The Outdoor Chums at Cabin Point Part 9

"That guarantee doesn't always go with me," Jerry observed. "It's generally the smart farmer who finds a hen trying to sit under the barn floor, and gathers up the seventeen eggs to s.h.i.+p with what he has in stock. They're as bad as the next one when it comes to deceiving the poor public."

"You'll just have to excuse me now, because I've had all I want; and to tell you the truth I'm just wild to see what my Br'er 'c.o.o.n looks like. If he doesn't show up, tail and all, I'll have to try for him again, that's all."

With that remark Will hurried off, just as Frank expected he would, for he had noticed how the other hastened with his breakfast. Bluff and Jerry took longer, because both of them realized they might be hours on the journey. The village was possibly further away than they thought; and it was just as well that they "laid in a good foundation to start with," as Jerry sensibly observed.

"Make the start whenever you get ready, fellows," remarked Frank.

"I'll look after the dishes, and the bunks too, when the blankets are aired. It seems as if you might have a smooth sea to begin with."

"Yes, but you see we've been banking on some wind from the right quarter," observed Bluff, "in order to make good use of our sail. I'm fond of lying back at my ease in a boat, and letting the breeze do all the work. There's nothing like it, eh, Jerry?"

"Oh, well, if you notice the way the clouds are moving slowly, and then watch the tiny ripple on the bay, you'll reckon that when the wind does come up it's going to favor us. We may even get too much of a good thing before we're done."

"Remember, fellows," Frank cautioned them, "that old boat isn't to be wholly depended on. I calked the seams the best way I could, but the wood's a bit rotten, and there's always danger that the oak.u.m may work loose. Then the water would come in through the open seams in bucketfuls. So my advice to you is, keep fairly close to the sh.o.r.e all the time, even when cutting off coves."

"That is, you mean keep within swimming distance," added Jerry, "which we'll be sure to do, Frank, make your mind easy. A fellow that's fated to be hanged doesn't want to go and cheat things by being just simply drowned, you know."

"h.e.l.lo! there's Will broken loose!" exclaimed Bluff.

"Just hear him whoop it up, will you?" added Jerry. "And here he comes on the run right now. He's holding a film he's developed, and from the look on his face I'd say he must have gotten a corker that shot."

Indeed Frank could see that the approaching boy was very much excited; and it was also evident that what he was carrying so carefully before him had everything to do with his condition.

"Frank, here's something that will make you sit up and take notice!"

he was calling out. "I started to take the picture of a boss 'c.o.o.n, and see what I got, will you?"

Will held the still wet film up so they could have it between them and the light. All of the boys were accustomed to looking at negatives, and figuring out the high lights and the shadows in their proper proportion.

What they saw there plainly and clearly delineated on the film gave them such a sense of surprise that for several seconds none of them uttered a single word.

CHAPTER IX

THE FORAGING PARTY

"A 'c.o.o.n on two legs, as sure as you're born, Will!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bluff presently.

"It's a man!" cried Jerry. "A man with a white beard in the bargain!"

"Frank, it's going to turn out a pretty fair picture, don't you think?" demanded the proud artist, thinking first of all of the success that had crowned his efforts.

"Seems like it, Will," replied the other; "but you've certainly given us a big surprise when you sprung this on the crowd. He must have run across the cord you had connected with the trigger of your flashlight apparatus, and it went off while he was in the act of falling forward."

"His face doesn't show as well as I'd like," continued Will, reflectively; "but even as it stands the chances are we'll find a look of astonishment there when I come to get a print."

"Well," remarked Bluff, "who wouldn't look staggered if, when he was walking along through the woods, all of a sudden he caught his toe in a cord that was stretched across the path, and then had what seemed to be a flash of lightning strike him in the face?"

"I never happened to go through the experience," confessed Frank; "but I'm pretty sure it would give me a fierce jolt."

"But who can the sneaker be, Frank; some darky chicken thief prowling around in hopes of picking up some of our camp duffle?" asked Jerry.

Will turned on him with the scorn an expert photographer always displays when he meets cra.s.s ignorance.

"Why, can't you see from the dark shade of his face in the negative, Jerry, that he's a white man?" he demanded. "If it were a negro you'd see his face almost white here. That point is settled without any question."

"All right, Will, I acknowledge the corn," Jerry hastened to say; "but that doesn't bring us any nearer a solution of the mystery. Why should a white man, and one with a white beard at that, be wandering around our camp in the night?"

They looked at Frank. It was an old habit with the three chums.

Whenever an unusually knotty point arose that needed attention, and their powers seemed baffled, Frank was always depended on to supply the needed answer.

"So far as I'm concerned, fellows," he told them, "I can think of only one old man around this vicinity, and that happens to be Aaron Dennison."

"Ginger! why didn't I guess him right away?" grumbled Bluff. "Seems as if my wits go wool gathering nearly every time there's some sudden necessity for thinking up an answer. Course it's Aaron, and n.o.body else!"

"Yes," Jerry went on to say, as though not wholly convinced; "but what under the sun would Aaron be doing here, tell me, and acting suspiciously like a thief in the night?"

"Of course we can't say what tempted him to come out," Frank observed; "we've never met the gentleman face to face, but we have heard that he's a queer one. Besides, if you stop to think, you'll remember a little circ.u.mstance that seemed to connect old Aaron with this cabin on the Point many years ago."

"It takes you to piece out these things, Frank," admitted Bluff candidly. "Sure! We figured that out by finding a part of an old envelope in the deserted rat's nest under the floor board."

"Just as like as not," added Jerry, "the old chap owns all the ground along the lake sh.o.r.e, including this cabin; and if that's so he'd have a perfect right to walk out this way whenever he chose, at midnight or noon, as the notion struck him."

"Oh, well," remarked Will with a sigh, "he spoiled my little game with Br'er 'c.o.o.n, though I mean to make another try along that line. When this film dries, which may be around noon, I'll strike off a proof, and then we can see what the old hermit looks like."

"One thing goes without saying," chuckled Bluff.

"What might that be?" Jerry asked him.

"Our night visitor didn't wait to find out what had blinded him on the trail, but must have turned and made lickety-split for home."

"Can you blame him?" demanded Will, demurely. "Stop and think how you'd feel if all of a sudden you got such a shock. Bluff, you said you were awake at the time, and heard some sort of a sound, didn't you?"

"Why yes, I'm dead certain I did; and now that we know it was a man who got the scare I reckon he gave a little screech. I thought it was a yelp from some wild animal at the time, but it could have been an exclamation just as well."

They continued to talk about the incident for some little time, but although several suggestions were advanced, in the end they were really no closer to an explanation of the mystery than when they started.

All they knew was that some man, probably Aaron Dennison himself, had been walking along the old trail leading to the cabin from above when his foot caused the concealed trap to be sprung.

He must have turned hastily and retreated after the flash. What he thought the sudden dazzling illumination was caused by, the boys had no means of knowing.

Jerry and Bluff were now getting ready to start on their mission in search of supplies. They both expressed the hope that these could all be procured, once they reached the distant village on the lake sh.o.r.e, many miles off.

It promised to be an interesting trip, for they would pa.s.s along a sh.o.r.e neither of them had ever examined at close range before. To those who love outdoor life there is always a novelty about exploration. With new and interesting scenes opening up constantly before the eyes the senses are kept on the alert.

Bluff even had the temerity to suggest that Will loan them his camera for the occasion.

"We might run across some dandy pictures that would be worth while snapping off, you know, Will," he went on to say in a wheedling tone of voice, which Bluff knew so well how to use.