The Outdoor Chums at Cabin Point Part 18

"I can promise you I will," added Will, "because while I'm still sore from lying so many hours on that hard stone, I feel deep down in my heart that I ought never to look a gift horse in the mouth. That rock ledge was the best friend we had all through the terrible hurricane."

"Well, we're in no great hurry to get back home, are we, boys?" asked Jerry.

"We started out with the intention of making a day of it," Frank observed, "and there's no reason to change our minds. I'm going to take a turn in a new direction, though in the end we may strike the old trail that leads to the Point from Mr. Dennison's place."

Jerry looked at him eagerly.

"Now it so happens that everybody's gone and seen that place but poor me," he went on to state; "and Frank, if we just happened to be in that vicinity between now and sunset would you mind if I took a peep?"

Frank shook his head as though he did not wholly like the idea.

"The old gentleman seemed pretty huffy when we had our little heart-to-heart talk with him," Will remarked, noticing this disinclination on Frank's part; "and on the way down we made up our minds it was none of our business. Jerry, I can guess that it's the queer cry we heard that interests you more than wanting to see the house itself, for I've good pictures of that."

Jerry laughed.

"Oh! I own up you fellows have kind of excited me a little when telling about that thrilling sound you heard," he admitted candidly.

"I'd like first-rate to do some prowling around up there to satisfy myself that it wasn't a peac.o.c.k that screamed, or even a tied-up dog that yelped."

"But I hope you'll give over that idea then, Jerry," said Frank soberly. "You must understand that Mr. Dennison is a gentleman, for all he looks so queer and acts so strangely. He's had something upset him in the past, and chooses to live away from everybody."

"Yes," added Will, "and he's got a right to do as he chooses with his own property, you'll allow, Jerry."

"Sure thing!" agreed the other, though with a shade of disappointment crossing his face, "and I guess I'll have to keep my hands off, since the sign is up 'no trespa.s.sing allowed here!' But anyway, I do hope we shall run across Old Aaron and his Rod somewhere in our jaunt to-day."

Frank had nothing more to say on the subject. He was determined not to yield to any temptation, and enter those forbidden grounds again after being so plainly warned off by the irascible owner.

Leaving the rocky section of country, they began to traverse a region quite different in its character. From time to time various interesting things cropped up to attract their attention.

Bluff and Jerry wanted the photographer to snap off all sorts of what they called "mighty absorbing subjects," but Will wisely used his fine discrimination.

"Why, look here," he finally told them, "if I took your advice right along I'd be out of stock in the film line before half the day was over. And I don't know of anything to make a fellow feel worse than to have used his last film and then run across a subject that he'd give heaps to get."

"Will is right, boys," remarked Frank; "leave it to him to decide things like that. I'd stake a lot on his judgment, you must know."

"Well," commented Will, with a chuckle, "I'm a ninny when it comes to lots of things connected with outdoor life; but I do know something about taking pictures, if I say it myself."

At noon-time they stopped and rested for more than an hour, and ate the cold lunch that had been provided. It was warm, and consequently no one felt sorry for the chance to lie in the shade.

Frank afterwards swung around in a half circle. He kept his bearings all the time, and professed to know accurately just where they were, and in what quarter the camp lay.

"For what's the use of claiming to be a woodsman," he told Bluff when the other looked a little incredulous over something or other, "if you don't keep track of your direction? I feel sure that as the crow flies Cabin Point lies over there, right beyond that tree with the feathery crown."

About three in the afternoon all of them owned up to feeling a bit weary.

"But I reckon we must be getting within a mile or so of the lake,"

Jerry suggested. "I'm saying that partly because I've noticed how Frank has swung around, and is heading in the direction he pointed out when he told of our camp lying in that quarter."

"You hit the nail on the head when you say that, Jerry," commented Frank; "for we're going to strike the old trail before another ten minutes pa.s.ses."

"Meaning the one that leads to the lake from Aaron's place, eh, Frank?" continued Jerry, with a sparkle of expectancy in his eyes.

"That's right, Jerry," he was told quietly.

"Then I hope--" began the other, stopping suddenly, with half-opened mouth, to listen, for just then there came to their ears a half-m.u.f.fled sound that might be the scream of a red-headed woodp.e.c.k.e.r up on some rotten treetop, or anything else for that matter.

Will and Bluff uttered exclamations indicating that they recognized the cry. Even Frank looked serious, while Jerry was plainly excited.

"Frank!" he exclaimed, "was that the queer cry you fellows told me you heard those two times you were up here?"

"I think it was," replied the other; "but please don't go to getting excited over it, Jerry. You know we agreed it was none of our business whether a peac.o.c.k on the lawn or a dog in his kennel let out that yawp. The only thing that interests me about it is the fact that we have proof that the high board fence around Mr. Dennison's place ought to loom up any minute now."

Hardly had Frank said this than Bluff broke in with his customary abruptness.

"Right now I can see a little patch of the same fence over yonder, Frank. Notice that big beech, and look under the slanting limbs. How about it, am I right?"

He was immediately a.s.sured that his eyes had not deceived him, for it was certainly a small section of the tall fence that he had discovered.

"I hope you will go close enough anyway," ventured Jerry, "so I can see that strand of cruel barbed wire you say runs along the top of the fence."

"Oh! there's no reason you should be cheated out of that little favor," he was told by the leader. "The fact is we have to pa.s.s close to the fence in order to strike that trail through the woods."

"The one he took when he struck my trap, and set my flashlight off, eh, Frank?" asked Will.

"Of course it was that trail and no other," said Frank; "you remember we followed it before, and came to the Point. We also agreed that it was used by the old gentleman once in a while when he took a notion to go down to the lake."

"Well, here's the fence, Jerry!" observed Bluff, as they came to a full stop.

Jerry surveyed it critically, even stepping back the better to see how the barbed wire entanglement ran along its apex.

"A rather tough job to get over that fence," he was heard to say, as though half to himself, "though I reckon I could manage it if pushed."

"But I hope you'll never try it," ventured Frank, severely.

"I was wondering," continued Jerry, paying no attention to the reproof, "whether that barbed wire was put there to prevent outsiders from getting in, or to keep some one who was in from breaking out!"

Frank started, and looked serious. He even exchanged glances with Will, as though they might have a little secret between them; but at any rate he did not see fit to encourage Jerry to pursue the subject any further.

"Suppose we let the matter drop now," he said, in that way of his which all of them considered final.

They once more moved along, and, in following the plan Frank had of reaching the old trail that led through the woods and tangle to the lake, they kept close to the high fence.

Jerry looked around him from time to time, and whenever he chanced to discover a knot-hole in one of the boards he immediately glued his eye to the aperture as if in hopes of glimpsing the hermit's house, or something else equally interesting.

As they did not hear him utter any expression of satisfaction after several of these attempts, the others set his labor down as futile.

A short time later they neared the lower end of the fenced-in estate.

Frank knew he would run upon the trail near this point, and accordingly he had his eyes fixed on the ground looking for the first signs.

On this account he was not the first to discover something that came to pa.s.s. It was when he heard an exclamation from Jerry that Frank looked hastily up, and saw to his dismay that they were once more face to face with the same old gentleman whom he and Will had encountered.