Chapter 12

A MOONLIGHT VISITOR

As a matter of fact, the fishing was only a pretext on Kiddie's part. They caught no fish whatever, and they were still in the middle of the lake when darkness came on.

Kiddie lingered yet longer, resting over his paddle and entertaining his companion with talk and stories and the singing of songs. Hardly noticed by Rube, he dipped the paddle and gradually turned the canoe round and round.

"Rube, old man," he said at length, "I've made up another scouting task for you. Find our landing place. Take us straight into it. You can't see it in this darkness, I know. You dunno where 'tis; but you've got ter navigate us into it, and without my help, see?"

Rube was not to be caught napping. He took the paddle in hand, looked up to the stars, and made for home as truly and unerringly as even Kiddie himself could have done.

The air was hot that night, and Kiddie again preferred to sleep in the open. And he slept very soundly.

Rube, on the contrary, found the teepee stifling, in spite of the wide-open door flap. He was restless; the mosquitoes tormented him, too. He began to envy Kiddie, lying in the cooler air. So much so that at about two o'clock in the morning ho got free of his sleeping bag, took his revolver, and crept out into the bright moonlight.

Kiddie lay flat on his back under a cotton-wood tree, his arms folded across his chest, shielding his hidden eyes from the silvery light of the moon.

Rube's foot kicked against an unseen pannikin, making an alarming clatter.

He looked to see if Kiddie stirred, and saw instead a movement in the tree. The branch just above Kiddie's head was swaying and a strange black body showed itself ominously through the trembling leaves.

Rube leant forward and became aware of a pair of large, shining, yellow eyes. Beneath them, farther back, a long, curved tail was swinging to and fro like a pendulum. The eyes were far apart, showing that the animal which owned them was of great size--bigger, certainly, than an ordinary lynx.

Rube raised his gun, deciding to shoot the beast between the eyes. But before he could take aim there was a sudden quick movement in Kiddie's sleeping-place, a sharp flash, and a loud report that was mingled with a fierce howl and a heavy thud.

Kiddie had leapt to his feet and was ready to fire a second shot at the beast that was writhing and snarling at his feet.

"Keep back, Rube," he said calmly. "He ain't dead yet. But I've got him. It's that black puma that came t' th' trap last night."

From where Rube Carter stood, Kiddie and the wounded puma seemed to be hopelessly mixed up together in the darkness. He made a step or two forward holding his revolver levelled, with his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot, yet hesitating, lest he should hit Kiddie.

"Keep back!" Kiddie repeated. "I've sure got him."

The puma was rolling and writhing in helplessness, snarling viciously, and now and then howling, as it tried to rise to its feet. Rube could see the brute's big round eyes flashing brightly at first and then becoming smaller and dimmer.

"Mind it don't give you a scratch with them claws," he cautioned Kiddie.

Kiddie stood back, and the moonlight fell upon the puma's sleek black coat.

"Biggest lion I've ever seen," remarked Rube. "I'm only wishin' it had bin me 'stead of you as put the bullet in him."

"You can give him one right now, to finish him," said Kiddie.

"He ain't needin' another," said Rube. "Besides, 'tain't th' same thing. I guessed you was sound asleep when I come outer the wigwam. Puma was lyin' along the branch right over you, gettin' ready ter drop down on you. I reckoned your life was in danger, an' I wanted ter save you, see? That's what I'm allus wantin' t' do; but you never gives me a chance. How did you know the brute was thar, Kiddie? How did you happen ter wake an' git out your gun an' shoot so mortal quick--'fore I'd time ter lift my arm an' press the trigger?"

"Well," returned Kiddie, "I dunno exactly. But I've a notion that I knew the critter was right there long before you did, Rube. I'd heard him crawlin' along among the bushes an' nosin' around about the traps. He was some wise, though, after his experience of last night. He wasn't havin' any truck with them traps. He was kind of suspicious of 'em, I guess, an' preferred to hunt his own food alive. So he got on ter the scent of the camp an' came sneakin' right here. I've a notion he didn't like the look of the teepee where you were sleepin'--thought maybe it was another trap; no more did he find any attraction in the camp fire. Thar was a live man, however, easy t' get at, under this yer tree. He came t' investigate overhead, an' was lyin' along that branch when you oozed outer the teepee an' diverted his attention by kickin' your foot against a tin pannikin, makin' noise enough t' waken the seven sleepers. If I hadn't been pretty quick with my gun just then, I guess that puma wouldn't have hesitated t' make a meal of you."

