The Ranger Boys Outwit the Timber Thieves

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER X

  THE FIRST HIKE

  It was nearly a minute before the boys could find their tongues. Thehermit stood there blinking in the sunlight, for it had been pitch blackinside of the storehouse.

  Finally Garry shouted:

  "Hello, Hermit. Where did you come from?"

  Barrows stared at the boys in surprise.

  "Do you know this man?" he asked sharply.

  "Of course we do," replied the boys, almost simultaneously. "It isn't solong ago that he was of great aid to us in our work on the fire patrol,"added Garry. Immediately he could have kicked himself, for he had bythis statement let Barrows know that the man might be of help to themagain.

  "What are you trying to do around here?" snapped Barrows, turning to thehermit. "Trying to steal something, or set fire to the camp or somethingof that sort?"

  "That will be just about enough, Mr. Barrows," interrupted Garry. "Wehappen to know this old man, and I'll vouch for him personally. It isprobable that he came here to visit us, and was wandering about whenyour men, naturally thinking him to be a marauder, seized him. You cantake my word for it that he's all right."

  Barrows evidently resented the way in which Garry had spoken to him. "Ithink I am the best judge of what to do in this camp, young man. I amnot satisfied with his presence here, and it is my intention to have himtaken to town and lodged in jail there until I find out what's at thebottom of the broken saws and such occurrences in the camp."

  "Now just one moment, Barrows," said Garry with a determined ring in hisvoice, and a snap in his eyes that boded little good for Barrows. "I amnot one who will naturally trade on his being the son of the man whoowns this camp, but I give you ample warning that if my word is doubtedin this matter, and this old man, who is as harmless as a rabbit, is notfreed immediately, I will go to town this morning and take steps thatwill cause your instant removal from this camp. I have never asked myfather to back me in anything that I was not absolutely sure of, and youcan rely on the fact that he will take my word in this case, knowing meas he does. Now Mr. Barrows, you may take your choice in this matter anddecide quickly."

  The manager hesitated a moment, evidently trying to decide just who hadthe upper hand in the situation. Seeing this, Garry turned to Phil andDick, and said:

  "Boys, go pack up your dunnage and get ready to leave in fifteenminutes."

  The two chums turned on their heels without a word, and were startingfor the shack when Barrows, seeing that he was beaten, called:

  "Never mind, boys, the old man will go free this minute."

  He said it with a bad grace, and the glances that he covertly cast atthe boys showed that he was enraged at the turn affairs had taken. Whatmade him still angrier was the fact that the cook and two or three menhad gathered around and seen him come out second best in the battle ofwords.

  He determined to make the best of a bad situation.

  "I am afraid that I spoke a little too hastily in this thing," he said,coming closer to Garry. "I want you to remember that I am always tryingto protect your father's interests here; that is what he pays me for,and I thought that there might be something peculiar in this chap'sshowing up here in the dead of night."

  Garry, having won his point, and for the sake of future peace andfreedom from interference, resolved to mollify the manager.

  "That's all right, Mr. Barrows. Only I want to tell you this," and hereGarry lowered his voice: "The old chap is mentally unbalanced, and itwas largely for that reason that I did not want him to be annoyed. Helives near a tract of wild land where we patrolled early this summer,and was very decent to us, tanning skins of animals that we shot, andleaving us rabbits for eating. It is a pet trick of his to wander aboutat night, and appear very mysteriously, and as I propose to have himstay with us a few days, I wish you would pass the word that he isafflicted and caution the men not to tease or annoy him."

  Barrows assented grudgingly and then marched off to the office.

  Left alone with the hermit, for the cook and the others had departed fortheir customary tasks, the boys eagerly asked the hermit what he meantby his note, and if he had anything to tell them.

  "I didn't mean to get caught," he said. "I know what you boys are herefor. Nate told me a little and I can make two and two equal four. I wascreeping through the woods last night to come and leave a letter foryou, when I heard some men talking, and crept up to listen to them. Theywere just getting ready to leave and all I heard was a man saying thathis brother would soon be there and that he would know how to deal withthose spies. I couldn't get a good look at the man, but he spoke with anaccent, and was a heavy, strongly built man. That's what I was going towrite to you, for I believe you are the ones that the men in the secretmeeting meant when they referred to spies."

