CHAPTER XIII

BUCK MAKES A DISCOVERY

The one lantern carried by Ted threw but a poor light over the scene of the camp but it was enough for the arriving boys to see that all of the tents were down, apparently blown over from the storm. The first two were down altogether, canvas and poles, while the last two consisted of flapping canvas on the poles. While they looked they were joined by the other boys, who came jumping and running from the truck, where they had taken a poor refuge during the storm.

“Oh, boy, I’m glad you are back!” exclaimed Plum, fervently, catching Ted by the sleeve.

“What happened here?” Ted asked.

“Why, the storm blew the tents down. We were all under the canvas and keeping pretty dry, except for some water which leaked in from the trenches, when all of a sudden there was a blow of wind and the tents were down. It even carried over the poles on two of the tents, or else we knocked them down getting out, I don’t know which. But we were soaked and tried to get in the truck and pull a piece of canvas over our heads, but it didn’t do us much good.”

Apparently, it had not. All of them were as wet as the five who had been trailing. With the tents down and all of them dripping they presented a sorry sight which even the flicker of the one lamp could not make up for. Looking backward, the evening did not seem to have been a success.

“Well, only one thing to do,” directed Buck, briskly. “Let’s locate our axes and hunt dry wood for a fire.”

“There isn’t any dry wood,” a boy objected.

“We can get dry wood by taking a fairly large log and chopping off the wet outside,” explained Buck. “In that way we’ll get down to the heart of it and find something that we can burn. You know where that dead log is back of the springs, and you can surely cut something dry out of that big fellow. Come on, I’ll show you.”

Buck went to the mass of canvas which had been his own tent and lifting the soggy material, felt inside for his axe, which he had no trouble in locating. The other boys procured theirs and then they went off in a body to hunt up dry wood, a seemingly impossible process. But Buck had had to deal with wet wood before in his camping experiences.

“Now, here is this log,” he told them. “The outside looks pretty wet, and it is wet. Start cutting it away in slices, this way.” With his axe he split the wood along the upper side, tearing off the wet strips and tossing them to one side. “Now, here is some that looks fairly dry,” he went on, as they cut deeper. “This stuff will do very nicely for our fire.”

The younger boys were surprised to find that there was indeed a goodly supply of dry wood in the old log and they gathered a large heap of it and took it back to the camp. Buck knew that they were going to need lots of it, for it was impossible to think of going to bed that night. The wet canvas could not be put up and the entire camp would have to be dried out. They would need wood for the entire night.

“They are all excited and won’t mind staying awake all night,” he reflected, as he carried an armful of wood back to the fireplaces.

Here he found Ted down on his knees cleaning out the wet mass of ashes which had been the evening’s fire and when these had been raked out and scattered to one side, some paper, which came from under the seat of the truck was stuffed into the stone fireplaces and the wood was piled so as to catch fire. A match was applied and the tiny spurt of flame which immediately jumped up was a very welcome one. The one faithful lamp was still going and had done its duty well.

Carefully they fed the flame with splinters of wood, and the building of the fire took care, for the log wood was not thoroughly dry, but had in it enough moisture to make it a problem. It smoked and drove them away from the fire more than once, but they were pleased to see that it did burn. Some good fuel was added in the form of a canned goods box which had been under the truck and so was not very wet. Around the blaze created by this wood they dried their clothing as much as they could.

“We can’t go to bed tonight, can we?” Tom Clayton asked.

“No, we couldn’t get the tents up tonight, because we’ll have to dry them,” replied Ted. “But the night won’t last so very long now. When we do get everything fixed up we’ll put in the daytime sleeping, if we feel that way.”

“I certainly would like to go to sleep right now!” yawned Drummer, stretching himself.

“I guess most of us would,” nodded Buck. “But everything is against us. How would you like to snuggle down under that canvas right now?”

“Ugh, not while it is as wet as it is!” cried Drummer. “I’d rather stand up around the fire all night!”

“Is everything soaked, blankets, sweaters and everything?” Ted asked.

“Yes,” replied Buck. “As soon as the canvas fell on the stuff it all got soaked, at least in the tents where the poles went down. I don’t know about the other two.”

Some of the boys rummaged under the canvas and found that blankets were damp and not too wet to put on, and immediately they returned with blankets over their shoulders. Others had not been so lucky and they crowded close to the fire. As morning came on another group went out and hunted for wood, bringing back a large supply. The fire had been effective but not perfect, and the smoke had chased them from side to side of the fireplace.

It was the first really disagreeable camp experience that these boys from the club had ever had and some were plainly discouraged by it while others enjoyed the novelty and adventure of it. The conversation by the fire became more cheerful and soon jokes and laughter took the place of brooding silence. The five who had trailed the man with the lantern told their experiences and those who had remained in camp told theirs.

