The Outdoor Chums on the Lake: or, Lively Adventures on Wildcat Island

“That’s easy. Count on me, if you don’t mind holding my gun while I chase around and gather some stuff that will smolder and not blaze up. Some green weeds make a bitter smoke that smarts the eyes dreadfully. I’ll try that on. Those tramps may be able to stand for a good deal, but if they stay in that place long they’ll feel like a couple of smoked hams,” declared the energetic Bluff.

“Oh, so far as that goes, I’m only too willing to grab a good old gun again. I reckon you let Will have mine,” observed Jerry as he relieved the other of the repeating shotgun.

“And you won’t feel disgraced because it happens to be one of those pump-guns?” Bluff took occasion to remark, maliciously.

“Circumstances alter cases. This is one. I’ve no doubt that a gun like this can be very useful at times. Anyhow, I’m open to a trial. Just let those hoboes show up and try to attack us, and if I don’t fill their miserable bodies full of bird shot, then it’s twenty-three for mine. Now, watch him begin his new job, Frank.”

“You saw what happened to those other boys when they started to rush the door with that log battering-ram, didn’t you, Bluff? Perhaps they’ve got more hot water handy. Look out for it, my son,” warned Frank.

“Oh, I’m onto that racket. I can dodge any Niagara that comes. Besides, I don’t mean to give ’em more of a chance at me than I can help. One of you keep watch on the door, and if they start to open just bang away in the air to tell that we mean business. Here goes, boys.”

So Bluff commenced moving hither and thither under the trees, searching for just the kind of wood he wanted. It was his intention to start his fire alongside the tree that grew nearest to the cabin wall. Then, after he had it smoking at a furious rate he could push the whole mass under the structure with a long stick.

For some time he worked. Not a sound or a sign of life came from the cabin. If Waddy Walsh and his pal, Biffins, were still inside, they knew how to keep quiet.

By this time our friends had become convinced that the hobo couple could not be in possession of any kind of firearm, for they would surely have made some use of the same at the time Pet Peters and his crowd pushed them so warmly.

Feeling sure of this, Bluff worked openly, only keeping behind the trees whenever he approached close to the hut, for fear lest a sudden shower of scalding fluid should greet him.

Frank and Jerry had separated, each watching a side of the cabin. Frank also kept close to the tree which had sheltered the singular being whose coming on the scene had completed the fright of Pet Peters and his cronies. From the way he cast frequent looks up at that yawning cavity it would seem as though he half anticipated a reappearance of the remarkable creature that had vanished inside the tree.

Finally Bluff seemed to have arranged the little pile of material to suit.

“Here she goes, fellows! Look out, now! There may be something doing. Hold ’em up if they rush me!” he called, as he applied a match.

The stuff burned briskly at first. When he had allowed it to gain what headway he deemed sufficient, Bluff began to cover the fire with the green weeds brought for the purpose.

“Wow!” shouted Jerry, as a wavering breeze carried some of the dense smoke over to his station. “That’s the limit! Ought to be a State’s prison offense for any one to make such a smudge as that. You’ll suffocate the poor guys – that’s what!”

But Bluff only grinned, and labored on. He had a long pole in his hands, with which he was shoving the smoldering mass over so that it would pass under a certain part of the cabin. Here there was a friendly opening ready to receive it.

Bang! went a gun.

The cabin door, which had started to open, was hastily shut, although, of course, Jerry had fired above the roof.

“How does it work?” shouted Bluff, thinking more of his gun in the hands of the one who had always detested it than his own danger from hot water.

“Great!” answered Jerry as he let another shot loose, having, as he thought, detected a movement of the door again.

Thinking they had drawn his fangs, those in the cabin now really opened the door, to get a chance to deluge Bluff, when, to their amazement and alarm, Jerry turned loose a third shot. The door shut, this time to open no more for that purpose.

“Now what do you say?” roared Bluff. “What could you have done with one of your old measly two-shot guns, eh? Tell me that.”

“I take back all I ever said against the bully thing. Three more shots waiting for you, Mister Hobo. Just show your nose, and see!” exclaimed the marksman.

“Mark the window, Bluff!” called Frank just then.

Thus warned in time, Bluff was able to scurry around the protecting trunk of the tree as an arm was projected from the small opening, and, as before, a pan of steaming water dashed all around him.

