In Camp on the Big Sunflower

L >> Lawrence J. Leslie >> In Camp on the Big Sunflower

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Produced by John Argus, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

IN CAMP ON THE BIG SUNFLOWER

By

LAWRENCE J. LESLIE

[Illustration: MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR THE FEAST]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I.--AN ALARM IN THE CAMP

II.--TREASURE HUNTING

III.--WHAT OWEN KNEW

IV.--THE UNKNOWN SHELL GATHERERS

V.--A PUZZLER FOR MAX

VI.--THE FIRST CROP FROM THE RIVER

VII.--BANDY-LEGS WANTS TO KNOW

VIII.--A GREAT FIND

IX.--MAX WONDERS STILL MORE

X.--AT DEAD OF NIGHT

XI.--THE NEW COOK SPRINGS HIS SURPRISE

XII.--DANGER AHEAD ON THE TRAIL

XIII.--MAX PLAYS THE GOOD SAMARITAN

XIV.--SETTING THE MAN TRAP AGAIN

XV.--THE MYSTERY SOLVED--CONCLUSION

IN CAMP ON THE BIG SUNFLOWER.

CHAPTER I.

AN ALARM IN THE CAMP.

"Hey, Bandy-legs, what d'ye suppose ails Toby there?"

"He sure looks like he'd just seen a ghost, for a fact, Steve. Where are
Max and his cousin Owen just now?"

"Oh, they walked down along the river bank to look for signs of fresh-water
clams. So we'll just have to run things ourselves, Bandy. Hello! there,
Toby, what under the sun are you staring at?" and the boy called Steve
jumped to his feet as he called out.

It was night in the woods, with a cheery camp fire blazing close to where
the restless river fretted and scolded along its crooked course.

The boy called Toby, whose last name happened to be Jucklin, also scrambled
to his feet when thus hailed by his campmate, Steve Dowdy.

He was a broad-shouldered chap, unusually husky in build, and apparently as
strong as an ox; but all his life poor Toby had been afflicted with an
unfortunate impediment in his speech that gave him no end of trouble.

When the third boy also stood erect it was plain to see how he came by his
name. His legs were bowed, and appeared too short for his body. "Now open
up and tell us what you saw, Toby," demanded Steve, who was by nature
inclined to be what his chums called "bossy."

"L-l-land's sake, didn't you s-s-see it, fellows?" asked the troubled one,
his voice trembling with the excitement under which he was laboring.

"Stick a pin in him, Steve," advised Bandy-legs; "that's the easiest way to
make him talk straight English, you know."

"Don't you dare try it, now, I tell you," warned the other, forgetting to
even stutter in his indignation. "I'm going to tell you about it just when
I'm good and ready. G-get that, now?"

"Please commence then, Toby," pleaded the shorter boy. "Was it a real ghost
you saw, or a snake? I'm terribly set against the crawlers, you remember."

"S-shucks! 'Twan't no s-snake, Bandy; I give you my word for that. But it
had the awfulest glittering eyes you ever s-saw, boys."

"Wow! listen to that for a starter, will you?" cried Steve.

"Keep going, Toby; don't let up now," begged the boy with the crooked legs.

"I just couldn't make out for sure, b-but b-back of the eyes I thought I
could see----"

"Oh, what?" asked Bandy-legs, feverishly.

"A long body just l-like that of a b-b-b----" Toby seemed to swell up as he
tried in vain to say the word he wanted, but it was apparently hopeless.

"Why don't you whistle, Toby, you silly?" cried Steve.

"Yes, that always helps you out, you know," the short boy declared, as he
clapped a hand on the shoulder of the now red-faced stammerer.

Upon which Toby screwed up his rather comical face, puckered his lips, and
emitted a sharp whistle.

Strange to say, the action seemed to cure him for the time being of his
trouble.

"Was it a bear?" asked Bandy-legs, impatiently.

"Come off," remarked the other; "I was only going to say it looked like a
big cat."

"He means a wildcat, Steve!" exclaimed one of those who listened with all
his nerves on edge.

