"Worse and worse!" Addison exclaimed. "We shall have to fall back on potatoes, and do some good hunting and fishing during the rest of our stay here."
Tom was already slicing up the rather odd-looking venison, getting it ready to fry. Addison brought water and put on potatoes to boil; and Kate declared that she was going to make a dish of Indian meal mush, and have some of it to fry for breakfast, next morning.
Willis took the gun and slipped away, intending to knock over a few more partridges, to go with the one he had just shot, across the stream.
Ellen, too, went out to gather hazel nuts.
A dark bank of clouds had risen in the west, and the wind began to blow a little; it was not quite as pleasant as on the previous evening.
In the course of an hour our dinner was ready. Ellen had gathered a quart of nuts, and Willis came in with another partridge. It was not a good night for shooting, he said; and when he went inside our cabin to set aside the gun, he privately told Addison and me, that he had heard a dog bark off in the woods, to the west of the opening. Somehow it made us feel uneasy to think that some person, or persons, might be hanging about the place, though they had not shown themselves very evilly disposed toward us, having merely taken a loaf or two of bread and some eggs. Still there was no knowing who they were, or what their intentions might be.
The table was rigged up and we sat down to it as before. The fried _venison_ was good and went well with our potatoes; and we had an egg apiece. But Kate"s corn meal mush was the best dish, for we had plenty of b.u.t.ter and sugar to garnish it; and we also toasted some cheese.
The sky had grown wholly overcast; and by the time we had finished our dinner, night came on. We had still to collect wood for a camp-fire; and all four of us boys set about this task at once and also carried armfuls of dry pine from a stub, a little way off, into our cabin to have in the morning for our fire, in case of rain. The wind was blowing and the air felt chilly and raw. There was not much pleasure in sitting out of doors, even before a fire; so we at length carried our benches into the girls" cabin and placed them around, just inside the open door, where the firelight shone in pleasantly. It was much more comfortable there than out in the wind. The smoke also drifted into our own cabin a good deal, but here we were quite out of it.
Nell produced her pailful of hazel nuts, and with this rather late dessert for our dinner, we whiled away an hour or more, Thomas or Addison going out now and then to tend the fire and keep it blazing brightly.
"What shall it be to-morrow," Theodora at length said; "fishing, or hazel-nutting?"
"Fishing in the morning and hazel-nutting in the afternoon will be a good plan, I guess," Addison remarked,--when, as he spoke, we heard a rather strange sound off in the woods. It was the first wild note of any kind which had come to our ears during the evening; the inhabitants of the forest seemed not to be musically inclined that night.
"I would like to know what made that noise," Tom said. "That wasn"t a bear, nor a "screamer.""
We sat listening and pretty soon heard it again, a peculiar, long-drawn-out, hollow note.
"It doesn"t sound like an animal"s cry," said Addison. "It is more like a noise I have heard made by blowing through some big sea-sh.e.l.l."
"Not very likely to be sea-sh.e.l.ls up here in the woods," remarked Theodora.
"Are there really any Indians in the "great woods?"" I asked.
"I think not," said Addison.
Just then we heard the noise again. It seemed to be nearer and appeared to have moved around towards the stream.
"Well, that beats me all out for a noise!" exclaimed Willis. "I can"t even guess what makes it."
"Nor I," said Tom. "Never heard anything like it."
To hear a mysterious sound like that, off in the wilderness, at night, will disturb almost anyone. Addison kept laughing and trying to talk of other things. Thomas stepped out as if to fix up the fire, but slipped into the other cabin and got the gun. He came out to one side, however, so that the girls did not see him from where they sat, and stood the gun against their cabin. All the while Addison was talking on, telling the girls how the Indians cooked hedgehogs by coating them all over with clay, then roasting them under their camp-fires. The girls were not very good listeners, however, for we kept hearing that same hollow, moaning noise, and it did not seem to be very far off. We were all pretty sure that it was not an animal, and concluded that it must be a man, or a number of men; but why they were making such a strange noise as that, we could not understand.
Suddenly the sound burst forth close at hand, apparently near the stream. It startled us all badly, and Thomas reached for the gun.
"I think, boys," said Kate quite calmly, yet with a curious little flutter in her voice, "that we had better all get inside the cabin here and shut the door."
"Perhaps we had," said Addison. "For if it is anybody who means mischief, it is foolish for us to sit in the light here where we can be seen so plainly."
Thereupon we all beat a retreat inside the cabin, shut the door and b.u.t.toned it; the firelight shone in, however, both through cracks in the door and c.h.i.n.ks betwixt the logs. Tom drew the partridge charge from his gun and put in another heavier one, with five or six buckshot, mixed with the bird shot.
A moment or two after, we heard the noise again; and this time it seemed to be just in the rear of the other cabin. Addison stood with an eye at a crack, looking out.
"It"s human beings, fast enough," he said in a low voice.
The girls were of course a good deal alarmed. We made the door fast with a prop in case an attack should be made.
Suddenly a large stone fell on the roof with a tremendous b.u.mp and clatter! It caused the girls to cry out in affright!
"Ad, this is somebody trying to scare us!" Tom muttered.
"Or murder us!" cried Ellen.
"You don"t suppose it is Halse, do you?" I asked. "He threatened us with something or other!"
"Maybe," said Addison, doubtfully. "No; I don"t believe he would dare come up here alone in the night," he added, after a moment"s thought.
"Halse is a great coward in the dark."
On the whole it did not seem likely that Halstead would be so many miles from home, in the woods, at that time of night.
Another stone struck on the roof, and soon a third struck the door! Then several seemed to fall on the roof at once, which led us to surmise that there was more than one person concerned in the attack.
Both Addison and Tom kept their eyes at the cracks, looking out to see if any of our a.s.sailants showed themselves.
"They are standing out there in that hazel clump, just beyond the other cabin," Addison muttered. "I can see the bushes move there, every time a stone is thrown."
Just then a tremendous thump came against the door!
"I"ll let them know they can"t pelt us like that!" exclaimed Tom, taking up the gun. "Open the door just a crack, Ad, so I can push the muzzle out."
"I would not fire right at the bush," said Addison. "But fire high to let them know we are armed."
Tom thrust out the gun--and next instant we were all nearly deafened by the report!
Immediately following the report, too, there came a loud cry, a cry that thrilled me through and through, for I thought that I recognized the voice. Theodora cried out, "Oh, that"s Halse! You"ve shot him! You"ve shot him!"
"That did sound a little like Halse!" cried Willis.
We were terror-stricken, yet uncertain. Addison cautiously opened the door and stepped out. Tom and I followed him. Willis, however, caught up the gun and began hastily to reload it.
"Halse!" Addison at length called out. "Are you there, Halse?"
Theodora followed us out and also Kate. "Oh, I"m so afraid he"s killed!"
Theodora cried out, almost sobbing.
Several of us called out; but there was no reply; and we could now hear no movement in the hazels.
"Do let"s go and see," implored Theodora; and then Addison and Thomas took brands from the camp-fire and, waving these about, went out cautiously towards the bush clumps. We kept close behind them, Willis with the gun loaded; he was afraid that this was some trick to draw us into an ambush.
But on reaching the hazels, there was nothing to be found, save three round stones as big as a man"s fist or bigger, evidently brought there from the bed of the stream, to throw at the cabin.