“Tell me about that, will you?” jeered Jerry, who guessed what had happened, though it took place on the other side of the cabin.

Bluff started pushing his mass of smoking weeds forward again.

“Never touched me!” he shouted in his excitement.

By this time the rank smoke had begun to ooze up through the floor of the old cabin. Doubtless there were plenty of gaping cracks between the puncheon boards to allow of a draught. Just how long the inmates could stand this sickening cloud was a question.

“Say! ain’t this the real thing? Perhaps the sheriff would like to take a few lessons from our chum Bluff on how to smoke hams. Listen, will you! The poor guys are sneezing to beat the band. Keep up the good work, pard, and you’ll force their hand. Get ready to cover ’em, Frank. I reckon something’s bound to happen soon.”

“Hey, you Waddy! Show up with the white flag, and we quit!” called Bluff from behind his refuge.

He was rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke, for while he had claimed to have escaped entirely, some of the splashing water had dropped on his skin and left an impression in the shape of a red mark.

“A white flag – that’s the game! Might as well do it right while we’re at it, boys. Come out, Waddy! We want you, and we mean to get you! Three more charges in this elegant pump-gun, and all for you. Do you surrender?” shouted Jerry.

It was happiness to Bluff to hear this scoffing sportsman chum of his thus praise the hitherto detested repeating gun, and he danced around almost recklessly, such was his delight.

But no more charges of scalding water belched out of that small window. Perhaps the two unfortunates within had all they could attend to trying to breathe in that sickening, smoke-laden atmosphere.

“Keep up the good work, Bluff. It’s immense,” encouraged Frank, who really believed that, after all, the other had hit upon a clever way to force a surrender on the part of the defiant hoboes.

Suddenly the energetic fireman gave a loud cheer.

“They shove out the white flag! They surrender! What d’ye think of my plan, now, fellows? There’s Waddy waving it out of the window! Don’t shoot the poor duck – he’s pretty near all in, and blind with the smoke!” he whooped.

It was so.

Perhaps the article that the boy tramp was waving wildly out of the small opening may have hardly deserved the name of white flag, but his intentions could not be doubted.

Smoke had won against stubborn grit, and the hoboes were ready to throw up their hands!

CHAPTER XXIV – A NEW ALARM

“Do you give up, Waddy?” demanded Frank, menacingly holding his gun leveled.

“Oh, we’ll hands up, all right. Both of us are on the blink with the smoke, and nigh blind. Call it off, fellers,” whined the owner of the dirty face in the opening, while he coughed several times to emphasize his words.

“All right, then. Now, tell Biffins that we want him out first, and if he tries to run, it’s a charge of bird shot for him in the rear. Get that?”

“Sure. No danger of us doin’ anythin’. We’re so near blind we couldn’t run if we wanted to.”

The head vanished. Ten seconds later the door was thrown open and a big man staggered into sight, reeling as if he were intoxicated. The two fugitives had stubbornly stuck to the cabin through all, until nearly dead for fresh air.

As he came, the man held both arms aloft. Apparently he knew what was wanted, and did not mean to encourage these young hunters to try a shot at his person.

“Lie down on the ground, on your face!” shouted Frank. “Now keep your hands stretched out that way. Don’t dare move, or it will be bad for you, Biffins. Now, Waddy, your turn!” called Frank again.

A second figure came into view, groping, as if utterly blind. He, too, was compelled to drop on the cool earth, where he could gulp in great breaths of the fresh air, of which they were in such dire need.

From three directions the boys approached.

“Hurrah! We bagged ’em!” shouted Bluff.

Frank said nothing. It was not in his nature to exult over a fallen foe, though he did not blame the more impulsive Bluff for his evident delight.

From one of his pockets he produced some stout cord. He certainly had never dreamed what a singular use he would find for this when placing it there.

“Watch them both, Jerry. Now, Biffins, put your hands behind you, crossed. I’m going to tie them so. It’s no use thinking of doing anything. You couldn’t escape, even if you got away from us, for the sheriff has this island surrounded, and he is on the way here, right now, with his posse. Perhaps you might be shot down in the woods. There, you won’t break that, I reckon, in a hurry.”

