CHAPTER XVIII--UNDER THE CABIN WALL
"So-long!" exclaimed the ex-cowboy, as he dropped to the ground.
Frank did not know just then whether Tom Somers was trying to evade anexpected attack from the big cat, or had been startled and alarmed bythe suspicious "click" behind him, instantly followed by that electricflash.
"He's gone!" whispered Bluff, excitedly.
Frank breathed a sigh of relief. The day had been saved by Will'sinoffensive camera after all, for there was no alarm, and they hadescaped an encounter with the poisonous claws of that beast of prey.
"And I bet I got a dandy picture of him, too, for Will. Say, this isn'tso bad, after all. Perhaps there can be some fun hunting with a camera,"pursued Bluff.
"Silence, Bluff. Let's lie here a bit and listen. I hope we didn'thappen to be so close to their camp as to let them see that flashthrough the trees," whispered Frank, dropping down.
Five minutes later they once more began to creep forward. At thesuggestion of Tom Somers, all of them were now on their knees, Bluff, asbefore, bringing up the rear.
It was very thrilling work, and Bluff found himself trembling withexcitement as he trailed after his companions.
"Sure he's a peach at this sort of business, and it was a bully streakof luck when we ran across the poor wretch tied up to a tree," he wassaying to himself, as he watched Tom Somers gliding along, keeping aneye on the ground, and sometimes almost poking his nose against theearth in order to solve a knotty problem.
He hoped they would run up against no more bobcats. While fortune hadsmiled upon them on that last occasion, perhaps the same good luck mightnot always be their portion; and Bluff found no desire in his heart fora tussle at close quarters with the owner of a set of claws such asthese beasts sported.
Frank and the other fellow seemed to be conferring in low whispers, andhence he crept up to learn what was in the wind.
"See anything, Frank?" he asked eagerly, as he pushed in beside hischum.
"Softly, Bluff. Yes, if you look through this little opening you can seeit, too."
"Why, it's a house--a sort of old cabin, more like," said Bluff, as hepeeped.
"That's just what it is. Now, search your memory, both of you--do youever recollect hearing about any one living on Wildcat Island?" askedFrank.
"Sure I do, now that you ask. There was a queer man once who used tolive like a hermit here. That was years ago. They found his skeleton inhis cabin. Nobody ever knew what he died of, but it was alone, exceptingfor his dog, that ran wild till he was shot by a duck-shooter,"whispered Bluff.
"Glory! this here place is some on thrills," grumbled Tom Somers.
"Never mind the things that are dead and gone. We have more to fear fromthose that are living. It looks as though the tramps have taken up theirquarters in the deserted shack of the old hermit, doesn't it, Tom?"asked Frank, in the ear of the other.
"It sure does, for a fact. Like as not the whole outfit is quarteredthere right now. And somehow I got a suspicion that our grub meanderedthis way, too. Seems like I see a familiar Boston baked-bean can lyingthere by the door, where they hustled it out after eating the contents."
Frank made no reply to this insinuation. Whatever he thought he kept tohimself.
"Oh! I wonder is Jerry there?" said Bluff, longingly, but managing tokeep his tones lowered.
"That is something we mean to discover before a great while. I leave themanner of our approach entirely to Tom here," declared Frank.
The outcast from Pet's camp had proven his ability to be of greatassistance to them, and Frank believed in encouraging a fellow. Hiswords doubtless gave the other more or less satisfaction. When a boyfeels that he is wholly trusted, he is very apt to do his level best.
"First of all I reckon there's a better way to crawl up close to theshack than this one we're on. So let's trail around to the other side,fellers," he said.
They succeeded in reaching the point he had in view. Even Bluff couldsee the wisdom of the move. The undergrowth was much more dense here,and extended quite up to the wall of the dilapidated cabin.
They could see that the new occupants had done some little roughtinkering in order to make a roof that would shed water reasonably well.From this it was easy to conclude that Waddy Walsh and his partner didnot know just how long they might have to utilize this place as ahide-out, and thought it best to be ready to stand a rainy siege such asthe Spring was apt to produce at any day.
