CHAPTER IVTHE FIGURE IN THE MOONLIGHT
"You couldn't beat this much, I'd say, if you want to know my opinion," Ethan was remarking, after they had finished the meal and were taking things easy.
"Of course we all feel pretty much the same way," admitted X-Ray Tyson; "but I'd be a whole lot better satisfied if I knew about that bright new half-dollar. Is it a good one, or a bunker?"
"Chances are we'll hear no end to that squall all the time we're up here," Ethan went on to say, with a pretended look of disgust on his thin Yankee face. "Whenever you do get a thing on your mind, X-Ray, you sure beat all creation to keep yawping about it. Forget that you ever picked up the fifty, and let's be thinking only of the royal good times we're meaning to have."
"What can that sound be?" suddenly remarked Lub, who had been listening more orless apprehensively for some little time now; "seems like some one might be sawing a hole through the wall. Course, though, I don't believe that for a minute; but all the same it's a queer noise. There, don't you hear it?"
There did come a distinct little "rat-tat-tat," several times repeated. No one who was not deaf could have helped hearing such a distinct sound; but Lub could not see that any of his mates seemed bothered.
"May be that old gray squirrel gnawing somewhere," suggested X-Ray; "they've got long teeth like a rat, and can chew a hole through any sort of board."
"Now, I'd rather believe it was the wind," said Ethan, who had a pretty good knowledge of woodcraft in all its branches, and was therefore well fitted to give an opinion.
"Why, how could the night wind make that sort of scratching sound?" asked Lub, doubtless wondering whether the other were simply guying him because of his being a greenhorn.
"Oh! the broken end of a branch might be rubbing against the roof of the cabin," Ethan told him. "I've known that to happen lots of times. There she hits up the tune again, you notice, Lub."
"Yes," added Phil, nodding his head approvingly, "and if you listen, every time that scratching sound comes you can hear the wind soughing through the tree-tops. That ought to prove it."
Still Lub seemed hard to convince, seeing which Ethan jumped up.
"Just stir your stumps, Lub, and come outside with me," he said, positively. "I want to prove what I said, and you've got to be shown."
Lub saw there was no getting around it, and much as he disliked making a move when he was settled so comfortably, he managed to scramble to his feet.
Once out in the bright moonlight and practical Ethan was quick to discover the source of the peculiar and often recurring noise.
"You see, Lub," he went on to say, "there's your saw at work right now. Just as I told you it's a branch that's been worn off to a stub by this scraping. Every time there's a fresh gust of wind it waves back and forth, and scraping against the roof makes that funny sound. Now, I hope your mind's easy, Lub, and that you'll sleep decent to-night."
"I hope I will," replied Lub, earnestly, at the same time remembering about the bunks, and what one of the others had said with regard tohouse-cleaning in the morning; "but say, it is a fine night, ain't it, Ethan. Listen to the frogs singing their chorus in some little bay of the lake."
"Yes," remarked Ethan, quickly, "I was listening to their serenade. Some busters in that lot, too, because you can hear 'em calling more-rum, more-rum' in the deepest bass. That always stands for the big bullfrogs. I ought to know, because I'm an experienced frog-raiser. Cleared sixty-seven dollars from my little pond this very summer; but I've never seen frogs'-legs quotedquiteso high as that Mr. Brandon the restaurant man down in New York pays me. I guess he favors me a mite just because he happens to know some friends of Phil's."
Lub knew all about it, but he never let even a chuckle escape from his lips.
"Well, in that letter you had from him which you showed me," he observed, "he said he'd never had such fine frogs'-legs before, and wanted to make sure to keep getting all you had to sell. A dollar a pound is a cracking high sum, sure it is, but then good things always bring fancy prices."
That frog pond of Ethan's went with his many other ways for making spending money.It required almost no time at all to run it. When he found an opportunity he caught frogs wherever he could find them, and put them into his preserve. Then, on feeling that he had the right kind of goods for a gilt-edge market he would make a shipment of a box of "saddles" neatly arranged, so that they were attractive to the eye of the proprietor of the fashionable restaurant in far-off New York.
Phil had recommended Ethan to try that place, and had even given him permission to use his name as a recommendation. Ethan never knew that the same mail had carried a letter from Phil to Mr. Brandon, who was an old friend of his, making arrangements to stand for the difference between the market price of frogs'-legs and the fancy sum he was to send Ethan every time he shipped him a box.
