Every scout managed to acc.u.mulate one or more lumps, however, for the air was heavily charged with the bewildered insects, now homeless on a fall afternoon; and although the boys did a great deal of dodging they could not avoid contact all the time. But then the sight of that splendid honey made them forget their present troubles. They s.n.a.t.c.hed up the bottle of witch hazel, or applied the ammonia solution recklessly, to immediately start in again working like heroes.
Elmer started back to camp bearing their one bucket actually full of the most delicious honey he had ever tasted; and soon afterwards Lil Artha followed with two kettles also heavily laden with the same.
When Chatz came along with several heavy honeycombs secured with an arrangement consisting of cords, and stout twigs from some hickory tree, the three looked at each other in dire dismay.
"We can"t live on honey alone, you know," Lil Artha up and said; "and it looks like we"ve already got every cooking vessel loaded down, with not half the store of sweet stuff cleaned out. What in the wide world can we do with it all? I guess this is a case of too much of a good thing."
"I know!" declared Chatz, suddenly; "in prowling around that haunted house I saw several old stone jars in what was once used as a pantry.
Let"s go over and lug the same to camp, Lil Artha. They can be washed out clean, and will hold all that honey, I a.s.sure you, suh. And we can carry most of the same back home with us to show other scouts what we"ve been doing up here in the woods."
So the pair hastened away, and after a while came back with the stone crocks or jars, each of which would hold several gallons. Elmer p.r.o.nounced them the finest possible thing for holding their rich find, and proceeded to cleanse them thoroughly at the spring, after which the various cooking receptacles were emptied, and both Chatz and Lil Artha started eagerly back to the fountainhead for a fresh supply.
They certainly cleaned out the best part of that tree hive during the next hour, and had four jars full of splendid honey, some of it as clear as crystal. It was the greatest "harvest home" the Hickory Ridge Boy Scouts had ever experienced; and they seemed never to get quite enough of the sweet stuff, for every one kept tasting as new supplies were disclosed by splitting the tree further.
Finally, however, it came to an end, and the distracted bees were let alone with the sad wreck of their once fine hive. Perhaps, if they survived the chill of the coming night, some of them would start in fresh, and carry away enough of the discolored honey, refused by the discriminating scouts, to start a new hive, and keep the swarm alive during the winter.
n.o.body seemed furiously hungry as the afternoon waned and the shades of night began to gather around the camp. This was hardly to be wondered at, however, since they had tasted so much honey for hours that it took away their customary zest for ordinary food. Elmer told them it was a bad thing, and every fellow promised that from that time on he would take his sweet stuff in moderation.
Of course they cooked some dinner; and after once getting a taste of the fried onions and potatoes it seemed that to some degree their fickle appet.i.tes did return, so that the food vanished in the end.
"I"m thinking about all that darker honey we left there," Lil Artha was saying, as they sat around the crackling fire long after night had fallen, and supper had been disposed of an hour or more.
"My starth!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Ted, "I hope now you don"t want to lay in any more of the thweet thtuff, do you, Lil Artha? Why, we"ll be thticky all over with it. Don"t be a hog. Leave thome to the poor little beeth; and it didn"t look real nice, you know."
"Oh! I wasn"t regretting that we couldn"t make a clean sweep," explained the tall scout, whose face was once more gradually resuming its normal appearance; "but if what I"ve read is true, up in some places where they have black bears, they always set a watch when they"ve cut down a bee tree. You see, the smell of the honey is in the air, and if there"s a bruin inside of five miles he"ll be visiting that broken tree hive before morning, when the watcher can send a bullet into him."
"But you don"t think there are bears around here, do you?" asked George, always to be found on the side of the opposition.
"Well, hardly," replied Lil Artha, "though some of us wish it might be so, because we"ve got a gun along, and they say bear steak isn"t half bad when you"re in camp, even if it does taste like dry tough beef when you"re at home, and sitting down with a white table cloth before you.
I"d like to try some, that"s what; but this expedition wasn"t started for a bear hunt, you know."
"No, that"s so," Ty Collins remarked; "more likely a ghost hunt," and he gave Chatz a sly look out of the corner of his eye as he said this.
"That was meant for me, suh," Chatz said, with dignity; "you think you can laugh at me because I"m weak enough to believe there may be such a thing as a ghost. But if you-all are so sure nothing of the kind ever could happen, what"s to hinder me from having the entire camp along to-night when I go over there and hide, to watch what happens at exactly midnight?"
Elmer laughed softly.
"Do you mean that as a dare, Chatz?" he asked.
"Take it as you please, suh; and we"ll soon see who believes in ghosts or not; because the one who backs down first is likely after all to be afraid of meeting up with visitors from the spirit land."
"Who"s going along with Chatz and myself?" asked Elmer, turning to the circling scouts; who began to look serious, and cast quick glances toward each other.