"Or, perhaps, it might have been a panther," remarked Steve, a tinge of
eagerness in his voice, for Steve wanted to distinguish himself while on
this camping trip by doing some wonderful exploit.

"And here we stand like a lot of gumps, when our guns are within reach.
Right now that terrible beast may be making ready to jump on us."

As the short-legged boy spoke he made a flying leap in the direction of
the tent that had been erected.

Both of his campmates were at his heels, and doubtless quite as anxious as
himself.

There was a confused series of sounds following their disappearance. Then
they came crawling out again, each one gripping some sort of weapon.

"Now, show me your blessed old tiger cat!" cried Steve, handling a
double-barreled shotgun valiantly.

"Yes, who cares for a measly wildcat; let him step up and get what's coming
to him!" declared Bandy-legs, who was waving the camp hatchet ferociously.

"I'm b-b-badgered if I c-c-care what it is right now. This rifle belonging
to Max h-h-holds six bullets, fellows," spluttered Toby.

"Listen!" exclaimed Steve, with more or less authority in his voice.

"Oh, what did you think you heard, Steve?" asked the wielder of the
hatchet. "Was it a whine, a cry just like a baby'd make? I've heard that's
the way these panthers act just before they spring. Be ready, both of you,
to shoot him on the wing."

"Rats! It was voices I heard," declared Steve.

"Then it must be Max and Owen coming back to camp from the river,"
Bandy-legs asserted.

"Just as like as not," Steve admitted.

"But what if the savage beast drops down on the shoulders of our chums?"
said the other in tones that were full of horror.

"C-c-come on, b-b-boys!" panted Toby.

"Where to?" demanded Steve. "I'm comfortable just as I stand. What's eating
you now, Toby Jucklin?"

"D-d-didn't you see, we've j-j-just got to warn our c-c-chums, and
s-s-stand that t-t-terrible beast off? H-h-hurry, boys!"

"Yes, I see _you_ hurrying," said Steve, with a laugh; "why, you'd
fall all over yourself, Toby, and perhaps try to swallow our only hatchet
in the bargain. Besides, there's no need of our sallying forth to stand
guard over Max and Owen, because here they come right now."

"Sure they are," declared Bandy-legs, "and mebbe we'll be able to find out
whether it was a wildcat Toby saw, a panther, or one of those awful Injun
devils they say come down here from the Canada woods once in a long time."

"All right, you c'n laugh all you l-like," the boy who stammered said,
obstinately; "but wait and s-s-see what Max says."

The two boys, who strode into the camp just then, eyed the warlike group
with positive surprise.

"What's going on here?" asked the one in the lead, who seemed to be a
well-put-up lad, with a bold, resolute face, clear gray eyes, and of
athletic build.

"Why, you see, Max," began Steve in his usual impetuous way, "Toby here
thought he saw a hungry cat sizing us up, being in want of a dinner; and
so we got ready to give him a warm reception."

"Y-y-you b-b-bet we did!" exclaimed the party in question, shaking his
hatchet ferociously.

The boy called Max turned and looked toward his cousin Owen, and there were
signs of amusement in his manner.

"D'ye suppose it could have been a bobcat?"

Steve went on, he having his own opinion, which was to the effect that Toby
had imagined things.

"Suppose we find out?" suggested Max, promptly.

"Oh, no use asking _him_!" declared Steve. "As soon as he tries to
tell he gets to tumbling all over himself. He saw a pair of staring eyes,
and imagined the rest. For my part, I've made up my mind 'twas only a
little old owl."

Bandy-legs laughed, while Toby grunted his disgust.

"Huh! think so, d-d-do you, Mister Know-it-all? J-j-just you wait and
s-s-see," he remarked.

"Wait for what?" demanded the scoffing Steve.

"Why, Max is g-g-going to find out," asserted Toby. "G-g-guess owls don't
leave tracks, d-d-do they? Well, Max c-c-can soon tell us. Huh! an owl!"

