CHAPTER VII
A WARNING
Frank looked about him with some curiosity when they reached thesettlement, which struck him as a singularly unattractive place. In ahole chopped out of the forest that crept close to the edge of the waterstood a few small log houses and several roughly boarded shacks. Tallfir stumps surrounded them, and here and there provision cans and oldboots lay among the fern, in which a few lean hogs were rooting. Fartheron, however, there was an opening in the bush, for the boy could catchthe gleam of water between the trees, and in one place the greatcolumnar trunks cut against the soft green of a meadow. The grass wasbright with sunshine, but dim shadow hung over the forest-shroudedsettlement.
"A forlorn spot," said Harry. "I don't know why the folks first pitchedhere, but they raise a little fruit, and now and then a Seattle boatcomes along. It's thin gravel soil on this strip, and that's probablythe reason they haven't done any more chopping--there are salt meadowsfarther along--but if they'd any hustlers among them they'd have got outtheir axes and let a little daylight in." He waved his handcontemptuously. "They're a mean crowd, anyway, except the storekeeper,and I've wondered how he makes a living out of them. Now we'll go alongand get that flour."
They moved on down the trail, which was torn up by the passage of jumpersledges, until they reached a frame building which Frank had not noticedat first. It stood back a little and was larger and neater than any ofthe rest. A veranda ran along the front of it and in one window smallflour bags and more provision cans were displayed. A couple of men inblue shirts and overalls lounged smoking on the veranda in a mannerwhich suggested that they had never hurried themselves in their lives,and they seemed to be the only inhabitants of the place. As the boyswalked up the stairway Harry pointed to a notice pasted up in thewindow. Frank stopped and read it aloud.
"_Twenty dollars will be paid to any one identifying the man who recently drove a pair of horses off the Oliver ranch._"
With a laugh Harry looked up defiantly at the lounging men. "That'sOliver's answer," he said. "They told him to keep his mouth shut."
One of the men grinned. "Seems to me it was good advice. Do you figureany one round here is going to earn those twenty dollars?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't," he answered. "Still, my only reason forbelieving it is that the money isn't big enough. Anyway, that noticewill serve its purpose. It makes it clear that we mean to fight."
The lounger grinned again and Harry, marching past him with his head up,entered the store. A man who was sitting behind the counter rose whenthe boys came in and raised his hand in a manner which seemed toindicate that caution was desirable.
"You're wanting some groceries?" he asked.
"Flour," Harry answered. "A seventy-pound bag, if you've got it. Somepork, too--you know the piece we take. You might send them down to thebeach, if there's anybody in the place who's not afraid of carrying aflour bag."
The storekeeper smiled and strolled casually toward the window. Comingback he leaned upon the counter.
"Your aunt's mighty particular about her pork," he said, raising hisvoice a little. "Better come along into the back store and see what I'vegot."
They followed him into a smaller room, where he first of all threwseveral big slabs of pork down upon a board, making, it seemed to Frank,as much noise as possible.
"Twelve pounds in this lot," he said loudly, then lowering his voice:"Those fellows outside haven't gone and I don't want them to hear. Youhaven't found your horses yet?"
Harry admitted that they had not done so, and the man nodded gravely.
"Well," he said, "I guess they'll turn up presently. I couldn't tellyour father that because there were other folks in the store when hehanded me the notice. What I want to say is that he's not wise inbluffing the boys. You had better tell him that's my opinion."
"How much do you know about the thing?" Harry asked directly.
"Very little, but I can guess a good deal. Quite enough, anyway, toconvince me that you folks had better lie quiet, and let the boysalone."
Harry glanced scornfully toward the veranda.
"Pshaw!" he growled. "We don't want to meddle, but it's another matterto let those slouches drive off our team. That's my view, though I don'tknow what my father means to do about it. He hasn't told me."