"Allus allowin' that I didn't stop him," rejoined Rube.

He watched the puma giving a final kick, and then become still and silent.

Kiddie went nearer to the animal, seized its long tail in both hands and hauled it bodily away from under the tree.

"We'll leave him there till daylight," he decided, "an' then have a proper look at him. Meanwhile, let's quit and finish our sleep."

Daylight revealed the puma as an uncommonly fine animal, in good condition. Kiddie preserved the pelt, with the head and feet. He also took the dimensions of the carcass at various parts to help him in modelling the body for mounting.

"I've got a pair of glass eyes that'll just suit," he told Rube. "They're some light in colour, but I guess we c'n darken 'em before we fix 'em in."

On that same day they moved the camp to a different part of the forest, but still on the shores of the lake, and they remained there for a week, trapping, shooting, fishing, and exercising their woodcraft. Then, at Rube's suggestion, they landed on a small island thickly overgrown with pine trees. Here, however, there were very few animals to trap, and small opportunity for scouting, although Rube did not for that reason cease to take advantage of Kiddie's wider knowledge and skill.

They were out in the canoe fishing one afternoon. Kiddie remarked upon the extreme clearness of the water, and told Rube to lean over and look down into it.

"You c'n see the bottom of the lake fathoms an' fathoms beneath us," he said.

"Yes," agreed Rube, peering down into the transparent depths. He raised his head and added: "You was sayin' th' other day, Kiddie, that no white man, an' p'r'aps no red man either, had ever lived in these parts in ancient times."

"I said--or meant to say--that there was no visible trace of early native inhabitants or white settlers," Kiddie corrected.

"Well, that's good enough," resumed Rube. "I guess I've got you, anyway. Look deep down thar, an' you'll see the trunk of a tree. It ain't got 'ny branches on it. I b'lieve I c'n even make out the cuts of an axe on the end of it. How'd it come there if it wasn't hewn down by men as used edged tools?"

Kiddie was not in the least nonplussed.

"How'd it come t' be lyin' at the bottom of the lake, anyway?" he questioned.

"Dunno," Rube answered, very much puzzled. "You mean, why ain't it afloat? Guess it's too heavy; though I can't tell just why. All wood floats, don't it?"

"Most wood does--all that grows about here," Kiddie affirmed. "Why, do you suppose, your men with edged tools took the trouble to cut down a big tree like that, and not make any use of so much valuable timber?"

Rube shrugged his shoulders.

"Now you're askin' me a conundrum I can't answer," he said.

"No," returned Kiddie; "because you've got hold of the wrong idea. That tree wasn't felled by any axe. It grew at the edge of the lake, where the ground was soft and moist. It was blown down in some storm or hurricane, and fell into the water. Gradually th' roots an' branches broke off, and after a long while--many years, mebbe--the bare trunk floated off. It drifted about like an iceberg or a derelict ship--drifted an' drifted until it became water-logged an' so heavy that it sank t' th' bottom, where it still lies. It was just an ordinary process of Nature."

Rube was silent for many moments.

"Thar ain't no trippin' you up, Kiddie," he said at length. "I made certain sure I had you that time."

"Wait a bit," pursued Kiddie; "I'll show you something else." He paddled farther out in the lake, taking his bearings by well-remembered landmarks. "Now look down through the water," he instructed, when after many pauses, he at last drew in his paddle. "What d'ye see?"

Rube leant over and searched the depths.

"Not much," he answered. "I c'n see the bottom, sure--stones, gravel, swayin' weeds. Hold hard, though. Them stones didn't grow there. Guess they're too reg'lar. I c'n make out a ring of 'em."

"Yes," said Kiddie. "So c'n I. Some queer that they should be arranged in a circle that way, ain't it? Are you able t' figure it out?"

Rube pondered deeply, frequently looking down at the stones so precisely placed in a ring at the bottom of the lake.

"They sure never come there on their own account, like the tree," he decided. "Looks as if human hands had put em' that way, an' I've got a idea, Kiddie. It's just this. Centuries an' centuries ago, this yer lake wasn't a lake at all, but dry land."

"Well?" Kiddie smiled. "That's possible."