"Oh, I reckon we'll soon be able to settle that part of it, all right,"
said Max, soothingly, for he saw that his two friends were growing a little
too earnest in their dispute.

"T-t-told you s-s-so," chuckled Toby.

"Now, first of all, Toby, answer me a few questions, please," began Max,
steadily.

"S-s-sure I will; just c-c-crack away," the other piped up, cheerfully
enough.

"Sit down again in exactly the same place where you were at the time you
saw these yellow eyes staring at you--they were yellow, all right, I
suppose?" Max continued.

"R-r-reckon I did s-s-say that," admitted Toby, "b-b-but I might's well
confess right n-n-now that I couldn't s-s-say for sure whether the eyes
were g-g-green or y-y-yellow. All I k-k-know is they s-s-stared like
anything at me."

"Listen to him, would you!" exclaimed Steve; "he's backing off his perch
I tell you, taking water to beat the band."

"T-t-tain't so," stoutly declared Toby. "I s-s-saw the eyes, and believed
I c-c-could make out all the rest. G-g-go on, Max; what's next?"

"Are you sitting in the same place?" asked the other, quietly.

"I am," replied Toby.

"Now point exactly to the spot where, as you say, you saw the staring
eyes," Max went on.

"T-t-that's easy done. S-s-see where that bunch of wintergreen p-p-pokes up
l-like the tuft of an Injun's war bonnet--r-r-right there it was, Max."

"All right," remarked the other, quickly. "Now, the rest of you just hold
your horses a bit and give me a chance to look around."

"You bet we will," declared Bandy-legs.

"If anybody can find out the facts, Max will," asserted Steve.

The four boys watched with considerable interest to see what Max would do.
They had the greatest confidence in this chum, whose knowledge of things
pertaining to the woods far exceeded that of any other member of the club.

First of all Max stepped to the fire, and they could see that he was
looking it over carefully.

"He's after a torch, that's what," asserted Steve.

"S-s-sure he is," echoed Toby.

"There, he's found what he wants," declared the boy with the crooked legs;
"and it's a jim dandy one, too. Now he's heading for the place you saw your
big cat, Toby."

"N-n-never said 'twas _my_ cat!" flashed up the other, aggressively.

"Well, you're the only one that saw the beast, anyhow," declared
Bandy-legs, stoutly.

"Oh, let up on all that talk, fellows, and watch what Max does," Steve
broke in, impatiently.

"And," remarked Owen Hastings, speaking for the first time, "if it should
turn out to be any sort of a wild animal, look out how you shoot."

"I s-s-should s-s-say yes," added Toby. "G-g-go mighty slow, boys,
w-w-while our c-c-chum is in front."

"Then don't you think of throwing that tomahawk, Toby, remember," cautioned
Bandy-legs.

"Shucks! you're only t-t-talking to hear yourself," grunted the other,
in scorn.

Meanwhile Max had advanced, torch in hand.

He gave no evidence of any concern, and to all appearances seemed to take
very little stock in the possibility of meeting with some species of
dangerous wild beast.

They saw him bend down, and at the same time thrust the blazing fagot of
wood closer to the ground.

"He's discovered something, sure as you live, and I bet you it's a track,"
asserted Bandy-legs.

"Huh! s-s-see him pickin' something up. P'r'aps it's an owl's feather,"
sneered Toby.

"Now he's beckoning to us to come on, fellows!" cried the eager Steve.

With that the entire bunch started forward, filled with a desire to learn
what Max had discovered.

He was smiling as they hurriedly approached, and yet at the same time the
frown upon his face told that Max found himself puzzled.

"Say, was it a w-w-wildcat?" bubbled forth Toby.

"Or a big Virginia horned owl?" demanded Steve.

Max shook his head to both questions.

"Nixy, fellows, you've got another guess coming," he remarked, soberly.
"Fact is, the eyes Toby saw staring at him through the bushes belonged
to a half-grown boy, and a badly scared one at that!"

CHAPTER II

TREASURE HUNTING.

Strange to say, Toby, usually the last to gather his wits together, was on
this occasion the first to give expression to his overwrought feelings.

