Chapter XV: The Fire Vigil

When the sound of their snow-shoes crunching over the surface of the drifts came to the ears of Lub, still seated there on the log, he was seen to start, and half raise his gun, while he evidently gave some sort of signal, for X-Ray came rushing out of the shack, also armed.

At discovering that there was no sudden peril both the defenders of the camp laughed at their fears.

"Welcome back, fellows!" sang out Lub; "didn't expect you so soon, and supper is not even started yet. But after we've heard your report we'll get busy."

"Did you go all the way over?" asked X-Ray, eagerly.

"We sure did," replied Ethan.

"And perhaps now you learned what the row was about?" continued Lub.

"They were having a dance," said Ethan, with a suggestive grin.

"It must have been because they were half drunk, then," sneered X-Ray.

"Nope; perfectly sober, so far as we could learn from their _chef_. You see, Mr. Bodman and his two sportsmen guests were coaxed to dance _against their will_. Every time a gun went off, and the bullet kicked up the snow and dirt near their feet they had to jump all the harder!"

Of course it was Ethan's object to arouse the wonder of the other pair, and to judge from the puzzled expression on their faces he had already succeeded in doing so.

"Oh! come on, and tell us all about it," said Lub.

At that the two returned scouts found places on the log, and started to relate how they had come upon the panic-stricken _chef_, who by degrees had told the whole remarkable happening, beginning with his mistake in scalding a stray dog under the impression that it was a prowling wolf, down to the minute they came upon him hiding there, and afraid to go back to the camp lest he be confronted with that furious giant of a woodsman, wild to avenge the insult to his four-footed pet.

Never had Lub and X-Ray listened to a more curious and thrilling story. They almost held their very breath as they hung upon every word, with a look of intense interest stamped on their faces.

"Now," said Phil, when everything they had learned had been told, "what do you two think about it? Was the Terrible Badger the man we've been hearing so much about since coming up here--Baylay?"

"Must be that he is," announced X-Ray, promptly.

"Well, the indications all point that way," Lub remarked, in his slow fashion, as though he might be still weighing things in his mind. "There are so few persons up around here that it couldn't well be any one else. So we'll have to take it for granted the owner of the dog is Baylay."

"Hurra! since Lub has finally figured it out the rest of us needn't bother about it any more. Lub has settled the thing beyond all dispute," laughed Ethan.

"Well, I guess you'll find that I'm right," ventured Lub, who often took himself very seriously, and in this way sometimes intensified the joke.

"How about that grub, _chef_?" asked Ethan; "that little tramp seems to have put an edge on my appetite."

"Huh! as if it wasn't always sharp enough," Lub told him; "but if there's nothing more to listen to I suppose I might as well get busy. You see, I've got a pot of beans cooking there, which has been on more'n two hours, so I should think the things would be fairly done. And along with that we're going to have some fried ham, with eggs to follow, coffee, cakes, and then crackers and cheese for those who feel that way."

"Well, if it will hurry things up any I'm ready to pitch in and help you, _chef_," Ethan told him.

"Get some more wood, then!" ordered Lub, "and be careful about that bean-pot. I hung it across on that iron rod from two stakes with crotches on top, but it is a little shaky. If you spill the beans your name will be Dennis, I warn you."

"He'd better cut a hole in the ice and drown himself if he's that clumsy," warned X-Ray; "for after smelling those beans cooking all this time it would make me pretty cross if I was cheated out of having three messes for supper."

Somehow even tender-hearted Lub had not been heard to express anything like sorrow on account of what had happened over at the other camp. In fact all of them seemed to be of the one mind; and to think that it served the bossy millionaire about right to be ordered around a little, and made to dance a hornpipe at the dictation of the terror of the pine woods.

According to their notion it was a dose of his own medicine Mr. James Bodman had been compelled to take. No doubt many a time he had by his brutal methods of frenzied finance compelled others to dance to his fiddling; and now he knew how it felt himself.

