Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds Part 7

"What's the use of shooting until I have to?" demanded George.

"They can come in here if they want to, if they'll only behave themselves."

"If they try to come in here," declared Thede, "I'll go up in the air about nine hundred feet."

Although they did not attempt to re-enter the cavern, the bears kept close to the entrance. It was clear that only the light of the electric kept them from attacking the boys.

"They'll stay right there till morning," exclaimed Thede, "and we'll have to shoot them anyway before we can get out. They are kicking themselves now," he continued with a grin, "because they let us in here without a battle. I wish we understood bear talk so that we could learn what they're saying to each other."

"Nothing very complimentary to us," George declared.

As the night advanced it grew colder and the boys moved about in quest of a more sheltered corner. They could still hear the bears moving about outside, but paid no attention to them.

"Look here," George said presently, as the search-light rested for a moment on a break in the rock. "I wouldn't wonder at all if we could get further under the hill. There's an opening here which looks wide enough for us to crawl through."

"It's a wonder the bears didn't find it then," commented Thede.

"I'm going to see whether I can get through it or not," George insisted. "It may be a warmer corner. Anyway, it'll give us exercise, and that's what we need about this time."

Throwing the spear of light into the crevice, the boy glanced keenly about. The walls of the opening seemed to be smooth, and to extend only a short distance. Just below where the walls broke he could see the brown floor of another cavern."

"I guess it's all right," he said to Thede. "You take the light and hold it down and I'll scramble in. May as well break my neck as to freeze to death."

"Let me take your hand, then," advised Thede, "so yon can be pulled back if you don't like the looks of the new furnished room."

"I'd like to be in a furnished room on Was.h.i.+ngton boulevard just this minute," George broke in.

"I wouldn't mind a good box in Gamblers' alley," said Thede.

When all was ready Thede gave one hand to George and lowered him down to the full length of both arms.

"All right!" George cried in a moment, "I can feel my toes touching the rock. Let go! You drop down now, and I'll steady you when you light."

Both boys were soon in the lower cavern and a moment following their arrival there, they heard the claws of the bears rattling on the rocks above.

"I've heard Pierre tell about caves in this range of hills," Thede said, "but I never knew that they had caves two stories high."

As the boy ceased speaking, George suddenly shut off his flash light and laid a hand on the other's arm.

"What's that for -----"

"Keep still!" whispered George. "Do you see anything?"

"Looks to me like a light," the other replied.

"Looks like a fire, doesn't it?" asked George.

"It certainly is a fire and there's a man sitting in front of it."

The fire showed at the end of a narrow pa.s.sage, perhaps ten or twelve yards away. It was blazing vigorously, and the cavern in which it stood was well clouded with smoke. It was evident that the watcher by the fire was as yet unconscious of the approach of the two boys.

"I wish we could get to that fire!" George said with a s.h.i.+ver.

"And why not?"

"I don't think he'd be hiding here if he was keeping open house,"

replied George. "He may be an outlaw hiding from the police. And in that case he wouldn't relish the idea of his underground retreat being discovered, even by two boys who want to get warm."

"Anyway," Thede insisted, "I'm going to crawl up close and see what I can find out. That fire looks good to me."

The boys advanced cautiously, with George a little in advance. The man at the fire sat with his chin on his breast as if in sound sleep.

"I don't believe he'd say anything if we walked right in on him,"

Thede declared. "If he does, we can hold a gun on him and invite him to a more friendly mood."

The man did not move as the boys came on, and George was about to call out to him when Thede caught him by the shoulder.

"Don't you dare make a motion!" the boy whispered. "Stand still where you are and look to the little shelf of rock on the other side of the fire."

George looked, and his automatic and his searchlight almost clattered to the floor as his eyes rested on something which glittered like gold in the red light of the fire. He turned to Thede, and there was a tremor in his voice as he whispered in his ear.

"Do you know what that is?" he asked.

"I think I know what it is!" was the whispered reply.

"It's the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d!" whispered George excitedly. "And I'm going to sneak over there and lay my hands on it before that fellow wakes up!"

"You never can do it!" advised Thede.

"I've just got to do it!"

"If that is the real Little Bra.s.s G.o.d, how did it ever get here?"

whispered Thede. "Strangest thing I ever heard of."

"Gee whiz!" whispered George. "We mustn't stand around wondering how it got here. The thing for us to do right now is to get possession of it. I believe I can get over there without waking that fellow up."

"Let me take your gun, then," Thede advised, "and if he moves or makes any funny breaks, I'll keep him under cover!"

George handed his gun over to the boy without a word and moved on toward the fire. It was clear that the man was asleep, his chin resting on his breast, his shoulders supported by a wall of rock.

The thing which glittered on the ledge, now almost within reaching distance, was unquestionably the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d, the quest of which had brought the boys into the Hudson Bay country.

George had never set eyes on the toy, but there was no mistaking the crossed legs, the folded arms, the paunchy stomach, and the misshapen, leering face. The boy heard a soft warning whispered from the opposite side of the room and turned his eyes from a greedy contemplation of the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d to the figure of the man crouching before the blaze.

The fellow had lifted his head, and now sat staring at the boy with a dumb wonder in his eyes. While the boy looked the expression changed from wonder to alarm, from alarm to anger, and then the doubled-up figure straightened and sprang forward.

The boy heard a pistol shot, sensed the acrid smell of powder smoke, felt a muscular hand grasp the wrist which was extended toward the shelf of rock, and then a million stars seemed to be falling from the heavens. There was a roar as of an ocean beating against breakers, and then a lull during which he heard another pistol shot.

When the boy regained consciousness, daylight was creeping into the cavern through an opening much lower down than the one by which the boys had entered the upper cavern.