The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound Part 28

Hank and his followers came out of their den to wave a hearty farewell after their late rescuers. Just then all animosities had died in their hearts, and they could look upon the scouts without the least bitterness.

"Sounds all mighty fine, I must say," remarked Bobolink, as they pushed along, after losing sight of the quartette standing at the foot of the snowy hill, "but somehow I don't seem to feel it's going to last. That Hank's got it in him to be a tough character, and it'd be next door to a miracle if he ever changed his ways."

"Do _you_ think he will, Paul?" demanded Jud, flatly.

"Ask me something easy," laughed the scout-master. "It all depends on Hank himself. If he once took a notion to make a man of himself, I believe he could do it no matter what happened. He's got the grit, but without the real desire that isn't going to count for much. Time alone will tell."

"Well, we've seen something like that happen right in our town, you know," Bobolink went on to say, reflectively, as he trudged along close to the heels of the one in front of him, for they were going "Indian-file," following the sinuous trail made during their preceding trip.

"I was talking with the other Jud," remarked Jud Elderkin just then, "and he gave me a pointer that might be worth something. I don't know just why he chose to confide it to me, instead of speaking out, but he did."

"Was it, too, about the fire and the robbery?" asked Tom Betts.

"It amounted to the same thing, I should say," replied Jud, "because it was connected with the hoboes."

"Go on and tell us then," urged Bobolink.

"He says they're up in this part of the country," a.s.serted the other.

"Wow! that begins to look as if we might be running across the ugly pair after all!" exclaimed Tom Betts, his face lighting up with eagerness. "Now wouldn't it be queer if we managed to capture the yeggs and turn 'em over to the authorities? Paul, how about that now?"

"Oh! you're getting too far ahead of the game, Tom," he was told. "We must know a good deal more about this business before we could decide to take such desperate chances."

"But if the opportunity came along, wouldn't it be our duty to cage the rascals?" the persistent Tom demanded.

"Perhaps it might," Paul told him. "But Jud, did he explain to you how he came to know the tramps were up here in the woods above Lake Tokala?"

"Just what he did," replied the other, promptly. "It seems that Jud, while he was out hunting, had a glimpse of one of the ugly pair the day before this storm hit us. It gave him a chance to trail the man in order to see what he was worth in that line. And, Paul, he did his work so well that he followed the fellow all the way to where the two of them had put up."

"And that was where, Jud?" demanded the leader of the troop.

"There's an old dilapidated cabin half-way between here and the lake,"

explained Jud. "Maybe Tolly Tip knows about it."

"Sure that I do!" responded the woodsman. "'Twas used years ago by some charcoal burners, but has been goin' to decay this long time.

Mebbe now they've patched up the broken roof, and mane to stay there awhile. It's in a snug spot, and mighty well protected from the wind in winters."

"That's the place," Jud a.s.sured them. "The hoboes are hanging out there, and seem to have plenty to eat, so Jud Mabley told me. If we concluded to take a look in at 'em on our way home it could be done easy enough, I'd think."

"We'll talk it over," decided Paul. "We must remember that in all likelihood they're a desperate pair, and well armed. As a rule scouts have no business to const.i.tute themselves criminal catchers, though in this case it's a bit different."

"Because we've been publicly accused by Mr. Briggs of being the persons who set his old store on fire, just in spite!" declared Bobolink, briskly enough. "And say! wouldn't it be a bully trick if we could take those two tramps back with us, having the goods on them?

Then we'd say to Mr. Briggs: 'There you are, sir! These are the men you want! And we'd trouble you to make your apology just as public as your hasty accusation was.'"

"Hurrah!" cried Tom Betts. "That's the ticket."

But Paul was not to be hurried into giving a decision. He wanted more time to consider matters, and settle his plan of campaign. The other scouts, however, found little reason to doubt that in the end he would conclude to look favorably on the bold proposition Jud had advanced.

Just as they had antic.i.p.ated, the return journey was not anywhere nearly so strenuous an undertaking as the outward tramp had been. Even where they had to cross great drifts a pa.s.sage had been broken for them, and the wind, not being high, had failed to fill up the gaps thus far.

The rescue party arrived in the vicinity of the cabin long before sundown, and could catch whiffs of the wood smoke that blew their way, which gave promise of the delightful warmth they would find once inside the forest retreat.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE WILD DOG PACK

"Well! well! what under the sun's been going on here while we've been away?"

Bobolink burst out with this exclamation the very minute he pa.s.sed hastily in at the cabin door. A jolly fire blazed on the hearth, and the interior of the cabin was well lighted by the flames.

Paul, as well as all the other arrivals, stared. And well they might, for Sandy Griggs and Bluff were swathed in seemingly innumerable bandages. They looked a bit sheepish too, even while grinning amiably.

"Oh! 'tisn't as bad as it seems, fellows!" sang out Spider s.e.xton, cheerfully. "Phil thought it best to wash every scratch with that stuff we keep for such things, so as to avoid any danger of blood poisoning. But shucks! they got off pretty easy, let me tell you."

"What happened?" demanded Jud Elderkin, curiously. "Did they run across that old bear after all, and get scratched or bitten?"

"Or was it the other bobcat that came around to smell the pelt of his mate, and gave you something of a tussle?" asked Bobolink.

"Both away off your base," said Bluff, with a fresh grin. "It was dogs, that's all."

"Dogs!" echoed Jud, unbelievingly. "You must mean wolves, don't you?

They look a heap like some kinds of mongrel dogs."

"'Tis the lad as knows what he is talkin' about, I guess," remarked Tolly Tip just then. "Sure, for these many moons now there's been a pack av thim wild dogs a-runnin' through the woods. Many a night have I listened to the same bayin' and yappin' as they trailed after a deer."

A flash of understanding came into Jud's face.

"Oh! now I see what you mean," he went on to say. "Wild dogs they were, that for some reason have abandoned their homes with people, and gone back to the old free hunting ways of their ancestors. I've heard about such things. But say! how did it happen they tackled you two?"

Bluff and his guilty companion exchanged looks, and as he scratched his head the former went on to confess.

"Why, you see, it was this way," he began. "Sandy and I began to get awful tired of staying indoors after you fellows went away. Three days of it was just too much for our active natures to stand. So we made up a plan to take a little walk around, and see if we could run across any game."

At that Sandy held up a couple of partridges.

"All we got, and all we saw," he remarked, "but they were enough to set that savage bunch of wild dogs on us. Whew! but they were hungry and reckless. But you go on and tell the story, Bluff."

"When we saw them heading our way," continued the other, "we thought they were just ordinary dogs running loose. But as they came closer both of us began to see that they were a savage looking lot. In the lead was a big mastiff that looked like a lion to us."

"But you had your guns with you, didn't you?" asked Jud.

"That's right, we did," replied Bluff. "But you see before we made up our minds the kiyi crowd was dangerous they were nearly on us, yelping and snapping like everything. That big chap in the lead gave me a shiver just to look at him; and there were three others coming full-tilt close behind him."

"We've since made up our minds," again interrupted Sandy, "that they must have scented our birds, and were crazy to get them. Though even if we'd thrown the partridges away I believe the pack would have attacked us like so many tigers."