Indeed, X-Ray was filled with only one keen regret. He would have given almost anything for the pleasure of being in position to see what the French _chef_ had so aptly described.

"Just to think of that red-faced fat old fellow dancing as the bullets plowed up the snow close to his toes!" he was heard to say; "I can see him jumping up and down like mad, cracking his heels together, puffing like a winded nag, and screaming his threats at the man who was treating him as if he were only a common every-day ten dollar a week clerk, instead of the great American millionaire. Wow! it must have been rich, though!"

They could talk of nothing else all evening. No matter what subject was broached some one was sure to bring it back to the one intensely interesting topic.

It seemed to be the consensus of opinion among them that Phil was right when he figured that Baylay could not have been home before he visited the other camp. If he had known of his child's vanishing in the great snow forest he would hardly have bothered himself seeking revenge for the injury to his dog. On the contrary it was more than likely he would have besought the inmates of the camp to come to his assistance in trying to find the child, even though all hope of the little one being still alive must be abandoned.

"I wonder if we will see him here, sooner or later?" Lub ventured to say, and then giving his little charge a benevolent look he continued: "If he could only up and tell us things it'd make it so much easier. Sometimes seems to me the boy knows what I'm saying to him, and tries the best he can to answer, but as yet I haven't mastered his sign language. Chances are his mammy would know everything he wants to tell."

"He's gone to sleep now," remarked Phil, "after that fine supper he put away. One thing sure, he hasn't lost his appetite even if he has his folks."

"Can you blame the little shaver?" said Lub, quickly; "like as not it's been a long spell since he's seen such grub as we put before him, and plenty of it at that. Up here the guides are in the habit of taking what they call pot-luck; one day plenty of meat on hand, and another time the pot is pretty nearly empty."

"X-Ray, don't you want to come out with me for a short time?" asked Phil as he got on his feet.

"Sure I do," the other replied, without the slightest hesitation in his manner or speech; "what's doing now, Phil?"

"Oh! you remember I said I had found several places where certain small fur-bearing animals live. An old trapper would say they '_use_' the ground where their tracks show. Well, I want to get some flashlight pictures of the same, and it's to lay my trap that I'm going out now."

"Glad you don't think of going alone, Phil," remarked Lub, seriously.

"Why, do you think I might run up against a wolf pack, and have to climb a tree to save myself from their teeth?" laughed Phil, as he slung the camera over his shoulder, and then picked up his repeating rifle.

"Well, it wasn't so much that as the chance of your meeting some of the ugly crowd from the other camp that made me say what I did," Lub continued. "Any lot of people who could get down so low as to try and burn a party of boys out of their shack, just for petty spite, would be capable of doing pretty nearly anything."

At that both Phil and Ethan laughed loudly.

"Make your mind easy about that millionaire and his party!" exclaimed the latter, "they've had enough experience with the Terrible Baylay to do them a life-time. I rather think they'll be afraid to venture far away from their old camp the rest of the time they're up here. Fact is, it wouldn't surprise me a whit if they packed up and vacated inside of twenty-four hours."

"And you're saying just what was in my mind, too, Ethan," Phil added. "Not one of those three wealthy men could be tempted to get away from the fire this night; and I rather think they'll take a dislike to the whole neighborhood. They haven't been very lucky since coming here."

"Not in getting their caribou, anyway," said X-Ray, uproariously, as he allowed his thoughts to go back to the time when he and Phil offered their leavings to the domineering financier, after he tried to make out he had first claim to the quarry that had been brought down.

As Phil had made all his preparations beforehand they experienced little difficulty in placing the trap. It was so arranged that the mink could not possibly get the attractive bait without setting the flashlight cartridge off; and if everything worked well his picture would be taken as neatly as though the photographer were present in person to superintend things.

"I hope this will be the beginning of a series of successful jobs along this same line," Phil was saying, as after arranging things to suit his ideas they headed in the direction of camp once more.

