CHAPTER 16 _TREED BY A BOAR_
Left to themselves, Penny and Louise walked a few steps on the saggingplanks which had been nailed to tree stumps. The boards beneath themcreaked protestingly and dipped nearly into the water.
"We must have been crazy!" Louise exclaimed. "We'll die of boredomwaiting here. Two hours too!"
"It is a long time."
"And if Joe shouldn't come back, we're stranded--absolutely stranded."
"We did take a chance, Louise, but I'm sure Joe can be trusted."
"He seems all right, but what do we really know about him?" Louiseargued. "If anything queer is going on here in the swamp, he may be mixedup in it!"
"I thought about that," Penny admitted. "Anyway, if we're to learnanything, we had to take a certain amount of chance. I'm sure everythingwill be all right."
Slowly they walked on along the rickety planks, now and then bending downto pluck a water lily. Louise quickly jerked back her hand as a watersnake slithered past.
"Ugh!" she gasped. "Another one of those horrid things!"
Interested to learn where the planks led, the girls followed thebridge-like trail among the trees. Louise, however, soon grew tired. Asthey presently came to a stump which offered a perfect resting place, shesat down.
"This is as far as I'm going," she announced.
"But we have lots of time to explore, Louise. Don't you want to learnwhere this boardwalk goes?"
"Not at the risk of falling into the water! At any rate, I'm tired. Ifyou want to explore, go on alone. I'll wait for you here."
Penny hesitated, reluctant to leave her chum alone.
"Sure you won't mind, Louise?"
"I'd much rather wait here. Please go on. I know you'll never rest untilyou reach the end of the walk."
Thus urged. Penny, with the package of lunch still tucked under her arm,picked her way carefully along.
The board path curved on between the trees for some distance only to endabruptly where boards had rotted and floated away. After a break ofseveral yards, the walk picked up again for a short ways, but Penny hadno intention of wading through water to follow it further.
Pausing to rest before starting back, she noticed beyond the water oaks anarrow stretch of higher land covered with dense, wild growth. Above thetrees a huge buzzard soared lazily.
"Ugly bird!" she thought, watching its flight.
Penny was about to turn and retrace her steps, when she noticed somethingelse--footsteps in the muck not far from the end of the boardwalk.
"Someone has been here recently," she reflected. "Those prints must havebeen made since the last rain."
Even from some distance away. Penny could see that the shoemarks weresmall ones.
"Probably the person who made them is the same fellow who built thecampfire," she thought. "Wonder where the footprints lead?"
Penny tried to draw her eyes away, but the footprints fascinated andchallenged her. She longed to investigate them further. However, she hadnot forgotten Trapper Joe's warning that it was unsafe to leave theboardwalk.
"If I watch out for snakes and only go a short ways, what harm can itdo?" she reasoned.
A moment more and Penny was off the walk, treading her way cautiouslyalong the muddy bank. She paused to listen.
All was very quiet--so still that it gave the girl an uneasy feeling, asif she were being watched by a multitude of hostile eyes.
The footprints led to a large tree in a fairly open area. On one of thelow, overhanging bushes, a bit of dark wool had been snagged.
"Someone climbed up there either to rest or sleep," Penny thought.
In the bushes close by, the girl heard a faint, rustling sound.
"Who's there?" she called sharply.
No one answered. All was still for a moment. Then again she heard thewhisper of disturbed leaves.
Penny's flesh began to creep. Suddenly losing all interest in thefootprints, she decided to beat a hasty retreat to the boardwalk.
The decision came too late. Before she could move, a dozen big rootersled by an old gray boar, swarmed out of the bushes, surrounding her.
Too frightened and startled to cry out, Penny huddled back against thetree trunk. The rooters had spread out in a circle and slowly were comingcloser.
Retreat to the safety of the boardwalk was completely cut off. The leaderof the pack now was so near that she plainly could see his razor-sharpivory tusks. In another moment, the animal would attack.
Throwing off the paralysis of fear which gripped her, Penny swung herselfinto the lowermost branch of the big trees. The package of lunch she hadcarried, dropped from her hand, falling at the base of the trunk.
Instantly, the rooters were upon it, tearing savagely at the meat and ateach other. Sick with horror, Penny clung desperately to the tree limb.
"If I slip now, I'm a gonner!" she thought. "Those rooters are halfstarved. If I fall, they'll attack me!"
Penny considered shouting for Louise, but dismissed the thought asquickly as it came. Her chum probably was too far away to hear her cries.If she did come, unarmed as she was, she might leave the boardwalk onlyto endanger herself.
"Louise can't help me," Penny told herself. "I brought this on myself bynot heeding Old Joe's warning. Now it's up to me to get out of the messthe best way I can."
The girl lay still on the limb, trying not to draw the attention of therooters. Once they finished the meat, she was hopeful they would go away.Then she could make a dash for the walk.
Grunting and squealing, the rooters devoured the meat and looked aboutfor more. To Penny's relief, they gradually wandered off--all except theold boar.
The leader of the pack stayed close to the big tree, eyeing the girl inthe tree wickedly. Even in the dim light she could plainly see his evillittle eyes and working jaws.
"Go away you big brute!" she muttered.
Penny's perch on the limb was a precarious one and her arms began to achefrom the strain of holding on. Unsuccessfully, she tried to shift into amore comfortable position.
"I may be treed here for hours!" she thought. "Can I hold on that long?"
The old boar showed no disposition to move off, but kept circling thetree. It seemed to the now desperate Penny, that the animal sensed shewas weakening and only awaited the moment when she would tumble down tothe ground.
Breaking off a small tree branch she hurled it defiantly at the boar. Theact caused her to lose her balance. Frantically, she clawed for afoothold but could not obtain it. Down she slipped to the base of thetree.
The old boar, quick to see his opportunity, charged. With a scream ofterror, Penny leaped aside and the animal rushed past, squealing in rageat having missed his prey.
Even now, the boar stood between the girl and the plank walk. The treefrom which she had fallen, offered her only refuge, and as she measuredher chances, she realized that the probability of regaining the limb wasa slim one.
The boar had turned and was coming for her again.
But at that instant, as Penny froze in terror, a shot was fired fromsomewhere in the bushes behind her. The bullet went straight and true,stopping the boar in his tracks. He grunted, rolled over, twitched twice,and lay still.