CHAPTER XII.
DISAPPOINTED DUCK HUNTERS.
“Well, I’ll be switched!” exclaimed Hooker, in mingled astonishment andanger.
Nelson, whose dog had done the retrieving, beamed pleasantly on thedisappointed and wrathy young sportsmen. “Good morning,” he said.“You’re out for a little shooting, I see. Had any luck?”
“Yes—rotten,” flung back Hooker. “Confound you fellows! you spoiled themorning for us.”
“Really?” chirped Nelson, in pretended surprise, elevating his eyebrows.“How was that?”
“You know how,” grated Sage hotly. “You did it purposely, too. But Isuppose it was that pestering, sly, conceited, cheap imitator ofSherlock Holmes who is really responsible.”
Piper looked aggrieved. “If you’re referring to me,” he said, “permit meto inform you that I’m not at all pleased by your insulting language.”
“I didn’t intend you should be,” Fred flung back; “and you’d be lesspleased if I could find appropriate words to express my opinion of you.It was a miserable, low-down trick you fellows played on us thismorning, and you know it.”
“Now hold on,” Nelson commanded, his cheerful manner vanishing. “Wewon’t stand for any of that. We’ve as much right to shoot ducks on thispond as you have.”
“Of course we have,” Piper backed him up; “but Sage seems to have anidea that he owns the earth—that’s what’s the matter with him.”
Fred levelled his finger at the speaker’s face. “You have annoyed me tothe limit recently,” he grated. “After getting a crazy notion into yourhead, you’ve dogged me around constantly. You found out that Roy and Iwere coming here to shoot ducks this morning, for, without suspectingyour design, he let you pump him. Straightway, in a highly commendablemanner, you arranged to sneak in here some time in the night, and youplanked yourself on this point, where you could bang away at the ducksas they flew past, knowing perfectly well that every time you’d fireinto a flock you’d frighten them so that they would not come to ourdecoys. A fine piece of work!”
“I say, Sage, you take it hard, don’t you?” laughed Nelson. “Even if weknew you were coming to the lake, we had a right to do so ourselves. Andas long as you had not possession of this point, which is the onlyplace, besides the old blind, from which any successful shooting can bedone at this end of the pond, it surely was our privilege to grab it.Come, come, don’t be a squealer. I’ve always considered you game, butyou’re showing another side.”
“Once,” said Fred, “you deliberately fired at a passing flock when youmust have known the birds were beyond gun-shot. If you did not do thatto frighten them from coming to our decoys, why did you do it?”
“Yes,” cried Hooker, “explain that.”
“We took a chance on bringing one down, that’s all,” said Nelson.
“Oh, don’t bother yourself to explain,” Piper put in quickly. “It’s nouse; they won’t believe you. We’ve got to get home. Let’s not stand herechewing the rag.”
“A good punching is what you deserve,” snarled Hooker, “and I think wecould hand it to you, too.”
“Permit me to express doubts,” said Nelson. “If you want to try it,you’ve a splendid opportunity.”
It was a tense moment, for both Fred and Roy had been striving hard tohold themselves in check, and the insolent defiance of the other pairwas almost too much for them to swallow. It was Sage’s level head thataverted the clash. Knowing someone might be seriously hurt in ahand-to-hand fight, and remembering that the first football game of theseason would take place that afternoon, he put forth a hand and graspedHooker’s sleeve.
“We won’t scrap with them,” he said in a low tone. “They have shown whatthey are; let them get as much satisfaction out of it as they can.”
Piper, who had not really relished the prospect of a fist-fight, bracedup wonderfully, while Nelson laughed again.
“You’re showing a little sense now,” said the latter, “which, doubtless,you’ll realize when you come to think it over. The joke is on you, andyou may as well accept it in that light. It’s too bad you didn’t geteven a shot at anything, but you can’t expect to go home loaded withgame every time you hunt. Some rather pretty birds we have got, eh?” Heheld them up tantalizingly, which caused Hooker’s teeth to snap togetherand his hands to clench.
“Come, Roy,” urged Sage, “let’s go back and gather up our decoys.”
Reluctantly Hooker permitted his chum to swing him about, and hemuttered under his breath:
“Sometime I’ll even it up with this pair. They’ll get what’s coming, allright.”
As they were returning for the decoys they heard for a time the voicesof Piper and Nelson, who seemed to be in high spirits, for they burstinto frequent peals of laughter. Finally the irritating sounds died outas the triumphant duck hunters receded into the distance, following theold wood-road toward the main highway.
Grimly the disappointed lads gathered up the decoys and returned to theold camp. Sage was the first to show signs of reviving good nature,which symptoms at first caused Hooker more or less irritation.
“Perhaps you can take it that way, Fred,” said Roy; “but I can’t. It wasa dirty piece of business, although it may seem very shrewd and humorousto Piper and Nelson.”
Their blankets being rolled up and everything made ready for theappearance of Abel Hubbard, they still had some time to wait for thevillage constable, and this time they spent discussing the affair.Suddenly, as if struck by a thought, Fred clapped his hand to his pocketand drew forth the remnant of a newspaper that had been found in thecamp.
“By Jove!” he exclaimed; “that’s queer. I wish I’d questioned Sleuthabout it.”
“What are you driving at now?” asked his companion.
“It just occurred to me that, after all, this paper may have beendropped here by Piper, although I don’t quite understand how it couldhave been. If so, he must have come here recently—as recently asyesterday or the day before.”
“Nothing to it,” declared Hooker positively. “He was at school boththose days, and he has practiced regularly with the teams every night.He had no time to come here.”
“Unless he did so in the night—night before last. But I don’t see whyhe——”
“You couldn’t hire him to come here alone at night,” asserted Hooker;“he’s too big a coward. A great detective should have plenty of courage,but a rabbit is a lion compared with Sleuthy.”
“He may have had someone with him.”
“If so, it was some fellow we know, and we’ll find out about it. But Idon’t think there’s the remotest chance that it can be so, for he wouldhave announced the fact when we caught him face to face a short timeago. It would have served as an excuse for his presence this morning.Why, he could have claimed that he had come here ahead of us to look theground over and plan for a duck hunt. He could have accused us of beingencroachers. Forget it, Fred; Sleuth never dropped that paper in thiscamp.”
“Which,” said Sage regretfully, “leaves us just where we were before, upagainst a mystery. I’m not going to puzzle my head over it any more.”
“A sensible decision.” nodded Roy. “I’m inclined to fancy you’ve placedtoo much importance on that particular scrap of a newspaper.”
Shortly before nine o’clock, as they were sitting on an old log in frontof the camp, they heard the creaking of Hubbard’s wagon, and directlythe constable appeared with the conveyance.
“Mornin’, boys,” he saluted. “What luck?”
“Nothing but bad luck,” answered Hooker. “Some other chaps spoiled ourshooting for us, and we didn’t get as much as a feather.”
“Sho! Now that’s too bad. I cal’late I seen them other chaps. Met ’em onthe road almost to town. They was Jack Nelson and Billy Piper, and theyhad some birds. Seemed to feel purty nifty and chipper, too, for theylaughed when they spied me. Told me I’d better get a stouter wagon tohaul in my load
, but I didn’t know just what they meant.”
“Those chaps have a perverted sense of humor,” rasped Roy. “They’ll getit taken out of them some day. Come on, Fred, let’s throw our dunnageaboard and set sail. I’m anxious to get home to rest up before that gamethis afternoon.”