Guns And Snowshoes

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"I don't want to go to her house," said Carl.

Mr. Dudder lost no time in paying Mammy Shrader a visit, and then he
called on Doctor Reed. When he came home again he was very angry.

"Carl, I have a good mind to punish you severely," he said. "I did not
think you would treat a woman as Mrs. Shrader has been treated. I
shall have to pay her doctor's bill and also something more--at least
fifteen or twenty dollars." Mr. Dudder sighed at the thought of
parting with so much cash. "I shall take the amount out of your
spending money, and out of the money I was going to give you for
Christmas"

"Can't I have the five dollars you promised me for Christmas?" gasped
Carl.

"Not a cent of it."

"Oh, you're a mean thing!" burst out Carl, and ran from the room
before his father could stop him.

CHAPTER IV

THE EXPLOSION

On the following afternoon Snap was walking down to the river front,
on an errand for his father, when he caught sight of Ham Spink and
Carl Dudder, under a lumber shed. The pair were conversing in an
earnest fashion, but ceased their conversation as Snap came closer.

Snap knew that Ham and Carl were in far from a friendly humor. Through
one boy he had learned how Carl had been treated by his father, and
through another how Andrew Felps had discovered that Ham had been his
aggressor. There had been a lively interview when Mr. Felps and Mr.
Spink had met, and in the end the latter had said he would stand for
all damage done. Then he had gone home and laid down the law good and
hard to Ham.

"To punish you I will cut off your spending money," said Mr. Spink,
and thus Ham and Carl found themselves in the same trouble so far as
cash was concerned. It galled them exceedingly, and, as was their
habit, they laid the blame entirely on others.

As Snap passed the shed both Ham and Carl scowled at him. Then, after
he had gone a dozen steps, Ham called out:

"Come back here. I want to talk to you."

"Did you address me?" demanded Snap, wheeling around.

"I did. Come here, I want to talk to you."

Snap did not budge.

"If you want to talk to me you can come where I am," he said.

"Oh, you needn't get so mighty high and loftly!" sneered Ham Spink.

"I am not your servant."

"Nice stories you and your crowd have been telling about me and Carl,"
went on Ham, coming closer.

"Trying to get us into trouble," put in Carl. "It's a jolly shame and
you ought to be thrashed for it."

"See here, Dudder, and you too, Spink," answered Charley firmly, "I
want no quarrel with you. Ever since our outing last summer you have
been like bears with sore heads. If your camping out was a failure it
wasn't our fault. When you hadn't any game we let you have some of
ours, and we did a great deal more for you than you deserved. Now--"

"Oh, don't preach!" cried Ham.

"What do you want of me?"

"I want to give you fair warning that neither I nor Carl will stand
for the way you are acting. Either you keep your distance, or it will
be the worse for you."

"I am not afraid of you."

"Well, you had better be."

"What do you mean by that?" demanded Snap. He fancied there might be
some hidden meaning to Ham Spink's words.

"Oh, you'll find out one of these days," came from Carl,
significantly.

"If you try any of your underhanded tricks you'll get the worst of
it--just as you did up to the camp," answered Snap, and went on his
way.

"Oh, I wish I could mash him!" muttered Ham Spink, between his set
teeth.

"Yes, and mash the whole crowd of 'em," added Dodder. "I hate the very
sight of 'em!"

"Do you know that they are talking about camping out again?"

"What, this winter?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"That I don't know."

"I'd like to spoil the trip for them."

"So would I. Maybe we can do it too, if we watch our chances."

The two talked the matter over for some time and when they separated
it was with the fixed determination to play some underhanded trick and
do "the Dodge crowd," as they called our friends much harm.

All of the boys who attended the local school had been waiting
impatiently to learn when the present session would come to an end.
Now it was announced that school would close the following Friday
afternoon and remain shut up for three weeks and a half.

"Hurrah! that will give us just time enough for a dandy outing!" cried
Whopper.

"You'll have to kill a bear a day to make up the number you said you'd
bring down," answered, Giant.

"Pooh! I never kill bears singly," sniffed Whopper. "I always kill them
in pairs or by the half dozen."

"We've got to make sure that we can go first," said Shep. "Remember
the school averages."

They did remember, and all were very anxious concerning the
examinations to come off before the term closed. They studied hard,
and came out with an average of eight-eight to ninety-four per cent.

"Good!" said Snap. "Our folks can't find fault with such records." And
nobody did find fault. On the contrary, the boys received not a little
praise, and permission to go on the winter outing was readily granted.

