CHAPTER X

MOUNTAIN CHASE

For a few days after Ted’s talk there was no further trouble of any kind in the camp. Neither was there any further annoyance upon the part of the person or persons who had kept them in an unsettled state of mind for so long. After a time the boys began to feel that the person had tired of the contest and had gone away, for the time being, at least.

After the third day of peace one of the boys discovered that the skeleton had vanished from the hollow back of the camp. They had watched it each day to discover if possible the owner of the weird thing, but apparently during one of the slack periods of watching the owner had come and taken it. This was a relief in one sense and not in another.

“We’ve had somebody hiding in the bushes and watching that thing almost every day,” Ted said to Buck, as they sat apart one day. “But on the very first day that we didn’t have somebody, away it went. That looks as though whoever planted the thing knows our movements pretty well.”

“He probably knows more about us than we’d like him to,” was Buck’s comment.

They had been to a farm house nearby to purchase butter, eggs and milk and Ted had asked concerning a Doctor Hemple. No one knew the man or had ever heard of him.

“Our local doctor’s name is Ord,” said the farmer. “Where’d you hear of this Hemple?”

“Oh, we both know him by name and just wondered if he came from up this way,” Ted passed it off.

Buck told of the cabin with the barbed wire and the farmer knew something, though not much about it. The owner was a mystery to everyone, he said.

“He built that cabin nigh onto four years ago, and he’s a mighty unfriendly critter,” related the farmer, as he tied up their packages. “I come through there once from huntin’ and I had my dog with me. Dog run up to the cabin—the barbed wire fence wasn’t finished then—and that feller was settin’ in some kind of a fancy cheer there. No sooner’d that man see my dog than he popped out o’ his cheer and chased him out of the yard like he was the plague. ‘Dog won’t hurt you, mister,’ I says ‘he’s a mighty friendly dog.’ ‘Don’t keer if he is!’ yells back the man, ‘don’t want dogs or humans on my property. What you think I’m puttin’ up a barbed wire fence for?’ ‘Well, mister,’ I sez, ‘not wishin’ you any hard luck or nothin’, I’d like to have a couple of thousand wild hogs to chase across your front yard!’ That’s the way I felt, too!”

“He must be an unsociable party,” grinned Buck.

“Worse than that!” was the hearty response.

“What does he look like?” Ted asked.

“Tall feller with a heavy shock of gray hair,” replied Farmer Crane. “Got a sort of a long face with deep black eyes. He looks like he was a drinker or something, because he looks worried all the time, least he did all the time I saw him.”

The supplies which the boys brought back with them from this trip was eagerly welcomed at the camp. Then they set to work to make some improvements in the camp itself. They cleared away undergrowth which was too close to the back of the tents. The small truck, which was marooned up on the dirt road was backed down into the camp by means of two sturdy ropes, its own brakes, and convenient stones. By snubbing the ropes around trees they were able to bear the strain of easing the truck down hill and in its new position it made a convenient storeroom. There was still the matter of the ice box.

“How you going to sink it?” Buck asked.

“Straight down in the cool earth beside the creek,” Ted told him.

“But the dirt is pretty soft there. How will you keep the sides from caving in and spoiling everything?”

“We’ve had some unexpected good luck,” Ted smiled. “Under the seat of the truck I found six large square pieces of tin, and although I don’t know what they were intended for, I am going to use them. I imagine that they were sent along in case we wanted to use them for a fireplace, but I guess the use won’t matter. I’m going to floor and wall the ice chest with that.”

With a camp shovel Ted and some of the boys dug a hole a good four feet down into the soft earth beside the creek and here they placed one square of tin as the flooring. On the sides they sheeted with the other pieces of tin, fastening them down with hand cut pegs which they drove right through the tin in the same fashion as nails. Except for a cover, the ice chest was complete.

The cover was constructed of sections of a packing box which they sheeted on the under side and finished off on the top with a wooden handle. When all this was finished they had a cool and serviceable ice chest which would never get hot or need ice. The perishable articles were lowered into it, the cover was placed on top at a depth of about six inches from the surface of the ground and the task was complete.

“That ought to work all right,” Ted said, casting an appraising eye over his and his boys’ handiwork.

“Mighty nice piece of work,” approved Buck.

That night Ted called them to attention as soon as the evening meal was over and asked them if they wanted to play a night game. The response was instant and curiosity was expressed as to the nature of the game.

“This game is called Mountain Chase,” Ted told them. “We divide up into two squads and both squads must have lanterns. There are ten small lanterns in the truck, and that means that if we can divide into two squads—that is, if you all will play—there will be a lantern to every two men. Now, here is the point. The mountain squad goes out with lighted lanterns and gets a good twenty-minute start, time enough in which to lose themselves. As soon as the twenty minutes are up the camp squad goes out after them. The object of the camp squad is to capture the mountain men before they can sneak back into the camp, and the mountain men will, of course, try like the dickens to sneak back past the camp outfit and win their way into the camp.”