While Lub was standing there, and apparently enjoying the sight of the moonlight dancing on the water of the lake near by, he was at the same time casting occasional apprehensive glances around him.
The woods looked mysterious enough and gloomy too, for the moon had not risen far in the heavens, and the shadows were long and abundant.
Several times he fancied he saw something moving there on the border of the dense growth. Finally he appealed to Ethan, because he had considerable respect for the opinions of his chum, who had studied woods lore so long.
"You don't think now, that any of that crowd we scared away from the cabin would come sneaking back to spy on us, or try to steal any of our things?" he asked, trying to appear as though such an idea was furthest from his own thoughts.
"Well, I hadn't bothered with such a thing as that, Lub, but now that you mention the same I can't see why they should. We haven't got anything along worth stealing; and if they are afraid of the officers of the law, as counterfeiters, or game poachers, why, they'd want to get as far away as they could. So I wouldn't let that keep me from sleeping a wink."
"Oh! I don't mean to," Lub hastened to exclaim, stoutly; but all the same as he followed Ethan back through the cabin doorway the very last thing he did was to take a parting survey of the forest fringe, and shrug his fat shoulders.
"Seems like it was getting right noisy out there, Ethan," remarked X-Ray, when Lub had carefully pushed the door shut, and both of thosewho had just entered found places again in the half circle before the red embers of the fire.
The interior was only dimly lighted, because they only had a single lantern to do duty. But then it served them amply, because no one meant to try and read; and whenever a fresh lot of wood was thrown on the coals it flashed up brilliantly.
That firelight was a part of the charm of the whole thing. They could have lamps, gas, or even electric light at home any time they wanted; but only under such conditions as these was it possible to enjoy the mystic firelight.
"Why, yes," Ethan replied, "I guess the woods folks are waking up. You can hear crickets a fiddling away for dear life, and other sorts of insects besides. Then there's a pair of screech owls calling to each other; a whip-poor-will whooping things up; and most of all the frogs have started in to get busy with their chorus. And say, I'm going to promise you a feast to-morrow night."
"Frogs'-legs, you mean, I take it, Ethan." Phil quickly exclaimed, looking pleased at the prospect.
"Yes, because there's some corkers out there;and leave it to me to get 'em. I'm an authority on frogs'-legs, you know. And when they fetch a dollar a pound every time, you c'n see that they ought to be reckoned a treat."
"A dollar a pound, did you say?" demanded X-Ray, as if he fancied he had not heard aright; whereat he had his shins kicked by Lub, who happened to sit next to him, as a warning that he was treading on perilous ground.
"Why, yes, that's the price I always get!" declared Ethan, loftily. "You see, it pays to do things up in style. My shipments look so attractive to Mr. Brandon that he says it is a pleasure to just open my box. Of course all of you fellows like frogs'-legs?"
Phil and X-Ray Tyson immediately declared they believed they could never get enough of the dainty.
"To tell you the honest truth," said Lub, contritely, "I never tasted any that I know of. My folks don't seem to care for queer things."
"Queer things!" almost shouted Ethan; "well, I like that now! Why, don't you know that frogs'-legs are as delicate as squab. You'd think you had a spring chicken, only when you come to think, it has just alittletaste of fish about it."
"Oh! my, I don't know as I'd fancy that very much," complained Lub.
"Huh! I know you better than to believe that, Lub," he was told by the other; "and I'll just have to make sure to lay in a plenty, because I c'n see you passing in your platter seven times, to say: 'Please see if there isn't just one more helping for me, won't you, Ethan; they're the finest things I ever set my teeth in, and that's no lie!'"
"Well, wait and see, that's all," Lub concluded. "I'm willing to be convinced. I mightn't care for a thing like that at home, with a white tablecloth, silver, and cut glass all around me; but then it's a different case when you're up in the woods, with your camp appetite along, and going just half crazy because supper is so slow cooking, with all those odors stealing to your nose. Try it on me, Ethan; I'd be willing to taste even dog just once, if I was hungry, and met up with a bunch of Indians."
"I'm not afraid of the verdict," announced the boy who raised frogs, and thought he had a right to know considerable about them, since he topped the market with the gilt-edge prices he received.
So they talked, and joked, as the evening worealong. Several times they caught Lub in the act of yawning, and he was of course immediately poked in the ribs as they besought him to please not swallow the cabin while about it.