"Let us start next Monday," said Giant, who was impatient to get away.

"I doubt if we can get ready so quickly," answered Shep. "There is a
good deal to do, you know."

"Then make it Tuesday," pleaded Giant.

"The ice on the river is perfect, so it will be the easiest thing in
the world to skate to the lake and drag our sleds after us."

It had already been decided that they should go into camp at Firefly
Lake, where they had left their summer shelter only a few months
before. Firefly Lake was a beautiful sheet of water, or ice, located a
mile from Lake Cameron, and about eleven miles from Fairview. To get
to this spot they had to go to Lake Cameron first and then along a
narrow watercourse which united the two sheets of water.

The news quickly spread through the town that the Gun Club was going
away on another outing, and many envied our friends their coming
pleasures. Ham Spink and Carl Rudder looked sour over the prospects.

"Where are they going?" asked Carl.

"To Firefly Lake, to their old camp."

After this announcement both boys looked at each other suggestively.

"It will be moonlight to-night, and we can easily skate twenty or
twenty-five miles," suggested Ham.

"So we can, Ham. Let us do it, and--_fix things_."

"We will," said Ham firmly.

As soon as it was settled that our friends were to go away before
Christmas, and remain away over the holidays, they received from their
parents several gifts in advance. All obtained snowshoes--picked out
for them by their old hunter friend, Jed Sanborn--and they also
procured an extra gun, an extra sled, and some warm camp blankets.
They still possessed their old camp outfit and so it was an easy
matter to gather the things together and get everything ready for the
start. The outfit was packed upon two good-sized sleds and well
fastened.

"I suppose we ought to have skated up to the camp and inspected
things," observed Snap. "But I have been too busy to do so."

"Oh, I reckon everything is as we left it," answered Whopper.

"The camp was all right two weeks ago," said Jed Sanborn, who chanced
to be present. "Of course you'll have to fix up some kind of a chimney
in the cabin, for you can't keep your fire outdoors in this weather."

"It's as much fun to fix up the cabin as it is to camp out," said
Shep, and the others agreed with him.

On Monday afternoon the boys got their things together and stored them
in an old boathouse on the river front. They had looked to their
skates and each pair had been sharpened and put in first class
condition.

"We may use our skates as much as the snowshoes," said Whopper.

With everything stored in the old boathouse the door was carefully
locked by Shep, who put the key in his pocket. The old boathouse had
two windows, but each of these was nailed shut.

"I don't believe anybody will get in there," observed the doctor's
son.

"Oh, I don't think there are any thieves around," answered Whopper.

The evening was devoted to final preparations, and it was after ten
o'clock before any of the boys thought of retiring. Snap was over to
Shep's house, and the doctor's son saw his friend to the front door.

"Now remember, seven o'clock sharp," said Shep. "We want to get away
as early as possible, so we'll have plenty of time to fix up the cabin
when we get there."

"Oh, I'll be up early enough," said Snap, with a smile. "Fact of it
is, I am so worked up I don't expect to do much sleeping."

After a few words more the boys separated, and Snap started to walk
home. He had almost reached his gate when something prompted him to
halt. He looked down the roadway in the direction of the old
boathouse.

"I have half a mind to go down and see if everything is O. K.," he
murmured to himself.

Then he thought it would be foolish, and started to enter the house.
But he was undecided, and at last hurried down the roadway in the
direction of the river.

He was still some distance from the old boathouse when he discovered
two persons running across an open field which lined the roadway. He
could not make out anything excepting that they were either men or big
boys.

"That's queer," he reasoned, and then started forward again.

Snap was still two hundred feet from the old boathouse when a most
extraordinary thing happened. There was a rumble as of thunder,
followed by a fierce flash of fire, and then the end of the boathouse
arose in the air and came down with a crash, completely wrecking what
was left of the building!

CHAPTER V

OFF FOR THE CAMP

The sudden and unexpected shock nearly threw Snap from his feet, and
it was several seconds before he could collect his senses.

Then, in a dim and uncertain way, he realized two things--that there
had been a terrific explosion and that the old boathouse containing
their precious camping outfit was in ruins.

"What in the world can it mean?" he asked himself, as he stared in a
bewildered fashion at the ruin in front of him. "It sounded as if some
dynamite went off."

The noise and shock of the explosion was heard all over Fairview, and
soon people came flocking to the scene from all directions.

"What blew up?"

"Hullo, the Cramer boathouse is down!"

"Fire! fire!"

