CHAPTER XIX
FRIENDS OF THE DEER
"Yes, its a buck," announced Tom, as a shout from the camp told thatone of the other scouts had also discovered the swimming animal.
"Whew! there come the dogs along the shore!" cried Felix, pointing ashe spoke to where a number of swiftly-moving objects could be seen.
"They've taken to the water after the deer!" exclaimed Josh.
"It'll be a shame if they manage to catch up with the poor thing in thepond!" Felix declared; "we ought to break that game up somehow. Isn'tthere a way?"
"If we had a canoe instead of a log we might get between, and keep thedogs back," he was told by the patrol leader; "but I'm afraid we'llnever be able to make it at this rate."
Felix had started paddling furiously even while the other was speaking.The novel craft began to move through the water much faster than at anyprevious time. It was really surprising how much speed it could show,when driven by that stout, if homely, paddle, held in the hands of amuscular and excited scout.
Tom gave directions as though he were the pilot, and while the swimmingbuck certainly saw them approaching he must have considered that thesehuman enemies were not to be feared one-half as much as those mercilesshounds following after him, for he swerved very little.
"We're going to cut in between the deer and the dogs after all, boys!"cried the delighted Josh, who was bending his body with every movementof the paddler, as though he hoped to be able in that fashion to assistthe drive.
"It's a pity we didn't think to bring another paddle along!" was Tom'scomment, "for that would have added considerably to our progress."
As it was, however, they managed to intervene between the hounds andthe frightened buck. Josh waved both arms, and shouted threateningly atthe eager dogs. They possibly did not know what to make of it, for as arule their masters probably tempted them to chase a deer even with thelaw against hounding in force.
"Keep back there, you greedy curs!" yelled Josh; and as Tom and Felixjoined in the shouting, the last mentioned also waving his flashingpaddle, the swimming dogs came to a pause.
Whenever they made a start as though intending to sweep past the log onwhich the three scouts were perched, Felix, waiting for some such move,paddled vigorously to head them off. This series of obstructivetactics, coupled with the demonstration made by the other boys, servedto keep the hounds in check for a certain length of time.
"There, he's made the shore across on the other side of the pond!"announced Tom.
Looking that way the boys saw the harried buck hasten out of theshallow water. He turned once on the very edge to give a single glanceback toward the baffled dogs, still swimming aimlessly about, andyapping in defeat, then leaped lightly into the undergrowth andvanished from sight.
"Good-bye!" shouted Josh, waving his hand after the rescued deer, "andgood luck!"
The dogs by this time had managed to flank the obstruction.
"No use chasing after them any more, Felix," said Tom; "I think thedeer has a good lead on them now, and will easily make his escape."
They watched the pack swim to the shore, and noted that they came outat some little distance from the spot where the buck had left thewater.
"That's going to delay them still more," announced Tom; "they've lostthe scent, and will have to chase up and down hunting for it."
Sure enough the hounds ran first one way with their noses to theground, then doubled back. It was several minutes before a triumphantyelp announced that they had finally struck the lost trail.
"There they go with a rush!" said Josh, as the pack was seen to startoff, following the course taken by the deer.
Their eager yelps became less distinct as they skirted around the footof Big Bear Mountain.
"Well, that was a queer happening, wasn't it?" said Tom, as theyprepared to resume their fishing, which had been so singularlyinterrupted.
"It'll make an interesting event for your note book, Tom," declaredFelix.
"A deer is seldom seen around this region," Josh ventured to say;"which makes our luck all the more remarkable. I wouldn't have missedthat sight for a good deal!"
"I saw Stanley Ackerman using his camera, so let's hope he got a bunchof snapshots that'll show the whole circus," Felix announced.
"How about allowing dogs to roam the woods up here, Tom; isn't itagainst the law in this State nowadays?" Josh asked.
"It certainly is," he was informed. "For a good many years chasing deerwith hounds, and using a jack-light at nights to get them, has beenstrictly forbidden. Time was when packs of hounds used to be met within plenty. Men would start out and hunt deer that way. Then the paperstook it up, and showed the cruelty of the so-called sport, and it wasabolished."
"According to the law anybody is allowed to shoot dogs caught in theact of running deer, especially in the summer time; isn't that right,Tom?"
"Yes, that's what we would have had a perfect right to do if we'd had agun along. But I don't believe that pack belonged to any one man. Theyare dogs that have gone wild, and having gathered together in thewoods, live by hunting."
