The Outdoor Chums In The Forest Part 15

That's what we're sitting around this blessed fire for, in our pajamas, shivering to beat the band. Out with it, you!" exclaimed Jerry.

"Original things cut no figure with some people. They want to read about all they learn, or have other persons tell them; but about this brilliant thought of mine: It's mighty evident that whoever the ghost is, he wants to be left alone. Now what kind of people dislike to have strangers come prowling around their secrets? Why, down in Kentucky and Tennessee it would be moonshiners. Up in the Maine forests, like as not timber-grabbers. Here it might be counterfeiters."

"Hear! hear! Bluff has spoken the last word!" exclaimed Jerry excitedly.

"What do you think about it, Frank?"

Will, as he put the question, turned toward the one upon whom the rest were accustomed to depend to settle all disputes.

"I don't know. The suggestion Bluff made might turn out to be the true solution of the mystery. At any rate, it's barely possible, and worth remembering. Later on we may be able to see light in this dark puddle, and then know how near he came to hitting the bullseye," he replied thoughtfully.

To him it appeared a serious matter, and one that should not be treated with too much levity.

"Well, I'm sleepy again, in spite of all this excitement, and as my turn comes last, I'm going to turn in. A bully old blanket feels good to me, fellows," saying which, Jerry crawled under the khaki-colored canvas.

The others followed suit. It would do no good to continue the conversation at such an unseasonable hour. All that was to be said could hold over until breakfast time, when they would be able to look at matters in a different light.

Frank sat out his watch, and then put Bluff on the job. In turn he roused Jerry, who stood it out until the dawn began to light up the east, when he started the fire into new life, put the coffee on to boil, with cold water, as was their wont, and busied himself in doing various things until the rest should appear.

Jed was the first to creep out and go down to the stream for a wash. It might be noticed that the lad seemed unusually timid this morning.

Whether this sprang from his fear of the gruff farmer, or the wonderful spectacle he had seen on the preceding night, Jerry could not say.

Over the breakfast they made merry in connection with the adventures that had come their way since making camp.

"Everybody work!" called out Frank finally, as he started in to pack up.

They all seemed delighted at the prospect of a change of base, all but poor old Peter, who wheezed worse than ever as he found himself hitched up to that big load, and the fine prospect of a st.u.r.dy pull, uphill, ahead of him.

"I'm just hungry for a sight of the water," announced Bluff.

"Ditto here. Camp don't seem just the same away from it," said Jerry.

"And the views one gets with a lake for a background! Nothing can compare with them," observed the photographic fiend, sighing.

"Well, I hope none of us will be disappointed with Lake Surprise, that's all," remarked Frank, as he lashed the canvas of his tent in a bundle and placed it carefully in the wagon.

They were off by nine o'clock.

"Good-by to the old camp! Hurrah for the new one!" sang out Bluff, as he turned to wave a pathetic hand toward the scene of their late location.

"Did you take some of the bear meat along with the hide?" asked Will.

"All we want, I guess. I forgot to bring a file, and my teeth need attention before I tackle any more of that pemmican," groaned Jerry.

"Wait and see. The next time I expect to boil a chunk, and serve it that way, as a bear stew. If I have any choice, I prefer a cub, myself; but you fellows know that in this case it was a question whether we got the bear or he got us; and since circ.u.mstances compelled me to shoot----"

"Keep some of that hot air for to-night, when you'll need it to blow up your old rubber bag," called Jerry derisively.

"----why," went on Bluff composedly, paying no attention to the interruption, "it would be a sin to waste all that good wholesome meat.

Hence these tears on the part of our envious friend."

"Envious friend is good--for you!" muttered Jerry; but all the same, he stopped trying to plague the other, as though the shaft might have gone home.

Soon they were climbing the hills that stretched along the foot of the mountain range proper. Old Peter was put to it, at times, to draw the load, and more than once Frank called to his comrades to put their husky young shoulders to the wheels in order to help out.

Will wandered on as they descended the other slope, with the mountains before them. He carried his beloved camera, of course, and no doubt hoped to come across some charming picture that would add to the pleasure of the boys when the season of cold and snow was upon them.

In this way he managed to get quite some distance ahead, for the wagon was halted while Frank rebuilt the load, in danger of falling off with the sharp descent.

Down at the bottom of the valley that lay between Oak Ridge and the Sunset Mountains proper, Will came to a stream. It was a broad but shallow one, and believing he could easily wade across, he pulled his shoes off, tied them to his belt, and then turning his trousers up, started in.

It had a soft, sandy bottom that felt very pleasing to his feet.

Half-way over Will stopped to look about him.

"Say, now, that would make a dandy picture, with the water lazily swirling downstream, and the trees hanging over. I've a good notion to try it," he said.

Standing there, he set to work. Perhaps he was more than usually particular to get things just as he wanted them. Sometimes one can overdo this good trait, and Will came to that conclusion when, upon attempting to move on, he found to his surprise that his feet seemed locked, as in a vise.

When he tried to lift one, his entire weight falling upon the other seemed to push that one down several inches deeper.

"What does this mean? Why, the water is already up to my trousers! I guess I'll have to hitch them up higher, or get wet."

He was not at all excited, as yet, for the danger that menaced him had not come into his mind. He managed to accomplish the little task which he had set out to do, but by that time he was in up to his knees, and apparently still gradually going down, slowly but surely.

Now he could hardly move either foot, and as for pulling one of them out of the sucking sand, it seemed utterly impossible.

Will looked up. There was a stout limb of a tree just above him. If he could only get hold of that he might manage to draw himself out. Vainly did he stretch up his hands, for they fell short fully a dozen inches of touching the very nearest twigs of that friendly limb.

For the first time a cold chill began to chase up and down his spinal column.

"What if the boys fail to come along for half an hour! At this rate I'd be completely out of sight, and they'd never know what had become of me!" he exclaimed, in new horror.

The surface of the stream looked so very innocent, no one would ever suspect that such a terrible trap lay just beneath the slowly running water.

"It's what they call quicksand--that's what!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, as he looked down with distended eyes, and saw that line of water gradually rising above his knees--slowly and almost imperceptibly, but as surely as that the sun shone overhead.

Then Will grew frightened.

"Help! help! Frank! Jerry! Come quick!" he shouted at the top of his voice; but only the echoes seemed to come back to taunt him.

CHAPTER XIV

FIGHTING THE QUICKSAND

"Listen! What was that?"