"Don"t believe there"s as good a camp-site within five miles," Toby added; but perhaps the tired condition of the boys had something to do with this endors.e.m.e.nt on their part; just then any place would have satisfied their desires, which were not very exacting.
The heavy packs were quickly hung from the lower limb of a tree under which the camp fire was to be made. It was a pine, and beneath it the ground seemed to be fairly clear of snow, most of what had fallen still clinging to the tree itself.
"Better not waste any more time, had we, Elmer?" asked the tall scout, as he nervously handled his Marlin gun, anxious to start out after game.
"No, get busy, please," said Toby; "don"t bother about us, for we know how camp ought to be made. All we ask is that you come back loaded down with something to eat."
"We don"t care much what it is, if only you cut out crow," George added.
Lil Artha gave his fellow Nimrod a quick look, as much as to say, "that lets us out, and we can fetch home the musquash with a clear conscience--if so be we"re lucky enough to bag any."
They went away in company. The last words George flung after the departing comrades was a caution.
"For goodness" sake now, don"t go and get lost in that marsh, or we will be in a bad sc.r.a.pe. Things are hard enough as it stands without our getting separated. If you don"t just know where the camp is located give three yells, or fire three shots as fast as you can. We"ll answer you back, and keep hollering till you show up. Three shots, remember."
Once the two scouts entered the frozen marsh they kept together for a short time.
"How"ll I know a muskrat house when I see it, Elmer?" asked Lil Artha.
"Oh! you"ve seen them often around home, only you forget," replied the other, but in order to make sure, he continued: "you know, they build their nests or houses a little after the same style as beaver do, only of course not so big or secure. If when you"re pa.s.sing a marsh or swampy tract, and spy a number of what look like irregular mounds, or heaps of dead rushes, you can make up your mind muskrats live there. If it"s a lake or a stream they can be found in among the rocks too, but not as a rule, because there they are apt to run up against the otter, weasel and the mink, and there"s no love lost between those sharp-toothed animals and the muskrat. He"s a hard fighter, too, as his jaws tell you, Lil Artha, but hardly a match for a mink in a stand-up sc.r.a.p. There"s a muskrat house right now; let"s stop and see if the old fellow is at home."
Accordingly they surrounded the acc.u.mulation of dead rushes and leaves and other refuse, after which Elmer tore it to pieces, while Lil Artha stood guard, ready to take snap judgment should the occasion arise.
It turned out to be a disappointment, however, for the mound was empty.
"Nothing doing, eh?" grunted the tall scout, lowering his gun, which he had been keeping half elevated all the while.
"No, and I didn"t believe we"d have any success here soon after I started tearing the thing down," replied Elmer. "It showed all the signs of being a deserted shack."
"What could have happened to the former inhabitant, do you think?"
continued the disappointed one, to whom even musquash stew was beginning to appeal more and more, as the chances of securing any sort of game diminished in proportion.
"I might guess that he chose to change his place of residence," said Elmer, "or, it might be that Uncle Caleb fancies the old Indian dish once in a while. But let"s be moving along. The mill will never grind again with the water that is past; and we"re not going to get our supper by standing over a muskrat house that hasn"t got any owner."
Another start was accordingly made. Elmer kept track of the direction they were taking. He did not mean to find himself in a quandary when they were ready to turn back again, and not be able to say where the camp lay. Lil Artha knew he could depend on his chum in that respect, and hence he did not concern himself in the slightest degree about such a thing as becoming bewildered. It is a nice thing to have some one to lean upon at all times, though the scout master often took Lil Artha to task because of his willingness to let another do his thinking for him.
"Let"s separate a little," Elmer suggested, presently, when they had gone along for quite some distance and found nothing at all. "We ought to be able to keep in sight of each other easily enough; and the same time cover a lot more ground, and in that way increase our chances."
"I"m agreeable," chirped Lil Artha, not suspecting how great an influence on their future fortunes even that little incident was going to prove; "I"ll swing off to the right here, and follow this swale, while you keep straight on. I rather like the looks of things over this way, and p"raps I"ll run across a colony of those r--I mean musquash."
"Give me the wolf call if you do," Elmer told him, smiling at the quick way Lil Artha had corrected himself when about to give that unpleasant name to the furry little denizen of the marsh they were seeking so eagerly, so as to improve the looks of their larder, and satisfy a craving they felt for making his acquaintance in a stew.