He turned his attention to the second rascal. Waddy Walsh had reached a point in his reckless career where he did not care much what happened to him. Having in a measure recovered from the suffocating fumes of the smoking weeds, he even twisted his head half way around to jeer at Jerry.

“Helpin’ to arrest your old pard, hey, Jerry? That’s kind of you, now. I’ll be likely to remember it, old feller, when I get out again,” he said.

“I reckon you won’t have a chance to get out in a hurry, Waddy. I’m ashamed to admit that I did once go out with you, till you took to stealing, and I had to cut you off my visiting list. Hear that shooting, boys? The sheriff’s posse must be in the woods nearby, right now, and coming this way. I reckon Tom found ’em, all right.”

“Well, let ’em come. We’re ready to hand the prisoners over to the lawful officers. Say, but this has been a fierce time all around. We never thought, when we started out to camp on Wildcat Island, that we’d pass through such a string of adventures. Where are you going, Frank?” said Bluff, as the other started to enter the cabin, the smoke having settled somewhat, after the smoldering weeds were dragged away from under the wall.

“Just to look around a little, that’s all. Please stay with Jerry,” came the answer, as Frank vanished within.

Presently he came out again. He had a bundle under his arm, wrapped in a newspaper, and of which he seemed especially careful. Jerry looked at him, and received a nod in return, which he seemed to understand full well, for he asked no questions.

“Here’s the packet Mr. Pemberton lost, and I suppose the valuables are all safe inside, eh, Waddy?” he said, holding up something small he carried.

“Never touched a thing in it. Them other pieces of silver we swiped out of the farmhouse, and anything else you find come from that storage house over in Newtonport. We was after something big there, but missed it,” admitted the boy from the reform school, with unblushing effrontery.

Loud calls were now heard close by. Bluff lifted his tuneful voice and shouted:

“This way, Mr. Dodd. Everything lovely, and the goose hangs high. We’ve got ’em safe and sound. Here’s your men, sir. Step right up and put the irons on ’em!”

Biffins had not said a word up to now. The smoke had taken all desire to talk away from him; but he proved that he could swear like a pirate. No doubt what galled him most of all was the fact that his capture had been brought about through the instrumentality of a parcel of boys.

The crashing of the undergrowth became plainer. Then a party of men could be seen hurrying forward as fast as the tangled thickets would allow.

Mr. Dodd, the sheriff, was at their head. As he saw the two tramp thieves lying on the ground, helpless, he gave a roar. Rushing up to the boys, he shook the hand of each one in turn.

“Bully work, boys! I’m proud to know you, proud to say you live in the same town as I do! Hello, Biffins! So it’s you, eh? Well, this time we’ve got you dead to rights, and you don’t get off. And here’s Waddy Walsh, broke loose from the school he was sent to to learn to become a decent man. Back you go, my fine lad, this time to stay.”

So he rattled on, as he proceeded to clap a pair of neat steel bracelets on the wrists of each of the prisoners.

After that he went into the cabin and thoroughly searched it.

“I reckon we’ve got all the plunder they had, and now it might be a good thing if we burned this old rat trap of a nest to the ground. It’s got a bad name, and if tramp thieves have taken to lodging here, the sooner it goes, the better.”

Under the orders of the sheriff, some of the posse started things moving. In a short time the old cabin was a mass of flames. They made sure that the fire could not extend to the surrounding forest, which was just beginning to be covered with an early crop of new leaves. Then the whole company started through the thickets, headed for the shore.

“Hang the luck! We forget one thing, after all!” said Bluff suddenly.

He had been so busy getting several pictures of the burning cabin that for the time being all other things had escaped him.

“What was that?” asked Frank, winking at Jerry knowingly.

“The wild man! We forgot to get him out of that hollow tree!” exclaimed Bluff.

“Well, it’s too late now. For one, I object to walking back there. Besides, we must hustle in order to make camp again against the coming of the girls,” observed Frank seriously.

“But ain’t we ever going to know what the mystery of that queer creature must be? Perhaps we’d better write to that keeper we met before, Mr. Smithson, and let him know. Then if he’s shy a member of his happy family of lunatics, he’ll know where to hunt for him,” Bluff went on innocently.

“A bully good idea, and you can do the writing when we get home, if you feel that way,” said Frank, with a face that was as sober as that of a judge, while Jerry had to turn his head away to keep from laughing outright.

