CHAPTER XIV
WOO'S EYES ARE KEEN
The air was becoming chilly, the Overland Riders now being at analtitude of nearly eight thousand feet, and still upward bound.
A week had elapsed since they left the "Lazy J" ranch, and during allthat time they had sighted no game except some grouse that they had shotat but failed to bring down. Provisions were at a low ebb and all knewthat they were nearly face to face with a serious situation.
Hippy Wingate was pondering deeply when they pulled up for luncheon onenoon. He was wondering what he was going to give his party for supper,for Hippy was the official game-hunter of the Overland party, and theyhad come to rely on his resourcefulness to provide food for them. StacyBrown was even more deeply interested in this matter than was "UncleHip," but for a somewhat different reason.
"What do we eat to-day?" he asked in a tone that he tried to make soundlight-hearted.
Some one laughed.
"Oh, it's not because I'm hungry," hastily explained Chunky. "I justwanted to know so as not to have to open all the packs unless we aregoing to have a spread."
"Ours is more likely to be a snack than a spread," suggested Gracelaughingly.
"What is it going to be, Hippy?" questioned Nora.
"Raisins and hard tack, my dear."
"You don't mean it?" gasped the fat boy.
"I reckon that will be about it if I don't see some game to shoot at,"replied Hippy a little soberly.
"Raisins and hard tack for a man with an appetite like mine," groanedStacy. "You might as well feed a bricklayer on angel food and expect himto smack his lips and pat his stomach with heavenly satisfaction. Thisis too much, and too much is enough."
"If you folks will camp here I will go out and see if I cannot scare upsome game," suggested Hippy.
"I do not believe you will find anything worth while at this altitude,"said Tom Gray. "It is a condition that I have feared we should meet.I--"
"You no savvy game?" interjected the Chinaman.
"No, Smith," replied Hippy. "We savvy plenty appetite, but we no savvyanything with which to satisfy it. If I could sight a deer--"
"Me savvy deer. Me show buck in lelet," cried Woo, gesticulatingexcitedly.
"What kind of heathen talk is that?" wondered Emma.
"'Buck in lelet!'" mocked Stacy.
Hippy was eyeing the guide inquiringly, knowing very well that Woo hadsomething in mind.
"Buck in lelet," repeated the Chinaman, indicating the horns on a deer'shead, with his hands.
"I understand," nodded Tom Gray. "What he is trying to say is, 'buck invelvet.'"
"Ha, ha! The further they go the worse they are. First it was Emma Deanwhose wheels went wrong; now it is my Uncle Hip and Captain Gray,"jeered Stacy. "Is it the altitude that has gone to _your_ head?"
"No, it has not," retorted Lieutenant Wingate. "Woo has more sense thanall of us together. At this season of the year the bucks 'carry theirantlers in velvet.'"
"Oh, pooh! That is a fine fairy tale to feed hungry people with. Folksback east might swallow it, but not up here among the high and loftypeaks of the Sierras. Tell me something that I can swallow," laughedStacy.
"Stacy, if you will hold your horses I will try to explain," rebukedTom. "At this season of the year the antlers of the bucks are verytender, and that condition is called 'carrying the antlers in velvet.'In those circumstances the bucks frequent the high rocky peaks thattheir tender horns may not be torn off in contact with tough bushes andtrees. Later on you will find the bucks on the lower ranges. Then, asthe antlers become hard, almost as hard as iron, the bucks take to thedense thickets."
Stacy Brown mopped his forehead.
"Emma, why don't you transmigrate a little? Send a little thought waveout and see if you can't get in touch with a nice fat buck all dressedup in velvet," he suggested.
Emma Dean elevated her nose, but made no reply. She was at that momentmore interested in the guide, who was running his yellow fingers abouthis wrists inside the wide sleeves, and chuckling to himself at arapid-fire rate.
"Me savvy! Hi-lee, hi-lo; hi--"
"What were you going to say?" urged Hippy.
"You savvy buck in lelet?"
Lieutenant Wingate shook his head.
"Me savvy buck."
"You do? Where?"
The guide pointed his long, bony finger towards the rocks on the otherside of a narrow pass in the mountains. The mountain there was coveredwith brownish grass and some spindling saplings. Lieutenant Wingatelooked until his eyes ached, then turned to Smith.
"Woo, you must be mistaken," he said.
The guide took the stick that he used to beat up the trail ahead on hismarch each day, laid it across a rock, and, after sighting it, beckonedto Lieutenant Wingate to look over it.
"You savvy?" he questioned eagerly.
"No, I don't, Woo."
"Mebby you savvy to-mollow," replied the Chinaman disgustedly.
The Overland Riders snickered, and even Hippy grinned appreciatively.
"I reckon you are not far from right, Woo. I--" Hippy paused abruptly.Out of that mass of brown something began to grow into his vision, tostand out until everything else appeared to have disappeared.
