III
It was dusk by that time and the path was only a thread between massesof undergrowth. Tish said if it was the bear he would be afraid of thefire, so we put dry leaves in the kettle and made quite a blaze. By itslight Tish read that bears in the summer are full fed and reallyfrolicsome and that they are awful cowards. We felt quite cheered andbrave, and Tish said if he came near to throw the fire kettle at him andhe'd probably die of fright.
It was too late to put up the tepee, so we found a clearing near thepath and decided to spend the night there. Aggie still watched thebushes and wanted to spend the night in a tree; but Tish's calmness wasa reproach to us both, and after we had emptied the kettle and madequite a fire to keep off animals, we unrolled our blankets and preparedfor sleep. I could have slept anywhere, although I was still ratherhungry. My last view was of Tish in the firelight grimly bending down asapling and fastening a rabbit snare to it.
During the night I was wakened by somebody clutching my arm. It wasAggie who lay next to me. When I raised my head she pointed off into thewoods to our left. At a height of perhaps four feet from the ground aghastly red glow was moving rapidly away from us. It was not a torch; itwas more a radiance, and it moved not evenly, but jerkily. I could feelthe very hair rising on my head and it was all I could do to call Tish.When we had roused her, however, the glow had faded entirely and shesaid we had had a nightmare.
The snare the next morning contained a skunk, and we moved on as quicklyas possible, without attempting to secure the thong, of which we hadseveral. We gathered some puffballs to soak for breakfast and in aclearing I found some blackberry bushes. We were very cheerful thatmorning, for if we could capture rabbits and skunks, we were sure ofother things, also, and soon we would be able to add fish to our menu.True, we had not had much time to commune with our souls, and Aggie'sarms were so sunburned that she could not bend them at the elbows. But,as Tish said, we had already proved our contention that we could getalong without men or houses or things. Things, she said, were the curseof modern life; we filled our lives with things instead of thoughts.
It was when we were ready to cook the puffballs that we missed thekettle! Tish was very angry; she said it was evident that the bear wasmischievous and that all bears were thieves. (See the "Young Woodsman.")But I recalled the glow of the night before, and more than once I caughtAggie's eyes on me, filled with consternation. For we had seen thatkettle leaving the camp with some of our fire in it, and bears areafraid of fire!
We reached the lake at noon and it seemed as if we might soon have timeto sit down and rest. But there was a great deal to do. Aggie was of noassistance on account of her arms, so Tish and I put up the tent. The"Young Woodsman" said it was easy. First you tied three long polestogether near the top and stood them up so they made a sort of triangle.Then you cut about a dozen and filled in between the three. That lookedeasy, but it took an afternoon, and our first three looked like thisfirst cut.
AS THE FIRST THREE LOOKED AS THEY SHOULD HAVE LOOKED]
We had caught a rabbit by noon, and Aggie being unfit for other work,and the kettle being gone, Tish set her to roasting it. It was notvery good, but we ate some, being ravenous. The method was simplicityitself--two forked sticks in the ground, one across to hang the rabbitto and a fire beneath. It tasted rather smoky.
In the afternoon we finished putting up the tepee, and Tish made afishhook out of a hairpin and tied it to a strong creeper I had found.But we caught no fish. We had more rabbit for supper, with somepuffballs smoked and a few huckleberries. But by that time the verysight of a rabbit sickened me, and Aggie began to talk about broiledbeefsteak and fried spring chicken.
We had seen no sign of the bear, or whatever it was, all day, and itseemed likely we were not to be again disturbed. But a most mysteriousthing occurred that very night.
As I have said, we had caught no fish. The lake was full of them. We saton a bank that evening and watched them playing leapfrog, and talkedabout frying them on red-hot stones, but nothing came near the hairpin.At last Tish made a suggestion.
"We need worms," she said. "A grasshopper loses all his spirit afterhe's been immersed for an hour, but a worm will keep on wriggling andattracting attention for half a day."
"I wanted to bring a spade," said I.
But Tish had read of a scheme for getting worms that she said the gamewarden of some place or other had guaranteed officially.
"You stick a piece of wood about two feet into the ground in a likelyspot," she said, "and rub a rough piece of bark or plank across the top.This man claims, and it sounds reasonable, that the worms think it israining and come up for water. All you have to do is to gather them up."
Tish found a pole for the purpose on the beach and set to work, whileAggie and I prepared several hooks and lines. The fish were jumpingbusily, and it seemed likely we should have more than we could do tohaul them in.
