CHAPTER VIII
A PERIL THAT LAY IN WAIT
IT was an hour and more after the surveying party had trooped forth, bearing their paraphernalia for a good afternoon"s work, when Elmer happened to remember something. He was himself getting ready to take another tramp, though in a different direction than his morning stroll took him.
"Seems to me, George," he remarked, casually, "I"ve heard you say you liked honey pretty well?"
George stopped fretting over what he was doing, and licked his lips at the mere mention of the word "honey."
"Finest stuff that ever was made; that is, when you get the real article, and none of that sugar-water imitation some bee-keepers put on the market nowadays, which tastes as insipid as mucilage. Yum! yum!
makes my mouth water when I think of all the good times I used to have when we kept bees. But father had the misfortune to upset a hive, and got so badly stung that he bundled the lot off at a bargain price to an old farmer. But what makes you speak of it now, Elmer? Just to tantalize me, because that was one of the things I had Rufus put on his list and he forgot to get, worse luck."
"Oh! I only wanted to say that perhaps we may find a chance while we"re up here to lay in a store of luscious honey, if we have half-way good luck, George."
"Does that farmer keep bees, and do you mean some of us can take a run back to his place to buy a bucket of comb?" asked George, eagerly.
"Better than that," chuckled Elmer. "I"ve noticed a great many wild bees working in the flowers, and I think I can track them to their woods hive. Once we find where they hold out, it won"t be hard to chop the tree down, and take our fill of the newest stores."
"A splendid idea, Elmer, I give you my word if it isn"t!" cried the other, looking greatly pleased. "It certainly takes you to think up fine things. And when you start to follow the honey-makers home, please let me go along. I"ve always wanted to see how that dodge is worked."
"We"ll all be on deck," the scout-master a.s.sured him; "for above everything else I want the tenderfoot squad to learn a practical lesson on how easy it is for an experienced woodsman to find his bread and b.u.t.ter and sweets by using his brains instead of hard cash. But we"ll lay our plans tonight while we sit around the fire."
"Off for another tramp now, are you, Elmer?" George continued, as he saw the other pick up his handy stick again.
"Well, yes; I don"t like to waste such a glorious day; and there"s really nothing for me to do around camp, since you"ve taken the run of things in your hands."
"Going off to see that wonderful child fiddler again. I suppose, Elmer?"
"You guessed wrong that time, George, because I"ve laid out to follow after our civil engineering party, and see how Rufus is getting on with his work. He certainly is in love with it; and his father will be unwise if he doesn"t encourage the boy in every way possible. I tell you, a host of fellows have made failures of their lives because their parents insisted on their taking up some profession they hated."
"Just so, Elmer," chirped George, "a case of round pegs in square holes, so to speak. And when I get to the point of choosing what I want to be as a man, I hope my folks won"t force me to go contrary to my liking."
Knowing George"s stubborn qualities, Elmer could easily guess that the Robbins tribe would have a pretty hard task of it bending _him_ to their will. However, he did not say this, not wishing to either offend George or arouse his argumentative powers, but started forth on his tramp.
""Course you"ll just keep an eye on their trail, won"t you, Elmer?" the camp-guardian called out after him.
"It would be silly to try any other way, George," he was told.
So Elmer went on. The tracks left by the three surveyors could hardly have been overlooked, even by the veriest greenhorn at trailing, for they had none of them made the least attempt to hide their footprints.
So Elmer had an easy task of it, and indeed could employ his extra time in observing many things around him.
He saw the mother rabbit start out of the bunch of gra.s.s where doubtless her offspring lay hidden, and with halting steps act as though badly injured. Elmer laughed, and clapped his hands as though in keen appreciation for her cleverness.
"The same old trick birds and small animals always play when they want to lure a trespa.s.ser away from their nest," he told himself; "by endangering themselves in the desire to save their young. She coaxes me to rush after her, so as to wean me away from her brood. If I started she"d go off a little farther, and then stop once more to coax me on again. I"ve seen a hen partridge do the same thing, fluttering along the ground as if with a broken wing. Now just for fun let"s see if I"m not right."
He had carefully noted the exact spot where the mother rabbit first appeared, and stepping over that way parted the tall gra.s.s. Instantly there was a hurried scurrying, as a number of small but nimble half-grown rabbits darted this way and that, as if greatly frightened.
"Don"t kill yourselves trying to escape, little bunnies," said Elmer, greatly amused; "because I wouldn"t harm a single hair of your pretty bodies. But I tell you the thousand-and-one lessons that a fellow can learn from Nature"s big book ought to be enough to make every boy want to become a scout, and take up the study of outdoor life. There"s something fresh and new every day one lives."
By then the devoted mother rabbit had vanished, doubtless filled with consternation over the dispersal of her brood, which she would have to call together in some fashion of her own. So Elmer walked on, observing many other interesting things as he proceeded, for his eyes were ever on the alert when he went into the woods and cruised on the waters.
He guessed that he must be gradually drawing up on his three chums, for occasionally he caught the sound of a halloo, as though there might be an exchange of signals between Rufus and his stakeman, who went on ahead to a.s.sist him. Lil Artha probably prowled along near by, seeing things for himself, and with not a great deal of interest in the prosaic operations of the surveyors.
