Bobby Blake on a Plantation; Or, Lost in the Great Swamp
Page 26
CHAPTER XXVI
A MIDNIGHT PROWLER
“Yum yum!” exclaimed Fred, “I’ve eaten lots of beans in my shortlifetime, but never any that tasted half as good as these.”
“They are just about what the doctor ordered,” conceded Bobby.
“And when we get through these, how would a nice can of peaches taste?”put in Lee.
“Scubbity-yow!” shouted Fred. “Peaches, did you say? Say, I think I’d becontented to spend the rest of my life here. Bobby, we certainly owe youa vote of thanks for getting us here the way you did.”
“It was mostly luck,” disclaimed Bobby. “If I hadn’t happened to noticethat arrow on the rock we’d be wandering around in the cold, cold worldyet, probably.”
“Well, after all the hard luck we’ve had, I think we had a little goodluck coming to us,” said Lee.
“Looks as though we had it, for the time being, anyway,” replied Bobby,as he sawed away at the can of peaches. “Here, you fellows pass yourcups and I’ll fill them up with something that will make your haircurl.”
His friends were not slow in accepting this invitation, and they ate theluscious fruit with an appreciation sharpened by the privations they hadbeen through. As Bobby remarked, “nobody knew how good things were untilthey hadn’t been able to get them for awhile.”
“I don’t know about you energetic Indians,” said Lee, when he hadfinished his peaches with a sigh, half of contentment and half of regretthat they were gone, “but I’m just going to lie on the floor in front ofthat fire and loaf for awhile,” and suiting the action to the word, hethrew himself down full length on the floor.
“I don’t know how Bobby feels,” said Fred, stretching luxuriously, “butI don’t think I’d mind a little rest myself. Most of that energy Lee’stalking about seems to have oozed out of me, someway.”
“Same here,” admitted Bobby. “And it’s funny, too. Outside of fightingalligators and panthers and ducking mudholes and quicksands, we haven’treally been doing anything the last few days.”
“A little more of this,” remarked Fred, “and a football game will seemquiet and restful. We’ll be going to sleep in the middle of it.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Bobby, “but I do know that it won’t bevery long before I get to sleep to-night.”
“I suppose that whoever owns this cabin won’t thank us for eating hisfood,” went on Fred, as all three boys lay luxuriously at ease and gazedinto the radiant heart of the fire.
“If we ever get out of this wilderness, I’ll find out who the placebelongs to, and we’ll pay him for what we take,” said Lee; “I know if itwere mine, I wouldn’t grudge the food to any one who needed it as badlyas we did.”
“I wonder who _does_ own it,” speculated Bobby.
“I haven’t any idea,” admitted Lee, “but lots of the people around herekeep places like this for hunting, and I suppose that’s what it’s beenused for.”
“Nobody would have to hunt very long around here before he foundsomething, it seems to me,” said Bobby. “It seems as though it were theother way around, and the animals come and hunt us.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter, as long as they don’t get us,” said Lee,“and I guess we’re as safe in this cabin as we would be sleeping atRockledge.”
“Yes, or safer, in one way,” said Fred. “If the cabin should catch fire,all we’d have to do would be to open the door and walk out, while whenthe school caught fire we didn’t have it quite so easy.”
“That’s true enough,” agreed Bobby. “But while we’re talking of thisplace being safe, I vote we fasten the door better than it is now.There’s nothing but a latch holding it, and I’d feel safer it we couldmake it a little more secure.”
“We might jam a chair against it,” suggested Fred, “the floor is prettyuneven, and we could jam the chair in between one of the planks and thedoor, so that an elephant would have a hard job getting in.”
“That’s certainly the way we want it,” said Lee, laughing. “The harderit is to get that door open, the better I’ll sleep.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Fred, with a tremendous yawn. “Speaking of sleep, let’sfix things up and go to sleep. I feel as though I could win the longdistance sleeping championship without half trying.”
“You’ll have to go some to beat me out,” laughed Bobby, scrambling tohis feet. “Let’s see if Fred’s plan to fasten the door will work.”
“Nothing surer in the world,” boasted Fred, “just watch me.”
Just in front of the door one floor board was warped so that it wasperhaps half an inch higher than those alongside it. The cabin wasequipped with three rude but very strong chairs, and seizing one ofthese, Fred jammed it in between the door and the uneven board so thatany one or anything attempting to enter would have to tear up the floorbefore it could gain admittance.
“There!” exclaimed Fred, stepping back to view his handiwork, “I guessany one that wants to come in here now will have to ask our permissionfirst.”