Such were some of the cries which arose on all sides. Then the crowd
came closer, staring at the fallen building, as Snap had done.

In the meanwhile Snap ran forward until he was less than a rod away
from the wrecked building. He saw a small fire start up among some
splintered boards and, quick to act, picked up some chunks of snow and
attempted to put it out.

"That's a good idea," said John Sell, the grocer, who had arrived, and
he, too, began to throw the snow, and so did others.

"Our camping-out things are in that place," said Snap.

"Is that so. What blew up, some of your powder?"

"I--I don't think so," faltered Snap. He had up to that moment not
thought of the cartridges they had stored on one of the sleds.

"Must have been pretty powerful," said another man. "That noise was
like a regular blast over to the stone quarries."

In the crowd was Shep, who had just been on be point of going to bed,
and soon Whopper and Giant arrived. In the meanwhile large quantities
of snow were hurled on the ruins and soon the fire was completely
under control.

"Snap, do you think our cartridges went off? questioned Whopper.

"No, I don't. How could they go off, unless they were fired, from a
gun or otherwise?"

"A rat might have gnawed them," suggested Giant.

"Those cartridges wouldn't cause such a wreckage as this," said Snap
firmly. His senses were now coming back to him. "Well, I never!" he
exclaimed suddenly.

"What's up now?"

"I just thought of something."

"What is it?"

"When I left Shep's house I walked in this direction, because I was
worried for fear somebody might steal our traps. As I walked along I
saw two persons running across Hecker's cornfield. I couldn't make out
who they were, but I fancy they came from this direction."

"Then they must have caused the explosion," said Whopper quickly. "But
why should they do it?"

"Maybe it was an accident," said Giant.

"I'd like to know how much our outfit is damaged," said Shep,
anxiously. "I don't care about the old boathouse. It wasn't worth much
anyway."

From a nearby store several lanterns were brought, and men and boys
proceeded to make an inspection of the ruins. Some boards and timbers
were hauled aside, and soon the boys discovered the sleds with the
outfit practically as they had left them. One load was a bit damaged
at the end, but that was all.

"I'm thankful it is no worse," was Snap's comment.

"If the fire hadn't been put out when it was everything would have
burnt up," said Shep seriously.

While the boys were taking care of their sleds and the other things
the men folks looked around for traces of what had caused the
explosion. Among the men was Jerry Corwin, one of the blasters at the
stone quarry.

"Dynamite did this," said he. "Dynamite and nothing else."

"It certainly sounded like dynamite," said another man.

"How would dynamite get here?" asked Mr. Dodge, who had arrived on the
scene.

At this question Jerry Corwin shrugged his massive shoulders.

"Once in a while some dynamite is missing from our store at the
quarry," he answered. "The laborers steal it, for they can sell it to
farmers for blasting out stumps, and to others. During the past six
months we have lost at least a dozen sticks."

"As the boathouse was not worth much, why was it blown up?" asked
Doctor Reed, who had been summoned by somebody who thought a man had
been hurt.

"That's the question," said Mr. Dodge. "Evidently it contained nothing
of value outside of the outfit belonging to our sons."

"Hum!" murmured the physician, and said no more.

It was a bitter cold night, so after the fire was put out and the
ruins examined, the majority of the crowd went home. The members of
the Gun Club put their outfits in a neighboring barn, where a friend
promised they should be safe, and then, after a short talk, went to
their respective abodes. It was a good hour before any of the lads got
to sleep.

Whopper was just dreaming of another terrific explosion when he awoke
with a start, to hear a loud pounding on the side of the house,
directly under his bedroom window. Opening the sash cautiously he
caught sight of Giant below, hitting the clapboards with a snow shovel
which happened to be handy.

"Oh, what a racket!" murmured Whopper. "I must pay him for that!" And
scooping up some snow from the window sill he gave a low whistle. Then
as Giant looked up, he let the snow drop.

"Wuow!" spluttered the little lad, as the loose snow filled his mouth
and nose. "Say, do you want to smother me?"

"Then stop that infernal racket," answered Whopper. "Do you want the
neighborhood to think that there are more explosions taking place?"

"Time to be moving," said Giant, and passed on, to arouse Shep.

"Now, my son, be very careful and keep out of danger," said Mr. Dodge
to Charley, when the latter was ready to leave. "I shall send old Jed
Sanborn up to see you once or twice, and if you need anything from
here you let him know and he can bring it to you." And then, after a
warm handshake from his father and a kiss from his mother, Snap almost
ran from the house, fearful that he would be late.