"He never does tell folks," the storekeeper answered with a trace ofdryness. "I guess he'll wait, and kick when he's ready, but you tell himfrom me that he's up against quite a big thing." He raised his voice:"Well, I'll send that pork and flour along."
The boys went out and met one of the loungers strolling casually acrossthe store, though Frank had a suspicion that he had come in softly sometime earlier. As they were walking down to the beach Harry glanced upthe strip of sheltered water.
"There's a Chinese camp a little way up the creek," he said. "Nothingmuch to see there, but we may as well take a look at it."
They paddled across a strip of shadow where the reflections of spreadingcedar and towering fir floated inverted in the still, green water untilthe ripple from the bows broke across and banished them. After that theyslid out into the sunlight where a narrow belt of cultivated land ranback on either hand. On one side it was partly hidden by a bank of soil,at the end of which three or four men were leisurely working. Theymerely looked down as the canoe slid past.
"Hard cases!" said Harry presently. "If I was sheriff I'd clean thishole right out. There are decent folks here, but the curious thing isthat when you let two or three toughs into a place they seem to get ontop."
Frank made no comment, and soon they were once more paddling into theshadow of the forest. The creek was growing smaller, and at length theyran the canoe ashore and struck into a narrow trail through the bush.
It was now getting on into the afternoon and Frank felt sorry that theyhad not eaten the lunch Miss Oliver had prepared for them before theyleft the sloop. It was very hot, and very still, except when now andthen the drumming of a blue grouse came sharply out of the shadows. Byand by, however, the wood became a little thinner, and Harry pointedtoward an opening between the trees.
"That's the place," he said. "Not much to look at, but it's good land.You can see the maples yonder--that's always a favorable sign--andsomebody with money has lately bought quite a piece of it to start afruit ranch on. The Chows have taken the contract for clearing it, andif any dope has been landed in the neighborhood they're probably mixedup with the thing."
Frank glanced toward the opening, and sitting, as he was, in dimshadow, the open space he looked out upon seemed flooded with dazzlingbrightness. In the background, and some distance away, little, blue-cladfigures were toiling with axes that flashed as they swung amidst aconfusion of branches and fallen logs, the staccato chunk of the bladesripping through the heavy stillness. Nothing else, however, seemed tomove, and the air was filled with a languorous, resinous smell. Rows ofstumps stretched out from the spot on which the Chinamen were working,breaking off before a cluster of bark and split-board shacks that stoodbeneath the edge of the forest. A man dressed in loose, blue garmentswas seated motionless outside one of the shacks, before two logs, frombetween which a little smoke curled straight up into the air. Presentlythe man stood up, and just then Harry seized Frank's shoulder.
"Look round a little--to the left," he whispered.
Frank did so and was astonished to see another man slip quietly out ofthe forest and approach the shack. His face was not discernible, butthere was something peculiar in the way he walked, and his dress made itevident that he was a white man.
"Have you seen him before?" Harry asked softly.
"I can't locate him, but I've an idea that he's not quite a stranger,"said Frank.
"Well," said Harry, "I'm open to make a guess at him. Just as theschooner went about that night I had a look at her helmsman. He had hisback to me, but it was moonlight, and I could see that one shoulderhunched up in a kind of curious manner."
Frank looked again and it seemed to him th
at there was something unusualin the way the man held his shoulder. It was somewhat higher than theother, though it hardly amounted to a deformity.
"Slip in behind that tree," whispered Harry, pointing toward the bush."We'll creep up through the shadow if he goes into the shack."
They spent some minutes moving forward in and out among the trees, andin the meanwhile Frank saw the stranger enter the shack and the Chinamanfollow him. Then he and Harry walked out of the bush scarcely a score ofyards from the rude building, and headed straight for it. As theyapproached, the Chinaman became visible in the doorway, where he stoodwaiting for them. He appeared to be an old man, for his face was linedand seamed, but it was absolutely expressionless, an impassive yellowmask, and Frank felt baffled and repelled by it. As soon as it wasevident that the boys intended to enter his dwelling, he moved aside,and when they stood in the little, shadowy room Frank was astonished tosee that there was nobody else in it. This seemed incomprehensible, forthere was only one door in the place. In the meanwhile the Chinaman waslooking at them quietly.
