Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds Part 20

"What did he say?"

"He told me to come to him."

"And you was obeying that command when you started toward the window?"

"I guess that's right," answered the boy, "but it's all so hazy that I don't know much about it."

"And then I fired at the window and broke the spell and also the pane of gla.s.s!" explained Will. "If he comes back here again, I'll shoot from the outside! We can't be kept awake nights by any East Indian magic."

"East Indian granny!" declared Sandy.

"You read about such occurrences in the newspapers every day!"

declared Will. "We see people hypnotized and forced to obey the commands of others, not only in the private parlor but on the open stage. Sometimes, too, the hypnotic influence is a.s.sisted by strange Oriental perfume. There's nothing extraordinary about it at all! In fact, there is only one word that describes it, and that is the word uncanny."

"Fix it anyway you want it!" grinned Tommy. "There's a broken window, and there's blood on the snow, and we found Thede lying on the floor when we sprang out of bed. If that doesn't make a good case of circ.u.mstantial evidence, I don't know what does!"

"This Little Bra.s.s G.o.d is getting on my nerves!" declared Sandy after a short pause. "We've been up against smugglers on Lake Superior; up against rattlers and wreckers in the Florida Everglades, and up against train robbers on the Great Divide, but this ghost business gets my goat!"

"Perhaps you'd like to go back to Chicago empty-handed?" asked Tommy.

"Not so you could notice it!" was the reply. "If there's anything I like, it's nice little Boy Scout excursions like this. All we have to do to get busy is to get a camping outfit together and march off into the wilderness. Everything else comes right along as a matter of course. Everything else, from magic haunches of venison, which appear when you wave your hand, to Little Bra.s.s G.o.ds, which grin down from the wall one second and vanish in smoke the next!"

"Aw, come on to bed!" cried George.

"I'm going to sit up and get breakfast!" declared Tommy. "Sandy's got a grouch on, and there's nothing on earth so good for a grouch as a slice of broiled venison."

Tommy dressed himself and chased outdoors in order to bring in the meat supply. He returned without it. The venison was gone!

CHAPTER XV

A HUNTING EXPEDITION

The boys remained at the cabin all the next day stirring out only for wood and game. Without going, more than a dozen yards from the habitation, the boys shot three rabbits and half a dozen squirrels.

These were taken about noon, and the boys immediately began the preparation of a stew. There were a few potatoes left, and these they pared and sliced into the savory dish when it was nearing completion.

They expected, every one of them, to receive another visit from the mysterious persons who had appeared at the cabin on the previous night, yet they did not talk of what was in their thoughts. They discussed the sad plight of Antoine, wandering about in the forest with a broken wrist, and wondered if the cached provisions were still intact.

The following night was a quiet one. Snow fell heavily, and the small streams of that section took on icy blankets.

When they awoke the following morning, the sun was s.h.i.+ning brightly, and there were many signs of a pleasant week.

"After breakfast," Tommy declared, as he sent his plate over for the third helping of the rejuvenated stew, I'm going out and get a specimen of every wild animal in the woods. Then I'm going to put them all into this stew!"

"You might put a wolverine into it!" suggested Thede.

"Are they good to eat?" demanded Tommy.

"They're good to eat game out of the traps, I understand," replied the boy. "Or, just for a change," Thede continued, "how'd you like an owl in your stew? I guess that wouldn't put you wise or anything!"

"You seem to know quite a lot about this country," Will suggested.

"Poor Pierre taught me quite a lot during our rambles," Thede answered sorrowfully.

"Then perhaps you'd better come along with Tommy and me and show us where to get these different kinds of animals the kid wants to put into his stew. That will help some."

After breakfast the three boys started out with their automatics.

They crossed the mora.s.s to the higher ground beyond and pa.s.sed along in the direction of the camp. There might be duck over Moose river, Thede suggested, and Tommy certainly would want a duck for his stew. Also there might be wild geese there.

When they came to the place where the provisions had been cached, they found the surface of the ground broken and the provisions gone. Not a single can remained.

"Now, we'll have to shoot all the more game," declared Tommy. "We haven't got many beans or tomatoes left, so we'll have to forage on the country."

The loss was not considered a serious one, for the boys had plenty of provisions at the cabin and game was very plentiful.

As they pa.s.sed through the country signs of the wild creatures of the woods were numerous. There were few s.p.a.ces of a length of twenty-five feet in which the track of some wild beast or bird did not cross their path.

Thede read this writing in the snow so understandingly that the boys actually paid more attention to his explanations than to the discovery of the game he was talking about.

"What crossed there?" Will would ask.

"That must have been a red deer!"

"And this track, here?" asked Tommy.

"Probably a fox."

"Well, what do you make of this?" Will demanded with a wink at Tommy.

"That must have been a moose, but he pa.s.sed here some time before the last fall of snow!" replied Thede.

"Well, what's this wobbly little mark here?" Tommy asked.

"Partridge!" replied Thede readily.

"Well, here's another odd little mark. Looks like some one had been dragging a rail fence. What's that?"

"You ought to know that!" answered Thede.

"I ought to know lots of things that I don't know!" commented the boy.

"Well," Thede said with a laugh, "the wild animal that pa.s.sed along there was a Beaver!"

"I wonder if he belongs to our patrol!" chuckled Tommy.