At the barn where the things had been stored he found Giant and Shep,
but nothing was to be seen of Whopper.

"I woke him up," said Giant. "Something has gone wrong, or he would be
here by this time."

They waited five minutes longer, and Snap was on the point of going to
Whopper's home when they saw the missing club member approaching on a
run.

"What in the world kept you so long?" cried Shep.

"Oh, I had a little set-to with Barney Hedge," answered Whopper. "He
said some things I didn't like and I rolled him over in the snow and
put some down his back to help him cool off."

"Barney Hedge," repeated Snap. He knew the fellow mentioned to be a
crony of Ham Spink and Carl Dudder. "What was it about?"

"Oh, about our outing last summer. It seems Hedge and the others are
starting a report that we didn't shoot the game we brought in, but
that Jed Sanborn brought down the most of it for us."

"How mean!" cried Giant.

"He said we couldn't shoot but that we were all blowers--and if left
to ourselves in this cold weather we would starve to death and freeze
in the bargain. I couldn't stand for that, so I pitched into him."

"Good for you!" shouted Giant. "I hope you gave him something to
remember."

"I wonder if we will have trouble with that crowd during the present
outing," mused Snap after a pause.

"I don't think they are going camping," answered Whopper. "They
haven't got enough real sporting blood in them."

After that the topic of conversation quickly changed, as they looked
over their things for the last time, to make certain that everything
was there.

The boys carried a good supply of clothing, including extra underwear
and extra pairs of boots. Each had a pair of warm blankets and also a
rubber sheet, to be used in case of sudden rain.

The stores were made up of a variety of things, including flour,
bacon, beans, some canned goods, and coffee, chocolate, sugar, salt,
pepper and condensed milk. They had their old "nest" of pans and
kettles, tin cups and plates, and likewise enough knives, forks and
spoons to go around. In a waterproof case were several boxes of
matches, and they also had along an acetylene bicycle lamp, which they
thought they might use in bringing down game at night, and an axe and
a hatchet.

All of the young sportsmen were armed with shotguns and they also took
along Mr. Dodge's rifle, as they had done before, and the trusty
pistol belonging to Doctor Reed. Their snowshoes were placed on the
tops of the loads, and they put on their well-sharpened skates as soon
as the river front was reached.

"Good-bye to Fairview!" cried Shep, when all was in readiness for the
start.

"Good-bye, boys, and the best of luck for you!" shouted Doctor Reed,
who had driven down in his sleigh, to see them off.

"Don't let the bears eat you up!" called out a riverman who stood on
the dock.

"No danger of that," answered Snap.

And then with a shout and the waving of caps, the members of the
Fairview Gun Club set off on their winter outing, never dreaming of
the many surprises and perils which awaited them.

CHAPTER VI

CHICKENS AND MINCE PIE

It was a perfect winter day, with a dull golden glow in the sky and
only a faint breeze from the north blowing. On the ground the snow lay
to the depth of ten inches or a foot, but the wind of the week past
had almost cleared the ice on the river. Here and there were long
ridges of snow across the glare, but that was all.

The young hunters had tied long ropes to the sleds, and while Whopper
and Shep pulled one turnout, Snap and Giant dragged the other. The
sleds had polished runners, and slid over the river surface so easily
that pulling was more sport than work.

The course was down the river towards Lake Cameron, and in a very few
minutes the town neighborhood was left behind. On either side of the
frozen stream were trees and bushes, with here and there a cleared
patch or an orchard. Some boys accompanied them a short distance, but
then these dropped back, and our four young friends were left to
themselves.

"Do you remember how we stopped at Pop Lundy's orchard when we went to
the camp in the rowboat?" observed Shep.

"Yes, and how he caught us and then got us to go after the negro who
stole the watch," put in Whopper.

"I shouldn't mind having some of his apples now," said Giant. "We
ought to have taken apples along."

"There is the orchard now," cried Snap. "But there are no apples to be
had this time of year."

"As if we would dare to take them," said Whopper, with a wink of his
eye.

As they neared the spot where the orchard ran down to the river shore
they heard the sound of an axe and saw Simon Lundy chopping down an
old apple tree for firewood. The man was a very close-fisted farmer
and was rarely known to do a charitable act.

"How are you, Mr. Lundy!" called out Snap, as he brought one of the
sleds to a halt.

"How do ye do," grunted the farmer, and then gave a closer look. "Oh,
so it's you fellers ag'in, hey? Goin' campin' once more?

