CHAPTER IX THE MAN OUTSIDE
“Sure you weren’t dreaming, Andy?” whispered Rob, in turn, as, havinglistened for a brief time, he failed to catch any unusual sound.
“Not a bit of it,” the other assured him. “I sat up and made certain ofit before crawling out of my bunk. I tell you there _is_ somebodyoutside there, and he’s doing his best to get in, too.”
The night wind was sighing through the pinetops, Rob noticed. CouldAndy’s imagination, excited by some dream, have conceived the idea thata would-be intruder was “fiddling” at the door, and endeavoring to findingress? Rob was still undecided, but at the same time he considered itthe part of wisdom to get out of his bunk and slip his feet into a pairof warm moccasins he always carried with him.
It was almost dark inside the long bunk cabin. The fire had died down,and even if there were still smouldering embers present the woodenscreen hid them from sight.
Rob now became aware of the fact that Andy clutched something in hishands. The touch of cold metal told him it was a gun. This wouldindicate that the other fully believed what he asserted, and that somestrange man was even then about to force an entrance into the cabin,possibly under the belief that no one was occupying the building at thetime.
“There, did you hear that?” came again from the aroused Andy. “He’strying one of the window shutters. Rob, I remember that several of themare kind of loose. When he strikes one of those he can get it openeasily enough, and then what’s to hinder him pushing in the sash?”
“Well, there is something moving around out there, I do believe,”muttered Rob.
“Oh, I wonder if it could be Wolf come back!” said an awed voice closeto them.
“Hello! Are you there, Tubby?” questioned Rob cautiously, for neither ofthem had noticed that they were crouching close to the bunk selected bythe third member of the party. Tubby, chancing to awaken, must haveheard them whispering.
“Yes, but could it be the dog, do you think, Rob?” asked the fat scouteagerly.
“That’s silly talk, Tubby,” Andy told him, so softly that his voicewould not have carried any distance, and might never have beendistinguished from that crooning night breeze that rustled the hemlocksand passed gently through the pinetops.
“Dogs couldn’t reach up and shake a shutter that stood five feet fromthe ground. It’s a man, that’s what; and we’d better figure on how we’regoing to give him the surprise of his life, if he gets inside here.”
“Wait till I get my little hand electric torch,” said Rob, who oftencarried one of these useful articles about with him; indeed, any fellowwho has handled such a neat little contraption in an emergency knowsthat they are worth their weight in silver every time.
The one Rob had was very diminutive; in fact, a “vest-pocket edition,”it was called; but upon pressing the button quite a strong ray would bethrown forward. He kept it handy when sleeping in the open.
“Tubby, get out of your bunk, and be ready to lend a hand,” ordered Rob.The one addressed hastened to do as he was told.
“Tell me what I’m to do, Rob,” he pleaded.
“Bring both your heads closer this way,” continued the leader. “Now,this is the scheme: Tubby, you creep over to the fire, and when you hearme call out throw that wooden screen down, and then as quick as you canget a handful of the fine tinder on the fire, so as to set up a blaze.Understand?”
Tubby said he did, and accordingly Rob went on further:
“Andy and myself will try to find out which window the man is going tocreep through, and we’ll form a reception committee. When I turn on thelight, you, Andy, be sure to cover him with your gun, ready to shoot ifhe attacks us. Get that, do you?”
On his part Andy assured the chief that he understood perfectly.
“Well, then,” concluded Rob, “all I want to say is that after Tubby seesthe fire begin to pick up he is to dart over and get my gun here, withwhich he, too, will proceed to cover the intruder. That’s all. Now getbusy, boys. Andy, come with me, and be careful not to strike your gunagainst anything so as to alarm him. Tubby, head over to the fireplace,and be ready to act!”
It was intensely exciting, Tubby thought, as he managed to cross to theend of the long bunk-house, where the yawning fireplace stood—the samegaping aperture down which that bobcat had dropped, and up which he hadalso climbed with such fatal alacrity later on, when dispossessed byreason of the acrid smoke fumigation.
Reaching the place assigned to him, Tubby felt of the wooden screen. Hefound that it would only require a smart push to send it flat, afterwhich he could turn his attention to snatching up some of the fine drytinder which had been arranged in a little pile close by; and as Tubbyhad paid more attention to the cooking than any one else, he ought toknow to a dot where to find this “fire-starter.”
Meanwhile, Rob and Andy had started to creep along close to the side ofthe log cabin wall. Rob was heading directly toward the spot where hehad distinctly heard the last suspicious sound. If the prowler withouthad found that shutter fast he would just as likely as not examine thenext one, and keep trying until he ran upon a damaged wooden cover whichthe winds had banged back and forth until it could no longer do fullduty.
Yes, there was some one shaking the next shutter which had been used tokeep the drifting snow out when the loggers were in camp during the longwinter months. As the two boys crept closer they could hear a grumblingsound, just such as might proceed from a disappointed man who was beingcontinually baffled in his efforts to force an entrance.
Rob had been thinking as he moved, and several possibilities had in turntaken possession of his active mind. Could this be Uncle George himself,come back to the abandoned logging camp, and who upon finding the doorbarred from within, was now trying to gain an entrance? At first Robrather favored this idea, but he quickly realized how slender a hold ithad in the way of plausible facts.
In the first place the sportsman would hardly come back minus his Indianguide, unless Sebattis, too, had proven false, and had to be sent flyinglike Zeb Crooks. Then, again, if he suspected that some passing hunterswere occupying the bunk-house, having accepted the invitation to enterand make themselves at home, why should not Uncle George call out andask them to open the door to him? No, there was something much moresuggestive and suspicious about this event than the return of the mightyNimrod. This unknown party did not suspect that the cabin was occupied;he meant to get in, perhaps to make free with the property left there byUncle George.
In a word, Rob was more than half convinced already that he knew who theman outside, fumbling with the various wooden shutters, must be—no otherthan that same Zeb Crooks, who possibly had come sneaking back, knowingthe intention of his former employer to leave the camp unprotected for afew days—come back to rob the place of anything valuable that he couldfind and sequester.
Rob did not bother trying to communicate this to Andy, for there was noneed, and it would hardly have been politic, with the man outside soclose to them. He was now at the next window, and Rob believed that thecrisis was at hand, for the man gave a satisfied grunt as though thingswere finally working to suit his purposes.
So he nudged Andy, as if to warn him to be on the alert, though truth totell there was little need of this, for the other scout was fullyaroused every second of the time, with his gun clutched in nervous handsready to do his duty when the call came.
Yes, the window was being shoved back now, and the man still muttered tohimself. One thing sure, he never dreamed that the cabin had occupants,though how the door came to be fastened on the inside must have puzzledhim somewhat.
The eyes of the boys had become so used to the semi-darkness that theywere able to fairly make out the window, once the shutter had been drawnback. They could also see some sort of movement there. Having given theswinging sash a push that sent it inward, the man was now thrusting hishead and shoulders through the small opening.
Rob knew the difficulties att
ending such an awkward entrance. He feltalmost certain that the party, even if not clumsy in his movements,would likely tumble to the puncheon floor when he finally gave the lastpush. That was the very moment Rob figured on springing his surprise.The man would be caught unawares, and least able to defend himself orspring at them.
When he heard a scuffling sound, and saw the window no longer obstructedby a dark form, Rob knew the crisis was upon them.
The Boy Scouts at the Canadian Border Page 9
