The Wolf Patrol Part 38

Suddenly the boys came on a little brook, and both said, 'Here we are,'

for they knew that somewhere along the brook there would be a spot to suit them. They left the road, and followed the little stream for three or four hundred yards, and then pulled up at a smooth gra.s.sy patch on the sunny side of a pine-wood. In the evening light the great tall red trees stood up quiet and splendid, and the scouts knew that their dark depths would make a happy hunting-ground for firewood and bedding.

They started their fire, and collected a huge pile of dried sticks with which to feed it. They gathered armfuls of pine-tips from the lower branches, but could find no logs for a framework; so they made the bed much broader, and worked in some strong dried branches at the side, and hoped the plan would answer well. They tested it by rolling on the bed, and all seemed firm and steady. Then, with ravening appet.i.tes, they turned to preparations for supper.

Bread and tea were easy enough to prepare, but how were they going to cook the eels? Chippy had been enthusiastic over the delicious richness of fried eels, and there was the billy to fry them in, but what were they going to do for grease?

'A bit o' lard, now,' murmured Chippy.

'Wait a bit,' said d.i.c.k. 'I'll put you right, cook.'

He opened his haversack, and took out a small tin box. 'Here you are,'

said d.i.c.k. 'Mutton fat. I boiled it down myself. Grand stuff to rub on your feet if you get a sore place, but we haven't wanted it yet.'

'No, we ain't tenderfeet,' grunted the Raven.

'Hope not,' said d.i.c.k. He opened the box and smelled the contents.

'Has it gone bad?' asked his companion.

'Not a bit of it,' replied the Wolf; 'sweet as a nut. Here's a lump for your pan.' And he dug out a piece of the solid mutton fat with his knife.

The eels were washed and skinned, and soon were hissing and spluttering delightfully in the mutton fat in the billy. The two biggest eels, weighing more than half a pound each, were treated in this manner, and proved quite as good as Chippy had promised. While the hungry scouts devoured them, some smaller ones were set on to boil, for the Raven had heard boiled eels were good also, though he hadn't tried them. So the billy was rubbed round and three parts filled with water, and on went some more eels in a new form of cookery. When it came to the test of eating, the scouts did not think the boiled were quite so tasty as the fried, but they vanished before their raging appet.i.tes, and the two boys ate every eel they had sniggled.

They built up their fire and turned in before the daylight had gone, for they were fatigued by the long journey they had made that day.

'If a scritch-owl turns up this time,' chuckled Chippy, 'we'll just turn over and let 'im scritch.'

'And if a jacka.s.s rambles round, we won't be frightened and make three instead of one,' laughed d.i.c.k.

About one in the morning d.i.c.k was aroused from sleep by finding that he was very uncomfortable. The bed lacked the support of the side-logs, and the pine-tops had worked loose, and d.i.c.k had worked through them, and was lying on the ground. His hip-joint was aching, and the discomfort had awakened him.

'Hallo,' thought d.i.c.k, on recognising what had happened, 'I've reached the bottom shelf. I shall have to dig that little hole about the size of a teacup which B.-P. recommends for you to tuck your hip-joint in.'

He turned over on his back and lay still for a few moments.

The night was very still and bright, and the moon was low down in the west, but clear, and s.h.i.+ning strongly. The Raven was soundly asleep, and his breathing was deep and regular. d.i.c.k sat up and looked at the fire. It had burned down to a ma.s.s of embers hidden under a coating of ashes. He rolled out of his blanket, got up, and threw an armful of sticks on the fire. They began to crackle at once, and he stood for an instant to watch them.

Suddenly he lifted his head and sniffed: the wind was tainted as it blew lightly towards him along the lee of the wood: he could smell tobacco-smoke.

'Who's about?' thought d.i.c.k. 'What does it mean? We're far off from any village according to the map. But that's tobacco, and no mistake.

I'll have a look round.'