"But I tell you I am sleepy; and no matter what the rest of you say I'm going to get my bunk made up. I want to be in apple-pie shape for to-morrow, for I expect it's going to be a red-letter day with us."
Each of them had carried a warm blanket in their pack, which was one reason for the bulk of these burdens. They had not been quite as heavy as they looked; doubtless the greatest load consisted of canned goods, and food of various kinds, which they would not have to pack out of the woods again.
Lub was somewhat fastidious about how he wanted his bed made up. Three separate times did he pull it to pieces again, to start in afresh.
"Hey, stop bothering so much with that!" X-Ray Tyson called out, having been observing what the other was doing. "You certainly are the greatest old woman I ever ran across, Lub."
"And you'll never make a woodsman, as long as you're so finicky, either," Ethan warnedhim. "'The happy-go-lucky kind is best in the end. They give their blanket a fling, and just crawl under. And they sleep the soundest too."
"Oh! well, I'll learn some day, perhaps," said Lub, not at all disconcerted by all this raillery, for it fell from him as water does from a duck's back. "But I've got it fixed to suit me at last. This bunch of dead grass rolled in the pillow slip I fetched will make me a dandy pillow. I'm glad you gave me a hint to bring one along, Phil."
"Old woodsmen use then? boots for a pillow," chuckled Ethan, which remark caused the particular Lub to shudder, and shake his head, as though he began to despair of ever reaching that point where he could claim to be a seasoned veteran.
While the others were again indulging in some sort of discussion, Lub, thinking he was unobserved, sauntered over to one of the little windows which the builder of the birch cabin had arranged so that he might have light, and yet shut out the cold air of winter.
"Oh, come here, won't you, Phil; there's somebody walking along by the trees, and standing still to watch the cabin every once in a while!"
When Lub said this in a voice that trembled with excitement the other three boys of course hastened to scramble to their feet and reach his side.
"Whereabouts, Lub?" demanded X-Ray Tyson, eagerly, as he pressed his nose against the glass, and occupied so much space in doing so that he prevented the others from having a chance to see fairly; so that Phil and Ethan deliberately drew him to one side.
"There, over yonder where the moon shines between the little second-growth trees!" the discoverer went on to say, huskily, and pointing a trembling stubby finger as he spoke. "There, didn't you see then, boys?"
"There certainly is something, and it moved!" admitted Ethan.
"Oh! it's a man, I'm telling you!" hissed Lub; "didn't I see him plain as the nose on your face, X-Ray, and that's going some. He was moving along where the shadows die out. Now he's past that place. It's a man, believe me; and he's meaning to sneak in here to-night, to rob us. There, see him moving again, will you?"
"Yes, I do believe it is a man, bending over at that," agreed Phil.
"He's moving off, seems like," observed X-Ray, who had not altogether fancied Lub's allusion to his nose, because itwasrather large.
"Mebbe he's seen us peeking out and thinks it's time he sheered off?" suggested Ethan.
"Had we better collar him, Phil?" asked X-Ray, who was inclined to be very quick in his actions, and often without due thought making some move he was likely to regret later.
"No, that would be silly," decided Phil. "The only weapons we've got consist of one revolver, a couple of camp hatchets, and some hunting knives. How do we know what he might do, or how many of them there may be? Let him look at the cabin, and then go away. I don't think we'll be bothered by anybody."
"And I'm not going to lie awake thinking about it," said Ethan. "If he comes in here, and finds anything worth while, we could surround him and make him go shares, you know."
"There, he's moving off at last," said Lub; "but I don't like all this mystery. Who is he, and what does he want? We'd be happier if we moved on, and built a cabin somewhere else."
"What!" exclaimed the belligerent X-Ray, "clear out when Phil owns the whole shebang, and has invited us up? Well, I guess not!"
CHAPTER VTHE SUDDEN AWAKENING
"Thought you meant to go to bed, Lub?" said Ethan, some little time afterwards, as they were all sitting around again.
"Oh! somehow I seem to have gotten over my sleepy spell," admitted the other, frankly; "perhaps it was the excitement over seeing that prowler outside that did it. I'm as wide awake as a hawk right now."
"Well, it's just the other way with me," X-Ray remarked, yawning almost as furiously as Lub had been doing before; "I'm getting dopey, and mean to turn in pretty soon. If nothing else happens to bother, nobody's going to hear a word from me after I hit the hay."