"And," continued Rube, "when it was dry land, a tribe of what you call prehistoric men lived here. They was pagans--sun worshippers, an' such. They built the stones in a circle as a kinder temple, same's them chaps you told me of that built Stonehenge. What? Ain't that a cute idea of mine?"

"I allow th' idea's cute," conceded Kiddie. "But it ain't an explanation. It's too far-fetched altogether, an' it contradicts the theory that there were no inhabitants in these wildernesses all that time ago. If you'd thought a bit longer, you might have hit upon the true an' very commonplace explanation. Y'see, the stones haven't even been in the lake long enough to get a growth of weeds and moss on 'em. As a matter of fact, they've been there only a very few winters--since the time when the name 'Kiddie' was more appropriate to me than it is now. There was a big frost; the lake was frozen over. I'd the boyish idea that it 'ld be int'restin' t' build a house on the ice. There was no snow; stones were handier 'n timber. I carted the stones here on my sled. I built 'em in a circle. Snow came, an' I finished the buildin' with snow. You c'n sure guess the rest."

"Yes, course I can," said Rube. "When the snow an' ice melted, the stones sank straight down, an' fell to the bottom in a ring. What did I say just now, Kiddie? Thar ain't no trippin' you up or catchin' you nappin'."

"I dunno if you're aware of it, Rube," resumed Kiddie, "but for the past two or three minutes I've had the corner of my eye on a canoe that's comin' this way down the lake. Who's at the paddle? 'Tain't Gideon's way of paddlin'. 'Tain't Abe Harum. Who d'ye reckon it c'n be?"

Rube watched the approaching canoe. It had appeared suddenly from beyond a jutting promontory of spruce trees.

"Dunno," he answered, "don't reco'nize him. Seems like as Gid had loaned the canoe t' a stranger. An' yet I seem t' have seen that pinky-red shirt before, an' that straight-rimmed Stetson hat."

"Looks t' me like Sheriff Blagg," said Kiddie. "What's he want, cavortin' about on the lake searchin' for us? He's been t' our first campin' ground. Now he's shapin' for the island, led by our fire-smoke."

Kiddie whistled a shrill, long, tremulous note. He was an uncommonly good whistler. The sound was echoed and re-echoed from every chasm and cañon on the far shores of the lake; it might have been heard many miles away.

Above the island and over the forest the air was sprinkled with startled birds; from the dark ravine of Laramie Pass a pair of eagles took flight.

Isa Blagg drew his paddle and waved his hat. He followed Kiddie's canoe into the little bay that was its mooring place on the farther side of the island.

"Located you at last!" he said, as he stepped ashore. "Gid Birkenshaw told me I sh'd find you somewheres around the lake; but he didn't say nothin' 'bout your bein' camped on an island. I bin searchin' along the shores; found one o' your campin' grounds in among the trees, though you'd cleaned it up so's it wasn't easy ter be sure it was a campin' place at all. Guess you didn't intend anybody ter foller on your tracks, or you'd ha' left some signs around. How do, Rube?"

He shook hands with the two trappers, and then turned to help in the work of cleaning and frying the fish for tea.

"Gee!" he exclaimed, at sight of the afternoon's catch. "Never notioned thar was so many fish in the whole of your lake 's all that, Kiddie! Why, they're 'most as pretty an' colourful as birds, too. Say, are they all the same breed?"

"Oh, no," Rube told him, indicating the various kinds in rotation. "Them thar's pickerel, that's a bream, these are shiners, pouts, an' chivins; the others are trout an' perch. We'll cook 'em all together, though."

"Young Rube's gettin' quite a professional hand at cookin'," said Kiddie, measuring out pinches of tea. "You'll hear of him one o' these days takin' on the job of chef in some high-class New York hotel. He's got twenty-one diff'rent ways of cookin' eggs, an' as many of potatoes. You didn't happen ter bring along any eggs or potatoes, did you, Isa? Rube an' I are livin' quite simply, but I'm figuring that you'll be lookin' for variety in the matter of food. You'll stay with us, won't you, Sheriff, until we break camp?"

Isa Blagg shook his head.

"No, Kiddie; no," he responded. "It would suit me right down t' th' dust; but it ain't possible. I'm here t' consult you on a matter o' business; an' soon's I'm through with it, I gotter quit."