"We are."

"How are your apples getting along?" asked Shep, also halting.

"Didn't have sech a big crop as I expected."

"Thought you might spare us a few," suggested Whopper. "Of course
we'll pay for them, if you wish."

"Well, there hain't much profit in givin' apples away," said Simon
Lundy, pursing up his thin lips. "Got some putty good golden russets
left. How many do ye want?"

"Give us all you can spare for a quarter," said Shep, who had been
chosen treasurer of the club for the outing.

Simon Lundy led the way to his barn, and there the boys picked out
some russets and some greenings. While this was going on Mrs. Lundy
came from the house to see the visitors.

"Why, if it ain't them same boys as helped to catch that nigger!" she
cried. "Want some apples, hey? Give 'em all they want, Simon. They
deserve 'em."

"I was a--er--a--sellin' them the apples," answered the husband,
lamely, and growing a bit red in the face.

"What! Simon Lundy, ain't ye ashamed! You shan't take a cent from 'em,
not a cent! Why, the idee!"

"All right, all right, if you say so," said the farmer hastily.

"I do say so." Mrs. Lundy turned to the young hunters. "Where be you
a-goin?"

"We are going camping," answered Snap. "At the same place we were last
summer."

"Ain't you afraid o' being frizz to death?"

"Oh, I think we can stand it."

"What have ye took along to eat?"

Snap told her and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Ye ought to have brung more, boys. Now, I've jest been a-makin' some
mince pies. Wouldn't ye like one o' them?"

"Yes, indeed!" shouted Whopper, who had a weakness for that dainty. "I
can eat mince pie in the middle of my sleep."

"Then you shall have the biggest pie o' the lot," said Mrs. Lundy.
"And, Simon," she added, to her husband, "you jest kill a couple o'
fat chickens fer 'em. Maybe they won't find no game the first day they
be in camp, an' they ought to have some kind o' meat."

"It's drefful expensive!" groaned Simon Lundy.

"Shucks! These boys did us a real service, an' want 'em to know we
appreciate it," answered Mrs. Lundy briskly.

She told her husband what chickens to catch and kill, and helped pull
the feathers. Then she brought forth the still steaming mince pie,
leaving it in the stone dish in which it had been baked.

"You can leave the dish when you come back--if you think o' it," she
said, "and if ye don't, 'twon't matter much."

A little later saw the four boy hunters on their way again, the
precious mince pie resting on the top of one of the sled loads and the
apples and chickens on the other. Mrs. Lundy waved them a cheery adieu
and Simon smiled somewhat grimly.

"It nearly broke old Pop Lundy's heart to give the things away," was
Giant's comment.

"It wasn't any more than fair, after what we did for him," answered
Shep. "Say, boys, camping out with chicken and mince pie won't be bad,
will it?"

"Yum! yum!" was the only answer the others gave.

By noon they found themselves on Lake Cameron. On one shore were the
grim evidences of that terrible forest fire which had nearly cost the
saw mill robber and the Felps' crowd their lives. A few spots on the
lake were clear, but at other points the snow lay from a few inches to
a foot and a half deep.

They skated to the opposite shore and stopped near the shelter of some
pines and hemlocks. All were willing to rest, and a small campfire was
built, over which they made a pot of coffee. They had brought with
them some sandwiches and some cake, and these made up the brief
noonday meal.

"Here goes for a first shot!" cried Snap, leaping to his feet with a
part of a sandwich still in his mouth. He had discovered several
rabbits near some bushes up the lake shore. Catching up his shotgun he
took careful aim and blazed away.

"Two of them!" exclaimed Shep. "Good for you, Snap!"

Snap ran forward and picked up the game. They were plump and heavy and
he held them up with pride.

"We shan't starve just yet," remarked Giant. "We are sure to get
rabbits, and partridge and wild turkeys, and there must be plenty of
fish under this ice."

All of the party were anxious to reach the former camp, to see what it
looked like, so the noonday rest did not last long. Skirting one shore
of Lake Cameron, they came to the narrow waterway that connected it
with Firefly Lake. Here the water, which usually flowed swiftly
between the rocks, was frozen up in a lumpy fashion that made skating
impossible.

"We'll have to walk the rest of the distance," announced Whopper. "We
couldn't skate on this in a million years."

"I wish we could try the snowshoes," said Giant. He knew very little
about using the articles.

"Can't do it," answered Snap. "But just you wait, we'll have more snow
before long and then the snowshoes will come in mighty handy."

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