Lub looked at him painfully, but he did not think it best to ask further questions lest he stir up a hornets' nest. There was something on Lub's mind. Phil understood this from varioussigns. He began to get an inkling as to what its nature might prove to be, when several times he saw the other lean forward and look long and earnestly up the chimney.
"What d'ye expect to see up there, Lub?" asked Ethan, who had also it seemed been watching the other. "This isn't the time for old Santa Claus to come down with his pack of toys. His reindeer need snow for their sledge, you know."
"Will you let the fire go out when we turn in, Phil?" asked Lub, ignoring all such little annoyances as this.
"Why, I suppose so," he was told. "If it was cold weather it might be a different thing; but to-night is pretty warm, and we'll get little air in here, with the door closed. Yes, the last wood has been thrown on the fire; and to tell the truth there's only a handful more in the house, which we'll save to start things with in the morning."
"What did you ask that for, Lub?"
X-Ray made this inquiry. He realized that the other must have something on his mind, or he would not have spoken as he did. And X-Ray was curious to know what its character might turn out to be.
"Oh, nothing much; only it strikes me that'sa whopping big chimney, that's all," replied the other, a little confused.
"I see what you mean," said Phil; "you're thinking that even if we do close the door as we intend, if a thief wanted to get in here he could creep down such a wide-throated chimney? Well, I shouldn't be at all surprised if he could, providing he took the notion."
"I hate to think of being sound asleep, and not know a single thing about it," pursued Lub, "You know how I caught that darky stealing our chickens last winter? I set a trap for him, and gave him such a scare that he just crouched in a corner of the coop with all the hens cackling like mad, till father went out and got him by the scruff of the neck."
"Mebbe you'd like to set one of your fine traps here then, Lub," suggested Ethan.
"I think I could do it, if the rest of you didn't object," Lub pursued.
"Please yourself," said Phil.
"I'm off to bed right now," added X-Ray Tyson, "so you c'n have the whole blooming field to yourself. Be sure you don't get nabbed in your own contraption, Lub. Now, you may smile at my saying that, but it wouldn't be the first time a bitter got bitten."
Both Phil and Ethan began to stretch, and exhibited other positive signs of being ready to turn in. It would appear that none of the rest of them gave much thought to the possibility of their having unwelcome visitors during the night. Lub envied them their calm indifference; but he felt that he would not be doing his whole duty unless he carried out that idea of the trap.
He saw Phil saunter over to the door, which, with something of an effort he managed to get to close tight enough so that the bar could be dropped into place. That avenue seemed quite safe; and as the windows had each one a couple of stout bars fastened across them, it looked as though there could be no ingress unless the intruder were a mere child, or else made use of that wide-throated slab-and-hard-mud chimney.
The other boys were more or less amused to see what the ingenious Lub was doing, in order to further his plot. First of all he arranged the stools and other bulky objects that he could gather about the room in such fashion that they formed a species of rude barricade on either side of the hearth, where the red embers still held forth.
"Looks like a regular wild animal trap, allright!" Ethan sang out, as though more or less surprised that Lub should know as much as he did about such things. "That forces the intruder to step out in the middle; and I guess now that's where you're going to fix things to give him a warm reception, eh, Lub?"
"You wait and see," was all the other would say.
They quickly understood what he had in mind. Everything they had along in the shape of cooking utensils, that would be apt to make a jangling noise if thrown down, was utilized. The big frying pan crowned the pyramid, and Lub was very particular just how he placed this, so that the least jar was apt to dislodge the aluminum skillet, which would be certain to arouse even the soundest sleeper when it rattled on the floor.
"Don't kick over our grub that we've got piled up close by you there, Lub," warned X-Ray, after chuckling to see how the other was making such elaborate arrangements; for he did not have the remotest idea they would amount to anything in the end.
"That ought to finish your trap, Lub, I should think," said Phil, who was almost ready to climb into his bunk, having removed most of his clothing,and arranged his sleeping quarters in a jiffy; he too had a small pillow-slip filled with some of the hay, upon which he expected to rest his head comfortably.
"Why, yes, I don't seem to think of anything else we've got that would help to make a big noise," the other replied, soberly; "what with four cups, as many platters, the coffeepot, and the frying pan ought to make plenty of racket. But say, you should have seen the heap of tin-pans I piled up the time I caught that chicken thief."
"If you had much more than this lot," Ethan announced, "I don't wonder the poor critter was scared nearly stiff, and could only crouch there till your dad came and arrested him."