"It's quite hot," observed Harry.
"Velly hot," assented the other, who did not seem in any way disturbedby the fact that they had so unceremoniously marched in.
Harry appeared embarrassed after this, as though he did not know what tosay next, until he was evidently seized by an inspiration.
"Got any chow, John?" he asked.
"Velly good chow," answered the Chinaman. "Lice, blue glouse, smokeefishee."
"Blue grouse!" said Harry disgustedly aside to Frank. "It's the nestingseason, but I guess that wouldn't count for much with them." He turnedto his host. "I'm not a heathen. Savvy cook American? Got any flour youcan make biscuits or flapjacks of?"
"You leavee chow to me," said the other. "Cookee all same big hotelSeattle, Tacoma, San F'lisco."
"It's quite likely," said Harry, looking round at Frank. "You can trusta Chinaman to turn out a decent meal. I'll walk round a bit in themeanwhile; you can sit here and rest."
Frank did not particularly wish to rest, but he fancied that hiscompanion had given him a hint, and while the Chinaman busied himselfwith his pots and pans he sat down outside the shack. He had been upearly that morning, and after the steady, arduous work at the ranch itwas pleasant to sit still in the strip of shadow and let his eyes wanderidly about the clearing. Among other things, he noticed that a littletrickle of water flowed across it, and that the soil was quaggy in theneighborhood. He concluded that the stranger, who had so mysteriouslydisappeared, must have crossed the wet place.
It was some little time before Harry came back and the Chinaman then setout their dinner. Frank had no idea what some of it consisted of and hiscompanion was unable to enlighten him, but it was excellent. When theyhad finished, the man turned to Harry.
"One dolla," he said gravely.
Harry handed it over readily and smiled at Frank when they strolled backinto the bush.
"It wasn't what I'd figured on when I first walked in, but I had to makesome excuse," he said. "Just now I'd very much like to know how far itwent with him." He paused and looked thoughtful. "I guess it wasn't avery long way. The image is ahead of us by a dollar."
Frank laughed. "You had some reason for going for that walk?"
"Oh, yes," replied Harry. "I wanted to make sure of things, and theground was soft. There were some footprints in it--going from theshack--and they'd been made quite lately by a white man's boot. Johnsticks to his slipper things in a general way. Anyhow, it was the man wesaw who left those tracks."
"How do you know that?"
"There were a lot of others about, but they'd been made earlier. Thewater had got into them, but there was very little in those I wasinterested in."
Frank was conscious that this was a point which would probably haveescaped his notice, but he had not lived in the bush and learned to usehis eyes.
"It's very curious how the fellow got out of the shack without ourseeing him," he said.
"It looks curious until you begin to think. Now, though I tried to keepmy eye on it all the while, the trees kept getting between me and theshack as we made for it, and what I couldn't see you couldn't seeeither. You were close behind me, which, in one way, was where we werewrong. If we had crept in well apart, the same tree wouldn't havebothered both of us, though if we'd done that it would have doubled thechances of our being seen."
"A tree isn't such a very big thing," Frank objected.
"No," said Harry. "The point is that it will shut an object a good dealbigger than itself out of your sight." He stopped a moment and pointedtoward a neighboring cedar. "We'll say that one's three feet indiameter, but, as you're standing, it will shut off a good deal morethan a track three feet wide through the bush. You want to run a linefrom your eye to both edges of the trunk and then carry them out behindit. The farther you run them, the farther they get apart, and as youcan't see round a corner, everything in the wedge they enclose is shutout from view. Got that into you? It will come in useful when you'retrailing a deer."
It was quite clear to Frank now that it had been explained, but hiscompanion went on.
