CHAPTER V. THE TELL-TALE TRACKS.
"Dynamite!" echoed Giraffe as his face blanched. "And the silly was justgoin' to give it a heave into the fire. Great governor! what would havehappened to the Silver Fox Patrol if he had?"
"Please don't mention it, Giraffe," said poor Step Hen, weakly, "Howeverwas I to know what it was, when I hadn't ever seen such a thing before inall my life?"
"Well," remarked Thad, grimly, "that's the time you should haveremembered that a scout must always be prepared to think for himself, andobserve too. I heard something of what was said as I stood here,watching. You had guessed easily enough that these were the tools withwhich bank burglars break into safes. And since you read the papers, StepHen, you must surely know that they often use dynamite to burst open thelock of a safe. You never stopped to think, that's the trouble. All youhad to do would be to say to yourself, 'now, what would thieves be likelyto have this for, because it must enter into their business?' and thechances were ten to one you'd have guessed it, right away. Think twiceafter this, Step Hen, before you do a rash thing like that."
The scoutmaster spoke more sternly than was his wont when dealing withthose who were under his charge; because he had been horrified andthrilled when he realized the terrible danger that hovered over them all,should Step Hen manage to give the innocent looking stick a toss into thefire, before he could leap alongside, and stay his arm.
Perhaps the dynamite might not have exploded before he could with afrantic effort dislodge it from the burning brands; but the chances ofits going off were legion, and he could never afterwards think of theincident without a shudder.
"I'll try and remember, Thad," said Step Hen, meekly, for he wasshivering now, because of the narrow escape he and his chums had had.
Thad, on his part, carefully placed the dangerous explosive in the crotchof a tree near by, where it could do no harm.
"We'd better bury it in the morning, to get rid of it," he observed, ashe sat down to examine the odd looking assortment of little tools, forhimself.
The others gathered around, curious to hear what Thad's opinion might be;for they were used to setting considerable store by his decisions on anysubject.
"How d'ye s'pose now, Thad," remarked Giraffe, to draw the other out,"these fellers just came to stop over here, in the identical place wechose for a camp? That what's getting me."
"Oh that's easy," replied the other, with a little laugh. "We seemed tostrike this place by accident; but I reckon that if you asked Eli or Jimhere about it, they'd be apt to tell you it's an old camping spot. Howabout it, men?"
"Be'n here often with parties," replied the older guide, promptly. "Seenhundreds o' fine trout jerked outen thet pool over there."
"Me tew," declared Jim, grinning broadly at finding how smart this boyseemed to be.
"There you are, Giraffe," Thad went on to say, turning once more to thescout. "Perhaps, as somebody said only a little while back, this leaderof the sprinting yeggmen has himself been camping here one or more timesin the past, and he knows the trails of the woods around here. Why,there's a pretty good chance that Mr. Carson himself stopped here overnight, something like a week or less ago."
"But he didn't find that bag, nor his guides either," remarked Step Hen,with a little show of pride; as though he believed he ought to at leasthave a small amount of credit for bringing the thing to light.
"For a good reason," Thad went on; "because it wasn't in the bushes whenMr. Carson came along this way."
"You think, then, that the fellers who owned these things must have beenhere after Mr. Carson was, do you, Thad?" Davy Jones asked.
"I've a good notion that way," the scoutmaster replied; "and we're goingto prove it, presently. There are lots of ways to do that, you'll find;and if Allan and I happen to fall down, why, we'll call on Sebattis hereto show us. Allan tells me that an Indian can read signs just like youwould print, Davy."
"Like to see him try it, then," muttered the scout, casting a side glancetoward the silent Penobscot brave, who was sitting there watching them,and never so much as opening his mouth, or betraying any particularinterest, though he must have heard every word that had been spoken thusfar.
"After we've had a hack at it, we may," Thad admitted. "You know Allan isup to some of these things, and we ought to give him a show beforecalling in outside talent; isn't that so, boys?"
"Sure it is," cried Bumpus; "and it's my private opinion, publiclyexpressed, that our comrade can deliver the goods too. Give Allan asquare deal. Let him 'mosey' around, and say what he thinks. Then we'llask the guides to prove it. That's the ticket, fellers. An' he can'tbegin any too soon to satisfy my bump of curiosity. They do say at myhouse I'm a reg'lar old woman for wantin' to know; and I must acknowledgethe corn all right. Won't you get busy, Allan, and relieve a sufferin'public?"
Thus appealed to, the Maine boy could not resist. "Of course I'm notsaying I can tell you all that either of these guides might--not tomention Sebattis here," he remarked, "but I'll do the best I can."
"Reckon that's about nigh all anybody can do," observed Giraffe, alsogetting to his feet; for he was more or less interested in anydemonstration of woodcraft that applied to Boy Scout knowledge.
"Of course I know what the footprint of every one of us looks like, evento our guides," began Allan; "because I've made it my business to keep myeyes around. And the first thing I'm going to do is to find out if thereis any track here different from ours. If I find that, I'll be prettysure it was made by others who camped here within the last night or two."
"But why do you say that?" demanded Bumpus, eagerly. "What if Mr. Carsondid stop here five, six or even seven nights ago; you might run on histrack, you know."
"If I did, I'd know it," replied Allan; "not that I've even set eyes onthe print of his hunting shoe or boot, if he wears such, instead ofmoccasins; but stop and remember, Bumpus we had a heavy rain day beforeyesterday that must have passed over this section as well as where westruck it. After that it turned cold."
"Oh! I forgot all about that," admitted the other scout, looking foolish."Why, of course, that same rain would have washed out the footprints ofanybody who had camped here as long ago as four or five nights. That'sright Allan."