"And on my part," said X-Ray Tyson, with another wide yawn, "I only hope there doesn't anything happen to start that pyramid tumbling, that's all. If I was dreaming of something lovely it'd sure be a shame to get waked up by such a row, and to find that it was all brought about by a pannikin slipping out of place."
"No danger of that happening," Lub told him; "I've tested it all, and you can depend on things holding."
By slow degrees all of them managed to get settled down. Even slow moving Lub was finally snug in his bunk, though he had to shuffle around for some time while settling himself into the most comfortable position. Ethan threatened all sorts of dire things unless he stopped moving about, because it happened that the sleeping place chosen by the fat camper was just above his.
"I c'n hear it creakin' like anything," announced Ethan; "and if you keep up that squirming business much longer, Lub, I tell you she'll come down on me. Think I'm hankering about being smashed flatter'n a pancake, do you? I don't see why you had to go and pick out one of the upper berths, just because you imagined it was a mite bigger'n any other. 'Tain't fair, I tell you. Go easy now, and quit that moving about. If you've got the itch say so, and we'll rub you down with something. Stop it, right now!"
Perhaps being scolded in this fashion had some effect upon Lub. At any rate he concluded that what couldn't be cured would have to be endured. So he did his level best to forget all about possible night visitors of all types, and tried to lose himself in sleep.
Phil had put out the lantern the last thing. He kept it close by his hand, with matches where he could produce a light in a hurry, in case one was required.
The fire had burned low. Now and then a little flame would spring up and make a faint buzzing sound. Once or twice when this occurred Phil saw Lub raise his head and look earnestly toward the chimney; but he must have finally decided that it was an innocent noise, for with its second repetition he failed to move.
"He's off," Phil told himself, with a slight sigh of satisfaction, for from the way Lub was acting he had begun to fear they were in for a bad night of it.
Lying there Phil rested his head on his arm and looked out into the cabin. When the dying flame occasionally leaped up and burned fitfully for a dozen seconds or so he liked to watch it, and also glance around him as well as he was able.
Phil fairly loved everything that had to do with outdoor life. The dank odor of the woods filled him with a sense of delight that he could never find words to describe. He believed it must have come down to him from some longline of ancestors, this love for Nature, and a desire to commune with her.
Fortune had been kind to him in giving him the means to enjoy such outings; and it added much to his satisfaction to have these fine fellows along with him. They were very dear to Phil. Not one of them would he have willingly missed if such a disaster could be avoided.
Then as he lay there waiting until the drowsiness overtook him again, he allowed his fugitive thoughts to once more wrestle with the mystery connected with the late occupants of that birch bark cabin. Who could they be, and whither had they flown at the approach of himself and three chums?
It was hardly any accident, for all the signs pointed to a flight that bordered on panic. Whoever they were they must have some good and sufficient reason for fearing the advent of strangers. That could only mean they dreaded the strong arm of the law; that there wassomereason why they wished to keep from contact with all whom they did not know.
Well, Phil concluded, there was no use of bothering about them. They had taken a hurried departure, and that was the end of it. He had reason to believe that a child had been there,and possibly a woman as well. While they had not found such tell-tale evidence as a hair-pin, still the little silver thimble which he himself had discovered on a shelf just before retiring, and which he had not mentioned to the others, because he hated to get Lub wide-awake again, seemed to be pretty strong evidence that way.
When he found himself yawning again Phil decided it was time he closed his eyes, and allowed his senses to steal away. The fire had ceased flaring up, and was dying out rapidly, though the ashes would likely retain some of their heat until well on toward dawn.
The last Phil remembered was listening to the weird call of that persistent whip-poor-will, perched in some neighboring tree, and sending forth its shrill discordant cries.
Twice after that he awoke, and found all well. He could hear the steady breathing of his comrades near by; and Lub, lying flat on his back perhaps, was making a grating noise not unlike a snore.
The second time Phil struck a match, one of the silent kind, and took a look at his watch, curious to know how the night was wearing away. He found it was two o'clock, and that the guess he had made was not far amiss.
It took him some little time to get asleep again after that, but in the end he managed to accomplish it. Daylight would be coming by four o'clock and as the novelty of the outing was still upon them, it was to be expected that the boys would want to be up with the birds—that is, all but Lub, who loved sleeping better than plunging into the lake for an early morning swim.
