CHAPTER XXVII.
JIM DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE.
"Can we make the pond, Jim?" asked Thad.
He knew from what little the guide had said before, that it was aconsiderable distance to the body of water to which Jim had intendedheading; and with the almost exhausted giant on their hands, it did notnot seem likely they could get there before being overtaken by theflames.
"Not ther big pond," Jim called back; "it's tew late naow fur thet; butthey's a littler un 'baout half way. Thet'll hev tew dew fur us, Iguess."
Cale seemed able to walk, after being thus supported, and they startedoff. One thing Thad noticed; and this gave him more or lesssatisfaction. They were heading now directly away from the fire, and notkeeping alongside, as before.
This gave them a new chance to escape, unless that change of wind came,which was liable to occur at any moment.
Hardly had they been moving for a minute than Thad thought he feltsomething wet fall on his nose. He could hardly believe it, but when asecond and a third followed, he became positive.
"It's raining, Jim!" he shouted, partly because of his new excitement,and also on account of the racket the fire caused.
"Thet snow storm's gut 'raound et larst," called back Jim; and Thad knewfrom that the heat of the atmosphere had melted the flakes ere theyfell, causing them to turn back into water.
It was all the same though, since both were bitter enemies to fire; andpresently the merry war of the elements, that has gone on since theworld began, would be in full play.
He wished that it would come down as never before; indeed, it would needto be a record fall, to extinguish those monster flames that were risinglike a red wall over the treetops now. But since the woods beyond wouldbe undergoing a gradual soaking, possibly the fire might find it moreand more difficult to get a foothold, and finally die out from lack offuel.
Thad was astonished at the meekness of the giant. Why, he seemed to havelost his grip on things, and let them carry him along just as though hewere a big baby. That would seem to indicate he must have been severelyhurt while escaping from the burning forest. For aught they knew he mayhave been struck on the head by a falling limb from a tree, which wouldaccount for his dazed condition.
At any rate, it was fortunate for the entire party that this proved tobe so; because any delay at this stage of the game must have provenfatal.
All of them were panting, but it was more from the intense heat thanweariness. Thad hoped the pond would show up soon. He was half chokedwith the smoke, and coughed with nearly every breath. A drink of coolrefreshing water, he believed, would make him feel a thousand per centbetter.
There could no longer be any doubt about the anticipated change in thewind having taken place; for the fire was certainly coming after them,full tilt. Jim, too, was beginning to cast glances over his shoulder;and when a runner does this Thad knew it was a good sign that he isanxious about something. It may be the presence of a rival sprinter backof him; in this case that racer was the fire.
"Will we make it, Jim?" Thad found himself just forced to ask, in orderto relieve the terrible sensation of suspense that gripped him.
"Dead sartin!" came the reassuring reply; "thar she be, right naow!"
And looking ahead Thad saw the sheen of a body of water in the dull glowof the forest fire. It was not a large pond, but would offer them anasylum, where in all possibility they might laugh at the efforts of thefire to get them.
When they gained the shore Jim kept pushing on until a point had beenreached that was opposite to the course over which they had just come.This threw the water of the little pond between them and the source ofdanger.
Thad drew a long breath of relief as he realized that their race withthe flames was over, and safety assured. The giant sank down upon theground, and scooping up the water in the cup of his hand, dranksavagely, showing that he must be almost parched with thirst.
Feeling a little the same way himself, Thad followed suit; and never inall his life had water tasted as refreshing as then. After that, he juststood and watched the terrible panorama that was being graduallyunfolded before his eyes; listening to the roar of the devouring elementas it seized whole rows of pines in its grip, and enveloped them with amantle of flames.
Thad was fairly awed by the sight. He had never dreamed it could be soterrible, even when his imagination played at its liveliest clip. He sawthe leaping billows toss higher and higher; he watched them play tagwith one another; and all the while realized what havoc was being madewith that splendid forest. When the fire had passed on, or been finallyextinguished by the downpour from above, it would leave blackened andsmouldering trunks where just a brief while before the glorious pinesstood in all their robes of green.
The heat was rather fierce, too, and often they would bend forward tolave their faces in the cooling waters of the pond. Long since had therim of ice around the edge of the pool vanished, as though by magic;this was on account of the warmth that had taken possession of theatmosphere while the conflagration lasted.