“But about the girls, fellows! Do you know they may not come, after all. Perhaps the folks have heard about the lively times down here on Wildcat Island, and put a veto on the outing. Then, again, you can hear the wind in the tops of these tall trees, so there must be whitecaps on the lake. It would be risky for a lot of girls to embark on so long a trip,” observed Jerry.

“Well, boys, we’re going to turn aside here, and make for a point where the tug is to meet us. I want to thank you again. Don’t forget there’s a nice little hundred waiting for you when you want to claim it,” said Mr. Dodd, after a bit.

“We’ve decided that you are to turn that reward over to Tom Somers here. He was a great help to us, and we’d like his family to get the hundred, Mr. Dodd,” said Frank.

Tom started to say something, then broke down, and could only look at each of the three boys with his heart in his eyes.

“Now for the place again. It’s tenting once more on the old campground for us, fellows. I hope Will has had the sense to cross over after he saw the tug come, and the posse come ashore,” remarked Frank.

They pushed through the dense growth stubbornly, and in the course of time realized that they were drawing near the open.

“One more rush, and we can pass around that big bluff and see our place. There’s the lake, and whitecaps, too. Too bad the girls can’t be with us. What a yarn we’d have to tell ’em, eh, fellows?” said Frank, laughing.

“Thunder!” exclaimed Bluff just then.

“What’s happened to you, old sport?” asked Jerry.

“Look here, through this opening! Ain’t that the boat with the girls, out there in that jumping sea? And side on, part of the time. Something’s happened to ’em, that’s what, as sure as you’re born!” ejaculated Bluff.

The others looked, and also uttered exclamations of dismay, while Frank called out:

“They seem to have only one oar, and Nellie’s trying to steer with that. Much she knows about sculling! Oh! They were nearly over that time! My heart’s in my mouth. Run for the shore, boys! If only Will has come in with our canoes!”

And plunging like mad through the remaining brush, the three lads broke out upon the little beach, just where they had first landed when coming to Wildcat Island to camp.

CHAPTER XXV – THE RESCUE – CONCLUSION

“Will’s here!” shouted Jerry, as they broke cover.

“Into the canoes, then, as fast as you can!” exclaimed Frank.

He had given one frantic look out on the lake. This had shown him that as yet the helpless boat containing the four girls had not capsized, though with every wave it seemed liable to turn over, having broached to in the heavy running seas.

The way they threw out the contents of the canoes was a caution. Packages fairly covered the little beach, to the bewilderment of Will, who just then came out of the bushes, where he had been placing his first load, and who must have believed at first that his three chums had gone stark mad.

Then the canoes were launched. This in itself was no easy task, but Frank and his chums were experts at handling the small craft, and had often practised all manner of tricks with the boats while in swimming.

Through the breaking surf that rushed up on the shore they ran with the canoes. Then jumping in, they seized the paddles, and started to work furiously.

Success attended their efforts, and presently they were moving swiftly toward the rolling rowboat, in which crouched the four frightened girls.

“Sit down, and keep still! We’ll get you all right!” bawled Frank, as he saw one of the girls make an effort to use the remaining oar.

So they came alongside. Frank breathed a prayer of thanksgiving when his hand caught the gunwale of the skiff.

“I’ve got the boat to hold two of you. Nellie, can you climb over, if I hold on tight?” he asked his sister; “and you, too, Violet, will you dare?”

Nellie made the change easily enough, and then came Will’s sister. Meanwhile, the other boys had decided to convoy the rowboat in with its remaining passengers, rather than attempt the risky task of transferring them out there on the rough lake.

They made fast, one on either side, and began to paddle with the waves. In this way the entire number finally found themselves safely ashore.

“We hardly expected you’d try it in this wind,” said Frank, as he helped Violet up the beach to the deserted camp.

“But the wind came up after we started, and we couldn’t go back to save our lives, you see,” she explained, laughing a little hysterically.

“But what does this mean? Where is your camp, boys? It looks as though everything is done up just as you left home,” said Mame Crosby, as she eyed the many packages which the others were now busily gathering together.

At that they all looked at each other and burst into roars of laughter.

“It’s a long story, girls, and we’ll spin it while we sit around the fire having dinner. As it’s now long past noon, and there’s a heap to do getting the camp fixed again, you must excuse us. Bluff, start the fire going, and the girls can help us out by taking charge of dinner while we build our camp,” said Frank.

