Bart Keene's Hunting Days Part 14

"Certainly, but I'm afraid it will be robbing you."

"Not at all, we have plenty. Perhaps you'd like one too?" and Bart handed the woman one, which she received with thanks.

"I'll give you a dollar for two sandwiches, young man," said the fat man, eagerly.

Bart hesitated. At the same time several other children in the car, seeing the girl eating, began to demand food.

"I say, fellows," said Bart, quickly. "I'll tell you what's let's do!

We'll distribute our lunch among the youngsters on the train. There must be several of them, and they're all hungry. It will be some time before they can get to where there's lunch."

To the credit of the Darewell Chums be it said that they did not hesitate a moment.

"Go ahead," exclaimed Ned, and the others nodded a.s.sent.

"I wish you'd accept my offer before you came to that conclusion,"

sighed the fat man. "But go ahead. The kids will be glad to get it. I'll have to dine off chocolate caramels, I guess."

Bart's plan was soon in operation, to the delight of a number of boys and girls, no less than their distracted mothers. As for the chums, they had each eaten a sandwich before giving away their lunch, and they thought they could stand it until they got to Cannistota. They were given an informal vote of thanks by the grateful parents.

Then ensued tedious waiting until the relief engine came. There were many murmurs, and much fault-finding, but there was no help for it. The candy boy sold out his stock of sweet stuff in record time, even down to the chewing gum. At length a welcome whistle was heard, and soon the train was under way again.

"Well," remarked Ned, as he settled back in his seat, "we will enjoy our supper, anyhow."

"Yes," remarked Bart. "I don't altogether believe in Jed's good luck signs. I'd just as soon he would have omitted some of 'em."

"Oh, well, we'll be in camp to-morrow," announced Frank. "Then we can eat whenever we feel like it."

The chums were late in arriving in Cannistota, and they went at once to a hotel. They had arranged to do this anyhow, as they knew there would not be time to put up tents the same day that they started off on their camping trip. After a substantial meal, to make up for their light dinner, they inquired at the express office, and learned that their camp stuff had arrived safely. They arranged for a teamster to take it to the woods where they had decided to pitch their tents, and early the next morning they were under way.

"It's a dandy day," observed Fenn, as he looked at the cloudless sky overhead, and saw the piles of snow on every side.

"A little too warm," was Bart's opinion. "Still, it may not be thawing so much in the woods. I'm anxious to get a shot at something. We can't hunt deer, you know, when there's tracking snow, but I hear there are bears where we are going."

"A feller I know killed a big one last week, not a great ways from where you're going," observed the teamster.

"That's the stuff!" cried Bart, as he looked to make sure he had his favorite rifle.

In due time the camping site was reached, the teamster helped them unload, and then drove back, leaving the four chums alone in quite a lonely stretch of wilderness. But they were used to depending on themselves, they knew they had plenty of food, and they hoped to procure more with their guns.

"First thing on the programme is to make the camp-fire, and then set up the tents," declared Bart, who const.i.tuted himself a sort of leader.

Previous experience stood the boys in good stead, and in a short time a roaring fire was blazing, and a kettle of soup in the making was suspended over it. Then the canvas shelters were put up.

It was not easy work, and the boys labored hard, but at last the white tent stood among the trees, making a picturesque spot in the wilderness.

Then the cooking shelter was put up, and the stove set, after which Fenn, who const.i.tuted himself cook on this occasion, served dinner.

The rest of the day was spent in cutting firewood, seeing to the fastenings of the tents, putting up cots, arranging their baggage and food supplies, and in putting together their shot guns and rifles, for each lad had two weapons.

By this time it was nearly night-fall, and some lanterns were lighted, and hung within and without the tent, giving the place a cheerful look.

As Fenn was walking about, getting ready for a late supper, he stumbled over something, and nearly fell.

"What's that, a tree root?" asked Bart. "If it is, chop it out, or we'll all be doing the same thing."

"It wasn't a tree root," observed Fenn, as he turned to examine the object. "By cracky, boys!" he exclaimed. "Look here! It's a whopping big mud turtle!"

CHAPTER XII

THE PLACE OF THE TURTLES

Fenn's chums hurried over to where, in the gleam of a lantern, he was contemplating the slow-moving reptile. The turtle was a large one, of a common species, and was ambling along as if it did not at all mind the attention it had attracted.

"Grab it, Fenn!" exclaimed Ned. "It'll be a dandy for your collection."

"That's what it will," agreed the stout youth, and he grabbed up the turtle, which at once drew in its tail, head and claws, presenting no vantage spot to an enemy.

"By Caesar, here's another!" exclaimed Bart, a moment later. "Another turtle, Fenn!"

"Yes, and here's a third one!" added Frank. "It's a big one, too, Fenn.

Shall I catch it for you?"

"Wait a minute, fellows," replied Fenn, earnestly. "Don't touch those turtles!"

"Why not?" asked Ned. "Are they poisonous?"

"No, but there's something queer about so many being out in the woods in the middle of winter. It isn't natural. There is something out of the ordinary, and we must see what it is."

"Maybe they're hunting for the one of their number who wears the diamond bracelet," suggested Bart, with a laugh, for, in spite of the gravity of the loss, he could not forbear an occasional joke at Fenn's rather odd theory.

"No, it isn't that," went on Fenn earnestly. "But I did have a notion that perhaps the turtles might have escaped from the queer man who wrote and offered to buy my collection--the man we suspect of stealing the bracelet."

"Why he isn't in this vicinity," remarked Frank.

"You don't know whether he is or not," was Fenn's answer. "This seems to be a good place for turtles, though I can't understand why they should be out in cold weather. But perhaps there is some reason for it."

There was, and a strange one, as the boys soon discovered.

"Anyhow, they're here," observed Ned, "and what are we going to do about it?"

"Don't touch 'em, I want to see in what direction they are traveling,"

called Fenn, who, as soon as he had placed in a safe place the turtle he had caught, came over to where his chums were contemplating the other two.

"They're both heading for the same place, wherever that is, if that's any help to you," remarked Bart.