The experiment, however, failed entirely, for not a single wormappeared. Tish laid it to the fact that it was very late and that theworms were probably settled down for the night. It may have been that,or it may have been the wrong kind of wood.
The mysterious happening was this: We rose quite early because the tepeedid not seem to be well anchored and fell down on us at daybreak. Tishwent down to the beach to examine the lines that had been out all night,and found nothing. She was returning rather dispirited to tell us thatit would be rabbit again for breakfast, when she saw lying on a flatstone half a dozen beautiful fish, one or two still gasping, in our lostkettle!
Tish said she stood there, opening and shutting her mouth like the fish.Then she gave a whoop and we came running. At first we thought theymight have been jumping and leaped out on to the beach by accident, but,as Tish said, they would hardly have landed all together and into akettle that had been lost for two nights and a day. The queer thing wasthat they had not been caught with a hook at all. They hadn't a mark onthem.
We were so hungry that we ate every one of them for breakfast. It wasonly when we had eaten, and were sitting gorged and not caring whetherthe tent was set up again or not, that we fell to wondering about thefish. Tish fancied it might have been the driver of the spring wagon,but decided he'd have sold us the fish at thirty cents a pound liveweight.
All day long we watched for a sign of our benefactor, but we sawnothing. Tish set up more rabbit snares; not that she wanted rabbits,but it had become a mania with her, and there were so many of them thatas they grew accustomed to us they sat round our camp in a ring andcriticized our housekeeping. She thought if she got a good many skinsshe could have a fur robe made for her automobile. As a matter of factshe found another use for them.
It was that night, then, that we were sitting round the camp-fire onstones that we had brought up from the beach. We had seen nothing moreof the bear, and if we had been asked we should have said that thenearest human being was twenty-five miles away.
Suddenly a voice came out of the woods just behind us, a man's voice.
"Please don't be alarmed," said the voice. "But may I have a little ofyour fire? Mine has gone out again."
"G-g-g-good gracious!" said Aggie. "T-Tish, get your revolver!"
This was for effect. Tish had no revolver.
All of us had turned and were staring into the woods behind, but wecould see no one. After Aggie's speech about the revolver it was sometime before the voice spoke again.
"Never mind, Aggie," Tish observed, very loud. "The revolver is here andloaded--as nice a little thirty-six as any one needs here in the woods."
She said afterward that she knew all the time there was no thirty-sixcaliber revolver, but in the excitement she got it mixed with her bustmeasure. Having replied to Aggie, Tish then turned in the direction ofthe voice.
"Don't skulk back there," she called. "Come out, where we can see you.If you look reliable, we'll give you some fire, of course."
There was another pause, as if the stranger were hesitating. Then:--
"I think I'd better no
t," he said with reluctance in his voice. "Can'tyou toss a brand this way?"
By that time we had grown accustomed to the darkness, and I thought Icould see in the shadow of a tree a lightish figure. Aggie saw it at thesame instant and clutched my arm.
"Lizzie!" she gasped.
It was at that moment that Tish tossed the brand. It fell far short, buther movement caught the stranger unawares. He ducked behind the tree,but the flare of light had caught him. With the exception of what lookedlike a pair of bathing-trunks he was as bare as my hand!
There was a sort of astonished silence. Then the voice called out:--"Whyin the world didn't you warn me?" it said, aggrieved. "I didn't know youwere going to throw the blamed thing."
We had all turned our backs at once and Tish's face was awful.
"Take it and go," she said, without turning. "Take it and go."
From the crackling of leaves and twigs we judged that he had come outand got the brand, and when he spoke again it was from farther back inthe woods.
"You know," he said, "I don't like this any more than you do. I've gotforty-two mosquito bites on my left arm."
He waited, as if for a reply; but getting none he evidently retreated.The sound of rustling leaves and crackling twigs grew fainter, fainterstill, died away altogether. We turned then with one accord and gazedthrough the dark arches of the forest. A glowing star was retreatingthere--a smouldering fire, that seemed to move slowly and with anappearance of dejection.
It was the second time Aggie and I had seen fire thus carried throughthe wood; but whereas about the kettle there had been a glow andradiance that was almost triumphant, the brand we now watched seemedsmouldering, dejected, ashamed. Even Tish felt it.
"The wretch!" she exclaimed. "Daring to come here like that! No wonderhe's ashamed."
But Aggie, who is very romantic, sat staring after the distant torch.
"Mr. Wiggins suffered so from mosquitoes," she said softly.