"You haven't given up the idea of visiting that beaver settlement, I hope, Phil?"

"Just as soon as we get the boy off our hands we'll take it up," he was told.

"While that is hanging over us I'd rather stay near home; because whether Baylay comes in the dead of night, or by the light of the sun I want to be there to meet him."

"And the rest of us would rather have it that way, I'm sure," admitted Ethan, which was enough in itself to show how the balance of the Mountain Boys had come to depend on Phil as their leader. "But if you feel so sure none of that crowd will venture out to-night, is that going to make any change in our regular program of keeping watch, Phil?"

"No, I don't see why it should," came the ready response. "It's a good habit to get into, and the more we practice it the better we can stand our stint without feeling like going to sleep on post."

"I half expect you're looking for a visit from Baylay," ventured Ethan, shrewdly.

"That depends a good deal on whether he knows about our being here," he was told.

"If he didn't happen to see our smoke, or run across McNab when the farmer was getting out of the bush, of course he wouldn't be apt to come this way. In that event the man would spend all his time scouting the snow woods around the place where we picked up the kid."

"He must be a smart tracker, Phil?"

"It stands to reason that he is," replied the other; "and I can give a good guess why you say that, Ethan. You think he may try to follow the boy from the time he started out, with his little popgun under his arm, just as he had seen his daddy go forth many a time on a hunt for fresh meat."

"If he did, and the wind hasn't drifted the dry snow so as to cover the trail all up, why in the course of time he'd reach the spot where we found the kid; and as the trail ended there he might guess somebody had found him, or else the wolves had carried the boy off."

"That's true enough, Ethan; but as the wind has been blowing more or less ever since, and the snow is like powder, I'm afraid that trail of the boy has been covered long ago. Even the smartest tracker couldn't keep it long. But we'll have to wait and see what turns up."

They sat there before the fire for a long time. There was so much to talk about that the time passed before they knew it. Lub had some while since managed to get his little charge tucked away under the capacious blanket, and he now declared his intention of joining him.

Phil insisted upon taking the first watch on this particular night, and while the other pair may have had some idea as to what his reason was they did not ask any questions.

"You'll wake me in good time, remember, Phil," had been the last words of X-Ray as he smothered a tremendous yawn; and then followed Ethan under his blanket.

Phil sat there watching the fire, which he meant to keep burning cheerfully all through his time on guard. If any one were heading for the camp through the snow woods that welcome pyramid of flame would serve as a guidepost to their steps. And somehow Phil seemed to have the utmost confidence that sooner or later his vigilance would be rewarded.

An hour, two of them almost had passed, and beyond the customary noises of the night nothing had broken upon his hearing. The wind murmured and fretted among the pine-tops; or a limb creaked mournfully as it scraped across another. A snow owl called to its mate in the deeper recesses of the woods; perhaps some daring little creatures came creeping from unknown recesses under various roots, and hunted for crumbs of food near the camp.

Then Phil raised his head to listen. He smiled, and nodded, as though satisfied his long vigil was about to be rewarded.

Yes, plainly now he caught the peculiar crunch of advancing snow-shoes. The sound came from the quarter away from the lake; and it was in that direction they believed the waif's people had their lonely cabin, deep in the recesses of the bush, so that only with the greatest difficulty could any venturesome game warden ever find the home of the poacher who scorned all their warnings, and defied arrest.

Nearer the sounds came. Whoever it was advancing he was apparently in a desperate hurry; and that seemed to fit in with Phil's way of figuring. Indeed, with the fate of that little darling of a boy hung up in the balance he could not see how any father who cared at all for his child would linger on the snow-shoe trail.

Phil arose quietly to his feet. The sounds were close at hand as a huge form loomed up in the light of the firelight; and Phil drew a breath of relief as he realized that the crisis had come; for that could be no other than the poacher Baylay, come to ask in his anguish if they had seen the lost boy.