He glanced at his companion, but Chippy was still wrapped in heavy slumber.

d.i.c.k stepped forward, then paused. 'No, I won't wake him,' murmured the Wolf. 'It would be a shame to fetch him up for nothing. I'll see who's in the neighbourhood first.'

d.i.c.k slipped on his shoes, drew the laces tight, for they were rove scout fas.h.i.+on, tucked in the ends, took his staff, and began to creep up-wind like a hare stealing from its form.

CHAPTER XLI

THE POACHERS

As d.i.c.k moved along the edge of the wood, the smell of tobacco grew stronger, and below a small ash he stopped with a jump of his heart.

There was a scratch and spurtle of a match at his very feet, as it seemed.

Beyond the ash lay a big clump of brambles, and d.i.c.k peered over them.

He discovered that the growth of brambles masked a deep hollow, and in the hollow lay three men, one of whom was smoking, and had just relighted his pipe. d.i.c.k checked himself just as he was about to give a low whistle of surprise and wonder. The men were blacks. The moon shone full into the hollow and showed ebony faces, in which white teeth glittered, as they spoke to each other in whispers. Then the smoker raised his hand to press down the tobacco in his pipe, and here again was a fresh surprise, for the hand was the hand of a white man.

Now d.i.c.k understood. These men had met for some evil purpose, and had blacked their faces as a disguise.

'Something wrong,' said d.i.c.k to himself. 'Those fellows are out for no honest purpose. Scout's job here.'

As the thought pa.s.sed through the Wolf's mind, one of the men sat up and growled an oath. 'Wheer are they got to?' he said. 'Here, 'tis nigh on ha'-past one, an' Young Bill and Smiley ain't turned up yet.'

'We'll start wi'out 'em if they don't show up soon,' grunted a second speaker.

'As far as old Smiley goes we can do wi'out him all right,' returned the first man, 'but we must ha' Young Bill. He's got the stren'th o'

half a dozen to pull.'

At that very moment Smiley and Young Bill were standing open-mouthed before the scouts' fire with the sleeping Raven at their feet. Smiley was a little twisted old fellow, but Young Bill was a gigantic navvy, powerful as a five-year-old bull. Their faces, too, were blacked in readiness for the night's work. Three minutes after d.i.c.k had crept away, they had slipped along the brook under the wood, turned a sharp corner, and come full upon the camp just as a bright light sprang up from the new sticks with which d.i.c.k had fed the fire.

'Wot's this?' growled Young Bill; 'a fire, an' somebody on the watch.'

Chippy had been sleeping uneasily for some time, for d.i.c.k's movements had disturbed, though not awakened, him. At the sound of the new-comer's voice he awoke, flung off his blanket, and leapt to his feet. But Young Bill was upon him at once, and pinned him with a grip of iron.

It was a terrifying experience for the Raven--to awake from sleep to find his companion gone and himself in the hands of two fellows whose blackened faces had a horrifying look in the dancing firelight.

'Wotcher doin' here?' demanded Young Bill, giving his captive a shake which rattled together the teeth in Chippy's head.

'Sleepin',' replied the Raven calmly.

'Who set ye here?'

'n.o.body: set myself.'

Chippy's eyes shot swift glances on every side. Where was d.i.c.k? What had become of his friend? Was he free or a captive? If free, he must be warned, and Chippy acted at once. He let out a wild wolf-howl, which was promptly checked by Smiley. The latter gripped Chippy by the throat with both hands, shutting off the call, and half strangling the caller.

'See, he's givin' a signal,' cried Smiley. 'They're out for us, Bill.

They've put this kid on the watch!'

The young giant was furious. He shook the Raven savagely, and struck him a cruel blow on the side of the head. While Chippy was still reeling and dizzy from this a.s.sault, he felt a handkerchief pa.s.sed over his mouth, and it was quickly tied behind his head: Smiley had gagged him.

'Bring him along,' said Smiley. 'We're close to the place where t'others are. Let's see if they know aught.'

d.i.c.k had been immensely startled to hear his patrol call ring out from the direction of the camp, and then hear it suddenly checked. He turned and raced back, but silently and warily, and soon saw the two men advancing with Chippy, gagged and helpless, dragged along between them.