Guns and Snowshoes; Or, the Winter Outing of the Young Hunters Part 5

"I'd like to spoil the trip for them."

"So would I. Maybe we can do it too, if we watch our chances."

The two talked the matter over for some time and when they separated it was with the fixed determination to play some underhanded trick and do "the Dodge crowd," as they called our friends much harm.

All of the boys who attended the local school had been waiting impatiently to learn when the present session would come to an end.

Now it was announced that school would close the following Friday afternoon and remain shut up for three weeks and a half.

"Hurrah! that will give us just time enough for a dandy outing!" cried Whopper.

"You'll have to kill a bear a day to make up the number you said you'd bring down," answered, Giant.

"Pooh! I never kill bears singly," sniffed Whopper. "I always kill them in pairs or by the half dozen."

"We've got to make sure that we can go first," said Shep. "Remember the school averages."

They did remember, and all were very anxious concerning the examinations to come off before the term closed. They studied hard, and came out with an average of eight-eight to ninety-four per cent.

"Good!" said Snap. "Our folks can't find fault with such records." And n.o.body did find fault. On the contrary, the boys received not a little praise, and permission to go on the winter outing was readily granted.

"Let us start next Monday," said Giant, who was impatient to get away.

"I doubt if we can get ready so quickly," answered Shep. "There is a good deal to do, you know."

"Then make it Tuesday," pleaded Giant.

"The ice on the river is perfect, so it will be the easiest thing in the world to skate to the lake and drag our sleds after us."

It had already been decided that they should go into camp at Firefly Lake, where they had left their summer shelter only a few months before. Firefly Lake was a beautiful sheet of water, or ice, located a mile from Lake Cameron, and about eleven miles from Fairview. To get to this spot they had to go to Lake Cameron first and then along a narrow watercourse which united the two sheets of water.

The news quickly spread through the town that the Gun Club was going away on another outing, and many envied our friends their coming pleasures. Ham Spink and Carl Rudder looked sour over the prospects.

"Where are they going?" asked Carl.

"To Firefly Lake, to their old camp."

After this announcement both boys looked at each other suggestively.

"It will be moonlight to-night, and we can easily skate twenty or twenty-five miles," suggested Ham.

"So we can, Ham. Let us do it, and--_fix things_."

"We will," said Ham firmly.

As soon as it was settled that our friends were to go away before Christmas, and remain away over the holidays, they received from their parents several gifts in advance. All obtained snowshoes--picked out for them by their old hunter friend, Jed Sanborn--and they also procured an extra gun, an extra sled, and some warm camp blankets.

They still possessed their old camp outfit and so it was an easy matter to gather the things together and get everything ready for the start. The outfit was packed upon two good-sized sleds and well fastened.

"I suppose we ought to have skated up to the camp and inspected things," observed Snap. "But I have been too busy to do so."

"Oh, I reckon everything is as we left it," answered Whopper.

"The camp was all right two weeks ago," said Jed Sanborn, who chanced to be present. "Of course you'll have to fix up some kind of a chimney in the cabin, for you can't keep your fire outdoors in this weather."

"It's as much fun to fix up the cabin as it is to camp out," said Shep, and the others agreed with him.

On Monday afternoon the boys got their things together and stored them in an old boathouse on the river front. They had looked to their skates and each pair had been sharpened and put in first cla.s.s condition.

"We may use our skates as much as the snowshoes," said Whopper.

With everything stored in the old boathouse the door was carefully locked by Shep, who put the key in his pocket. The old boathouse had two windows, but each of these was nailed shut.

"I don't believe anybody will get in there," observed the doctor's son.

"Oh, I don't think there are any thieves around," answered Whopper.

The evening was devoted to final preparations, and it was after ten o'clock before any of the boys thought of retiring. Snap was over to Shep's house, and the doctor's son saw his friend to the front door.

"Now remember, seven o'clock sharp," said Shep. "We want to get away as early as possible, so we'll have plenty of time to fix up the cabin when we get there."

"Oh, I'll be up early enough," said Snap, with a smile. "Fact of it is, I am so worked up I don't expect to do much sleeping."

After a few words more the boys separated, and Snap started to walk home. He had almost reached his gate when something prompted him to halt. He looked down the roadway in the direction of the old boathouse.

"I have half a mind to go down and see if everything is O. K.," he murmured to himself.

Then he thought it would be foolish, and started to enter the house.

But he was undecided, and at last hurried down the roadway in the direction of the river.

He was still some distance from the old boathouse when he discovered two persons running across an open field which lined the roadway. He could not make out anything excepting that they were either men or big boys.

"That's queer," he reasoned, and then started forward again.

Snap was still two hundred feet from the old boathouse when a most extraordinary thing happened. There was a rumble as of thunder, followed by a fierce flash of fire, and then the end of the boathouse arose in the air and came down with a crash, completely wrecking what was left of the building!

CHAPTER V

OFF FOR THE CAMP

The sudden and unexpected shock nearly threw Snap from his feet, and it was several seconds before he could collect his senses.

Then, in a dim and uncertain way, he realized two things--that there had been a terrific explosion and that the old boathouse containing their precious camping outfit was in ruins.

"What in the world can it mean?" he asked himself, as he stared in a bewildered fas.h.i.+on at the ruin in front of him. "It sounded as if some dynamite went off."

The noise and shock of the explosion was heard all over Fairview, and soon people came flocking to the scene from all directions.