After dinner, which was more in the nature of a luncheon, Mrs. Shafto came into camp with three ducks which she had shot, and promised her charges that they should have stuffed roast duck for supper.
That afternoon Grace tried the canoe. She got one spill and was soaked to the skin, but crawled back to sh.o.r.e laughing at her mishap, and essayed another attempt.
"I thought my canoe was cranky, but this beats everything," she called to her companions as she again floated out on the stream in the bark canoe. The Overland girl practiced for half an hour, during which she got the hang of the cranky bark canoe and did very well paddling it.
"Let me try it," begged Emma.
"You will not," objected Hippy. "Think I want to plunge into that cold water and rescue you?"
"Do you think I am simple enough to fall in?" demanded Emma indignantly.
"Yes, and as often as I could pull you out. Then again, you would lose yourself listening to the voices of nature and get into a fine, wet mess. That nature stuff makes me weary."
Emma did not paddle the canoe that day, nor did any of the others express a desire to do so. They saw no more of the Indian that day, and that night the girls spread their blankets in the tepee.
"We must have a fire in here for the sake of cheerfulness," urged Anne.
"Yes. And burn ourselves up," objected Emma.
"There should be no danger unless we roll into the fire in our sleep,"
answered Miss Briggs.
A small fire was kindled in the tepee, and, for a long time after they had gone in for the night, the Overland girls sat with feet doubled under them, enjoying the novel sensation of having for their use a real Indian tepee, and listening to Joe Shafto relate some of her experiences in the Big North Woods.
The conversation was interrupted by Henry who poked his nose into the tepee and sniffed the air inquisitively. A slight tap on his nose by the guide sent the bear scampering away. After a hearty laugh at Henry"s expense, the girls rolled up in their blankets and went to sleep not to awaken again until sunrise, when they were jolted out of their dreams by a loud halloo.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE TRAIL OF THE PIRATES
"Tom"s here!" shouted Grace. "All right, Tom. We will be out as soon as we can find our way out of this roundhouse," she laughed, feeling for the opening that, in the subdued light, looked like all the rest of the tepee wall.
Tom was bronzed and happy, and after greeting the girls he inquired for Henry and Hindenburg.
"The bear"s out lookin" for his breakfast," answered the forest woman.
"And the bull pup is asleep. He keeps bankers" hours instead of attending to his business," complained Emma.
After breakfast Tom told them of his work in the forest, adding that he had observed evidences of the recent presence of timber-pirates.
"That is, I have found their blazes, secret cuttings on trees in remote sections. This discovery I have marked on the map, and will inform the authorities after I have finished "cruising" the Pineries. This afternoon I shall work north to look over some virgin forest ground near here. Come along with me, won"t you, Hippy?"
"Sure thing. We"ll take Hindenburg for protection," agreed Hippy.
"Why not take the rest of the party?" suggested Grace.
"This is a business trip," replied Tom. "Of course you can go if you wish, but it were better not, for we shall have to rough it in the real sense of the word. w.i.l.l.y wants to go out with me, and may join us up river sometime to-day."
"Where is the measly redskin, Cap"n?" demanded Joe.
"He has gone downstream. w.i.l.l.y has a camp a short distance below here.
That Indian is a real man."
"We have found him so," agreed Elfreda.
Joe Shafto grunted disdainfully.
Tom remained at the camp until after dinner, replenished his supplies, including a stuffed duck which the forest woman prepared for him; then he and Hippy set out on their ponies for up-river points.
"What is in the wind, Tom?" questioned Lieutenant Wingate after they got under way. "I know you had some good reason other than merely desiring my company, or you would not have asked me to go with you."
Tom laughed heartily.
"A little of both, Lieutenant. I hear that timber-pirates have been making some cuttings above here, and I wish you to go along as a witness to what I may find. That"s all."
"No sc.r.a.ps in sight, eh?"
"Oh, no."
Hippy sighed.
"Tell me about it."
"Timber thieves seek the remote places and look for suitable plots that can be cut off and floated downstream to the mills. There the logs are thrown in with other logs, and branded on one end to correspond with such logs as have been procured in a legitimate way. Should the pirates be discovered, they frequently buy the plot, if they represent a big concern, and nothing more is done so far as the authorities are concerned."
"You don"t mean to say that reputable lumber companies go in for anything of that sort, do you?" wondered Hippy.
"I did not say "reputable." Of course not. All big concerns are not necessarily reputable in the sense you mean, but there is many a man to-day who holds his head high in the world, though the foundation of his business was stolen timber."
Hippy uttered a low whistle of amazement.
"Look there!" exclaimed Tom Gray late in the afternoon as they rode into a "cutting" from which the timber had been removed. Several acres had been cut off, and skidways built up for more extensive operations, probably for that very season.
Upon consulting his map, the forester found, as he had expected, that the timber was not charted as belonging to private individuals. Tom pointed to a man-made dam in the river. It had been constructed of spiles--small logs, driven in like posts, set so that they leaned upstream. The water gates were open, and, upon examination, showed that logs had been floated there, for the marks of the logs were visible on the sides of the gates and on the tops of the spiles. Added to this, the floor of the dam was covered with last season"s logs, hundreds of them.
"Will you please tell me why a dam is necessary to lumbering?"
questioned Lieutenant Wingate.
"To provide a good head of water on which to float logs down to the mills when the river is low. The logs are dumped into the dam until it is full; the gates are then opened and the logs go booming down towards the mills. To be fully equipped there should be a second dam above this one to wash down such timber as fails to clear. We will go on further and see what we find."
They found the second dam, constructed across the river at a narrow spot. It had been quite recently built, as Tom Gray found upon examining the spiles and comparing their age with those of the lower dam.
"This looks to me like a fine piece of timber," he announced with a sweeping gesture that took in the great trees that surrounded them. "We will cruise as far as we can before dark and go over the rest of the section to-morrow."
"And you believe "pirates" are trying to hog all they can of it, do you?" questioned Hippy.