or sent to the Publishers, will
receive prompt attention</i>.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_248">248</div>
<h2 id="c15"><span class="h2line1"><span class="large">The Golden Boys Series</span></span></h2>
<div class="img">
<img src="images/p03.jpg" alt="The Golden Boys in the Maine Woods" width="300" height="421" />
</div>
<p class="center"><b>BY L. P. WYMAN, PH.D.
<br /><span class="small">Dean of Pennsylvania Military College.</span></b></p>
<p>A new series of instructive copyright stories for
boys of High School Age.</p>
<p class="center">Handsome Cloth Binding.
<br /><b>PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
<br /><span class="small">POSTAGE 10c EXTRA</span></b></p>
<dl class="undent"><dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS AND THEIR NEW ELECTRIC CELL</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE FORTRESS</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS IN THE MAINE WOODS</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS WITH THE LUMBER JACKS</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS RESCUED BY RADIO</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS ALONG THE RIVER ALLAGASH</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE HAUNTED CAMP</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS ON THE RIVER DRIVE</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS SAVE THE CHAMBERLAIN DAM</dt>
<dt>THE GOLDEN BOYS ON THE TRAIL</dt></dl>
<h1 title="">The Boy Scout Series</h1>
<div class="img">
<img src="images/p03a.jpg" alt="The Boy Scouts’ First Campfire" width="300" height="419" />
</div>
<p class="center">BY HERBERT CARTER</p>
<p class="center">For Boys 12 to 16 Years
<br />All Cloth Bound <span class="hst">Copyright Titles</span>
<br />PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
<br /><span class="small">Postage 10c Extra</span>
<br />New Stories of Camp Life</p>
<dl class="undent"><dt>THE BOY SCOUTS’ FIRST CAMPFIRE; or, Scouting with the Silver Fox Patrol.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE BLUE RIDGE; or, Marooned Among the Moonshiners.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE TRAIL; or, Scouting through the Big Game Country.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS THROUGH THE BIG TIMBER; or, The Search for the Lost Tenderfoot.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS IN THE ROCKIES; or, The Secret of the Hidden Silver Mine.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS ON STURGEON ISLAND; or, Marooned Among the Game-Fish Poachers.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS DOWN IN DIXIE; or, The Strange Secret of Alligator Swamp.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS AT THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA; A story of Burgoyne’s Defeat in 1777.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS ALONG THE SUSQUEHANNA; or, The Silver Fox Patrol Caught in a Flood.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS ON WAR TRAILS IN BELGIUM; or, Caught Between Hostile Armies.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY SCOUTS AFOOT IN FRANCE; or, With The Red Cross Corps at the Marne.</dt></dl>
<h1 title="">The Rex Kingdon Series</h1>
<div class="img">
<img src="images/p04.jpg" alt="Rex Kingdon of Ridgewood High" width="300" height="423" />
</div>
<p class="center">By GORDON BRADDOCK</p>
<p>A fine series of stories for boys of High School age,
written in an interesting and instructive style.</p>
<p>Rex Kingdon, the hero, a real, wide-awake boy, interested
in outdoor games, enters into the school sports with
enthusiasm. A rattling good baseball story holds the
interest to the very end. Rex and his Ridgewood friends
establish a campfire in the North woods; there, mystery,
jealousy and rivalry enter to menace their safety, fire their
interest and finally cement their friendship.</p>
<p>Stories boys will want to read.</p>
<p class="center">CLOTHBOUND. JACKETS IN COLORS.
<br />Copyright Titles.</p>
<p class="center">PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
<br /><span class="small">POSTAGE 10c EXTRA</span></p>
<dl class="undent"><dt>REX KINGDON OF RIDGEWOOD HIGH</dt>
<dt>REX KINGDON IN THE NORTH WOODS</dt>
<dt>REX KINGDON AT WALCOTT HALL</dt>
<dt>REX KINGDON BEHIND THE BAT</dt>
<dt>REX KINGDON ON STORM ISLAND</dt></dl>
<h1 title="">The Oakdale Academy Series</h1>
<div class="img">
<img src="images/p04a.jpg" alt="Oakdale Boys in Camp" width="300" height="427" />
</div>
<p class="center">BY MORGAN SCOTT</p>
<p>A series of real boys’ stories at the Oakdale Academy.
