by Quincy Allen
CHAPTER XXI
A CAMP IN THE SNOW
"I never hated to do anything so much in my life as break away fromthere and give up our moose!" Bluff told his comrade.
They had gone far enough back to lose sight of the three men in theswiftly driven snow that was now falling heavily.
"Me, too," returned Jerry; "but that's the way it happens sometimes. Ionly hope they find out they haven't got a single match among 'em.Perhaps, then, if it keeps on getting colder, and the storm blowsheavier and heavier, they'll wish they hadn't made us clear out."
"Why, what are you talking about, Jerry?"
"Didn't you hear what they started to say while we were backing away?"demanded the other. "Whalen asked the other man for a match, so theycould start up a fire and get warm. Then I heard the second fellow sayhe didn't know where he'd dropped the box, but it didn't seem to be inhis pockets. They turned to Nackerson, and I reckon asked him for alight, because I heard him growl that he'd used his last match when hesmoked a cigar."
"Oh, well, they'll find some stray ones stowed away in a pocket, likeas not!" Bluff remarked, and in that fashion allowed the incident topass from his mind.
"But tell me what you're aiming to do next, Bluff?" asked Jerry. "I'dalso like to know which way you mean to play the game so's to get backthe horns of our big moose?"
Bluff chuckled on hearing that.
"Oh, I only said that to impress Bill, that's all!" he observedcarelessly. "I had to be true to my name, you know. I only wish Icould see some way to beat that crowd out in the end. I'd sure go to aheap of trouble to get there."
"Are we heading right to get back home?" asked Jerry, a few minuteslater.
"My stars! I hope you don't think I'm silly enough to want to try andcover all the miles between here and the cabin, and with this stormstarting in, too."
"Well, I'll do whatever you say, Bluff, because I always did own upyou knew more about the woods in a day than I could in a week; but allthe same I'd be right glad to hear you mean to make a camp, and spendthe night resting up."
"I'm afraid it isn't going to be much of a camp, though; you don'twant to expect too much."
"Some sort of brush shelter ought to help out, I should think," theother returned, as he bent his head lower in order to fight againstthe driving wind.
Night was coming on unusually early, on account of the clouds aboveand the falling snow. Any one who knew what these signs foretold couldunderstand that there was a wild time ahead for those caught away fromshelter and exposed to the fury of a growing blizzard.
"We might be able to do some better than that," Bluff went on to say,as he kept turning his head from side to side, as though constantly onthe lookout for something he had in mind.
Five, ten minutes passed, until they must have gone nearly half a mileaway from the scene of their meeting with Nackerson and his cronies.
"Whew! Let me tell you this is going to be a screecher!" Jerrydeclared, while he rubbed his ears to make them burn, for the coldwind nipped them.
"You're wondering why I don't call a halt, Jerry, so I'll explain,"Bluff told him. "I remembered seeing a place when we were moving alongthe trail of the moose where some trees had been uprooted in a stormyears ago."
"Yes, I noticed it, Bluff!" cried the other eagerly. "Is it on accountof the firewood you want to get to those fallen trees?"
"Partly that," admitted the other; "but p'raps you didn't notice thatone of the trees had been a regular whopper, for when it went down inthe cyclone it yanked up a heap of earth nearly as big as a cabin."
"Oh, now I see what you mean, Bluff: the hole in the ground where theroots came out of might make us a first-rate camp!"
"For a good many reasons," pursued Bluff, who managed to speak after afashion in spite of the wind whistling into his teeth and at timesalmost taking his breath away. "First of all, the roots stand up inthe right way to protect us from the worst of this northwest storm."
"Couldn't be better, for a fact," said Jerry, feeling his couragereturning as the plan unfolded.
"Then, as you say, we'd have plenty of firewood handy for that littlecamp hatchet to get busy on. And unless I miss my guess we ought to beable to cover the gap more or less with stuff, so as to form a roughroof."
"Then all I hope is," Jerry told him rather plaintively, "that wedon't get off our base, and miss connections with that windrow offallen trees."
"I've kept my bearings right along," Bluff returned, "and if you looksharp over there on the left I reckon you'll see the open place wherethe trees are down."
"Bluff, you did take us straight there, for a fact. I don't thinkFrank or anybody else could have done better!" was Jerry's exultantoutbreak, after he discovered that they had arrived at their goal.
A minute afterward the two chums were looking down into the hole thathad once contained the roots of the big tree, now lying where theviolence of the hurricane had thrown it.
"Just the thing for us!" Jerry exclaimed, as he jumped into the cavityand mentally pictured it roofed over so that the snow might be almostwholly kept out.
"Then the first thing we want to do is to get a fire started," Bluffadvised him. "Before we know where we're at, we'll be in the dark; solet's drag a bunch of this wood where we'll need it before we doanything else."
They laid their guns aside, leaning them against a tree that hadweathered the gale so fatal to the giant of the woods. For some littletime both boys labored steadily, until a heaping pile of fairly goodwood had been brought close to the hole.
"Where'd we better start the fire?" asked Jerry, for he knew that anumber of things must be considered when settling this question.
There was the direction of the wind to be remembered, for it would bevery disagreeable to have the pungent wood smoke blown constantly intheir faces, making their eyes smart. As the upturned roots stoodbetween them and the storm, this compelled them to start the blaze onthe opposite side of the excavation.
Once Jerry had the site pointed out to him, he busied himself ingetting a blaze going. Things began to take on a more cheerful air assoon as the fire started crackling and throwing out both light andheat.
