Young Hunters of the Lake/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
DELAYED BY A STORM
"A bear!"
"Where is he?"
"Let me get my gun!"
Such were some of the exclamations uttered after Whopper made his declaration that he had seen a bear. In the meantime the youth who loved to tell big stories had caught up his shotgun and was aiming it to the right of the watercourse, where there were several big rocks overgrown with brushwood. He took aim and blazed away. A grunt followed, and then came a thrashing in the bushes, growing fainter and fainter in the distance.
"You hit him!" ejaculated Snap.
"Yes, but he is running away for all he's worth," answered Whopper, disappointedly.
By this time every one of the young hunters had his firearm. The boat was turned to the bank of the creek, and then each youth looked at the others. Not a trace of the bear was to be seen anywhere.
"No use of going after him," said the doctor's son. "More than likely he's half a mile away by this time and he'll be so shy he won't let us get anywhere near him."
"If only we could have gotten a shot at him!" said Giant, wistfully. "Think of bringing a bear down first lick! " And his eyes glistened.
"We might have crawled up on him, only I thought he saw us," explained Whopper. "That's the reason I called for my gun."
"I guess he kind of scared you," said Snap.
"Well, I admit I was startled. I didn't think we'd find a bear along here—I thought they hung up in the mountains."
"They may come down to gather some stuff that grows in this water," answered Snap. "They love to eat certain roots, so Jed Sanborn told me, and sometimes they travel a long distance to get them."
After a little more talk the journey was resumed, and nothing out of the ordinary came to their notice until late in the afternoon. Then Shep, who was in the bow looking forward, held up his hand for silence.
"What is it?" whispered Giant, who was next to him.
"Some small animals squatting on yonder rocks," replied the doctor's son. "I don't know what they are."
The young hunters stopped rowing and took up their shotguns with care. They allowed the boat to drift behind a screen of bushes on the side of the watercourse. Then they looked through the bushes with care.
"I know what they are—muskrats," whispered Giant.
"I see two of them," added Shep. He raised his gun and Giant did the same. Bang! bang! went both pieces, one directly after the other. The muskrats gave a leap upward and fell with a splash into the stream.
"We hit them, that's certain," said the doctor's son. "But they may get away."
Eagerly the boys rowed up to the spot where the muskrats had sat. Around the rocks the clear water was churned up into mud. But on the surface floated the two bodies of the creatures.
"I don't know what we are going to do with them," said Snap. "The skins are not very good this time of year."
"I couldn't resist bringing one of 'em down," said Shep.
"Just the way I felt," added Giant.
They continued on their way, and a few minutes later came to something of a cleared spot along the watercourse. Here Snap leaped up, shotgun in hand.
"Here's our chance, fellows!" he whispered. "All together."
He pointed to some low trees beyond the clearing. The branches were thick with quail. All understood and took up their firearms.
"I'll shoot high, Shep can shoot low, Giant to the left and Whopper to the right," commanded the leader of the club. "All ready?"
"Yes," was the low answer, and the four weapons went off almost as one piece. There was a great fluttering in the trees and five quail were seen to drop. Then two others flew around in a fashion that told plainly they were seriously, wounded.
"Come on, we must get them!" cried Giant, and leaped forward. As the two wounded birds flew close together he blazed away a second time, and the game dropped like a stone. The rest of the quail were now out of sight.
"Seven quail!" cried Snap, enthusiastically. "I don't call that half bad."
"I call it very good," declared the doctor's son. "To-morrow we can have quail on toast."
"Where are you going to get the toast?" questioned Whopper.
"Well, we'll have quail on crackers then," put in Giant.
Stowing the quail away in the bow of the boat, they went on through the gathering darkness. The sun had gone down over the hills in the west, casting long shadows across the little watercourse.
"It will be pretty dark by the time we reach Firefly Lake," said Snap, and he was right. It was cloudy too, and a stiff breeze from the east had begun to blow.
"We'll have to take care how we pitch our tent to-night," was Whopper's comment. "Unless I miss my guess, we'll have rain by to-morrow morning."
"Oh, don't say that!" cried Giant. "I don't want it to rain yet."
"It won't hold off for you or anybody else," returned Snap. "Whopper is right, we must stake our tent well and allow for the water to run off—if rain does come."
When they at last rounded the final turn and swept into Firefly Lake it was so dark they could see little or nothing ahead. But they remembered the locality and had little trouble in reaching a spot where they had camped once before. But the snows of the previous winter had played sad havoc with the fireplace they had built, and they had to build a fire in the open. While Whopper and Giant prepared a substantial supper Snap and Shep put up the tent, on a bit of high ground. Around the tent they dug a small trench, to carry off the water, should it storm.
"We want to make sure that our boat doesn't get away from us again to-night," said Whopper.
"Here is a cove—we can haul her up in that," said Snap, and this was done, and the craft was tied fast to two trees.
Having had but little sleep the night before, all the young hunters were tired out, and it was not long after getting supper that they crawled into the tent and went to sleep. On account of the wind they did not dare to leave the campfire burning, for they knew only too well how easy it is to set a forest on fire through such carelessness.
At about two o'clock in the morning Giant awoke, to find the rain coming down steadily on the tent. He crawled to the front of the shelter and looked out. All was pitch dark, and, somehow, the prospect made him shiver. The wind had gone down, and only the fall of the rain broke the stillness.
"This is lonely enough for anybody, I guess," he mused, and crawled back to his corner. "Shouldn't wonder if we have to stay in camp to-. But I don't care—it will give us all a chance to rest up."
He struck a match, to see how the others were faring, and as he gazed around he saw a small stream of water coming in through a hole in the tent. The stream was falling close to Whopper's head. Just then Whopper turned and the stream took him directly in the ear.
"Wh—wow!" spluttered Whopper, awakening and squirming around. "What's the matter here? Has Niagara Falls broke loose, or who's playing the hose on me?"
The noise aroused the others, and all sat up. By this time the match had gone out, but Giant promptly struck another and then lit the camp lantern. Whopper gazed at the hole in the tent ruefully.
"That's too bad," said Snap. "We'll have to mend that, the first chance we get."
"We can't mend it to-night," answered Shep. "Gracious! just listen to it rain!"
The boys sat up for quite awhile listening to the rain, but presently they grew tired again and one after another dropped off to sleep. Whopper found a dry spot next to Giant; and thus they rested until daylight.
It was certainly a dismal outlook that confronted them when they arose for the day. The rain was coming down steadily, and no dry firewood was to be had with which to cook breakfast.
"We should have put some wood in the tent," said Snap. "We'll know better next time."
It took a deal of coaxing to start a blaze, but once it got going to keep it up was easy. They took their time, for traveling in such a storm was out of the question. The meal over, they washed up the dishes, and then huddled down in the tent once more.
"This is the only drawback to camp life," said Snap, with a sigh. "A storm knocks everything endways. But there is no help for it, and a fellow must take the bitter with the sweet."
The storm continued all day, and the only thing the lads did was to fish. At this they were very successful, and a fine supper of fresh lake trout put them in much better humor. They put in a peaceful night, and the next morning, the storm having cleared away, they set off for Lake Narsac.