“We were just standing around watching your lights when the storm was first heard,” related Plum. “We hoped you’d come down right away, but you didn’t and then the old storm hit and we dug for the tents. We sat in there pretty dry except for some water that came in around the bottom of the tent and then all of a sudden there was a little blow and the tent I was in came down! Seemed like the canvas on one side just collapsed, the back pole seemed to come down in a hurry and I guess we knocked the rest down when we tried to get out from under. The rest was the same as we was, scrambling out of tents and looking for somewhere to go, when we thought of the truck and climbed in there.”

“I knew that it blew pretty hard when we were up there under the rock,” remarked Ted. “But I didn’t know that it blew hard enough to blow down the tents.”

“The wind must have been stronger down here than it was up there,” suggested Bob.

“That is hardly possible, because the wind always blows harder on a higher level than in a basin, such as this spot is. I can see how a wind would blow down one tent but it seems funny that it should blow down four of them. However, I guess it must have just swooped down in a sudden gust and done the job.”

“Which way did our tent buckle in?” Buck asked Plum.

“From the left side,” was the answer.

“Couldn’t have,” said a boy, promptly. “Ours went in on the right!”

“One of you must be wrong,” said Buck. “The wind must have come from one direction to have force enough to flatten out the tents, and it would have hit either on the right or the left side and not on both. How about you fellows in the first two tents?”

“Ours went in on the left,” said a boy from the second tent.

“But ours collapsed on the right,” said Tom Clayton.

Buck snatched up the lantern. “I thought there was something funny about that tent business all along,” he said. “Wait until I come back.” He strode off with the lantern, leaving them wondering.

Buck went to the tents and placed the lantern on the ground. The canvas had fallen in a confused mass and he was compelled to fish under it for the ropes. He located the ropes which had been pegged into the ground and examined them carefully. Without saying anything he examined the others, passing from tent to tent.

“Find anything?” Ted hailed him, from the fire.

“Yes, sir!” was the vigorous answer. “These tent ropes were cut!”

“What!” cried Ted, leaping to his feet.

“That is just what happened. Come here.”

The entire group clustered around Buck as he held up ropes from two of the tents. “Look here. One fellow says his tent collapsed from the left and another fellow says his let go from the right. Good reason why. Somebody stood between two tents and cut the ropes under cover of the storm. Of course the tents went down on opposite sides, and I suppose the man shoved the back poles and skipped to the next two tents and cut the ropes there. He didn’t have time to knock over the uprights there, because the boys were swarming out, so he left that to them and probably took to the woods. Look at these ropes.”

There was not the slightest doubt in the world that the ropes to the tents had been cut, and cut with a sharp knife which had required no second cuts. They stared at the ends of the ropes in amazement.

“We didn’t hear anybody,” said Plum. “Probably you wouldn’t, with the noise of the storm. If we want any additional proof that the ropes were cut and not pulled, look at the tent pegs. They are all in the ground as they were when we left and the other pieces of the rope are still attached. There is no doubt that you boys had a visitor while we were chasing!”

“It might have done us more good to have stayed at home and minded our business,” smiled Ted.

“Maybe. Say, how near the end of the storm did this thing happen?”

“Almost at the end,” said Plum. “Just when the thunder was going away.”

“Then that kills our theory about the man in the log cabin,” Buck said to Ted.

“Yes, it does,” replied his chum. “He couldn’t possibly be the one, because if he had been in on this he couldn’t possibly have returned to his house and changed his clothes.”

“No, he is out of it,” agreed Buck. “But who in the world can be doing all this business? I tell you, I’m getting sick and tired of it and I’m going to break loose before long and hunt somebody down.”

“The trouble with your breaking loose is that we don’t know who to hunt down!” smiled Ted.

“No, that is the trouble. But someone is responsible. I don’t believe it is any supernatural element, either, or if it is, that ghost carries a fine sharp knife! When it gets light enough we’ll have to look around for footprints.”

“It won’t be long before it is light now,” said Charlie, glancing at the sky.

The last of the darkness was beginning to break in the east, a broad bar of yellow-white light was appearing. Far over in the west the last of the stars began to fade and as the minutes ticked off the band of light spread and broadened and the aspect of the woods changed. The darkness withdrew and the flush of a new and beautiful day appeared.

“Golly, I never was so glad to see the daytime come!” sighed Drummer, as they stood around the fires watching the advance of the day.

“I guess none of us ever was,” agreed Buck. “And could I eat!”

“Then let’s get at it right now,” said Ted. “We’ll have an early breakfast and then get to work. We are going to have a busy day.”