This was only a beginning. The boys knew that in order to shelterthemselves from the blizzard they must get some sort of roof abovetheir heads. This would keep off the falling snow that might otherwisealmost fill the hole before morning came.
The hatchet proved to be worth its weight in silver, as Jerrydeclared.
"What would we have done without it?" he remarked several times, as hecontinued to hack away, handing the brush over to Bluff, who wasengaged in trying to weave it after a certain fashion, securing it tothe poles they had laid across the top of the hole.
"Don't ask me," Bluff told him; "thank Frank for telling us to bringit along, when like as not neither of us would have thought it worthwhile."
"No," continued Jerry, "because a fellow as a rule doesn't expect touse a hatchet when he's tracking a moose or a deer. All the same, I'vecome to the conclusion that it's best to have such a tool alongwhenever you even take a walk up here in these Maine woods. You neverknow when you may need it."
"The roof's half done," announced Bluff. "Take a look, and tell me howyou like it."
"Seems like a good job, so far as I know," the other commented. "Ishould say you've made a brush shelter that way more'n a few timesbefore now."
"Maybe I have," was the reply, as Bluff once more set to work tofinish the roof, leaving untouched the end through which they couldpass in and out and receive the benefit of their fire.
"And when we've got all through building our house," remarked Jerry,"it'll be time to think of having a bite."
"Huh! That's another thing we've got to thank Frank for," was therejoinder. "It looks as though he might have seen what trouble we hadin store for us, and fixed things to meet the need."
"That's Frank's way," commented Jerry, feeling very grateful to knowthat even though compelled to spend the night in such a crude camp heand Bluf
f need not lie and shiver for want of warmth or go hungrybecause of lack of food.
"It strikes me the storm keeps getting worse right along," Bluffannounced, as he was forced to push up to the fire in order to warmhis stiff fingers.
"It's a corker, all right," admitted the other, whose exertions withthe hatchet helped to keep his blood circulating, so that he did notfeel the freezing temperature quite so much as Bluff seemed to.
In due time the roof was finished, as far as the builder intended itshould be laid. No matter what depth of snow fell, very little of itwas likely to find its way inside the shelter back of the upturnedtree.
"Now, don't we deserve a little refreshment?" asked Jerry.
"We might as well, for a change," Bluff told him. "After that, we mustfetch more wood. The wind makes the fire burn savagely, you notice,and it's sure a caution how it eats up the stuff. Besides, rememberit's going to be something like twelve hours before morning comes."
"Wow! Will we manage to get any sleep, do you think?"
"Give it up; but let's hope so."
"And when we intended to start out light, I can remember Frank sayingwe might wish we had lugged our blankets along with us. 'Course we,couldn't do that, and chase after the moose; but I'd like to feel thatsame blanket up around my shoulders."
"Oh, we're doing pretty well, as it is," Bluff returned, determined tomake the best of a bad bargain, which was a pretty wise thing for himto do under the circumstances.
Sitting there, with the fire crackling close by, and its heat feelingvery comfortable, the two chums opened the packages of food whichFrank had rammed into the pockets of their coats before they started.
Their supper consisted of only crackers and cheese, with some stripsof left-over venison to munch on. Still, since their appetites weregood and there was an abundance of the fare, it tasted as fine asanything they could remember.
"Had enough?" asked Bluff, when he saw that his comrade had cleaned upevery scrap of his portion.
"Plenty," replied Jerry, with a sigh of satisfaction; "couldn't eatanother bite if I tried. And don't let's bother thinking where ourbreakfast's going' to come from. We'll run across some game, or elsebe able to find the cabin again before we've quite starved to death."
"That's right. I was just thinking if those men should turn out to bewithout a single match among them, wouldn't they have a rough time ofit all night out in this storm?"
"Yes; and I'm sorry now I didn't offer to hand them over some of oursupply of matches," Jerry said softly, which remark spoke well for hisforgiving nature. "They treated us mean, of course, but then itdoesn't pay to hold a grudge when you're in the woods."
"Oh, I reckon they found the match, all right," Bluff remarkedcarelessly, "and as they're old sportsmen they must know all thetricks woodsmen make use of to keep warm and cozy in a blow likethis."
"I hope so, Bluff."
Later on they decided to get busy with the wood supply, for the snowcontinued to come down as furiously as ever. It was a fine kind ofpowdery snow, which, blown on the gale, caused their cheeks to smartwhen it struck.
Every little while they would get close to the fire to warmthemselves. Jerry shuddered as he contemplated the long vigil of thatnever-to-be-forgotten night following their moose hunt. He did notanticipate that sleep would visit either of them, so uncomfortablewould be their position. The wind managed to find cracks and cranniesthrough which to whistle, and with the storm raging through the forestall sorts of strange noises came to their ears.
At times it even seemed to Jerry as though people in distress werecalling for help. Twice he went outside the shelter to listen, thoughBluff told him it was all imagination.
"It wouldn't surprise me, though," the other remarked, when Jerry cameback the second time, "if we heard that wolf pack whooping things upthrough the timber before morning comes. A wild night like this iswhat starts them on the rampage, I reckon."
"Do you think they would attack us here?" asked Jerry, drawing his guna little closer to his hand.
"Well, hardly, with this jolly blaze going," Bluff continuedreflectively. "You know, they are afraid of fire. But they may make ameal from that big moose we shot, if the men don't stay there to keepthem away."
"So long as they left us the horns I wouldn't care, Bluff. But if themen didn't find a single match among them, and the wolves came along,like as not they'd have to pass the night perched in a tree, andfreezing. Oh, I'm glad we've got our fire!"