Suddenly Elmer heard loud excited voices. He believed be caught the voice of Lil Artha saying, "Steady, Rufus, don"t move on your life--steady, boy!"
Then came a loud report. Elmer knew that it was the discharge of the lanky scout"s gun. He was already plunging forward as fast as he could go when this sound came to his startled ears. The others were close by, for he could now hear their excited voices.
A minute later, and Elmer, still on the full run, burst through a thicket, and discovered the three boys. Lil Artha had his gun half raised to his shoulder, as if doubtful whether the newcomer would prove to be a friend or an enemy; and with true scout preparedness not meaning to be taken off his guard. But on sighting Elmer, of course he lowered his weapon.
Rufus was standing there, looking as "white as a ghost," and trembling as if he had the ague. Alec grasped his small ax, and seemed quite ready to use the same. Something twisted and squirmed upon the ground, and as Elmer looked, his horrified gaze made out an enormous rattlesnake that seemed to have part of its head shot away. The chilling sound of its rattles was what Elmer had thought to be the "chill" of a buzzing locust upon some neighboring tree.
In another moment Elmer was alongside Rufus.
"Don"t tell me the thing struck you, Rufus?" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, himself pale with apprehension.
"It"s all right, Elmer," said Lil Artha, soothingly. "n.o.body hurt the least mite, I give you my word. But if Rufus hadn"t had the good sense to stand still when I called out, I really believe the critter would have struck at him. And it was close enough to make a hit, too."
"I don"t deserve any credit, fellows, indeed I don"t!" said Rufus, truthfully. "I was so scared that I seemed frozen stiff. Why, I couldn"t have moved hand or foot for all the money in the world. Guess that"s what they mean when they say a rattler charms people."
"It may be so," Lil Artha went on to say, "but I"ve known one to get birds to flutter within reach, just as if there was something magical in the whirr of that buzz rattle at the end of its tail. After all, I guess it was lucky that I _did_ conclude to fetch my gun along this afternoon.
The boys were laughing at me in the morning for lugging it when I didn"t mean to fire a shot at any game. But say, a measly rattler hasn"t any close season; he"s a fit object for business, summer or fall."
"You made a cracking fine shot, Lil Artha," commented Elmer, after stepping closer to observe the result of the other"s quick aim.
"Oh! middling, middling, partner," chuckled the tall scout, modestly; "I oughtn"t to be proud of it; but then I own up I was some rattled for fear Rufus would move, and make the snake shoot forward with that poised flat head of his. But I stopped his fun all right, which ought to be enough for me."
"But how d"ye suppose I missed the fearsome de-il?" asked Alec, wonderingly.
"Oh! I happened to step aside while getting my bearings for that last sight," explained the trembling Rufus, "and must have drawn too near where the viper was coiled up for defense. First thing I knew was hearing what I took to be the whirr of a locust. Then I looked down and saw it! After that I seemed to turn to ice. I heard Lil Artha coming, and afterwards he said something. When he fired I nearly fell over, thinking I had been shot. Oh! I"ll never forget my sensations; and after this I"m going to keep on the lookout all the time for snakes."
"It pays to be on the watch," a.s.sented Elmer. "The fellow who keeps his eyes about him in the woods is doubly armed. We must drag it back with us, and show George. He said he didn"t believe there was any truth in that farmer"s story about rattlesnakes up here. We"ll have to show him."
"But, Elmer, supposing it had given me a crack, would I have had to die?
Is there any remedy for a rattlesnake"s poison?" asked Rufus.
"Oh! we"d have pulled you through all right, depend on it, Rufus," said Lil Artha, taking it upon himself to answer the question. "I"d have sucked the wound in the first place, making sure that I had no scratch or abrasion about my mouth so that I couldn"t be infected by the poison that I ejected. Then Elmer here, who is a pretty good surgeon when it comes right down to bra.s.s tacks, would have cut into the wound, and afterwards, when it had bled freely, he"d apply some stuff he always carries with him to neutralize the poison. Some people give whiskey, and perhaps it does help; but science and medicine have found a better remedy."
"Then why are there so many fatal cases of snake bites?" asked Rufus, determined to find out all he could on the subject.
"Well, most of them are neglected too long," Elmer told him. "The person who has been struck may be alone at the time; or if he has companions, they become panic-stricken, and only think of hurrying the poor chap to the nearest doctor as fast as they can. That"s nearly always the worst thing they could do, for in the time it takes, the deadly poison has had a chance to circulate through the blood, and all the doctors going couldn"t save the patient."
"That"s where first aid to the injured comes in with the scouts," said Lil Artha, proudly. "All boys who wear the khaki are instructed how to act in order to save human life by prompt measures, whether it is in case of near-drowning, snake bite, injury by cutting an artery with an ax, swallowing some poisonous toadstool in place of delicious mushrooms, and a dozen other things too numerous to mention. You"ll learn all about it in good time, Rufus."
"I mean to, Lil Artha, depend on it," the other a.s.sured him earnestly.
"I give you my solemn word here and now that I"ll begin right away. I never want to be taken unawares again, so that I feel as helpless as a kitten. I"m going to be aimed and equipped with the book of knowledge. I can see that it pays compound interest for all your time and trouble."