CHAPTER XIII
Fred and Mac, who were carrying the guns, fired wildly at the man atthe trap; they took no aim, for their only purpose was to startle himand to keep him from killing the fox. When the shots rang out, the manstraightened up, saw the boys rushing down the hill toward him, anddropped his club. Stepping back, he picked up his rifle, and as theydashed up, held it ready to shoot.
Fred gave a whoop when he saw that the animal in the trap was really ablack fox; moreover, it was the mother fox. Her black coat was glossyand spotless.
Horace turned to the man. "Let that fox alone!" he cried. "That's ourfox!"
"Yours? It's my fox!" retorted the man angrily. "Why, that's my trap!"
"I don't believe it; we found it in the woods. Anyway, you can havethe trap if you like, but the fox is certainly ours. We've been afterher for some time."
"Me and my pardners have been after this fox all winter," declared thetrapper. "Now that we've got her we 're going to keep her--you can beton that."
He made a movement toward the fox.
"None of that!" cried Mac, sharply, and snapped a fresh cartridge intothe rifle chamber.
"You would, would you?" cried the trapper, and instantly covered Peterwith his gun. Fred had reloaded the shotgun, and he covered the man inhis turn.
So for a moment they all stood at a deadlock.
"Put down your guns!" said Horace. "A fox pelt isn't worth killing aman for, and this pelt's no good, anyway. It's too late in the season.We're going to take this fox away with us alive. Stick to yourbeavers, for you can't steal this animal from us--and you can bet onthat!" he added, with great emphasis.
"You might shoot one of us, but you'd have a hole in you the nextminute," said Mac. "You'd better drop it, now, and get out!"
The trapper glared at them with a face as savage as a wildcat's. For asecond Fred really expected him to shoot. Then, with a muttered curse,the man lowered his gun.
"You pups won't bark so loud when I come back!" he snarled. Then heturned, and started away at a rapid pace.
"Bluffed!" Fred exclaimed, trembling now that the strain was over.
"He's gone for the rest of his gang!" Mac cried. "Quick, we've got toget out of here!"
"Yes, and far away, too," said Horace, "now that we've caught themother fox. We should never have got the male, anyway. Let's get thisbeauty into her box."
The black fox was indeed a beauty, but there was no time to admire her.Snarling viciously, she laid back her ears and showed her white teeth.Her hind leg was in the trap, but did not appear to have been injuredby the padded jaws.
Horace cut two strong forked sticks, with which the boys pinned herdown by the neck and hips. Fred opened the jaws of the trap; Macpicked the fox up firmly by the back of her neck, and in spite of herfrantic struggles, thrust her into the cage.
Horace and Mac then seized the box, one at either end, and startedtoward the river; Fred carried the guns and kept a sharp lookout infront. The cage of foxes was not heavy, but it was so clumsy that theboys had hard work carrying it over the rough ground. After stumblingfor a few rods, they cut a long pole and slipped it through the handlesin the ends of the cage. After that they made somewhat betterprogress, although even then they could not travel at a very rapid pace.
"If those fellows have a canoe," panted Mac, "they'll be down the riverbefore we can get to camp!"
"You may be sure they'll do their best," said Horace. "These foxes areprobably worth ten times their winter catch. We'll have to break campinstantly and make for home as fast as we can."
They went plunging along through the thickets, and up and down therocky hills; it was well that the cage was strong.
After more than an hour of this arduous tramping they heard the rush ofthe river. "We'd best scout a little way ahead before we go anyfarther," Horace declared.
They set down the cage, crept forward to the river and reconnoiteredthe bank. Their canoe was where they had left it, concealed behind acedar thicket, and no other canoe was in sight up or down the river.Horace swept the shore with the field-glass.
"Nothing in sight," he reported. "We may have time to pack our outfitand get off, after all. Possibly those fellows haven't a canoe."
They quickly launched the canoe, and put the cage of black foxesamidships; Fred sat behind it in order to hold it steady. Horace tookthe stern paddle, and Peter the bow.