  The boys looked aghast at each other when they heard the concludingwords of their friend the hermit. At once the same thought leaped intothe minds of all three. Man with an accent, heavily built and strongappearing. Brother was coming to help him. All put together it meantonly one thing, and that was voiced by Dick.

  "Jean LeBlanc!"

  The others echoed the name of their Nemesis after Dick.

  "What's that, did you speak of LeBlanc?" inquired the hermit.

  "That's just what we did," replied Garry grimly. "That man youdescribed, unless we are very badly mistaken, was Baptiste, a brother ofJean. And if Jean is on the way, we must guard ourselves every minute.And we must make every moment count, for once he gets here he will makestrenuous efforts to get us in trouble, if not on his own hook, then incahoots with Barrows. Now let's break for the small lake. Suppose youstay with us a few days, Hermit, and help us in our work."

  "No, that would not be good tactics," was the reply of the hermit. "Itwould cause trouble to you boys with that man who wished me lodged indurance vile."

  As was usual, the words of the hermit were anything but those that wouldbe naturally used by a man that had lived the greater part of his lifein the deep woods, far removed from all human beings. But the agedhermit was always surprising them, if not by his talk, by his unusualactions.

  Garry had often thought that the old man was wise in his conclusions, sohe asked what could be suggested.

  "I would say that you should go to the manager and tell him that I hadbeen offended by my reception and consequently had refused to stay andvisit you, going off in a huff. Then that will give me a chance toreturn to the forest and watch for the coming of LeBlanc. I willguarantee that I will not be captured again. I was too sure of myselflast night, since I did not know that the camp was full of night spies,who held rendezvous in the dark of the night. I will warn you in theusual way if LeBlanc approaches. In the meantime, my instinct tells methat the man with whom you quarreled, Garry, is not to be trusted. Watchhim. Now I will go if you will give me some food to carry with me forbreakfast. I am hungry."

  "There's one thing I wish you would do first, Hermit," said Garry,calling him by the only name they knew, and which appeared to pleaserather than offend the old recluse, "and that is go to the nearest townand mail a letter for us. There is no one in the camp now that I wouldtrust with a message, and none of us who could get away. I should havethought to do it yesterday when Howells left, but forgot it in theexcitement of his being discharged."

  Borrowing Dick's ever ready notebook, Garry scribbled off a brief noteto his father, advising him to check carefully the shipments of timber,and telling him in guarded words, that he had several clues thatproperly trailed down would soon lead to the unmasking of the traitorsin the camp. He folded the note and gave the hermit money with which tobuy a stamped envelope, and on another leaf of paper wrote the addressto which the note should be sent.

  This the hermit promised to do at the earliest possible opportunity. Hethen proposed that they walk a few hundred yards out of the camp withhim, so that they might select a spot where notes could be left withouthis having to penetrate the dangers of the camp at night.

  This the boys agreed to do,
and after a brisk walk selected a tree witha hollow, half concealed in it, and established that as the"postoffice." The hermit then took up his journey, while the boysreturned to the office to tell the manager, as they had agreed to do,about the hermit's leaving. When Barrows heard their story he seemedrelieved and was apparently only too anxious to ingratiate himself withthe boys again, for he realized that he had overstepped the mark a bitin his words with Garry a short time previous.

  "You should have brought the old chap back, and perhaps I could havepersuaded him that it was all a mistake," but the boys were quick todetect the false ring in his tone.

  "Now we are off to Kanamo Lake for our delayed fishing trip, and so thatyou may not get uneasy if we do not return by nightfall, let us tell youthat we are used to making camp wherever we happen to be, and so will beall right. I only wish there was a canoe on the lake, and we would takea three or four-day hike, canoeing from spot to spot on the lake, andcamping wherever we saw fit," concluded Garry.

  "Sorry there isn't. You might make a flatboat out of some lumber, butthere is nothing with which to calk the seams, and the task of draggingthe lumber to the water would be almost too much to bother with for theshort time that you are going to stay here," replied Barrows.

  As the boys set out on their seven-mile hike to the lake, they discussedthe way in which Barrows was continually bringing into the conversationthe suggestion that they were not going to stay very long.

  "I wonder if that is a warning unintentionally given, or is the wishjust father to the thought?" asked Garry. "I don't remember ever sayinganything to Barrows about the length of time that we intended to spendhere."