Ben Stone, the hero, wins his way under peculiar circumstances
and against great odds.</p>
<p>Clean-cut stories of real experiences in athletics and
sports of academy life, with adventures, mysteries and
clever descriptions.</p>
<p>Just the kind of books a boy 12 to 16 years would
like to read.</p>
<p class="center">HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING,
<br />JACKETS IN COLORS
<br />PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
<br /><span class="small">POSTAGE 10c EXTRA</span></p>
<p class="center">Copyright Titles</p>
<dl class="undent"><dt>BEN STONE AT OAKDALE</dt>
<dt>BOYS OF OAKDALE ACADEMY</dt>
<dt>RIVAL PITCHERS OF OAKDALE</dt>
<dt>OAKDALE BOYS IN CAMP</dt>
<dt>THE GREAT OAKDALE MYSTERY</dt>
<dt>THE NEW BOYS AT OAKDALE</dt></dl>
<h1 title="">The Radio Boys Series</h1>
<div class="img">
<img src="images/p05.jpg" alt="The Radio Boys as Soldiers of Fortune" width="300" height="414" />
</div>
<p class="center">BY GERALD BRECKENRIDGE</p>
<p>A new series of copyright titles for
boys of all ages.</p>
<p class="center">Cloth Bound, with Attractive Cover Designs
<br />PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH
<br /><span class="small">POSTAGE 10c EXTRA</span></p>
<dl class="undent"><dt>THE RADIO BOYS ON THE MEXICAN BORDER</dt>
<dt>THE RADIO BOYS ON SECRET SERVICE DUTY</dt>
<dt>THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE REVENUE GUARDS</dt>
<dt>THE RADIO BOYS’ SEARCH FOR THE INCA’S TREASURE</dt>
<dt>THE RADIO BOYS RESCUE THE LOST ALASKA EXPEDITION</dt>
<dt>THE RADIO BOYS IN DARKEST AFRICA</dt>
<dt>THE RADIO BOYS SEEK THE LOST ATLANTIS</dt>
<dt>THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE BORDER PATROL</dt>
<dt>THE RADIO BOYS AS SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE</dt></dl>
<h1 title="">The Boy Allies
<br /><span class="smallest">(Registered in the United States Patent Office)</span>
<br />With the Army</h1>
<div class="img">
<img src="images/p05a.jpg" alt="The Boy Allies in Great Peril" width="300" height="420" />
</div>
<p class="center">BY CLAIR W. HAYES</p>
<p class="center">For Boys 12 to 16 Years.
<br />All Cloth Bound <span class="hst">Copyright Titles</span></p>
<p>In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads
unable to leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the
soldiers of the Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them.
Their experiences and escapes are many, and furnish plenty of
good, healthy action that every boy loves.</p>
<dl class="undent"><dt>THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days’ Battle Along the Marne.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the Carpathians.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the Aisne.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army In the Alps.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a Nation.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery Rewarded.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American Troops to the Firing Line.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of Vimy Ridge.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE: or, Over the Top at Chateau Thierry.</dt>
<dt>THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH: or, The Closing Days of the Great World War.</dt></dl>
<h1 title="">Boys of the Royal Mounted Police Series</h1>
<div class="img">
<img src="images/p06.jpg" alt="Dick Kent With the Mounted Police" width="300" height="418" />
</div>
<p class="center">By MILTON RICHARDS</p>
<p class="center">A new series of stories of Adventure in the North Woods
<br />For Boys 12 to 16 Years
<br />Handsome Cloth Binding</p>
<p>DICK KENT WITH THE MOUNTED POLICE</p>
<p class="blurb">Dick and his friend Sandy meet with ambush and desperate
hand-to-hand encounters while on a dangerous
mission with the Canadian Mounted Police.</p>
<p>DICK KENT IN THE FAR NORTH</p>
<p class="blurb">Outwitting the notorious outlaw “Bear” Henderson
with the help of Malemute Slade, the two boys discover
the secret of a lost gold mine.</p>
<p>DICK KENT WITH THE ESKIMOS</p>
<p class="blurb">In their search, with the mounted police, for an
escaped murderer, Dick and Sandy have thrilling
experiences with ice floes and animals in the Arctic.</p>
<p>DICK KENT, FUR TRADER</p>
<p class="blurb">On the trail with Corporal Rand, Dick Kent and his
two associates unravel the mystery of the fur thieves.</p>
<p>DICK KENT WITH THE MALEMUTE MAIL</p>
<p class="blurb">Entrusted with the vaccine for an isolated trading
post, Dick and his friends win through in spite of
incredible difficulties.</p>
<p>DICK KENT ON SPECIAL DUTY</p>
<p class="blurb">Corporal Rand and his young recruits solve a mystery
and find a hidden treasure.</p>
<p class="tb">For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the
Publishers</p>
<hr class="d" />
<p class="center"><b>A. L. BURT COMPANY, Publishers,</b>
<br /><span class="small"><b>114-120 EAST 23rd STREET</b></span> <span class="hst"><span class="small"><b>NEW YORK</b></span></span></p>
<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
<ul>
<li>Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.</li>
<li>In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)</li>
<li>Generated a Table of Contents based on chapter headings.</li>
<li>Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged.</li>
</ul>
<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57230 ***</div>
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