“The lanterns must be kept lighted at all times. If there is going to be any prowling around these mountains without a light, it will be the last time anyone goes out of the camp at night. We don’t want anybody to fall in a gully and get hurt. You may hide the lanterns behind a tree or your body if you think you hear an enemy coming, but no lights out! That wouldn’t be fair to the searchers, for you could slip past them in the darkness and reach the camp without any trouble. The game is just a game of skill with the lamps, and dodging your enemies.”

“How do we capture the other side?” was asked.

“Your enemy must be touched before he is officially captured, and in that the advantage is clearly with the camp party, because we’ll all be travelling in parties of two. Now, if the camp couple spot a couple of mountaineers sneaking along, the camp men can split and then run you down from two angles, though the split isn’t to be big enough to allow the man without a lantern to get far away from it. When the mountaineer with the lantern is touched he and his partner are both captured. Is everything clear?”

It seemed that it was and there was vast enthusiasm over the prospect of an evening of fun. The two older boys told off the two squads, lanterns were brought out and lighted, and the mountain squad prepared to go off.

“Remember, no lights out!” Ted warned them, as they started off.

Buck was with the mountain squad, paired off with Drummer, for whom he had a warm friendship, and at this final word from Ted they took to the hills, splitting up so that five points of light went bobbing and turning up into the darkness of the night, to be eventually blotted out between the trees.

The twenty minutes seemed a long time to the boys who were waiting in the camp. They were all eagerly interested in the game which was before them, for on other nights they had sat around the campfire talking and singing until it was time to go to bed. There was the thrill of the unusual and the challenge of a combat in this, and they were enjoying it to the utmost, impatient to get into action.

“Time is up,” announced Ted, putting his watch away and getting up from the log upon which he was sitting.

They immediately started off in the direction taken by the other squad, in pairs, with swinging lanterns which had just been lighted. Ted had with him the small boy, deeming it wise to see to it that the small boy was not entrusted to the care of any one who was not likely to be too careful of him. The little fellow was developing under the camp life and Ted felt a great deal of fondness for him.

They soon left the camp back of them and arriving at the foot of the mountain, began the climb. They spread out in fan shape as they continued, busily watching their step in front of them and for a sign of a light between the trees. Sticks and small stones were avoided so that noise did not betray them.

The woods were profoundly still, so much so that no one would have believed that twenty active boys were hunting each other. Ted and Tom crept steadily forward, keeping the lamp low and peering into the thickets.

“Not a sign of them yet,” Ted began, when the small boy touched his arm.

“Look down that way, to your left!”

Ted obeyed, and saw at some yards distance the gleam of a light. It was behind a tall and pointed rock, and he motioned to his companion to follow as they crept toward it, keeping their own light in back of them so that scarcely a beam from it showed before them.

Ted halted and whispered to the small boy. “You slip around in front of the rock and I’ll drop on them from the rear. If they try to get away from me you just touch the fellow with the lantern. Don’t make any noise.”

As noiselessly as possible Tom slipped away around the lower side of the rock and Ted went around the higher side, his lantern held far to one side so that the beams would not show. Cautiously he peered over the top and the sight pleased him. Bob Gilmore and another boy were standing there, crouching in the shelter of the big stone, listening and trying to cover up the lantern beams.

“I’m sure I heard somebody, even if I didn’t see a light,” Bob was whispering, as Ted looked down on them.

“But they must be gone now,” his companion said. “Let’s make a sneak for the camp.”

Ted waited to hear no more, but slid over the rock and landed beside them. They started and turned wide eyes upon him, but had presence of mind to run. But Tom stepped from the shelter of the rock and touched Bob on the arm.

“I got you!” cried the small boy, triumphantly.

“Yes, you are ours,” smiled Ted, taking the others’ lantern away from them.

“I guess we’ll have to surrender,” admitted Bob.

In close company they marched back down the mountain, to find that two other couples had been captured and that one pair had managed to return to camp. Only one couple of each squad was unaccounted for, and presently Buck and his companion slipped into camp with the pursuers hard after them.

“Well, I guess that means that my side has won,” announced Ted. “We captured three of your teams.”

“You are right and we admit it,” Buck acknowledged. “I’m afraid we didn’t spread out enough. Some other night we’ll play it and change sides.”

“Sure. Well, I guess we are all here, aren’t we?” Ted asked.

“All present,” Buck nodded.

“There must be somebody absent,” piped up a boy. “There goes a light up the side of the mountain!”