  "Maybe it is just the wish coming to surface as you say. At any rate,let's not worry about that for awhile. We will have bridges enough tocross when we come to them."

  The chums pursued their way through the fragrant woods, spicy with thesmell of pine and balsam. Occasionally they heard the whirr of wings asa covey of grouse or partridge, frightened at the sound of approachingfootsteps, took wing and flew away from the cover where they had beenhiding. The sound of the birds brought to the minds of the trio the sadthought of the missing Sandy, for he had the canine instinct of mostdogs to flush a bird. He had so often hunted with the boys that they hadtaught him to retrieve a bird as does a regular pointer or hunting dog.

  "Tell you what we'll do when we get back to the camp tonight," announcedPhil. "We'll offer a reward for the finding of Sandy. I think myselfthat some of the lumberjacks, perhaps that chap that took us coonhunting, recognized the value of Sandy and stole him, determined to sellhim and make a few dishonest dollars. Sandy is worth more to us thanmany people would want to pay for him, and I think if we offered a bigenough reward we might get him back."

  This was agreed on by the boys, and chatting merrily of many things,they trekked through the forest to the lake.

  They took turns setting the pace and so made brisk time, even Dickkeeping up without grumbling, although there was no circus at the end ofthe trail to lure him on to greater speed. However, Dick smelledadventure in the air, and hence all his seemingly lazy ways dropped andhe dug to the trail as if his life depended on it.

  Soon they reached the lake, which lay like a jewel in the midst of theforest. For the most part it was surrounded by trees, thick and green.At the end of the trail was a slightly open spot, and a stretch of sandybeach that seemed to beckon the boys irresistibly.

  "Let's take a short dip before we start exploring. I haven't had a swimfor days, and I think it would do us all a lot of good." Garry had beensweeping the edges of the lake with his field glasses, which he hadbrought along, and could see nothing other than an unbroken expanse offorest. Far down at the end of the lake was a slight opening which Garryjudged was the outlet of the lake, although since he had not consulted amap, he could not tell much about it as regarded its direction and size.

  The others were also of Garry's opinion, and Phil then came to bat withanother suggestion.

  "We must do a little fishing, also; for if we go back empty handed froma lake that is supposed to be filled with fish, we are apt to excitesuspicion in the mind of Barrows, and set him asking us questions as towhat we did while we were away. We don't need to spend the whole day atit, just catch a decent mess and quit."

  "Right you are, Phil," answered Garry. "Now for a swim, and last man inis no good."

  The boys ripped off their clothes, and so used were they to speedydisrobing, that all hit the water with almost the same splash.

  "See that spot up the bank about three hundred yards, where the groundbegins to rise?" inquired Dick, as he splashed about in the water. "Betyou fellows anything I've got against anything you have that I can giveyou chaps ten yards' start and then beat you there."

  "Well, you sure thing artist, splash him good, Phil," shouted Garry, forDick was an expert swimmer, much better than either of the others,although they were not unskilled in the aquatic art.

  Dick was thoroughly splashed, and with two against one, was soon forcedto holler quits.

  "Tell you what I'm going to do; I'm going to swim up to that place andback, anyway. You fellows can come or not, as you please," and with along, sweeping, underhand stroke, his head almost buried in the water,Dick sped away. The remaining two contented themselves with paddlingabout and noting the clearness of the water and the fine sandy bottom.They got a stone and amused themselves by throwing it some distance andthen swimming under water after it and recovering it. They had beendoing this for some moments, when suddenly Garry, thinking that Dick,with his speed, had been gone long enough to have done that distancetwice over, began to worry a bit, and called Phil's attention to thelapse of time. They decided to swim up there and seek their missingcomrade, who, although they had perfect faith in his prowess as aswimmer, might easily have been overtaken with a cramp, and met withdisaster.

  It was generally a rule that they keep an eye on each other in thewater, and it was a strict regulation that a call for help be never madein jest.

  "Let's go," called Garry, and away they started. They had made less thanfifty yards, when borne on the breeze came the sound of Dick's voice.

  Garry stopped swimming for a moment, and began to tread water, while helooked toward the spot that had been Dick's goal when he swam away. Dickcould be seen standing on the bank beckoning wildly to them.