It was fated, however, that they were not to be allowed to slumber calmly on until the approach of the sun hurried the round moon out of sight below the western horizon.
A most unearthly racket sounding awoke every one. If an earthquake had occurred it could hardly have created a greater noise. And the big frying pan proved that the supreme confidence which Lub had placed in its ability to jangle had not been in the least overdone; for it certainly played a fandango as it pitched over on the hard floor of the cabin, and danced some sort of jig, with other things adding their little mite to swell the chorus.
Four fellows came tumbling out of their bunks as one.
"Phil, oh! Phil, strike a light!" cried one.
"Where's my gun?" growled X-Ray Tyson,thinking that in this way he must give fresh alarm to the bold intruder, whoever he might prove to be.
"Phil, the thief has come down the chimney, just as I feared!" called Lub, who in the darkness hardly knew which way to look.
As he managed to get his bearings to some degree he was sure he could detect a man on his hands and knees crawling over the floor. At the same time he heard a whining sound, as well as what seemed to be scratching; and it struck terror to the heart of poor Lub. He fancied that others were without, waiting for the first thief to open the door, in order that they too might rush in, and help make prisoners of the four Mountain Boys.
Just then Lub to his great relief saw a tiny flame spring up close by. This he knew must be a match in the hand of Phil Bradley, who was meaning to light his lantern.
To Lub it seemed an age before the flame was communicated to the wick, and yet it could only have been a comparatively few seconds, no longer than Phil would have taken under ordinary conditions. His hand did not tremble appreciably; and while in an undoubted hurry hewent about his self appointed task with a deliberation that promised a successful result.
Then came the snap as the globe was pressed into place. The room was no longer in darkness. It was possible to see; and with his heart feeling as though it were trying to climb up in his throat Lub fixed his eyes on the spot where he had discovered that moving, creeping object.
What he saw thrilled him through and through, so that for the life of him Lub could not move, or even utter a sound above a whisper. Nor were the other boys much better off, to tell the truth, for they all stood there as though rooted firmly to the spot.
CHAPTER VIGETTING RID OF AN INTRUDER
"Whoo! it's a bear!" yelped Lub, who looked as though his eyes were trying to pop out of his head.
"Tell me, am I seeing things? Is this a wild dream, or am I gazing on a real, live, woolly bear?" cried X-Ray Tyson.
Just then, as though suspecting that the clustered boys had evil designs on him, the small black bear actually growled, and showed its white teeth.
"Here, keep back, you!" exclaimed Ethan; "we haven't lost any bear that we know about. Where'd you come from anyhow, and what d'ye want here?"
"Ethan—don't you see, he came down the chimney!" gasped Lub.
"Just what he must have done," added Phil, who was gripping the only firearm they owned, and wondering what effect a peppering of its tiny missiles would have on the tough hide of a black bear.
"I bet you he was nosing around up there, and smelled our grub," suggested X-Ray, a sudden gleam of light dawning upon him.
"And leaning too far over while he sniffed, he justfell in; that's what you mean, don't you?" demanded Lub.
"Looks that way," assented the other; "but what under the sun are we going to do about it, I'd like to know? He don't mean to crawl up again like he came down. See how he acts; I bet you he got scorched, because there's still some red coals in the fireplace, you notice."
The four boys were huddled in a bunch. It seemed like a case of "in union there is strength" with them just then. And the bear stood where he had been at the time of first discovery. He had his snout thrust out, and was "sniffing" at a great rate. Perhaps it was the human odor that interested him, though Lub got an idea in his head it may have been the food that was so close by.
"Phil, do you think he'll attack us?" Lub asked.
"I hardly think so," replied the other, steadily, after closely examining the appearance of the intruder; "that is, if we keep from making him more furious than he is now."
"Guess he's some surprised to find himself shut in with four husky boys?" suggested Ethan.
"And say, he looks kind of small to me," observed X-Ray.
"I was just going to tell you that," Phil went on to say; "I believe it's only a two-thirds grown cub after all."
"But even at that he's a dangerous customer, with those sharp claws, and his ugly white teeth," protested Lub.
"That's right," added Ethan. "If we tackled him, chances are we'd be sorry for it, unless we had something to knock him on the head with. That makes me think of my bully little camp hatchet. Watch me sneak it right now!"
He started to move softly toward the spot where he had discovered the article in question. The bear began to growl more fiercely than ever.