"Gee! that's a s-s-screamer you're g-g-giving us, Max," he burst out with.

"But what makes you say it's a boy, Max; why not a man, when you're about
it?" asked the skeptical Steve.

Max held up something he clutched in his hand.

"That's a boy's cap, reckon you'll all admit," he asserted, quietly.

"It sure looks like it," admitted Bandy-legs, bending forward to examine
the article in question.

"And a mighty tattered cap in the bargain, I should say," remarked Owen,
who was something of a bookworm, filled with a theoretical knowledge
concerning subjects that, as a rule, his cousin Max had personal
acquaintance with.

"All right," Max went on, "I found this here, right where Toby saw the
staring eyes. But that isn't all, fellows. Look down where I point, and
tell me what you see."

Bandy-legs and Toby could not make anything out of the queer-looking marks
they saw revealed by the light of the torch.

With the others it was different.

"Somebody's been kneeling here, for a fact," declared Steve.

"Here's where his knees pressed in the earth; and you can see how his toes
dug holes yonder," Owen remarked, pointing.

"Just so," Max went on; "and when you notice how short the distance between
knees and toes is, you'll agree with me it was a boy."

"That's all right, Max," spoke up Steve; "but why would he be a scared
boy--why didn't the chump walk right into camp and join us?"

"Perhaps this boy has some reason to be afraid. Perhaps he got an idea in
his head that we'd come up here to hunt for him! And when he saw Toby
looking straight at him, he fell into a regular panic right away."

"You m-mean he s-s-s-s----" and finding that the word was going to prove
too much for him Toby quickly puckered up his lips, gave a little whistle,
and wound up by speaking the objectionable word as plainly as anyone could
have done--"skedaddled?"

"Yes, ran away as fast as he could," Max continued. "I'm sure of that from
the tracks he made, and only wonder how he could have done the same
without you hearing him."

"Where are his tracks?" asked Steve.

"Yes, show 'em to us, Max," added Bandy-legs.

"Look here, and here, and here, then. You can see by the size that these
footprints were made by a boy. And, yes, his shoes are just about falling
to pieces in the bargain. He's got one tied with a piece of twine, wrapped
several times around."

"Gosh! however do you know that, Max?" asked the astonished Bandy-legs.

"Why, once you learn how to read signs, it's as easy as falling off a log,"
laughed Max, as he proceeded to show them just how he figured things out.

"That's t-t-too bad," muttered Toby.

"Just why?" inquired Max.

"If he'd only had the n-n-nerve to step up, and m-m-make our acquaintance,
there's that bully pair of m-m-moccasins, you know, I'd like to have
g-g-given him. Always pinch my t-t-toes dreadful. Just f-f-fit him, I
bet," declared Toby, who had a very warm heart.

"Well, it's too late now, because the fellow's far enough away by now,"
commented Max.

"Perhaps we might happen to run across him some other time?" suggested
Steve, consolingly.

"Like as not," the other remarked, "and now, let's return to the camp, and
think of what we'll have for supper. I'm as hungry as a bear, for one."

"Same here," declared Bandy-legs enthusiastically; for, though short of
stature, he was known to have full stowage capacity when it came to
disposing of appetizing food.

There was soon more or less of a bustle around the camp. Each one seemed
willing to help, and from the orderly way in which they went about their
several tasks it was evident that these campers had reduced things to
something of a system.

And while the supper is in process of preparation it might be as well for
us to learn a little more about these five lively lads.

They belonged in the town of Carson, which lay some fifteen miles to the
south of the camp.

Always warm friends and chums, they had lately organized themselves into
a little club, which they called the Outing Boys of Carson. The main
object of this association was camping out, and having a good time
generally. But Max and Owen had by degrees conceived ideas far in advance
of these early plans.

It was on account of these ambitious projects that they had now come up
into this wilderness where the boys of Carson were never known to
penetrate before.

Max had a good home, and his cousin Owen, who was an orphan, lived
with him.

