CHAPTER XIV
DOLPH HEARS ABOUT THE HAUNTED CABIN
Teddy Overton busied himself for several minutes around the spot wherethey could easily see, a deer had been butchered.
Dolph watched his chum eagerly, now and then casting an uneasy glancetoward the scene of the late tragedy; as though the mutilated remainsof the deer might tell the story, if only gifted with the power ofspeech.
One thing was already evident. The tracks of the two lawless poacherstold that their comrade must have run up against some sort of snag, inhis quest for a bee tree; and the secret of his failure to return tocamp was not hard to guess.
Teddy seemed to have finally made up his mind, for he approached hisfriend.
“Well, have you found out what happened?” asked Dolph, eagerly.
“Yes, he’s a prisoner, all right,” the other replied.
“Gabe and Crawley responsible, I take it?” questioned Dolph.
“No other. They shot this deer out of season. Amos happened to see themdo it. Because they’re afraid he’ll inform the game warden of thisdistrict, or because of some other reason, they concluded to take ourchum along with them.”
“But what business have they making any respectable person a prisoner?Why, those men would rob a trapper’s _cache_ of his pelts—they’d stealthe pennies from a dead man’s eyes. They’ve got some sort of a game uptheir sleeve, I guess and you’re on to it, Teddy; I can see it in yourface.”
“Yes, I think I can see through a millstone that’s got a hole in it,”replied the lumberman’s son and heir, grimly. “It’s a risky one too allright. I knew Hackett was getting down grade pretty fast but I neverthought he’d be so desperate as to try and kidnap a fellow, to hold himfor ransom. He must be pretty near the end of his rope.”
Dolph laughed, as though amused.
“What, is that their little dodge?” he exclaimed. “Well, they sure havegone and barked up the wrong tree, that time. Why, Amos hasn’t got arelative in the wide world that he knows about, you told me. It’s yourgood dad that’s going to send him to school, and give him the chanceto study for being a doctor later on. What silly notion possessed themto ever lug him off? That Hackett must be going into his dotage, I justguess.”
“Hold on, Dolph, perhaps not, when you look into their nice little gamea bit further. Amos hasn’t any cash, himself, but he’s got a friend whothinks a heap of him, and whose daddy might put up ransom money. Thatfriend is myself, you know?”
“I see,” muttered Dolph, a little uneasily, “not so dull a game afterall.”
“They may have even a better card up their sleeve,” continued Teddy,“I notice that when they left here those men took no pains to cover uptheir tracks. Fact is, it looks to me as they might be just _inviting_us to follow. That would indicate just one thing—that Amos was carriedoff to hold him as a bait to trap somebody else—you and me. Once theyhad the lot of us, you see they could send Amos to make terms for oursurrender.”
“Whew! you give me a bad feeling, Teddy; but honest now, it does soundreasonable like. I wouldn’t put it past that big Gabe Hackett. Iremember now, how he kept looking at me, queerlike, out of the comer ofhis eye. But this is a desperate affair. Do you think they’d dare trysuch a job? If caught it would mean a long jail sentence.”
“That’s so, but Hackett is getting more reckless about consequences,right along. Like enough he figures on skipping across to Canada oncehe gets hold of a good bunch of the long green. You can be sure, Dolph,this is a trap laid for us.”
“Then we’d be silly to fall into the same, I take it,” declared theother.
“We certainly won’t, if we know it,” declared Teddy. “We’ll take upthe trail, and see if we can get our chum out of their hands; but letus never forget that we ’re up against a pair of prime woodsmen, whoknow pretty much all the tricks of the trade. And while we follow thetrail we must arrange it so they can’t lay hands on both of us. You’rethe one they want most, I take it, Dolph. I rather think Gabe wouldhesitate a little to hold me, because he knows what my dad can be, oncehe’s roused up. It’s getting dark, and we’ll have to use the lantern.So while I go ahead, to follow the trail, do you hang back, just sofar, with your scatter gun ready to pepper the rascals, if they showup.”
“All right,” said Dolph, seriously, “I want to say right now that Ithink your little plan’s a good one. The sooner we start the better.Amos, poor fellow, will be thinking we mean to desert him. Lead on,Teddy, and tell me just how far you want me to fall back.”