Elmer watched the tall scout move along the swale he had mentioned. He fancied that Lil Artha was about right when he declared it looked as though something might be found in that direction, if signs stood for much.
"I certainly hope, then, he strikes it," Elmer mused as he rambled on, dodging all the drifts whenever he could, and straining his eyes for a sight of welcome signs; "because we need it worse than we ever needed anything before."
He had just succeeded in evading a bad place, and was about to look again in order to learn where his chum might be, when without warning there came two reports in quick succession right beyond a bunch of thick brush and not two hundred feet away.
Elmer immediately started toward the spot as fast as he could go. He thought he heard loud words spoken, and was in a fever of suspense, fearing Lil Artha might have hurt himself, until rounding the obstruction he saw the other standing there, holding his Marlin gun dejectedly while he stared into s.p.a.ce.
"Oh! Elmer!" exclaimed the tall scout, as soon as he noticed that his companion was close to him; "a deer, as sure as smoke, and I fired point-blank at him both times; but hang the luck, I must have missed the beggar, for he gave an _aw_ful jump, and went off like a streak, worse luck to me for a bungler!"
CHAPTER VII
LIL ARTHA SAVES THE DAY
"THAT"S too bad, Lil Artha," said Elmer, "but no matter, I"m sure you did the best you could."
That was just like Elmer. Plenty of fellows, in the first flush of keen disappointment, would have allowed themselves to speak more or less bitterly, and complain that it must have been rank carelessness that would account for such bad results. But Elmer saw that the tall scout was already suffering keenly; and his first thought was to console him.
At the same time he was looking about, and while the chagrined hunter began to aimlessly open his gun so as to thrust new sh.e.l.ls into the barrels, Elmer went on to say:
"Point out to me just where the deer was when you fired, Lil Artha."
"Oh! now even you suspect that I just imagined I saw one, Elmer," sighed the other scout, "but d"ye notice that log lying across the other, something like a letter X? Well, he jumped clean over that when I gave him the second shot. Oh! he was as big as a barn to me, I tell you, and how I could ever miss him with the barrel that had the buckshot sh.e.l.l in it beats my time. I ought never to go out in the forest alone; I"m a fine duck of a hunter, ain"t I? If it depended on Lil Artha to keep the camp in game we"d all turn into living skeletons, like the one in the sideshow of the circus last summer. Oh, rats--but not muskrats--I"m feeling pretty sick."
Elmer had not waited to listen to all this lament on the part of the disappointed marksman. Pushing forward he was now at the crossed logs.
Immediately he called out in a loud voice that seemed to have an air of excitement about it:
"Hi! there, Lil Artha, come here, and hurry, too!"
Upon that the tall scout jammed the breech of his gun shut, having succeeded in reloading the same, and he lost no time in hastening to join his chum.
"W-what is it, Elmer?" he asked, breathlessly.
The other pointed to his feet.
"What do you call that, and that, and that?" he asked, impressively.
Lil Artha stared, and over his thin face there crept a look, almost of rapture, as he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed:
"Blood spots on the snow, as sure as anything, Elmer! Oh! then I must have hit that deer after all! I"m glad, and then again I"m sorry. If he had to get away from us, I"d much rather not a single piece of lead had found him. Now he"ll only suffer, and it"ll do us no good at all."
"Hold on, don"t be too sure about that," remarked Elmer, as he started to step across the logs, and follow the plainly marked red trail over the otherwise spotless field of pure snow; "that chap has been struck hard, and I don"t believe he can go very far before he drops!"
At hearing this Lil Artha became greatly excited.
"Then let"s chase after him right away!" he exclaimed. "Goodness knows we need fresh meat about as much as anybody could, because we"re almost half starved, and haven"t a ghost of a show at anything else. And if the poor thing does drop think how mean it"d be to have the foxes and other varmints gnaw at _our_ deer all night long, while we sucked our thumbs in camp, and went hungry."
All this while Elmer was following the trail. It was an easy task, and even the tenderfoot scout of the troop might have accomplished such a proposition without being coached.
"Don"t you see that it seems to be getting stronger all the while," he explained to Lil Artha, who was close at his heels, holding his breath with eagerness as he tried to look ahead so as to glimpse the welcome sight of the deer fallen at last through sheer exhaustion, "and take my word for it, we"re pretty sure to get your game before we go back to camp."
"Well, that would tickle me more"n I could tell you, Elmer," the other a.s.sured him, with visions of glorious feasts rising up before his mind.