But Thad was satisfied that they were going to escape, for the main bodyof fire had already gone rushing away before the wind. Only stragglingtrailers worked in behind the pond, and they were already feeling theeffect of the rain that was now falling heavily, though at other placesit must have taken the form of snow.
Jim was apparently more or less anxious about Cale. He feared the oldman might have received serious injuries that needed attention; andtaking advantage of the first opportunity that presented itself, heconfided his fears to Thad, knowing full well that the boy was somethingof a doctor, in his way.
So the scoutmaster sat down beside Cale. He saw that the other wasgetting back to something like his normal self, now that he had in ameasure recovered from the exhaustion resulting from his fight for lifewith the flames.
"Did you get badly hurt anywhere, in the fire?" Thad asked, trying toput on a professional look, so as to inspire some confidence in the oldman.
The giant for the first time, seemed to wake up. He felt of his head,and winced a little as though it pained him.
"Ther burns they don't amount ter much," he said, in his heavy voice;"but thar be a bad bump on my head as hurts sum."
"Let me look at it," asked the boy. "I've picked up some knowledge ofmedicine, and perhaps I can do something to make it seem better; ifnothing else, cold water may reduce the feverish feeling some."
And Cale allowed him to examine his big head, with its mass of hair thatwas like a lion's mane in thickness, having been protected from the fireby the skin cap he wore. Perhaps it was the presence of that same cap,as also the shock of hair, that had saved Cale from having a brokenskull; he certainly did have a lump there as large as an egg, that musthave been very painful; and it was no wonder he had seemed dazed at thetime he rushed into his cabin, hardly knowing why he came there, unlesshe had been laboring under the impression that Little Lina was stillwaiting to be saved from the fire.
Fortunately Thad happened to be carrying a little bottle of witch hazelin his haversack, which he often found exceedingly useful. This he gotout, and after warning the other that it might sting a little at first,he poured some of the extract on the lump; and then wetting a piece ofrag with it, he laid this over the wound, Cale's cap holding it inplace.
"That's all I can do for you," Thad said. "But it's not a serious thing,and in a few days you'll be all over it. But you must have had a fearfulknock. Was it a limb that fell on you?"
"Just what it war, younker," replied Cale; "an' it's a feelin' bettersome, already."
Thad moved back. He seemed to know that Jim was just itching to have afew words with his father-in-law; and that the opportunity seemed ripe.Besides, Thad was more or less curious to know just what that clinchingargument might be, which Jim meant to advance, and which he seemed sopositive would bring the determined old man around.
When Jim took his place, Cale gave him one look, and then turned hishead away. "I wisht yew wudn't feel like yew does ag
in me, Dad Martin,"Jim started to say.
"Stop right thar!" burst out the other, as his old temper began to swayhim again. "I don't want anything ter do wid yer, Jim Hasty. Time waswhen I vowed ter pin yer ears ter a tree, if ever ye showed up hyaragin; an' I meant it, I shore did. Then sumhow, thinkin' o' that leetlegal, an' how she sot sum store by ye, kinder flabbergasted me, an' Idassent stay around whar ye was, lest I do all I'd threatened, an' it'dbreak her heart. So I kim hyar ter my lonely home, thet ain't hed asingle ray o' sunshine in it sense ye stole her away. But I don't forgitit, Jim Hasty, an' I ain't never agoin' ter forgive ye, er make up. Sodon't waste yer breath atryin'."
But when Thad saw the grin on Jim's face he knew the guide feltencouraged. His reception had been far less stormy than he had hadreason to expect from all he knew of the violent temper of his respectedfather-in-law. And knowing that Jim was getting ready to spring hissurprise, Thad almost held his breath while listening and watching.
"I tole yeou I kim here 'cause she sent me," Jim went on, in a pleadingtone. "It grieved her gentle heart all this while 'cause she cudn't seeyeou, Dad Martin. She sez as haow it's jest gut tew stop! She wantsyeou, and wants yeou bad. An' so be they's another as ort tew see yeou.Here's ther message Little Lina sends tew yeou by me, her husband. Sezshe, 'take this tew him, an' when he sees the face o' my baby and knowsthet we calls him Leetle Caleb, p'raps then he'll forgive yeou, Jim, furtakin' me away; an' come back tew us all. Tell him we want him the wustkind, Leetle Caleb an' Lina!'"