"Careful, Ethan," cautioned Phil; "take it slow, and duck back just as soon as you've hitched on to the hatchet. Stop and wait till he cools down. Now, only one more step; then you can lean over and reach it."
All of them fairly held their breath, for it was a toss-up as to whether the suspicious bear would conclude to attack Ethan or not. The growls and sniffing continued, but the boy managed toget his fingers fastened upon the handle of his tool.
"Now, back up!" Phil told him.
Step by step Ethan pushed away from the dangerous locality. The bear did not attempt to follow, but resumed his former way of pushing out his snout, and sniffing. Something evidently smelled mighty good to him, Lub thought.
"This is all very well," ventured X-Ray Tyson, who had also managed to arm himself with a billet of wood, "but somebody tell me what the end's going to be. Do we have to camp outside in the cold, cold world; or will we invite Mr. Bear to skip? That's what I want to know. Phil, how about it?"
By now Phil had realized that unless they did something to provoke the bear to extremes they did not need to fear an encounter with his sharp claws. A bright idea had struck him, which he hastened to bring to the notice of his chums.
"If ever we go to tell this story, lots of fellows will give us the merry laugh, you understand, boys," he remarked; "and if you're all willing, I'd like to settle it so we'd have the best of proof that a beardidcome down our chimney in the night time."
"Phil, do you mean that you want to snap off a flashlight picture of the beast backed up against our fireplace?" demanded X-Ray Tyson, as quick as anything.
"That's what I meant," he was immediately told. "See, here's the whole apparatus ready for business. All I'd want you to do would be to turn down the lantern when I gave the word."
"I'll look after that part of it," agreed X-Ray, instantly.
"And I'll hold my hatchet, ready to whack him square between the eyes if he tries any football rush on us," Ethan remarked, grimly.
"What can I do to help?" demanded Lub, weakly, yet evidently not relishing the idea of being utterly ignored in all these valorous preparations.
"If you want to have a place in the lime light, Lub," ventured X-Ray, sarcastically, "s'pose then you just step up and engage the bear in a catch-as-catch-can wrestling match. It'll be a splendid chance to prove to every fellow at home how you had more nerve than any of the rest of us!"
Of course Lub knew this was all spoken in satire.
"You'll have to excuse me this time, X-Ray;I wouldn't want to run a chance of spoiling Phil's picture for anything. Guess I'll crawl up in my bunk again, so as not to take up so much space. I'm afraid that if Ethan gets to swinging that wood chopper around recklessly he might gouge me."
Meanwhile Phil had arranged his little apparatus as he wanted, aiming directly at the bear. He knew that it was focussed just right for a short distance, because all that had been fixed previously, it being his intention to have small animals snap off their own pictures at about the same focussing point, by pulling at a baited trigger that was attached to the flashlight cartridge by a cord.
"All ready, X-Ray?" he asked, presently.
"Yep—let her go, Phil!"
As he spoke the holder of the lantern turned down the flame. Immediately the interior of the cabin became almost pitch dark. The bear could be heard sniffing as before, and evidently regaining some of his courage, which must have received a rude jolt following that plunge down the chimney.
Suddenly there was a blinding flash. It was all over in a second, but the boys could hear the bear scrambling on the hearth. Perhaps thecoals burned his feet again, and forced him to abandon any idea of trying to escape by the same means he had employed in reaching the interior of the shack.
"Light up again!" ordered Phil; "it's all over!"
So X-Ray again turned up the wick of the lantern. The bear was standing there, growling, and looking more belligerent than before. Evidently he did not altogether like this sort of treatment. That dazzling flash had blinded him. It may have made him think of the lightning that went with a storm; and there was now no friendly hollow tree into which he could creep; only those strange, two-legged creatures whom instinct told him were enemies of his race.
"Looks almost ready to tackle us, don't he, Phil?" chirped Lub, from the security of the second-story bunk.
Ethan was swinging that shining hatchet wickedly back and forth.
"He'd better not, if he knows what's good for him," he was saying, with determination written upon his set jaws and flashing eyes; "I'd just like to get one good belt at him square between those wicked little eyes of his. We'd have bear steak for breakfast, let me tell you."
"But remember that the law is on bears yet,and if we killed him we might run up against a game warden and be arrested!" Lub warned him; for Lub was always well posted on all matter that pertained to the law, as became the son and heir of a well-known judge.