"Oh! I"ll keep you company, Elmer!" said George, first of all; for somehow he fancied everybody was staring hard at him, and not for worlds would he allow them to think he was _afraid_.
"Count me in!" added Ty Collins, with a laugh, that bordered on the reckless.
"I"ll go along, too," observed Ted.
Landy Smith hastened to nod his head in the affirmative when Elmer looked at him; Lil Artha spoke up and said he was bound to be one of the number; and finally Toby completed the list by signifying that he was ready to sacrifice himself also.
CHAPTER XII
THE MIDNIGHT VIGIL
"I"M glad to learn we don"t have any "fraidcats in this camp, and that I"m likely enough to have plenty of company in keeping watch to-night in the haunted house," Chatz remarked cheerfully, after the last scout had been heard from.
"I"ve waited to see if it was going to be made unanimous," Elmer told them at this juncture; "and now that you"ve all toed the mark so handsomely, why of course I"ll have to exercise my judgment in picking out, say a couple of fellows, who will stay to look after the camp here while the rest of us are otherwise employed."
"La.s.soing ghosts, for instance!" Lil Artha murmured.
Elmer looked around the circle of faces again. All of them knew that he was selecting the pair of scouts who would be left behind, and while doubtless a number of the boys were secretly hoping deep down in their hearts that they might be one of the lucky number, they tried their best to appear indifferent.
"Ted, you"re one!" said the leader, presently; "and I think I"ll appoint Landy to keep you company." The latter commenced to splutter a little, when Elmer raised his hand, and continued: "Now, don"t get the notion in your heads that because I"ve selected you for playing the role of martyr it was because I thought you"d prove weak-kneed, or in any way show up poorly. I"ve no reason to think anything of the sort; only there had to be two chosen, and I"ve taken you for reasons of my own. Landy was complaining a short time ago of feeling squeamish, after gorging himself with all that honey; and in case he gets sick who could attend so well to him as our Doctor Ted?"
That was explanation enough, and every one had to rest satisfied.
Perhaps, if the truth were told, neither of the two scouts had any regrets coming; and secretly they were envied by some of the less fortunate ones, who would gladly have guarded the camp stores, if given the opportunity.
"One thing good," Chatz informed them, "we"re going to have a moon poking up in a little while. You know it"s past the full stage, but from ten o"clock up to daylight it"ll hold the fort up above."
"Fine!" exclaimed George, with a half laugh; "I always do like to have bright moonlight whenever I go after ghosts. You can see the white things so much better, and watch "em flit around as soft as silk. I"m glad you"ve ordered up a moon to help out, Chatz; it"ll sure make things more interesting."
"I think myself it will, suh," the Southern boy said, placidly in his turn; "and if any of us feel like we"d want to make a bee-line from the house to this camp here, why, the running is better when you have moonlight, you know."
"Huh! that was meant for me, I guess, Chatz," sneered George; "but you"ll have to take it out in waiting if you expect to see me chasing along, and hollering for help, because some old owl with a white front shows up, or the bats begin to fly in and out of that tower. I"m not built very much that way."
"I hope not, suh!" was all Chatz said in reply; but George was seen to color up, and look a trifle confused, as though possibly he might not be feeling quite as bold inwardly as his words would imply.
"When ought we start over?" asked Lil Artha, just as carelessly, to all appearances, as though it might be a friendly visit to some neighboring camp, instead of a thrilling experience in a haunted house.
"In about half an hour or so after the moon rises," Elmer informed him; "that ought to be time enough, don"t you think, Chatz?"
"Plenty, suh," came the reply, "because, if there is any truth at all in these stories they tell about such places, the fun doesn"t ever begin till midnight."
"Fun!" muttered Toby, rubbing his chin reflectively; "well, it does beat all creation what some people call fun. Now, so far as I"m concerned, while I"m going along with you, and can"t be made to back out, it"s all a silly nuisance. I"d rather be climbing up into that same old tower, and getting ready for a drop with my reliable parachute."
"No use of that in the night-time, Toby," remonstrated Ty; "mebbe to-morrow we"ll get a blanket brigade to stand below while you make your first jump, so"s to let you down easy if the old thing breaks."
"No danger of that, Ty; because I"ve gone all over it again and again, and right now she could sustain a weight of half a ton, I reckon. But it"s good of you to be interested enough in my invention to lend a helping hand. Think what it"ll mean to all the tribe of aeronauts when every flier is equipped with a Jones Life-saving Parachute, that is guaranteed to float him softly to the ground even if he has a breakdown accident a mile up in the clouds."
Toby after that fell into a musing spell. Perhaps in imagination he peopled the air fairly filled with flitting aeroplanes, and every single aviator supplied with the remarkable device that was going to make the name of Jones the most famous in all the wide land.
The other scouts chatted, and exchanged all sorts of lively remarks.
They even indulged in several songs that sounded very strange when heard among those whispering pines of the grove, and knowing as they did what manner of house stood close by, with a halo of mystery surrounding it.