Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds Part 19

"Because he's scared of us!"

The boys followed the tracks toward the mora.s.s some distance and then returned to the cabin.

"Whoever the fellow is," Will argued, "he found it necessary to get a half-breed or Indian guide."

"How do you know that?" asked Tommy. "That may have been Antoine in the moccasins."

"I give it up!" replied Will. "I don't know anything about it."

"I shouldn't wonder at all if some faithful Hindu had sailed across the Pacific ocean, and traveled half across the continent, to rescue a faked Bra.s.s G.o.d from the polluted hands of an Unbeliever."

"You don't really think there's any of this Hindu temple business in this Little Bra.s.s G.o.d case, do you?" asked Tommy.

"Well, the face I saw at the window looked like that of an East Indian!" declared Will. "His skin was bra.s.sy, and his eyes had the devil's leer in them just as the eyes of the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d are said to have."

"Well," Tommy declared with a yawn, "I'm going back to bed!"

"That's what I'm going to do," Will agreed. "If we sit up here until we solve this new problem, we'll probably never get any more sleep as long as we live."

Seeing that the door and windows were securely fastened, the boys, who had been sleeping together, went back to their bunk, and there was only the crackling of the fire and the roaring of the wind to break the silence.

Tommy was soon sound asleep, but Will lay awake listening. Again he heard the window sash rattle, but this time he did not move.

Then he dozed off into slumberland, dreamed that he was on a tropical island where the perfume of the roses was so heavy on the air that breathing almost became a task. He opened his eyes dreamily, saw the fire blazing cheerily, heard the wind roaring around the corners of the cabin, and closed them to dream the same dream over and over.

At last he awoke with a start and sensed a peculiar odor in the room. He lay perfectly still for a moment wondering what it could all mean, when a voice as smooth and as evil as the hissing of a snake, cut through the air. He listened but did not move.

"You have hidden it!" the voice said.

There was a long pause and then the voice broke the silence again.

"Arise and come to me."

The next moment the boy heard Thede moving in the bunk above. The lad first threw his legs over the rail, and Will heard him drawing away the blankets. Then the boy slipped softly to the floor and moved, as one who walks in his sleep, toward the north window.

"Come to me, come to me, come to me!" the voice repeated insistently.

"I'll come to you, all right, in about a minute," Will mused, "if you try any of that magic business here."

Thede continued to move toward the window, walking with his hands outstretched, as the somnambulist frequently walks.

When the boy reached the window he staggered back as if from a blow, then moved forward again, as if bent on leaving the cabin by way of the narrow opening.

Will raised himself in the bunk, drew an automatic from under his pillow, and fired point blank at the gla.s.s. There was a crash and the cabin grew cloudy with powder smoke.

Thede sat down on the floor abruptly and began rubbing his eyes.

"I guess I walked in my sleep," he said. "I do sometimes."

The shot had awakened Tommy and Sandy, who came bounding to the floor.

"What'd you shoot at?" they asked.

"The Little Bra.s.s G.o.d!"

"I guess you've got the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d on the brain!'' grinned Sandy.

"Yes," Tommy cut in, "you've gone and busted a perfectly good pane of gla.s.s when there isn't another one within a hundred miles."

"Did you hit any one?" George called feebly from the bunk.

"I don't know!" replied Will. "I'm going out to see in a minute."

But Tommy and Sandy were out of the door and chasing around the corner of the house before Will could disentangle himself from the blanket.

Instead of pa.s.sing outside, then, he stepped over to the window and looked out. The boys were there looking over the freshly fallen snow with an electric searchlight.

"Did I see anything?" asked Will with a note of victory in his voice.

"Somebody saw something!" answered Sandy. "There's blood on the snow! Some one found a bullet!"

"I'm going to dress and find out where these tracks lead to!" Tommy declared. "This is too much mischief for me!"

"Stick your face up in the air," advised Will with a grin.

"Snow!" shouted Tommy with a gesture of disgust. "These tracks'll be full of the beautiful before we could walk forty rods!"

"That's about the size of it!" agreed Will. "So you may as well come back into the house and we'll go back to bed."

When the boys entered and closed the door again, it was four o'clock and they decided not to go back to bed again that night.

"How'd you know there was some one there?" Sandy asked of Will.

"I heard the window sash rattle, then a strong perfume--something like opium or hasheesh--was forced into the room, then the fellow on the outside began to work his hypnotic spell."

"You say it right!" exclaimed Tommy.

"It's just as simple as anything you ever read in a daily newspaper," declared Will. "This Little Bra.s.s G.o.d we are tracing up belongs either in a Hindu temple in India, or the Hindus think it belongs there. At any rate, some dusky old hypnotizer has been sent after it!"

"You'd better get a new dream book!" Sandy broke in. "Whoever came to the window tonight, came there to find out what we were doing in this cabin! That's all there is to that!"

"Whoever came to the window tonight," Will repeated, "came there for the purpose of hypnotizing one of us boys into telling where the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d is hidden!"

"Then he must be about fourteen miles off his trolley," laughed Sandy. "We don't know where the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d is hidden."

"He threw an Oriental perfume or narcotic of some, kind into the room and let out his persuasive language," Will went on. "If you don't believe he hypnotized Thede, just ask him what he heard just before he got out of bed."

"I heard some one calling to me," Thede answered.