The windows of the little cabin were small and criss-crossed with stoutscantlings, so there was no chance of any denizen of the woods makingthem an unwelcome visit by means of that route. It was Lee who suggestedthe only remaining possibility.
“I wonder if any friends of that cougar could get down the chimney,” hespeculated.
“We’ll soon see,” said Bobby, crossing over to the fireplace. He glancedin under the hood that projected from the fireplace to keep the smokeout of the room.
“I don’t think there’s any chance of that,” he stated. “The flue isn’tmore than eight or ten inches square, and anything that could get downthere couldn’t do us much damage. Besides, the fire will be going mostof the night, and I guess that would do the trick, even if the chimneywere four times as big as it is now.”
Reassured on this point, the boys threw more wood on the fire, for thesake of light as well as warmth, and selected their bunks for the night.There were four of these built against the wall opposite the fireplace,and they were filled with twigs and dead leaves, making a comfortableenough bed for those who were tired enough not to be particular aboutwhere they slept.
“I guess there’s not much choice,” said Bobby, “so I’ll just tumble intothe one nearest me.” Which he proceeded forthwith to do. The others eachselected a bunk, and followed his example.
The fire crackling cheerily on the hearth made the cabin pleasantlywarm, and the boys were just dropping off to sleep when they weresuddenly brought back to wakefulness with a jerk by a stealthyscratching sound at the door, followed by a low growl. For a few secondsafter this there was silence, and then the boys could hear the doorcreak as some strong body pushed against it.
Thanks to the strong barricade against it, however, the stout doordefied the efforts of the would-be intruder, and the boys, sitting up intheir bunks with every sense alert, could hear the soft pad-pad of feetencircling the cabin. Then there was a sudden fierce scrambling andscratching, and the beast, whatever it was, was on the roof. It prowledrestlessly about, stopping every now and then to tear at the roof withrasping claws. But the cabin was constructed in stout fashion, and wasnot to be entered so easily.
“What do you suppose it can be, fellows?” questioned Lee in a low voice,which trembled a little in spite of himself. “Do you think it can beanother cougar?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” whispered Bobby. “Maybe it’s the mate of theone that we killed to-day. She may have tracked us to get revenge.”
“I’ll bet that’s just what it is!” cried Fred. “Suppose we had had tosleep in the woods to-night. We’d be goners, sure.”
The others nodded, and they all three listened to see what the nightprowler would do next. The brute examined every foot of the roof, andthe boys could hear it sniffing suspiciously at the chimney. Theyblessed the man who had constructed the cabin with such a wary eye forsuch contingencies, and congratulated each other on being safe withininstead of out in the woods and practically at the
mercy of the savagebrute.
The beast overhead finally seemed to come to the conclusion that itcould not get in from the roof, and it leaped to the ground and the boyscould hear it going away. For a long time they listened for it to comeback, but it did not, and at last, far away, they heard the same wildscream they had heard while on the island in the swamp, but this timethere seemed to be a note of grief as well as ferocity in the cry. Itrose, cut wailingly through the darkness, and then died away.
For a long time the boys sat tense and expectant, not knowing at whatmoment the beast might return. But as nothing further happened,drowsiness at last overcame them, and after throwing a fresh supply offuel on the fire, they dropped off into deep slumber, from which theywere only awakened by a golden shaft of sunshine that pierced in throughone of the little windows.
“Gee,” said Bobby, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, “Ifeel fit for anything now, and hungry enough to eat nails. It’s yourturn to cook, Fred. Hustle around and see if you can get breakfast aswell as I got supper last night.”
“Huh! I’ll show you what real cooking is like,” said Fred, leaping outof his bunk. “What shall it be—humming-birds’ tongues or bird’s-nestsoup?”
“I think I’d rather have some bacon, if it’s all the same to you,” saidBobby, with mock seriousness. “There’s a fresh jar of it in the closet.”
“Oh, well, if you’d rather have ordinary, everyday bacon,” said Fred,“I’ll have to give it to you, I suppose,” and he soon had someappetizing slices sizzling in the pan.
“That cougar last night seems like a bad dream now,” remarked Lee. “Idon’t mind admitting I felt mighty nervous while he was prowlingaround.”
“I guess none of us exactly enjoyed it,” returned Bobby. “But it may nothave been a cougar at all. Maybe it was only a wildcat.”
“Possibly,” said Lee, doubtfully, and Fred terminated further discussionat this point by serving out the crisp bacon, together with somehardtack that he had fried in the grease. This was soon eaten, and afterFred had been complimented on his cooking, the boys cautiouslyunfastened the door, and, seeing no signs of the beast, whatever it was,that had disturbed them the previous night, ventured forth to exploretheir surroundings.