The river ran swift and rather shallow, but there were no dangerousrapids between them and camp. They swept down the current, and in afew minutes the tent came in sight. Horace took up the glass again,but he could see no sign of the trappers. They paddled on, intendingto land at their usual place, but when they were scarcely twenty yardsfrom the tent, Fred uttered a suppressed cry.
"Look! A canoe--lower down!" He spoke barely loud enough for hisbrother to hear him. He had caught a glimpse of the bow of a birchcanoe, which was thrust back almost out of sight behind a willow clumpbelow the campground.
"Run straight past!" Horace commanded, instantly. "Dig in your paddle,Mac!"
The canoe shot forward, and at doubled speed swept by the tent. Asthey passed it a man rose from behind a thicket and yelled hoarsely:--
"Stop, there! Halt!"
_Bang!_ went a rifle somewhere behind them, and then the rapid _crack!crack! crack!_ of more than one repeater. A bullet clipped through thesides of the canoe, fortunately well above the water-line. Anotherglanced from a rock, and hummed past them.
As the boys whirled by the ambushed birch canoe, Fred snatched up theshotgun, and sent two loads of buckshot tearing through its sides.
"That'll cripple them for a while!" he cried.
_Bang!_ A better-aimed bullet dashed the steering paddle from Horace'shands. The canoe swerved, and heeled in the current. Horace snatchedthe extra paddle that lay in the stern, and brought the craft roundjust in time to prevent it from upsetting. As the paddle that had beenhit floated past, Fred picked it up; it had a round hole through thehandle.
The canoe was a hundred yards from the tent now, and was going so fastthat it offered no easy target to the men behind, who, however, stillcontinued to shoot. Another bullet nicked the stern. Glancing overhis shoulder, Fred saw the three trappers running down the shore, andfiring as they ran. But in another moment the canoe swept round a bendin the river, and was screened from the trappers by the wooded shore.
"Keep it up! Make all the speed you can!" cried Horace.
Down the fast current they shot like an arrow. As they went roundanother curve, they heard the roar of rushing water ahead; a short butturbulent rapid confronted them. There the river, foaming and surging,dashed down over the black rocks; the shore was rough and covered withdense thickets. The boys remembered the hard work they had had makinga portage here on the way up; but there was no time to make a portagenow.
"Down we go! Look sharp for her bow, Mac!" Horace sang out.
The rush of the rapid seemed to snatch up the canoe like a leaf. Fredcaught his breath; the pit of his stomach seemed to sink. There was adeafening roar all around him, a chaos of white water, flying spray,and sharp rocks that sprang up and flashed behind. Then, before he hadrecovered his breath, they shot out into the smooth river below.
Six inches of water was slopping in the bottom of the canoe, but theyran on without stopping to bale it out. For over half a mile thesmooth, swift current lasted; then came another rapid. It was longerand more dangerous than the other, and the boys carried the canoe andthe foxes round it. They would not risk spilling the precious cage,and for the present they thought that they had outrun their pursuers.
For another mile or two they descended the river, until they came toanother carry. They made the portage, and stopped at the bottom todiscuss their situation and make their plans. They had escaped thetrappers, indeed, and they had the foxes; but except the canoe, ablanket, the guns, and the light axe that Mac had at his belt, they hadnothing else. "I guess this settles our prosp
ecting, boys," saidHorace. "What are we to do now? Shall we go on, or--"
"Or what?" Fred asked, as his brother stopped.
"I hardly know. But here we are, without supplies, and at least ahundred and fifty miles from any place where we can get them. We allknow what a hard road it is, and going back it'll be up-stream all theway, after we leave this river."
"Do we have to go back the way we came?"
"Well, instead of turning up the Missanabie River when we come to it,we might go straight down it to Moose Factory, the Hudson Bay Company'spost at the mouth; but if we did that, these foxes would never livetill we got back to Toronto. It would be too long and hard a trip forthem."
"That settles it. We don't go that way," said Mac. "Surely we can gethome in ten or twelve days the way we came, and we ought to be able tokill enough to live on during that time."
"How many cartridges have we?" asked Horace dubiously.
Macgregor had nineteen cartridges in his belt, and there were six morein the magazine of the rifle. Fred had only ten shells in his pockets,and the shotgun was empty. They had left the fishing tackle at camp,but luckily they had plenty of matches.
