Guns and Snowshoes; Or, the Winter Outing of the Young Hunters Part 6

"What blew up?"

"Hullo, the Cramer boathouse is down!"

"Fire! fire!"

Such were some of the cries which arose on all sides. Then the crowd came closer, staring at the fallen building, as Snap had done.

In the meanwhile Snap ran forward until he was less than a rod away from the wrecked building. He saw a small fire start up among some splintered boards and, quick to act, picked up some chunks of snow and attempted to put it out.

"That's a good idea," said John Sell, the grocer, who had arrived, and he, too, began to throw the snow, and so did others.

"Our camping-out things are in that place," said Snap.

"Is that so. What blew up, some of your powder?"

"I--I don't think so," faltered Snap. He had up to that moment not thought of the cartridges they had stored on one of the sleds.

"Must have been pretty powerful," said another man. "That noise was like a regular blast over to the stone quarries."

In the crowd was Shep, who had just been on be point of going to bed, and soon Whopper and Giant arrived. In the meanwhile large quant.i.ties of snow were hurled on the ruins and soon the fire was completely under control.

"Snap, do you think our cartridges went off? questioned Whopper.

"No, I don't. How could they go off, unless they were fired, from a gun or otherwise?"

"A rat might have gnawed them," suggested Giant.

"Those cartridges wouldn't cause such a wreckage as this," said Snap firmly. His senses were now coming back to him. "Well, I never!" he exclaimed suddenly.

"What's up now?"

"I just thought of something."

"What is it?"

"When I left Shep's house I walked in this direction, because I was worried for fear somebody might steal our traps. As I walked along I saw two persons running across Hecker's cornfield. I couldn't make out who they were, but I fancy they came from this direction."

"Then they must have caused the explosion," said Whopper quickly. "But why should they do it?"

"Maybe it was an accident," said Giant.

"I'd like to know how much our outfit is damaged," said Shep, anxiously. "I don't care about the old boathouse. It wasn't worth much anyway."

From a nearby store several lanterns were brought, and men and boys proceeded to make an inspection of the ruins. Some boards and timbers were hauled aside, and soon the boys discovered the sleds with the outfit practically as they had left them. One load was a bit damaged at the end, but that was all.

"I'm thankful it is no worse," was Snap's comment.

"If the fire hadn't been put out when it was everything would have burnt up," said Shep seriously.

While the boys were taking care of their sleds and the other things the men folks looked around for traces of what had caused the explosion. Among the men was Jerry Corwin, one of the blasters at the stone quarry.

"Dynamite did this," said he. "Dynamite and nothing else."

"It certainly sounded like dynamite," said another man.

"How would dynamite get here?" asked Mr. Dodge, who had arrived on the scene.

At this question Jerry Corwin shrugged his ma.s.sive shoulders.

"Once in a while some dynamite is missing from our store at the quarry," he answered. "The laborers steal it, for they can sell it to farmers for blasting out stumps, and to others. During the past six months we have lost at least a dozen sticks."

"As the boathouse was not worth much, why was it blown up?" asked Doctor Reed, who had been summoned by somebody who thought a man had been hurt.

"That's the question," said Mr. Dodge. "Evidently it contained nothing of value outside of the outfit belonging to our sons."

"Hum!" murmured the physician, and said no more.

It was a bitter cold night, so after the fire was put out and the ruins examined, the majority of the crowd went home. The members of the Gun Club put their outfits in a neighboring barn, where a friend promised they should be safe, and then, after a short talk, went to their respective abodes. It was a good hour before any of the lads got to sleep.

Whopper was just dreaming of another terrific explosion when he awoke with a start, to hear a loud pounding on the side of the house, directly under his bedroom window. Opening the sash cautiously he caught sight of Giant below, hitting the clapboards with a snow shovel which happened to be handy.

"Oh, what a racket!" murmured Whopper. "I must pay him for that!" And scooping up some snow from the window sill he gave a low whistle. Then as Giant looked up, he let the snow drop.

"Wuow!" spluttered the little lad, as the loose snow filled his mouth and nose. "Say, do you want to smother me?"

"Then stop that infernal racket," answered Whopper. "Do you want the neighborhood to think that there are more explosions taking place?"

"Time to be moving," said Giant, and pa.s.sed on, to arouse Shep.

"Now, my son, be very careful and keep out of danger," said Mr. Dodge to Charley, when the latter was ready to leave. "I shall send old Jed Sanborn up to see you once or twice, and if you need anything from here you let him know and he can bring it to you." And then, after a warm handshake from his father and a kiss from his mother, Snap almost ran from the house, fearful that he would be late.

At the barn where the things had been stored he found Giant and Shep, but nothing was to be seen of Whopper.

"I woke him up," said Giant. "Something has gone wrong, or he would be here by this time."

They waited five minutes longer, and Snap was on the point of going to Whopper's home when they saw the missing club member approaching on a run.

"What in the world kept you so long?" cried Shep.

"Oh, I had a little set-to with Barney Hedge," answered Whopper. "He said some things I didn't like and I rolled him over in the snow and put some down his back to help him cool off."

"Barney Hedge," repeated Snap. He knew the fellow mentioned to be a crony of Ham Spink and Carl Dudder. "What was it about?"

"Oh, about our outing last summer. It seems Hedge and the others are starting a report that we didn't shoot the game we brought in, but that Jed Sanborn brought down the most of it for us."

"How mean!" cried Giant.

"He said we couldn't shoot but that we were all blowers--and if left to ourselves in this cold weather we would starve to death and freeze in the bargain. I couldn't stand for that, so I pitched into him."