"I've heard that dogs do go back to the old wolf strain sometimes,"Josh admitted; "and now that you mention it, Tom, there was a wild lookabout every one of the beasts. I even thought they had half a notion toattack us at one time; but the way Felix kept that paddle flashingthrough the air cowed them, I guess."
The fishing was resumed, though all this racket seemed to have causedthe bass to cease taking hold for some time. By skirting the moredistant shores, close to where the water grass and reeds grew, theyfinally struck a good ground, and were amply rewarded for the effortsput forth.
"I think the bass must have their beds on this shoal here," said Tom,when they paddled back over the place at which success had come tothem. "It's early in the season as yet, and a lot of them are stillaround here. They haven't gone out into deep water with theirnewly-hatched young ones."
"Is that what they do?" asked Felix, who was not as much of a fishermanas either of his chums.
"Well, not immediately after the eggs hatch," Tom told him. "The motherbass is going to keep her swarm of little ones in shallow water, andguard them until they get to a certain size. Then she darts in amongthem, scatters the whole lot, after which she is done with them. Theyhave reached an age when they must take their chances."
When finally about noon the three came ashore, rather stiff from havingstraddled that log for such a length of time, they had a pretty finestring of fish, two of them in fact.
The talk as they ate their mid-day meal was along the subject of deerhunting, and Tom as well as Josh had to tell all about it, as far asthey knew.
Stanley declared he had made good use of his camera, and hoped theresults would come up to expectations. All of them united in sayingthat it had been an adventure worth while; and apparently theirsympathies were wholly with the gallant buck, for they expressed afervent hope that he would succeed in outrunning his canine enemies.
Somehow in the course of the conversation mention was made of TonyPollock and his crowd.
"I heard Tony tell a story of having seen a deer pulled down somewherein the forest last fall by a pack of ugly dogs," related George Cooper."At the time I believed he was only yarning, though he vowed black andblue it was so. He said the dogs looked and acted so ugly that hethought it best to clear out before they turned on him."
"Like as not this same pack," remarked Tom. "They say that once a doghas taken to that savage sort of life nothing can ever coax him to goback to living with mankind again. It's in the blood, that call of thewild."
"Well," chuckled Josh, "we know of another kind of call of the wildthat's going to be heard in the land pretty soon, when Farmer SilePerkins faces Tony. He will demand double pay for the chickens Tony andhis crowd stole, on penalty of his being arrested if he doesn't whackup. Oh I can just see Tony begin to crawl then; and I wonder how he'llget the money."
Carl was saying little or nothing, and Tom knew why. Here th
ey had beenon the hike several days, and as yet there had arisen not a singlechance for him to get in touch with Dock Phillips.
Tom understood that another spell of dark foreboding was beginning toenfold his chum. At the first opportunity he could find, Tom joinedCarl. The latter had thrown himself down on the bank some distance awayfrom the camp, where he could be in the shade, and yet look out on thesunlit water, which just then had a most attractive aspect.
"You're worrying again because nothing has happened as we hoped wouldbe the case, eh, Carl?" was what the patrol leader said as he droppeddown close to the moody scout.
Carl sighed heavily.
"Perhaps it's foolish of me, Tom," he said, with a curious little breakin his voice, which he tried hard to master; "but once in so often itseems as if something gripped me, and made me shiver. It's when I getto thinking what little real progress I am making that this chillyspell comes along."
"Yes, I can understand that," the other told him. "I did hope we mightrun on Dock while we were up here, and either force or coax him to tellwhat he did with the stolen paper. He's away from the influence of Mr.Culpepper, you know, and if we had to come down to offering him a priceto get the paper he might accept."
"Oh! much as I hate to have to compromise such a thing," said Carl,desperately; "I believe I'd do it. Anything to get that paper, for themore I think of it the stronger I believe it means everything to mymother."
"Well, we haven't quite got to the end of our tether yet," the patrolleader assured him. "I can't explain it, but somehow there's a feelinginside of me that tells me to keep on hoping. In some sort of fashionluck is going to turn your way. Just keep up your grit, and hang on.Take a lesson from the persistence of those dogs in following thedeer."
"Yes, I suppose I ought to. I've read how wolves will keep chasingafter a deer day and night, steady as dock-work, until in the end theytire it out and get their dinner."
Just then they heard a shout, or what was closer to a shriek. It camefrom beyond the camp, and was immediately followed by cries of alarmfrom the other scouts.
"What's happened?" asked Tom, as with Carl he hurried to the spot tosee a group approaching bearing some burden in their midst.
"Walt Douglass fell out of a tree," replied Billy Button, looking verypale; "and Mr. Witherspoon says he's afraid it means a fractured leg,if nothing worse!"