The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound Part 30

"We've made all arrangements looking to such a thing," Tom was a.s.sured. "I'm glad that it still stays clear and cold. We may only have a couple more nights in Camp Garrity."

"But it's getting a little milder, don't you think?" inquired Bobolink.

"It's a big improvement on yesterday, and I imagine to-morrow will see a further change," the scout-master remarked.

"Then if those fellows in the cave mean to strike out for home they'll like as not find their chance by to-morrow," observed Jud. "Course they've got enough grub to keep them for a week. But it isn't much fun staying cooped up in a cave, and I reckon they've had enough of it.

Sim and Jud acted that way, not to mention Bud Phillips."

"Before we make our start I'd like to take a last turn over that way,"

Paul observed, as though he had been thinking the matter over. "I'd just like to see if they did strike out across the timber. Their trail would tell the story, and we'd know what to expect."

"I speak to go with you then," flashed back Jud, even as Bluff opened his mouth to give utterance to the same desire.

"T-t-that's what a fellow gets for being a stutterer," grumbled Bluff.

"I meant to say just those words, but Jud--hang the l-l-luck--was too speedy for me. Huh!"

"Oh! as for that," laughed Paul, "both of you can go along if you care to."

As the day dragged along the scouts busied themselves in a dozen different ways according to their liking. Some preferred to swing the axe and chop wood, though doubtless if they had been compelled to do this at home, loud and bitter would have been their lamentations.

During the afternoon several went out for a walk, carrying guns along so as to be prepared for either game, or another pack of hungry wild dogs, though Tolly Tip a.s.sured them that, so far as he knew, there had existed only the one pack, with that enormous mastiff as leader.

"If ye follow the directions I've been after givin' yees, it may be ye'll come on a bevy av pa'tridges," the woodsman told them as they were setting out. "For by the same token whin we've had a heavy snowfall I've always been able to knock down a lot av the birrds among the berry bushes. 'Tis there they must go to git food or be starved entirely. Good luck to ye, boys, an' kape yer weather eye open so ye won't git lost!"

"Remember," added Paul, "if you do lose your bearings stop right still and fire three shots in rapid succession. Later on try it again, and we'll come to you. But with such clever woodsmen along as Jack and Bobolink we don't expect anything of that kind to happen, of course."

Paul himself went with the keeper of the woods lodge to follow the frozen creek up to a certain place where there were numerous holes in the bank. Here Tolly Tip pointed out little footprints made he said by the minks on the preceding night.

"Av course," the woodsman went on to say, "ye do be knowin' a hape better nor me jist where the best place to set the trap might be. All I c'n do is to show ye the p'int where the minks is most like to travel to-night."

"That is just what I want you to do!" exclaimed Paul. "But you can help me out in fixing things, so when the mink takes the bait and pulls the string he'll be sure to crouch directly in front of my camera trap."

Between them they eventually arranged matters, and then the trapper removed all traces of their presence possible, after which they returned to the cabin.

"If the trap isn't sprung to-night I'll have another try-out," Paul affirmed, "for it may be a long while before I'll get another such chance to snap off Mr. Sly Mink in his own preserves."

"Oh! make your mind aisy on that score," said Tolly Tip, rea.s.suringly.

"I do be knowing the ways av the crature so well I c'n promise ye there'll be no hitch. That bait I set is sure to fetch him ivery time.

I've sildom known it to fail."

The afternoon came to an end, and the glow of sunset filled the heavens over in the west. The hunters came trooping in, much to the satisfaction of some of the stay-at-homes, who were beginning to fear something might have happened to them.

"We heard a whole lot of shots away off somewhere," a.s.serted Phil Towns, "so show us what you've got in the game pockets of your hunting coats to make them bulge out that way."

"I've got three fat partridges," said Jack.

"Two for me--one in each pocket!" laughed Bobolink.

Then Jack and Bobolink looked expectantly toward Jud as though expecting him to make a still better showing.

At that Jud began to unload, and before he stopped he had laid six birds on the rough deal table. At that there was much rejoicing.

"Just enough to go around!" exclaimed Sandy Griggs. "I was beginning to be sorry Bluff and I had gone and cooked our birds, but now it's all right. Here's for a bully mess to-morrow."

"We've certainly made a big hole in your partridge supply since coming up here, Tolly Tip," announced Bobolink, proudly. "And there's one deer less, too."

"Only one," said Jud, regretfully; and Paul knew he must be thinking of the stag responsible for the tracks seen on that day when they were on duty bent, and could not turn aside to do any hunting.

"Well, to-morrow may be our last day here," remarked the scout-master, "so every one of you had better wind up your affairs, to be ready to start home."

CHAPTER x.x.xI

GOOD-BYE TO DEER HEAD LODGE

"I think I'll sleep a whole lot better to-night," announced Bobolink, as he gave a huge yawn, and stretched his arms high above his head.

"What's the reason?" demanded Jud, quickly. "Are you happy because we're going to break camp so much sooner than we expected, owing to everything being snowed under up here in the woods?"

"Bobolink doesn't get enough to eat, I reckon," suggested Tom Betts.

"If he doesn't it's his own fault then," Jack went on to say, "because he has more to do with the cooking end of the game than any of us."

"I guess I know what he means," hinted Spider s.e.xton, mysteriously.

"Then get a move on you, Spider, and enlighten the rest of us," coaxed Sandy, as he cuddled a bit closer to the crackling fire, for the wind had arisen again, and parts of the cabin were chilly, despite the roaring blaze.

"Why, the fact of the matter is, Bobolink has a new girl to take to barn dances and all that this winter," said Spider, boldly. "It's that pretty Rose Dexter belonging to the new family in town. Oh! you needn't grin at me that way, Bobolink. I own up I was doing my best to cut in on you there, but you seemed to have the inside track of me and I quit. But she is a peach if ever there was one!"

"Well, do you blame me then for feeling satisfied when we talk of going home?" demanded the accused scout. "All the same you're all away off in your guesses. I'm hoping to sleep soundly to-night just because my mind is free from wondering who set that incendiary fire and tapped Mr. Briggs' safe."

"Oh! so that's the reason, is it?" laughed Paul. "I've been watching you more or less since we came up here, and I wondered if you hadn't been trying to figure that mystery out. I'm glad for your sake, as well as for some others' sakes, that we've been able to clear that thing up."

"All I hope now is that on our way back home we can stop off and pay the hoboes a little friendly visit," continued Bobolink.

"Same here," Jud added, quickly. "Even if our outing hasn't been everything we hoped for, it would even things up some if we could march into Stanhope and hand the guilty men over to the police."

Indeed, Bobolink was not the only scout who slept "like a rock" on that night. Most of the boys were very tired after the exertions of the day, and, besides, now that it had been decided to return home, they really had a load removed from their minds.

Of course, all of them could have enjoyed a much longer stay at Deer Head Lodge had the conditions been normal. That tremendous fall of snow, something like two feet on the level, Paul felt, had utterly prostrated many of their best plans, and facing a protracted siege of it did not offer a great deal of attraction.

With the coming of morning they were once more astir, and were soon as busy as a hive of bees. Each scout seemed intent on getting as much done as possible while the day lasted.

Tolly Tip alone looked sober. The quaint and honest fellow had taken a great liking to his guests, and looked forward to their speedy departure with something akin to dismay.

"Sure the rist av the winter will same a dreary time with not a hearty young voice to give me gratin' av a mornin'," he told Paul. "Indade, I don't know how I'm goin' to stand for the same at all, at all."