Things began to assume the old-time air in less than half an hour. Of course, the girls chattered like magpies as they worked, but all their appeals for information fell on deaf ears until they were sitting around, in picnic style, enjoying the splendid dinner, which was helped out by the delicious things brought from home.

“And to think how near we came to feeding the fishes with these, too,” said Susie Prescott, as she helped Will to a second portion.

“Now please take pity on us, and explain what has happened. We’re just dying by inches to know. What was that tug doing down here, with all those men? And unless I’m mistaken, I saw Mr. Dodd, the sheriff, aboard. He was out hunting those two bad tramps who robbed the steamboat. Oh, boys! Do you mean to say you have had anything to do with them?”

Nellie had brought it to the point where explanations must be in order. So the story was told in detail. Sometimes one of the campers related a certain part, and then another took it up from where he left off.

“And with what views Bluff took for me, I’ll have enough to illustrate the whole performance. A few I’ve missed, and they will always haunt me. Altogether it’s been a remarkable series of adventures,” declared Will enthusiastically.

“The most astonishing that will ever come our way, I reckon,” said Jerry with emphasis.

But though they did not dream of it at that time, there were still stranger things fated to befall the four chums ere many months had passed. These happenings of vacation time will appear in the next volume of this series, to be entitled “The Outdoor Chums in the Forest; or, Laying the Ghost of Oak Ridge,” which will tell of the weird experiences our friends met with while investigating the greatest mystery that ever troubled the neighborhood of Centerville.

The merry party had just about finished their dinner when Bluff once again began to take his comrades to task for not thinking to rout the wild man out of his hole in the tree while they had the help of the sheriff’s posse.

“It’s a chance we’ll never have again, and no doubt the poor old fellow would be better off if turned over to Mr. Smithers, at the asylum. Have any of you girls heard of a lunatic at large since winter?” he kept on, until both Frank and Jerry could stand it no longer.

“It’s a shame to keep you in the dark any longer, Bluff. To tell you the truth, we captured that wild man,” said Frank as soon as he could control his face.

“Captured him? When? How? Where? You’ve been having a joke all to yourselves. It’s time you let me in, boys,” he said positively.

Frank ripped open the newspaper package he had carried all the way from the lone cabin in the jungle. Then he held something up that first provoked exclamations of wonder and then shrieks of laughter from the girls. Bluff turned red in the face, but being good-natured, he finally joined in the mirth.

“So that’s what it was, eh? That big tramp dressed himself up in that monkey skin they stole from Dr. Aiken’s collection, over in the store-house, when they entered. Waddy knew about the story of the wild man said to be on this island, and meant to have Biffins play the part to frighten off any posse that might land. A clever idea, yes; and I guess he did have considerable fun with it,” Bluff went on.

“Jerry knew, of course, for he was a prisoner, and saw the fellow dressing to carry out the part; but I gave him the wink, and he kept quiet,” said Frank.

“But how did you know?” demanded Will.

“I just guessed it. Sort of put two and two together, you see. The footprints gave me a clue. Then I watched the fellow carefully when he was coming out of the tree, and going in later. I believed it was a man, and he seemed to know too much to be a lunatic; but I thought I’d have a little fun with you and Bluff.”

“Into the tree, yes, but how do you explain that? We saw him go in that hole in the hollow stump, and he didn’t come out again, yet Biffins was in the cabin when my stinging smoke made them surrender. There’s something queer about that.”

“You’re right there is, Bluff. I saw how the thing was done when I went inside the cabin, after they had been made prisoners. In the front room was a hole in the floor. I jumped in that, and found, just as I expected, that it was a nice little underground tunnel leading to that hollow tree. Years ago, the man who lived there must have constructed that as a means of escape from some imaginary danger. When Biffins entered that tree he simply kept along until he reached the cabin; but neither of them dared try to escape that way, because they saw me standing guard,” remarked Frank calmly.

“Well! Talk about your mysteries, this one beats the band! But that fellow who died in the cabin did have a reason to be afraid, Frank. I understand he turned out to be a man who was wanted for a capital crime down in New York City. Perhaps he dreamed of the time when he should be tracked to his hiding-place, and meant to have a chance for escape,” observed Jerry.