"We don't want to fight except there's no other way," said Phil; who wished to restrain both Ethan and X-Ray; for he knew they were apt to be impulsive, and it would not take much to precipitate a battle royal with the four-legged visitor.
"But what's the answer, then?" demanded the latter chum, indignantly; "do we sit down and watch him gobble all our fine grub without lifting a hand to stop him? Say, I'd be ashamed to tell the story afterwards; and him only a half-grown bear in the bargain."
"He don't seem to like that smoke you made, Phil?" remarked Lub, who had an unusually fine place for observation, being elevated above the heads of his crouching chums. "Couldn't you keep that going, and just force him to climb up the chimney again?"
"My flashlight cartridges are too valuable to be wasted like that, Lub," he was informed by the other boy.
"Then isn't there some way he could be madeto retreat?" asked X-Ray. "What if the whole four of us started to advance, shooing with our hands, and whooping things up, wouldn't he just understand that hehadto climb, whether he got his toes scorched again or not?"
Phil shook his head.
"I've got another idea, and it's so simple I only wonder nobody thought of it before," he told them. "The rest of you stay here where you are."
"I object, if you're meaning to tackle the varmint alone and single-handed, Phil!" X-Ray burst out with.
"I'm not quite so simple as all that," Phil flashed back at him; "you can see I'm heading the other way."
"Oh! I know what he means," burst out Lub just then; "it's the door! Phil's going to take down that bar we pushed in place, and open up. Hurrah! that sounds good to me! Phil knows how to do the trick. You trust him every time, and you'll never get left."
Of course it was all simple enough now, and if Lub could see through it the other pair could also. To be sure, Phil meant to swing wide the door, and thus invite the departure of their unwelcome guest.
They saw him reach the front of the cabin. The bear was apparently suspicious of any sort of movement, and continued to growl threateningly. So long as he did not actually start to make an attack Ethan believed he could afford to remain idle, and hold his ground.
Phil appeared to be having some little trouble about getting the bar loose. The door did not shut closely, and it had taken the combined strength of two of them to fasten it securely.
"Give it a hunch, and then slip the bar up, quick, Phil!" called out Lub; for as he had helped close it he knew best how the thing could be done.
Phil made a third attempt, and this time succeeded, for they saw him open the door, and then back away, still gripping the stout bar in his hands, as though he considered it worth having in an emergency.
"There you are, Mister; now please get a move on you!" called Lub.
The animal must have already sniffed the outer air, to judge from his actions. He may have also suspected some sort of cunning trap, for he did not immediately start on a rush toward the gap in the wall.
"He guesses you're laying for him, Phil,"Ethan remarked; "p'raps you'd better back up and join our squad here. There's another upper berth, if so be you think you'd like to join our brave chum Lub."
"Huh! think you're smart, don't you?" muttered the one referred to; but evidently the slur cut to the quick, for what did Lub do but bundle out of his bunk and actually take his place in line with the others, as though to show them that at least it was notfearthat had caused him to climb up out of the way.
"I guess he's going to make the run for it!" exclaimed X-Ray Tyson. "Everybody start to waving their arms when he comes, and keep him going. Whoop! hurry up your stumps, old bear; this is a white man's cabin, and you're not wanted!"
All at once the beast concluded it would be wise for him to accept of the one lone chance for escape. That open door, and the sweet smell of the outside air appealed irresistibly to his nature.
"There he comes, boys!" snapped Ethan; and with that they all began to make extravagant gestures, at the same time using threatening language that must have appalled the poor bear, could he have understood its meaning.
Snapping and growling he scuttled past theline of excited boys, headed for the open door. He presented such a ferocious aspect that none of them cared to do the slightest thing to bar his forward progress; indeed, just the contrary seemed to be the case. Something must have influenced Lub, for that worthy actually stepped forward out of line; and as the beast shuffled hastily past he let drive with his right foot, just for all the world as though he were trying for a drop kick on the gridiron, with three thousand breathless spectators watching to see if he would make the goal.
Then the bear, thus urged on by every possible means, went hastily through the open door, and was seen no more. The cabin was once again in their undisputed possession.
"Three cheers!" shouted X-Ray Tyson, who after the manner of boys in general, was so completely filled with enthusiasm that he could only think of one way in which to get rid of the surplus "steam," which was by shouting.
The others joined in the noise, and if any one happened to be within a mile of that birch bark cabin just then, before the break of day, he must have been greatly mystified to understand what all the racket could be about.