"Well," he added, "it wouldn't have taken that fellow more than a fewseconds to slip out of the shack and in behind it. Then if he kept itbetween him and us he'd be hidden until he reached the bush."
"Yes," said Frank. "It must mean that he saw us, and didn't want us tosee him."
"You're getting quite smart," said Harry with a grin. "I don't know ifyou noticed it, but you trod on a rotten branch that smashed. He didn'twant us to know him again, but I'd pick that fellow anywhere by his backand walk. Now why was he so anxious that we shouldn't see him talking tothe Chinaman?"
It was a suggestive question, but Frank could not answer it, and Harrysaid nothing further. Reaching the canoe they paddled down the creekuntil they came abreast of the sloop and saw the provisions lying uponthe shingle some little distance from the water, for the tide had ebbedsince their arrival. When they had run the canoe in Frank assisted Harryin getting the flour bag on his back, but gave a sudden cry of dismay asa white cloud flew all over him.
"Hold on!" he cried. "Put it down. It's running out!"
Harry dropped the bag and drew down his brows as he gazed at the littlepile of flour which lay at his feet. Then he suddenly stooped down.
"The bag seemed a sound one," Frank suggested.
"Oh, yes," said Harry shortly. "There's only one thing the matter withit. See here," and he laid his finger on a long slit. "Somebody hasstuck a knife into it."
"A mean trick!" Frank broke out wrathfully.
Harry stood up with a flash in his eyes. "It's rather more than that.It's a hint. Anyway, if you'll get hold of the other end we'll pack thebag down with the cut uppermost."
In spite of this precaution they spilled a good deal of the flour beforethey got it on board the sloop, but Harry said no more about the matter,and hoisting sail they slid out of the inlet with a faint breeze abeamof them. They found it fair and the breeze only a little stronger whenthey had left the woods behind, and Frank sat at the tiller while thesloop glided rapidly through the smooth blue water with no more than adrowsy gurgle beneath her bows. The tide was running down with them nowand it was only when he glanced toward the beach that he realized howfast they were going.
A pleasant salt odor of drying weed was mingled with the scent of thefirs. In front of them a wonderful vista of white snow mountains emergedfrom fleecy cloud, and far beneath the silvery vapor appeared the faintand shadowy blurs of distant hillsides clothed with mighty forest.Overhead the big white sail swayed languidly to and fro, cutting sharplyinto the blue, and Frank felt that he would like to sail on like thisfor hours, lounging at the helm, and listening to the water as itslipped along the sides. With a light fair wind he could guide the boatwherever he wished by the slightest touch of the tiller, and it waspleasant to see how steadily he could keep her bowsprit pointing to alow rocky head that rose, a patch of soft blue shadow, against theevening light.
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The voyage, however, came to an end almost too soon, and the rocks andfirs were growing dim when they ran into the cove and picked up theirmooring buoy. After they had stowed and covered the sails they wentashore, and both boys were very tired and warm when they reached thehomestead. Harry's clothes were covered with flour, which had left awhite trail along the way. Miss Oliver was standing in the lamplightwhen they came in and noticed the white patches on their clothes.
"You have let him give you a burst bag!" she exclaimed.
Harry looked meaningly at Frank. "No," he said, "I think it was allright when it left the store and I don't think we have spilled more thana few pounds. Perhaps we had better skip it into the barrel. It willsave the stuff from running out when you move it."
They managed to carry it away between them; and when they had emptied itHarry turned to Frank.
"If she starts talking about that bag, head her off on to somethingelse," he said. "I don't want her to get imagining trouble every time weleave the ranch."
When Miss Oliver resumed the subject at supper Frank attempted to diverther attention, and fancied that he succeeded, though he wondered why shesmiled at times. When the boys had gone to their room she picked up thebag and stretched it out under the light. Then her face grew grave asshe saw the slit in it. Being a clever woman, however, she decided notto mention her suspicions.