Now, in all probability Dolph had never fired a shot at a human beingin all his young life. The idea was more or less abhorrent to him; itdid not appeal to him at all. But he came of soldier stock. Some of hispeople had borne an illustrious part in all the wars of the countryfrom the time of the Revolution down to the unpleasantness with Spain,in which his father had served as a colonel.
When the test really came, doubtless Dolph would not be found lackingin those essential qualities that had distinguished his forebears.
As soon as Teddy called out the one word “come,” he started after him,and managed from that moment to keep just so far in the rear that hispresence could not be easily discovered by any observer.
In this way, then, was the pursuit taken up.
Teddy had little trouble about sticking to the plain trail. He couldhave covered the ground twice as fast, had he not been keeping an eyeconstantly ahead, fearing some sort of ambush.
So the better part of an hour passed. By this time an idea had cometo the one who was doing the trailing. It happened that the old, longabandoned cabin once used by fur gatherers, was known to Teddy Overton.And now he began to feel confident that the trail was leading towardthat spot.
Accordingly he signaled to Dolph to approach.
“I feel dead sure I know where they’re heading for,” he said as theother drew up. “And it might save considerable time if we struck outstraight for the old cabin instead of following their trail. Andbesides,” he added, “perhaps we’ll escape a trap by springing thissurprise on Gabe and Crawley.”
“Old cabin, you say?” repeated Dolph, “whoever lived there, Teddy?”
“Some trappers, many years ago. There’s a dark story told about atragedy that happened there. One trapper went crazy, they said, fromtoo much strong drink. He killed his companions, and froze to deathhimself. They were found there in the Spring by some timber cruisers,looking for new lands up here. Nobody has ever lived there since. Nowand then some wanderer has put in a night in the cabin, but they sayit’s haunted; and that those trappers’ spirits come back to fight overagain their long ago battles. I was at the cabin once, in the day time,though. A lot of ugly bats flew out. We didn’t see any spirits, either.But then, I don’t think I’d care to stay a week in that ramshackle oldhut.”
“Well of all things, a haunted cabin take the cake,” declared Dolph.“Now, I’d just like to play ghost, for once, and give those fellows ascare that’d make their hair stand up on end.”
“Shall we make a bee line for the hut, as I said?” asked Teddy.
“Sure. You’re the captain of this relief expedition. Whatever you sayfor me to do I’ll try and carry out, you understand, Teddy.”
“Good enough. And I’ll warrant you never dreamed of such a businessas this when you helped me map out our little canoe trip across theneck of Michigan to White Fish Bay and perhaps the Pictured Rocks, eh,Dolph?”
The other fairly snorted his disgust.
“Well, I should think not,” he remarked; “and who would? Why, ifI’d been over in Greece, or Spain, or Italy, I might have guessedthat something of the kind would have turned up; but away up in thisMichigan wilderness—well, it faizes me, all right. But then, I reckonhuman nature’s pretty much the same all over the world. The temptationto get hold of the mighty dollar makes men do heaps of queer stunts, Idon’t care whether they’re white, red, black or yellow. Now, I guessyou’re intending to sneak around, and creep up to this same hauntedcabin
by the rear route?”
“Yes, that’s the game,” replied Teddy.
“That is, while these two poacher chaps are lying in a snug littleambush at some point along their own trail, why, we can be spying onthe cabin on our own account?” Dolph went on to remark.
“You’re on, I see,” chuckled the other.
“It looks good to me,” Dolph continued, reflectively. “As I saidbefore, tell me what to do, and I’ll carry it out to the letter.”
“I hope we won’t have to get to the fighting stage of the game,” Teddyremarked, as they kept pushing forward in a direct line; “but if we doI know I can depend on you to back me up. There are other ways to winout. Well, here goes to douse the glim.”
He blew the lantern out and hung it on the branch of a tree he marked.
“I can find it again given half a chance,” he said; “and now we’ve gotto do the rest of it in the dark.”
Through the silent pine woods they crept like shadows, flitting fromtree to tree.
Now and then Teddy would pause to listen, for caution had becomesecond nature with the boy and he did not mean to lead his friend intotrouble, if he knew it. But no sound came to their ears, at leastnothing that would indicate the presence of human beings near.
Then through the trees they caught the gleam of a light, which, fromits steady character they believed must come from the small window of acabin.