"You savvy nicee piecee buck?" chuckled the guide.
Hippy reached a cautious hand behind him.
"My rifle. Quick!" he whispered. "Woo is right. There lays a fine bigfellow behind that bush over yonder. I don't know whether he sees us ornot. It is a dead sure shot, too. Don't make a sound," urged lieutenantWingate as his rifle was cautiously laid in his outstretched hand.
Placing it across the rock where Woo had laid the stick for him to sightover, Hippy took careful aim a little below the base of the antlers ofthe buck. His automatic rifle belched forth a deafening roar that wentrolling and echoing from peak to peak.
At the same instant, what appeared to be a dull brown and white ballleaped into the air and went bounding away in tremendous leaps. Hippy'srifle went to his shoulder and he fired again, but the shot only servedto hasten the speed of the fine large buck that Woo Smith haddiscovered. Hippy had missed a "sure shot" as well as a long shot.
"Uncle Hip never misses what he shoots at," quoted Emma a littlemaliciously.
"Why don't you use your pea-shooter?" scoffed Stacy. "Dead Shot Hip madea mess of it that time."
"He did," admitted Hippy, "and Stacy Brown missed a fine fat meal. Laughat me all you like, folks. I deserve it, but I don't understand how Icould miss that shot."
"Don't wolly till to-mollow," advised the guide wisely.
"May I look at your rifle?" asked Grace.
Lieutenant Wingate handed it to her and Grace gave it a criticalinspection, then held it out to Hippy.
"Look it over carefully. I think you will discover why you missed," shesuggested.
Hippy intuitively glanced at the sights, and shot a quick look ofinquiry at Chunky, but Chunky's face was woodeny in its lack ofexpression. Without another word, Lieutenant Wingate set up a mark,placed his rifle on the rock, marking its exact position, and, takingcareful aim, fired. The bullet shot under by more than a foot, whereasit should have shot over the mark, the rifle being originally sightedfor a much longer distance. Several cartridges were expended inresighting the weapon and adjusting the open sight, which he found hadbeen changed from its former position.
"There, now! Show me another deer. I don't believe I shall miss the nextone."
"You savvy sight no good," chuckled the Chinaman.
Lieutenant Wingate nodded.
"Stacy, come here. I would hold converse with thee," he ordered.
Stacy complied, but with evident reluctance, and, obeying a gesture fromHippy, seated himself on a slab of granite beside his Uncle Hip.
"Why did you fool with the sights on my rifle?" demanded LieutenantWingate sharply.
"I--I--I--"
"Don't quibble. Whenever you put on a wooden face I kn
ow that you havebeen up to monkey-shines. Why did you do it?"
"I--I--I just wanted to get even with you, Uncle Hip," stammered the fatboy.
"For what?"
"You--you pinked my pony with a peashooter and made me come a cropper ina rose bush. Don't you deny it. You know you did," added Chunky,adopting his most savage tone.
Hippy Wingate chuckled.
"That is it, eh?"
"Yes."
"When did you change them--change the open sights?"
"I did it when you were after water last night."
"Shake, pard!" cried Hippy, extending an impulsive hand. "We are quitsnow, aren't we?"
"Yes, we are dear friends. We're more than that--we love each other mostto death," declared Stacy fervently.
"Oh, fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Emma Dean. "You make me weary."
"But, Stacy, the next time you wish to get even with a fellow, please donot tamper with his weapons, especially in a country like this," warnedLieutenant Wingate. "It is a dangerous thing to do. Suppose I had met upwith a cinnamon bear at close range, for instance--what do you thinkwould have happened?"
"I reckon there would have been a sprinting match between you and thecinnamon," observed Stacy in a tone that brought a shout of laughterfrom the Overland girls.
"You are partly right," agreed Hippy laughingly, "but don't do anythinglike that again, will you?"
Stacy promised that he would not, but the probabilities are that heforgot the promise within five minutes after he had made it, for at thatinstant Woo Smith uttered a sudden exclamation that drew the instantattention of the Overland Riders.
"Me savvy buck! Me savvy buck in lelet," chuckled the Chinamanexcitedly.
Hippy was on his feet in an instant.
"Where, where?"
"You savvy him white lock?"
"Yes, I see the white rock. Sure enough; there he is!"
When the automatic roared a moment later, a brown ball was seen to leapinto the air, but, instead of bounding away, it straightened out andtook a long, curving leap, crashed into the dwarfed bushes, then whippedover on its back.
"I got him!" shouted Lieutenant Wingate triumphantly.
"Great shot!" cried Elfreda Briggs enthusiastically.
"Hi-lee, hi-lo; hi-lee, hi-lo!" sang the guide, hopping aboutdelightedly, his queue wriggling in the air with serpent-like movements.This time no one appeared to be irritated by Woo's singing, forLieutenant Wingate's shot meant food in plenty for the Overland Riders.