CHAPTER VII
A NOCTURNAL VISITOR
It was in that dark hour that precedes the dawn, which for some reasonor other is always the blackest of the night. The three boys weresleeping soundly. Suddenly Phil awoke and sniffed the air. For a momentor two he was dazed, then he gave a shout.
His cry of alarm woke the others, and they were about to leap from theirbeds when Phil's warning shout prevented them.
"What's the trouble, Phil?" asked Garry. "Are there snakes in the shackor are you just having a nightmare? Whew!" Garry had no need to ask anyfurther questions.
The nocturnal visitor was nothing more nor less than a polecat, thatlittle animal of the woods about the size of a cat, but commonly calleda skunk.
Phil retained his presence of mind, and reached to the bottom of hisbunk and hauled out one of his heavy shoepacks. With a well directed aimhe heaved it at the unwelcome little intruder, which at that moment wasnear the door. The force of the blow carried the animal out into thenight, and then the boys hopped out of their bunks and seized theirclothes. Keeping a wary eye, they dashed through the door and out of theway. The animal by this time was scampering away.
Going back to the shack was almost out of the question, for he had lefthis unmistakable scent behind him.
"There goes my night's sleep all shot to pieces," exclaimed Phil in anaggravated tone. "First I go on a wild goose chase to hear a plot andhear nothing, then this comes up, and blooie, there is goodbye to rest.Bet you I take a nap this morning. Wonder if that smell will evaporateor will we have to build a new shack. Also there is going to be a dooron the next one. I don't want any more night visitors like that chap."
"Hush a minute," whispered Garry. To the ears of the boys, trained bytheir work in the woods to catch the slightest sound, came the softnoise as of someone walking towards the bunkhouse. In a moment Garry wasflat on the ground, wiggling along as does an Indian on the war path ina manner that the boys had often practiced when they were Scouts.
He was back in about five minutes. The others were all curious to knowwhat had made him act in such a mysterious manner.
"Someone was prowling about, and just a moment ago went into thebunkhouse. I could hear him when he dropped his shoes as he got ready tocrawl into the bunk. Here's what I think. That wood pussy may havewandered into the shack all by his lonesome, but for my part I think itis the first event in a campaign to make things so unpleasant for usthat we will cut short our visit and go away," whispered Garry.
"They couldn't have picked on anything much better to make itunpleasant," answered Dick. "What will we do now?"
By this time the first faint streaks of dawn appeared, and in a littlewhile the camp would be astir.
"It is almost morning, and now that we are wide awake and up, we mightas well stay so," answered Garry. "First thing we do this morning is toget a few more boards and fashion a door for this shack. Also I saw someheavy screening yesterday,--you notice that all the windows arescreened,--and we will tack a double thickness of that over the window.That will afford us some slight protection against the invasion of morefriends such as the one that paid us an unwelcome call."
In a little while the camp was starting to come to life. First appearedthe cookee who favored the boys with a knowing grin, then came the cook,who immediately started the work of getting breakfast. Finally,struggling into their clothes as they came yawning through the doors,appeared the lumberjacks.
Garry cautioned his chums to say nothing for the moment about theirexperience of the night. They passed several moments in chatting withthose of the lumberjacks with whom they thought they might make friendsthat would perhaps stand them in good stead later on. Garry was tellinga funny story and at its conclusion the men burst into a roar oflaughter.
The red headed cookee happened to be passing just as the men began tolaugh, and he looked sharply at the boys. While he was serving thembreakfast in the smaller room,--they happened to be alone as Barrows hadnot yet arisen,--he remarked:
"Understand you chaps didn't sleep very well last night."
"No, we didn't," answered Garry, looking up quickly.
"Well, better luck next time," and still grinning the cookee shambledout of the room.
"Well!" exploded Garry. "If that chap didn't go and give himself cleanaway first shot out of the gun!"
"Looks as though your hunch about its being a part of the campaign ofruthlessness was a fact," said Dick with a laugh.
"Only question in my mind," said Phil, "is did he think of it himself asa sort of a practical joke, or was he put up to it by Barrows?"
"Looks pretty certain to me that Barrows was the instigator of thematter," answered Garry.
When Barrows appeared, the boys explained the matter to him, and askedhim for the necessary lumber with which to construct a door, also somescreening for the window. Barrows told them they could go to the sawmill and select whatever they wanted in the way of boards.
As they were getting the boards, an old grizzled lumberman chatted withthem. He asked why they wanted a door in that kind of weather, and Garrytold him the story.