"If it didn't exactly wash the footprints out, it would make them lookfaint; and a trailer would soon know they were old. Now let me take aturn around, and do the rest of you sit quiet here, till I call out thatI've found something."
He took a blazing brand from the fire, and began to move around theoutskirts of the camp, beyond the tents and the glow of the fire.
"Why does he go so far away?" asked Bumpus.
"Because we've been walking around here so much that all chance of makingany discovery would be lost," replied Thad; "and out there he may stand ashow. There, I can see him stoop down lower, and I wouldn't be surprisedif he'd hit a footprint right away."
The others all craned their necks in order to see what Allan was doing;and of course Giraffe had them left far in the lurch when it came tothis, on account of his being gifted by a bountiful Nature with such anexceedingly long ostrich like appendage below his head.
"Yes, he's sure struck something," Giraffe declared, as though anxious toshow what an advantage it was sometimes to be the possessor of a neckthat was longer than any of the others.
"There, he's beckoning to us to come on over, fellers!" exclaimed Bumpus,as he tried to leap to his feet; but, owing to his weight, this was neveran easy thing for him, and he did not refuse the helping hand Thadstretched out.
So they joined Allan, as he stood there, holding his torch near theground.
"What you found?" asked Giraffe, as they came up.
"Here's a print, all right, that seems altogether different from any ofours. I can show you that the shoe has been patched across the toe, andnone of ours has such a mark. It's a fresh print too, and that means theman who made it must have been here since that rain storm. Is that cleareno
ugh for you, boys?"
"It's a cinch, that's what, Allan. Why, I'm only a tenderfoot scout, butI can understand that much. And I'm real glad to know it, too. We want totake a good look at that shoe print, fellers; p'raps we might want toknow it again sometime."
Step Hen as he said this threw himself down on the ground, and seemed tobe making a mental photograph of the impression.
"How d'ye reckon they got here, Allan; by boat, or through the woodsdirect?" asked Thad, as though he had himself been pondering over thatquestion, without being able to connect, as yet.
"Let's take a look along the edge of the river," remarked the Maine boy."If so be they had a canoe, we ought to be able to see where it waspulled up on the little beach down here. Such a mark would stay a longtime unless the water rose, and I don't think that happened here, notover half a foot, anyhow."
So once more they walked after Allan, who was soon examining the shoreclose to the edge of the water.
"There's a mark you can all see, that looks as if a boat had been pulledup, but it's old and faint. The rain has nearly washed it out. Do any ofyou glimpse signs of another scratch that's fresher?"
Allan's purpose, of course, was to make his chums think they were havinga hand in the search. Then, when telling the story afterwards, they couldsay "when _we_ had hunted all along the shore, and didn't find any freshsign, we knew that the yeggs must sure have walked all the way throughthe woods."
There was a little hustle as Giraffe, Davy, Step Hen and Bumpus allendeavored to earn the right to include themselves in the affair; afterwhich they united in declaring that no further signs lay along the littlebeach.
"Well, we've settled that part of it pretty cleverly, I guess," Thaddeclared, as he smiled at Allan.
"It was one of the easiest jobs I ever tackled," declared the other.
"Wonder which way they went when they left here?" Bumpus remarked.
"Now, just don't bother your head about that, Bumpus," said Step Hen."You're letting your envious mind think of that fat reward again; butyou'd better forget it, Thad says."
"Oh! if they were making toward the Canada border," observed Allan, "why,of course they headed north after leaving here."
"And so are we," was all Bumpus allowed himself to say in reply; but thelook he gave Step Hen was sufficient to announce that he did not mean towholly relinquish all idea that somehow, some time, they might yet runacross the fugitives, and be able to capture them handsomely.
The boys started back to the fire. Some of them were even settled downclose to the cheerful blaze, warming themselves, and ready to talk somemore about the strange thing that had happened. Bumpus was kicking histoe into the earth, as if some object had attracted his attention. All atonce he swooped down, and then gave utterance to an excited ejaculation.
"Looky at what I got, fellers!" he exclaimed hurrying up to the fire.
"Money, real hard money!" cried Step Hen, enviously. "Where'd you digthat up, Bumpus? Say, p'raps there's more like it buried there. Mebbewe'll strike a gold mine, and go home millionaires, every one."
For Bumpus was holding a bright new five dollar gold piece in his hand,at which they all stared with more or less delight.
"I saw it shinin' and gave a little kick at the place, thinkin' it mightbe a piece of glass, or some old tin cut off a can. Then it broke loosefrom the frozen dirt, and I saw this little beauty," Bumpus was saying,in rapture.
"Easy money!" grunted Giraffe, enviously; while Step Hen darted over tosee if he might not be as lucky, though only to meet with bitterdisappointment.
"That seems to settle one thing, boys," remarked Thad. "Those rascals didrob a bank before they took to the woods. And the stuff they got was soheavy to carry, they just had to throw away their tools here. That looksplain enough, don't it?"
All of them agreed that it did sound very much that way. Indeed, DavyJones remarked that he considered them very sensible men, because hehimself would only too gladly get rid of some old steel tools, if he hada chance to carry a bag of gold coins along.
Ten minutes later, as they were talking and laughing there, neverthinking how late the hour was getting, and that they ought to be seekingtheir blankets under the shelter of the two tents, Sebattis was seen toquietly reach out his hand, and pick up his gun, after which he slippedaway.
The boys exchanged glances, but made no remark. Another ten minutespassed by, when there came a startling interruption to the peaceful quietof the camp. From some point near by a harsh voice suddenly sounded,thrilling the scouts as they could seldom remember being shaken:
"Throw up your hands, there, every one of you, and see that you keep 'emraised, if you know what's good for you!"
And at the same moment three men issued from the recesses of the woods,and advanced toward them, all of whom held leveled guns in their hands.