"But won"t the catamount jump at us?" asked Brick.
"Not while we have the lantern," a.s.sured Jerry. "All wild animals are afraid of fire."
The boys ventured out of the lean-to. They timidly advanced to the fireplace, which was in the center of the glade.
"Where"s the wood you brought at bedtime?" asked Jerry. "I don"t see it."
"I--I forgot all about it," admitted Hamp. "I was too sleepy to think.
I"m awfully sorry."
"Being sorry won"t help us now," said Jerry, grimly. "There"s not even a stick."
There was silence for a moment. The boys expected nothing less than to be pounced upon by the hungry beast.
"I believe the catamount has sneaked off," declared Hamp. "Give me the lantern, and I"ll get some wood. It"s my fault that we have none."
"I"ll go with you," replied Jerry. "There"s a windfall under the roots of that dead pine tree. It"s only half-a-dozen yards from here. Come on."
The two lads started, taking their guns and the lantern. They crossed the glade, and vanished in the timber.
Brick was left standing by the fireplace. He was afraid to go after his companions, nor did he like to be alone. He rested his gun on a stone, and stooped over the dying embers of the fire, trying vainly to fan them into a blaze. As he rose to his feet he heard a crackling noise, and was horrified to see a great, dusky animal crouching on the edge of the timber, directly opposite the spot where the boys had disappeared.
The beast"s arrival was so unexpected that Brick lost his wits. With a yell he turned and dashed across the glade, and rolled into a copse of bushes.
There he lay, shouting for help at the top of his voice, and expecting to be immediately torn to pieces.
l.u.s.ty cries quickly answered him, and trampling footsteps came near. He saw the gleam of the lantern go by, and then a rifle cracked sharply.
The next thing he knew Jerry and Hamp were hauling him to his feet.
"Where"s the catamount?" he panted. "Did you kill it?"
"Missed," replied Jerry. "I only had a snap shot. The creature bolted into the forest when it saw the lantern. We didn"t get here any too soon."
"I thought I was a goner," declared Brick.
His face was pale, and he trembled like a leaf.
Hamp had a great load of wood on his back, and the fire was soon blazing merrily.
The catamount made no sign for ten minutes, and then a wailing cry from far off told that he was retreating.
After waiting a little longer the boys went back to their warm blankets and pine boughs.
They fell asleep very quickly, and it was broad daylight when they got awake. The sun was behind murky gray clouds, and the air was bitterly cold. The snow crunched sharply under foot, and the lake was frozen from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e.
The presence of the catamount in the vicinity decided the boys to hunt a new camping-place.
After breakfasting on bacon and fried potatoes, they packed the sleds and started.
They traveled northward over the ice, following all the bays and indentations of the lake"s crooked sh.o.r.e. At noon they stopped for lunch. The cold was something awful.
"It looks as though we were going to have a hard winter," said Jerry when they were on the march again. "It"s a good thing that we brought snowshoes, and plenty of extra blankets along."
"I hope we don"t see anything more of that catamount," replied Brick. "I suppose there are plenty of them in the woods, though."
"A good many," a.s.sented Hamp. "But they don"t often trouble hunters.
This fellow was extra savage. He must have been hungry."
"They"ve been known to follow men for days and weeks in bitter weather," said Jerry.
The conversation shifted to another topic, and the boys trudged on for half an hour. Then Brick suddenly gave a sharp cry, and pointed to a spot on the sh.o.r.e, some fifty yards distant.
"I saw the catamount over there," he declared. "It was a big, yellowish-gray animal, and it slipped past that rock into the bushes."
"Sure?" asked Hamp, anxiously.
"Dead sure."
The boys looked and listened. They were about moving on, when a long, thick-set animal stole out of the forest, and crouched by the edge of the ice. It wailed in a mournful tone, and crept a little nearer. It was as large a catamount as the two Maine lads had ever seen.
"There"s a chance," exclaimed Jerry. "Come on. We"ll try to get within easy shooting distance of the brute. Three of us can"t well miss."
The boys abandoned the sled, and advanced toward sh.o.r.e, with loaded rifles. But before they had taken a dozen steps the catamount turned tail, and vanished in the timber.
"No use," muttered Hamp. "That"s a crafty fellow, and he"s not going to give us any advantage. He"ll stick to us like a leech, though, and some time, when we are off our guard----"
A significant pause ended the sentence.
"What are we going to do about it?" asked Brick. "This knocks all the fun in the head. We won"t dare go to sleep at nights."
"We"ve got to get rid of the brute," replied Jerry, "and I think I know how to do it. What do you say to cutting straight across the lake, and making our camp on the other side? I don"t believe the catamount will follow us over miles of open snow and ice."
This suggestion was warmly approved. They headed due west toward the faintly visible forest on the further sh.o.r.e of the lake, a distance of ten or twelve miles.
To keep off the intense cold they ran along on a dog trot. The sleds trailed easily behind them over the patches of crisp snow and gla.s.sy ice.
Two hours later the western sh.o.r.e of Moosehead Lake loomed clearly before the young voyagers. They were not half a mile away. They could look right into the dense forest that stretched far away to Canada.
"Got the time, Brick?" asked Jerry.
"Yes; it"s just half-past three."
"Well, suppose we push up the lake for another hour. By that time we"ll likely strike the sort of a camping-place we want."
The others agreed, and Jerry led them to within twenty yards of the sh.o.r.e. Then they turned northward, and went on at a rapid trot.
About half a mile ahead a spit of rocky and timbered land jutted out from the sh.o.r.e.