He had thrust something into the hand of the old poacher as he spoke.Thad felt almost like giving vent into his overwrought feelings in ayell. Why, all the excitement attending the race with the forest firehad not been a circumstance to the thrill that swept over him when hesaw that hard-hearted old man staring at the pictured faces of motherand child on that bit of cardboard, and then, filled with a return ofthe old love, pressing it wildly to his bearded lips.
And Thad knew, just as Jim had said, that the message which Lina hadsent in the form of her baby's picture, had broken down the barrier ofthe old man's pride and obstinacy; for in another moment he wassqueezing Jim's hand convulsively.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
"HOME, SWEET HOME!"
"Yes, I'll go home with yer, Jim! I shore I'm sick fur a sight o' myleetle gal. Lina's baby too--I'd be ther biggest fool in all Maine, notter give in, arter yer kim up hyar, riskin' yer ears ter tell me_thet_! We'll jest try an' furgit what's gone by, Jim, an' startfresh. An' yer kin help me raise my foxes fur ther company thet's hiredme fur five years ter run ther farm."
That was what Old Cale was saying as he pumped the hand of the delightedand grinning Jim. And Thad was glad he was there to witness this joyousreconciliation.
The fire had passed, and left them safe. Jim, when he could do so, madehis way back to the cabin; and on his return announced that it was onlya blackened ruin. Whereupon Old Cale sighed, and then seemed to lookforward to a new home, in which there would be an abundance of sunshine,because Little Lina, and Caleb, the boy who was named after him, wouldreign there.
They managed to spend the night somehow, and in the morning started backto the camp on the border of the lake; though after leaving the regionwhere the fire had swept, they found the snow quite deep, and the goingbad. But apparently the coming of the storm had extinguished the lastlingering flames, so that the saving to the state of Maine was beyondcomputation.
Arriving at the camp, Thad found the boys getting uneasy about him, andEli about to start out to see if he could get trace of the absent ones.They understood that the distant fire, which had not come near them,must have been in the neighborhood of Old Cale's cabin, as described byJim; and it was this that made them worry. But it was all right now, andthey received the wanderers with hearty shouts.
The story, upon being told by Thad, evoked renewed cheering, especiallyfor the old poacher who had reformed, and was now going to show what hecould do in a line that appealed to him especially, since he knew allabout the woods' animals.
Just as Thad had said while Cale was feeling his burns, and the bump onhis head, he declared that nothing serious was the matter with him; andthat even if there had been, the glorious news that Jim had brought, atsuch risk to himself, would have cured him effectually.
"Well," said Giraffe, as they gathered around the supper that evening;"This is our last camp in Maine, seems like; for to-morrow Thad says westart for the railroad station at Eagle Lake, through Lake Winthrop; andsoon we'll be booming along for home."
"That sounds good to me, fellers," spoke up Bumpus. "Always did like myhome pretty well, and it never seems half so nice as when you're away,trying to make out you're having a bunkum time sleeping on the hardground, with roots diggin' holes in your sides; and all sorts ofcreepers crawlin' over your face. Home, sweet, sweet home for me, justnow!"
"But just remember that you owe us all a treat, Bumpus," spoke up DavyJones.
"Yes, we know Giraffe can make a fire that way now, because he showed usyesterday, as easy as anything; but when I tried it, never a spark couldI get," and Step Hen looked disgusted because of his lack of knowledge.
"Huh! you needn't feel bad," declared Giraffe. "If it took _me_ allthat time to get on to the proper wrinkle, and me a regular fire fiend,how could you have the nerve to think you could hit her up the veryfirst thing? But Bumpus ain't never going to question that I won thatwager, fair and square. Only because if I hadn't, we'd a gone without asupper that night, and been near frozen in the bargain. Lots of thingshinged on that fire, I'm telling you, fellers."