"If we can get a deer within the next day or so, or even a few ducks orpartridges, we may make it," said Horace. "But I've noticed that gameis always scarce when you need it most. Now if we turned back andtried to recover our outfit, we should certainly have to fight thetrappers, and probably we'd be worsted, for they outmatch us inweapons. One of us might be killed, and we'd be almost certain to losethe foxes."
"Trade these foxes for some flour and bacon? I'd starve first!" saidFred.
"So would I!" cried Macgregor. "But we won't starve. We didn't starvelast winter, when we hadn't a match or a grain of powder, and when themercury was below zero most of the time, too."
"Well, we'll go on, if you say so," said Horace. "It's a mightydangerous trip, but I don't see what else we can do."
"Forward it is, then!" cried Fred.
"And hang the risk!" exclaimed Mac, springing up to push the canoe intothe water.
"Do you think those men will really follow us, Horace?" asked Fred.
"Sure to," replied his brother. "It'll take them a few hours to patchup their canoe, but they 're probably better canoemen than we are, andwe'll have to work mighty hard to keep ahead of them."
Fred was more optimistic. "They'll have to work mighty hard to keep upwith us," he said, as they launched the canoe.
Going down the river was very different from coming up it. The currentran so swiftly that the boys could not add much to their speed bypaddling; all they had to do was to steer the craft. The water was sohigh that they could run most of the rapids, and stretches that theyhad formerly toiled up with tumpline or tracking-line they now coveredwith the speed of a bullet.
Toward noon Fred became intolerably hungry; but neither of the othersspoke of eating, and he did not mention his hunger. Mac, in the bow,put the shotgun where he could easily reach it, and scanned the shoresfor game as closely as he could; but no game showed itself. Theytraveled all day without seeing anything except now and then a fewducks, which always took wing while still far out of range.
At last they came to "Buck Rapids," where they had shot the deer. Theriver there was one succession of rapids, most of which were toodangerous to run through. It was the place where, on the way up, theyhad made only four miles in a whole day; and they did not cover morethan ten miles this afternoon.
When they came to the long, narrow lake on the lower reaches of theriver, the sun was setting. They were all pretty much exhausted withthe toil and excitement of the day.
"I vote we stop here," said Mac. "There'll be a moon toward midnight,and we can go on then. We ought to get some sleep."
"I'm too hungry to sleep," said Fred.
"Well, so am I," Mac admitted. "But we can rest, anyway."
So they drew up the canoe and lighted a fire, partly from force ofhabit and partly to drive away the mosquitoes. They carefully liftedthe fox cage ashore.
"We've nothing for them to eat," Horace said anxiously, "but they oughtto have water, at any rate."
The difficulty was that they had nothing to put water into. Mac made asort of cup from an old envelope, and filled it with water, but theanimals shrank away and would not touch it. Feeling sure, however,that they must be thirsty, the boys carried the cage to the river, andset one end of it into the shallow water. For a few minutes the motherfox was shy, but presently she drank eagerly; then the cubs dippedtheir sharp noses into the water.
The boys spread their only blanket on a few hemlock boughs and laydown. Although they were so thoroughly tired, none of them couldsleep. Fred's stomach was gnawed by hunger; he was still much excited,and in the rush of the river he fancied every minute or two that heheard the trappers approaching.
They lay there for some time, talking at intervals, and at last Mac gotup restlessly. He threw fresh wood on the fire, in order to make abright blaze; then from an old pine log close by he began to cut anumber of resinous splinters. When he had collected a large handful ofthem, he went down to the canoe, and tried to fix them in the ring inthe bow of the craft.
"What in the world are you doing?" asked Fred, who had got up to seewhat Peter was about.
Peter hammered the bundle of splinters home. "If we don't get meat intwelve hours we won't be able to travel fast--can't keep up steam," hesaid. "There's only one way to shoot game at night, and that's--"
"Jack light," said Horace, who recognized the device. "It's a regularpot-hunter's trick, but pot-hunters we are, and no mistake about that.I only hope it works."