Frank felt Bluff clawing at his legs. There was something in the act totell him his chum was desirous of speaking to him, and he allowed theother to pull up alongside so they could put their heads together.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Didn't you hear it?" queried Bluff, as if surprised.
"What? I heard nothing."
"All that whistling on the lake. Sounded to me like that little tug,_Rainy Day_, that tows the lumber down to the outlet. She was close by,too," replied Bluff.
"It must have been away off, for I didn't hear a bit of it. Perhaps itwas the tug, too; but she belongs up at the other end of the lake. Whatcould bring her down here?"
"I had an idea that perhaps the sheriff and his posse might be aboardher," ventured Bluff, and he was instantly seized by his comrade.
"That's just what it meant. I hope Will's met them and told how the landlies here. If that is true it means the beginning of the end?" whisperedFrank.
"And perhaps we may be back in our good old camp by night time, whoknows?" answered the other, joyfully.
Still, neither of them had the slightest thought of relaxing theirefforts with regard to investigating the interior of that cabin, andascertaining whether their comrade was being detained there against hiswill, perhaps in bonds, that cut his flesh cruelly.
Tom had noted the fact that the others were holding a little powwow, andhence he did not push on so as to leave them. In fact, Tom was not atall particular about quitting the society of these stout-hearted fellowseven for a minute, while in such a ghostly neighborhood. Tom believed inspirits, and the story Bluff had told about that skeleton was everbefore him.
When they began to advance once more, he also started off.
They were now so close to the cabin that if any one had been talkingaloud inside those old moss-grown walls the boys could not have failedto hear the sounds.
There had been a window, but it was closed with a bunch of dead grass,and, of course, none of the boys thought of trying to remove thisobstacle in connection with their obtaining a view of the interior. Theonly other opening, no doubt, was the door, which was allowed to remainwide open all the time for air and light.
Dare one of them crawl around the corner of the cabin and try to look inat that entrance? The risk seemed almost too much. Still, Frankremembered that they had two guns among them, while, so far as theyknew, the hoboes possessed none; at least they had shown nothing of thesort thus far.
He had been thinking this over, however, and concluded that it hardlystood to reason that such desperate characters as these two, one anescaped reform school inmate and the other a yeggman tramp, would beentirely without some means of defence. Perhaps one of them might have arevolver which he had up to now kept out of sight for some reason.
Tom was pulling at Frank's trousers entreatingly. Catching hisattention, he made a gesture with his hand, as talking was now out ofthe question.
Following the line of his pointing finger, Frank saw what had attractedthe eye of the boy who had been West. Some animal had for a time usedthe hut as a lodging-place, and as the door at the time may have beenclosed, had dug a tunnel under the wall at the back of the place.
Possibly the men inside had filled the hole up beyond the wall, but theyhad paid no attention to that which lay beyond.
Frank caught the idea instantly. It was to begin to tunnel under thewall, drawing away the earth piecemeal until an opening was made, whenone of them might crawl through and make discoveries.
The idea appealed to him somehow or othe
r, and, handing his gun silentlyto Tom, he set to work lifting handfuls of loose dirt, and graduallyscooping out quite a hole. It was easy work because the place had onlyrecently been filled in. As he worked he wondered what sort of an animalhad made the tunnel under the wall; perhaps a wildcat, or it might havebeen a 'coon, hardly a bear, though such big game could be occasionallymet with around Lake Camalot, especially along the headquarters ofLumber Run up at the other end of the body of water.
The minutes passed in this way. Several times Frank caught some soundbeyond the wall, but could not make out what it might mean. He feltpositive, however, that it was the home of the hoboes he had reached,and not a hiding-place of that strange creature so like a gigantic ape,but which wore shoes like a man.
Now he felt the earth growing lighter, as though he might be comingclose to an end of his strange task. He was still digging away, eager tolearn whether his plan could be carried out, when without the slightestwarning something that moved came in contact with his flesh, and he felthis fingers seized by a human hand!