Steve was the only son of the leading grocer in Carson, which fact more
than once aroused the keen jealousy of Toby Jucklin, who, like Bandy-legs,
never seemed able to get enough to eat.

Toby himself lived with an uncle, and perhaps this gentleman did not fully
appreciate the enormous appetite of a growing boy, and failed to satisfy
his needs. Besides, Nathan Jucklin was known all over that section as
close-fisted, and capable of "squeezing a penny."

Then there was Bandy-legs. Of course he had a name by which he was known
among his teachers at school and at home. It was Clarence; but to every
boy in town he went by the significant name of Bandy-legs.

They had come up the narrow and tortuous Evergreen River in a couple of old
boats, capable of carrying all the camp material; though so leaky that
frequent baling out was necessary in order to keep things dry.

Sometimes they had been able to use the oars to advantage, and cover a mile
or two in pretty good fashion.

Then, again, they were compelled to use poles in order to push the boats;
or, else going ashore, drag them by means of long ropes, for the rapids
were swift.

It had taken them from early morning to nearly dusk to cover these
fifteen-odd miles; but now that the camp was established, the tent up, the
fire crackling, and supper being prepared, they forgot their tired backs
and muscles.

"Hey, Max!" called out Bandy-legs, turning around from where he was
attending to the bubbling coffee.

"What is it?" asked the other, who had managed to arrange a temporary rude
table, a slab of wood having been brought along for the purpose. "You
forgot to tell us about it, don't you know?" the other went on. "Somehow,
all the excitement about that silly kid in the bushes knocked it clean out
of my head."

"It did now, f-f-for a fact," spoke up Toby. "So t-t-tell us what the
p-p-p-p"--whistle--"prospects are, won't you?"

Max and his cousin exchanged a quick look, after which the former placed a
finger on his lips.

"Wait a little, Toby," he said, cautiously. "When we gather around the
festive board, and get our heads close together, I've got some bully good
news to tell the bunch of you."

"H-h-hear that, will you, boys?" remarked Toby, in more or less excitement.

"Say no more now, please. How about that coffee?" Max continued.

"S-s-she's cooked to a turn, and I h-h-hope the rest of the g-g-grub is
ready, too."

"All right here," announced Bandy-legs, seizing the frying pan, which was
filled with potatoes, seasoned with a few onions, and hurrying over to
where the low table had been arranged.

Inside of five minutes they were busily engaged disposing of the
savory mess.

Five hungry lads can make away with considerable food, given the chance;
but all due allowance had been made for even the astonishing appetites of
Toby and Bandy-legs, when making preparations for the feast.

Once the edge was taken off their appetites, and the boys remembered the
promise made by Max.

"Now tell us what luck you had, Max," Steve asked, as he broke open a fresh
paper package of crackers, and appropriated a generous portion of cheese.

"Y-y-yes, that's the t-t-ticket!" exclaimed Toby.

"I did promise, didn't I?" Max started out to say; "and it's time I kept my
word. You know the idea wasn't mine at all, but came from Owen here, who
had been reading up on the subject. We wanted to discover some way of
earning a nice little sum of money this summer, in order to carry out
certain plans we've got in our minds; and among all the schemes hatched up,
his one struck us as the smartest."

"Besides, it gave us just the jolliest chance to come up here and pitch
camp," asserted Steve.

"Something we'd been talking of doing for ever so long, fellows,"
Bandy-legs put in.

"All of which is true," Max went on to say. "Well, what was this bright
little idea Owen sprung on us! Nothing more nor less than a treasure-
hunting expedition. Only, instead of trying to unearth the gold and jewels
some Captain Kidd of these Northern woods has hidden away, we expect to
find something in the way of gems that no mortal eye has ever looked on
up to now."

Apparently these words of Max gave the others quite a thrill, for they
exchanged looks, and their faces betrayed evidence of intense interest.

"Owen had taken a great deal of stock in this new industry of finding
pearls in mussels, or fresh-water clams," Max went on. "He managed to learn
that long ago our river had been pretty well stocked with these shellfish,
though the town people had eaten them up clean. But Owen believed, and I
agreed with him, that some miles up-stream the chances were we might find a
good lot of mussels, big fellows that had never been disturbed except by
some hungry 'coon or fox."