"They do leave a reg'lar trail behind them, don't they?" laughed the oldman. "I'll tell you what you can do, though, and it will fix things uppretty well. I always keep some sulphur on hand when I'm in the woods.Occasionally you get a rash from the browntail moths in the woods, andthe best thing for a cure is a poultice made with a little sulphur. Whenyou put your door on, take a few extra boards and board up your window.Then take the sulphur that I give you and put it in a pan and set it onfire with a hot coal from the kitchen range. Then you hop out and letthe shack get thoroughly filled with the fumes o' the sulphur, andyou'll find after a couple or three hours that you'll have your placefumigated as pretty as if you had ten boards of health do the job foryou."
The boys thanked the old timer, and left with their lumber. A fewminutes later he appeared on the scene with his sulphur, and the work ofboarding the window and making a door being completed, they did as hehad directed and went on a tour of the camp.
As they were wandering about, with Sandy at their heels, they were againapproached by the man who had wanted to go on a coon hunt. This timethey accepted his invitation, and arranged to go that night.
The day passed quickly, for there were many things about the camp toattract their attention, and they asked numerous questions of such ofthe lumberjacks as seemed inclined to spend a moment or two to answerthem.
As soon as it got dark, the coon hunter appeared and asked if they wereready to go. He was accompanied by one or two of his friends, and Garrynoticed that one of them carried a burlap bag.
The boys secured their rifles, and were about to join the party, whenone of the men, noticing the guns, said:
"You don't need your rifles, although you can carry 'em if you want. Wewere aiming to catch the coon alive and see if we couldn't tame him fora sort of pet around the camp. That's what we brought the bag for."
"Good," answered Garry. "We aren't much on shooting animals just for thesake of shooting."
The trio of men led the way to where the man called Tom had said he hadseen a raccoon a few days before. Sandy was eagerly sniffing at theground, and soon he gave vent to a low growl.
"By gosh, I believe he's got the scent already," chuckled one of themen. "It may be some other kind of an animal, but I doubt it. All I'veseen around here is the raccoon, although there were a few rabbits atdifferent times. Still the raccoon is the most likely to be out prowlingat this time of night."
Soon Sandy was off, with his nose close to the ground. After a fewmoments he had left them entirely, and they followed only by means ofhis occasional barks. After almost half a mile of chasing, they heard aseries of wild barks, and knew that Sandy had driven something to bay.
In a few moments they had caught up to the dog, and there sure enough hehad something treed and was venting his pleasure by loud and vociferousbarks.
They peered up into the tree and could see nothing. In t
he meantime oneof the men had discovered a hole at the foot of the tree.
"Now one of you fellows get some branches, dry ones of course, and we'llsoon have Mr. Coon all trapped as nice as you please."
One of the men, assisted by Dick, soon gathered an armful of dry sticks.Getting a boost from his friend, Tom soon shinnied up the tree, andstopped after he had gotten about fifteen feet up well into thebranches, for it was a small tree.
"Here's the upper end of the hollow," he called down. "Now you fellowsstart your fire at the hole down there, while I spread the bag over thishole."
The smudge was soon started, and fanning it with their coats, they drovethe smoke into the hollow tree trunk. They were always careful not tolet the flames of the fire get to the tree, or they might have started aforest fire that would have been disastrous. As a matter of fact,several bad forest fires have started from an unskillful attempt tosmoke some animal out of a tree.
Soon there was a shout from the man up the tree. "I've got him!"
The smoke had proved too much for Brer Raccoon, and he had sought toescape by the hole at the top, only to walk into the bag. In a momentmore Tom had descended the tree with a squirming, snarling animal safelytied up in the bag.
On their return to the camp they were greeted by several of the jackswho had not yet gone to bed. The catch was exhibited, and one of the menproduced an old dog collar from the bunkhouse. The collar was snapped onthe coon's neck, a stout rope was attached to the ring in the corner tobe later tied securely to a nail at the corner of the bunkhouse.
"There," remarked Tom, surveying the result of the night's catch. "Ifyou fellows will lay off and not tease him, and shinny out a little foodfor him once in a while, he'll get tame as a kitten, and they are a lotof fun when they get tame. Almost as good as a monkey."
"We'll have to keep Sandy tied up for a while when he is not with us, orhe'll make short work of that coon," remarked Garry.
"Oh, I'll have 'em as friendly as two brothers in a few days," was Tom'sverdict.
The boys later found that the man Tom had a reputation for being quite ahand with animals of every description, but future events will show whySandy and the coon never got well acquainted. Things were on the vergeof beginning to hum for all hands.
When the boys woke in the morning, they made two startling discoveries.The first one was that repeated calls failed to bring Sandy to them, andthe boys had never remembered the morning when Sandy went so far abroadthat a few whistles did not bring him back on the run to join hiscompanions.
The second surprise was found when Garry noticed a familiar looking rollof birch bark at the entrance to the cabin, weighted down by a stone!