"I should say they did," observed Bumpus, frankly. "Why, on'y for itscheery twinkle them two poachers, Si and Ed, wouldn't have known we werearound; and you see how we'd have missed doin' that great stunt whichwill go down in the history of the Silver Fox Patrol as one of theshining examples----"
"Oh! let up on that stuff, Bumpus, and help me to some more stew,"Giraffe broke in, as he passed his platter along.
"Well," remarked Allan, "we've had a pretty good time of it up here, alltold, counting the two separate trips we took. And it'll be a long timebefore we beat the record for big game we've made in Maine."
But Allan did not know what was before the Silver Fox Patrol before manymoons had passed, or he would not have uttered this rash prediction.When the summer holidays came along, they had another long journey inprospect, provided the money was received from the bank, that had beenoffered for the restoration of the securities carried off by the boldyeggmen captured by the scouts, and as related in the preceding volumeof this series. This trip would take them many hundreds of miles fromhome, into a country toward which a number of the boys had long lookedwith yearning eyes. And that Thad and his chums were fated to meet withnew and thrilling adventures that really exceeded any they hadencountered before, the reader will doubtless admit if he but securesthe succeeding volume to the present story, and which has been issuedunder the name of "The Boy Scouts Through the Big Timber; or, The Searchfor the Lost Tenderfoot."
There is not a great deal more to add. Jim must have managed to sendsome sort of message home, for at a certain station further down theroad, (after the boats had been shipped through as freight, the twoguides and Old Cale accompanying the scouts on the regular train,) Jimsaid they would have to spend half an hour there, and that they might aswell get out to stretch. And lo and behold, there came a girlish cry,and they saw a small figure flying straight toward Old Cale, bearing asmall bundle, which she immediately pressed into the clumsy arms of thegiant, who immediately wrapped mother and baby in a warm embrace.
Of course it was Little Lina, and Caleb Jr.; and the boys all had to beintroduced to Jim's wife. They parted from them there; but upon arrivinghome, one of the first things Thad and his chums did was to subscribe around sum apiece, and send up the nicest baby's crib they could find inCranford; for somehow they felt a personal interest in Little Caleb.
Giraffe was feeling very proud those days. He had accomplished whatlooked like the impossibl
e when he finally managed to make his "sillyfire bow" work, and saved himself and Bumpus from going hungry and coldthat night they were adrift in the Maine pine woods.
Indeed, all of the boys had considerable to be proud of; and from thatday until school finally began, after the trustees had declared thequarantine broken, each member of the Silver Fox Patrol was always thecenter of an admiring crowd of listeners whenever he went abroad.
And the consequence was that a new patrol was quickly organized, eightfellows subscribing to the rules and regulations of the organization ofBoy Scouts, and being mustered in during the winter as the Eagle Patrolof the Cranford Troop.
"That's one of the best things that came out of our Maine trip," saidThad to his chum Allan, as they were on the way home from the meetingwhen those eight new members had been sworn in, and promised to live upto the rules laid down for the guidance of all scouts by the heads ofthe organization.
"Well," replied the other, "I was looking back the other day, at thediary I kept while we were gone; and I find that a heap of things cameout of that same hunt up among the pines of Maine. All of us felt betterfor the outing; more than one learned a lesson in perseverance that willfollow him all his life; we did a good thing in capturing those hobothieves, Charley Barnes and his crowd; then we made something of arecord in hunting, you with your first moose, and Bumpus with that honeythief of a black bear; after that we helped wind up the poaching careersof Si Kedge and Ed Harkness; and last but not least, had a hand inbringing about that splendid family reunion that we saw on the platform,when we stepped off the train. On the whole, Thad, all of us ought to bemighty well satisfied with the way things have gone. I know I am."
"And you can say the same for me," added the young scoutmaster. "Butafter all is said, I think the most wonderful thing to happen was howGiraffe, after missing fire a dozen times with his little bow and stick,should strike it _just right_ when it meant so much for him andBumpus. And then Bumpus paid for that treat like a little man, saying itwas worth it, ten times over, just to hear Giraffe _yell_ when he'dsucceeded in making his tinder flame up without using a single match."
And here we will leave the boys of the Silver Fox Patrol, to take uptheir further adventures in the succeeding volume.
THE END
Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods; Or, The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol Page 27