"And so we just made up our minds to start out on what seemed to be an
innocent camping trip," broke in Steve, chuckling. "That would give us all
the chance we wanted to see whether there was anything in this pearl-
fishing business along fresh-water streams."

"And we're here, all right, ready for work," remarked Bandy-legs. "Would
you mind passing me that frying pan, Owen? It's a shame to waste such a lot
of tasty grub."

"Huh! n-n-no danger," grunted Toby, enviously.

"We had to hurry for all we were worth to get up here before dark," Steve
remarked; "for Owen said the best place would be at the junction of the two
little streams that go to make the Evergreen. And so we didn't have any
chance to make a hunt on the way up."

"But we saw lots of empty shells, you know," broke in Bandy-legs.

"Yes, looked as if muskrats, or something like that, had been living off
mussels right along," Steve admitted.

"And so, while we made camp, our two learned leaders strolled up the river
known as the Big Sunflower to see what the chances were for a crop,"
Bandy-legs went on.

"Now, please make your report, Max, because, you see, we're just burning up
with anxiety to know. A whole lot depends on whether we've come up here on
a fool's errand or not. Did you find what you expected? Are the full shells
here a-plenty?"

And, smiling at the eagerness of Steve, Max drew out several large mussels
from his pockets, which he clapped upon the rude table.

"They're here, all right, boys," he said, earnestly, "but as to whether
we'll find any pearls in the same, that remains to be proven."

CHAPTER III.

WHAT OWEN KNEW.

"Well, I declare, is that the kind of mussel they've been finding pearls
in?" demanded Steve Dowdy, as he took one of the long-shaped bivalves in
his eager hands, the better to examine it.

"They agree with the description to a dot," Owen replied, confidently;
"and, to my mind, these seem particularly fat and promising."

"T-t-tell me about that, now, will you?" gasped Toby, who was also
examining a prize. "S-s-say, Max, why looky here, I've picked up these
s-sort of c-c-clams many a t-time when d-diving."

"I reckon we all have, and opened them, too, to eat," replied Max, with a
good-natured laugh; "but not being wise to the pearl racket at the time,
it never struck us that we ought to examine the shellfish closely before
swallowing."

"Bet you more'n one pearl has gone down my red lane then," grinned
Bandy-legs; "because, you see, I always used to be mighty fond of fresh
or pickled mussels. Say, perhaps I'm a walking jewelry shop right now,
fellers. Mebbe I'm carrying around a whole pearl outfit. Wow! it makes me
feel uneasy-like."

"D-d-don't you worry any, my b-b-boy," broke in Toby; "no danger of
anybody t-t-trying to k-k-kidnap you, even if your pouch was lined with
p-p-pearls."

"That's wise of you to say such kind things, Toby! I'll remember it, too,"
said the other, reproachfully.

"But, see here," remarked Steve, "what's to hinder us from breaking open
these mussels right now, and finding out if they've got anything worth
saving sewed up inside?"

"Be sure and keep the meat, then, fellows," broke out the boy with the
crooked legs. "Two apiece all around means ten, and that ought to make a
nice little dish of stewed mussels."

"Yes, j-j-just so, for t-two," asserted Toby.

Each boy thereupon set eagerly to work opening the pair of shellfish that
had fallen to his share. Being unfamiliar with the methods employed they
were doubtless all more or less clumsy. One by one they succeeded in
accomplishing the task, and immediately set to work examining the contents
for any sign of a prize.

Silence reigned for several minutes. Then Max addressed his four chums,
inquiring:

"Are you all through?"

An affirmative answer came from each one of the others in turn.

"What luck, Owen?" asked the master of ceremonies, turning upon his cousin.

"Nothing doing here," came the response.

"How about you, Bandy-legs?" Max went on.

"All a bluff; nary a show of color," was the way the disappointed one made
answer.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7