CHAPTER VIII

AMOS’S STRANGE ACTIONS

The incident of the climbing black bear was closed around four that first afternoon in camp. Altogether it had been productive of considerable excitement, and amusement as well. The day, however, was fated to see still further singular happenings before closing.

Elmer was inside the cabin “fussing around,” as he called it. He had cleaned out the shabby old fireplace, making a few badly needed repairs, so that the chimney might draw properly when they came to start a blaze there evenings, wishing to gather around, and chat or sing as the humor seized them.

Amos had wandered off again. He said it seemed to be a banner day with him so that he felt inclined to roam about and possibly make a few more discoveries that would be of value; which, of course, pertained to the camera stunt only—he had thoughts for nothing else apparently.

Perk and Wee Willie were discussing the menu for supper when Elmer came out of the cabin door, and approached them. He seemed to be holding something in his hand, though neither of the other boys could quite make it out.

“Well,” Elmer commenced saying, as he came up, “I think I’ve discovered just why our tramp wanted to get back into the cabin again last night, going all around twice, looking for an opening which he didn’t find.”

“That sounds interesting,” observed Perk.

“Tell us about it, Elmer,” the tall chum added; “and what under the sun are you holding there in your hand?”

Elmer laughed softly.

“That’s the answer,” he hastened to say, and then held something up before their eyes.

“Gee! what a funny knife!” exclaimed Perk.

“Where’d you run across it, Elmer?” demanded Wee Willie.

“The blade is open, you see, just as I found it,” explained the other. “And it was sticking in a log close by the yawning fireplace. From the odor that hangs about the blade, I reckon Mr. Tramp must have used it to slice some plug tobacco, that black, tough kind, you know, for his old pipe, and then thinking to use it again a little later on, just stuck it into a log of the wall near his head.”

“Huh! our coming along sent him on the run into the bushes, and he clean forgot all about his precious old knife—is that what you mean, Elmer?”

“Just so, Wee Willie; and missing his knife later he started to come back to recover it. To such men a knife becomes as precious as—well, Amos’s camera is to him; or your postage-stamp album might be to you, Perk. Besides, you can see what an odd sort of a knife this one is.”

“I never saw one like it before,” Perk spoke up. “Why, besides the one big strong blade it’s got a fork, and a spoon attachment, too. Fact is, it could be used for a whole meal. Yes, and here’s even a corkscrew along the back. What a queer knife it is, to be sure! I don’t wonder the poor old hobo valued it.”

“Perhaps he’s carried it for years and years,” mused Wee Willie, “and it’s his most treasured possession. I wish he had it in his greasy pocket again.”

“But see here, boys,” Perk suggested, “how do we know but that it might have been there for ever so long—mebbe since the cabin was in use before that tragedy happened here, that I’ve heard the folks down Chester way mention?”

Elmer and the tall chum exchanged meaning glances. They had supposed that Perk knew nothing about that tragic event, and had agreed to “keep mum” about it while in camp at Log Cabin Bend, lest he feel uneasy.

“Oh! that’s an easy thing to decide, Perk,” the former assured him. “If you examine the blade you’ll find it’s clear of rust, though far from bright. Now that couldn’t be the case if it had been exposed here for years to the damp air, such as would blow into the cabin with the door swung half-way open most of the time it’s stood empty.”

“I get you, Elmer; please excuse my dense ignorance,” said Perk hurriedly. “Now I wonder whether he’s going to keep on hanging out around here until he gets back his old knife?”

“We’ll have to put out a sign, and invite the chap to step up to the captain’s office and prove property,” Wee Willie argued whimsically after his fashion. “No questions asked, and no reward expected for finding the lost trusty blade; only we’d like him to clear out, and leave us alone. I’ve seen a bunch of tramps, and a mussy lot they are, taken as a whole. I always try to get to windward of ’em when watching how they manage to cook a meal in tomato-cans and such.”

“But we saw no sign of his having had a fire in the cabin,” Perk went on to remark, reflectively; “and there wasn’t the first evidence of his having made a bed out of brush. How do you account for that, Elmer?”

“Oh! he may have arrived only an hour before we did, and was so tired he just lay down to smoke and rest,” came the ready answer; for Elmer always seemed to have a faculty for meeting objections.

“What will you do with it?” continued Perk.

“I haven’t decided,” Elmer told him. “I may hit on a way to get it back into the possession of the owner without hunting him up. Leave that to me.”

“There’s Amos coming along,” Wee Willie added; “somehow he seems to be looking a whole lot happier than this morning. It must have been his success at snapping off the bear in the beechnut tree.”

“Yes, that was what did it,” Elmer agreed; though his brow clouded, for this unexplained mystery that seemed to be always hanging over his comrade, making him so unhappy, was beginning to worry him considerably; he wanted to be of service to Amos, yet could not muster up courage to break in upon the other’s reserve, since it would seem so much like thrusting himself into business that did not at all concern him.

Amos was actually smiling as he approached, and few of the Chester boys could truly say they had ever seen such a genuine look of delight on his sad face.

“What do you think?” he burst out, excitedly, “I managed to get a glimpse of Mr. Mink, the very first of his kind I ever had the luck to see alive! Oh! but he’s a slick article, let me tell you, with his beady little eyes, and soft furry hide. And I planned it all out just where we ought to set the camera-trap to-night, Elmer, so’s to coax him to pull the cord, and set the flashlight going.”

Elmer looked at him with affection. Somehow he had come to care a great deal for Amos, which in one way was rather strange; for to most of the fellows the newcomer in Chester had not appealed at all, owing to his being such a moody fellow. But as is usually the case with such serious persons, when his face did light up in a smile it was wonderfully “fetching.”

“I reckon we’ll manage to get a picture of his Highness, King Mink,” Elmer assured him; “when we’ve laid ourselves out to the limit. I know a few tricks along those lines, which are quite at your service, Amos. But see here, what a queer find I made in the old cabin.”

He held up the quaint pocket-knife as he said this, and the eyes of the other became instantly focussed on it. To the astonishment, almost consternation, of Elmer, he seemed to be immediately strongly affected by the sight of the late property of the roving tramp.

Perk and Wee Willie also stared to notice how the face of Amos, actually showing a dash of color when he first joined them, now suddenly became as pale as that of a ghost. His breath came and went in gasps, though apparently he was making desperate efforts to hold himself within bounds, doubtless realizing how his startled companions must be observing him.

“Where did you say you found it, Elmer?” he finally managed to say, in what might be termed half gasps, while he could be seen swallowing something that seemed to rise in his throat, and threaten to choke him, poor fellow.

“Why, in the cabin there,” explained the other, hesitatingly. “It was sticking in one of the logs forming the wall, between the little opening used as a window and the big fireplace. I think the hobo must have used it to cut up some hard plug tobacco, for it smells rank of the stuff; and then carelessly thrust the point into the log, before our coming frightened him away.”

“And, what do you think,” Perk now managed to add, “Elmer believes it was to recover this old knife that the old tramp came back and walked around the cabin twice last night, looking for a chance to get inside. Too bad, isn’t it, Amos?”

Amos, however, seemed to pay scant attention to what Perk was saying. His distended eyes were fastened on the article which still lay exposed in Elmer’s open palm.

“But—couldn’t it have been there a long time, don’t you think?” he now asked, as though clinging to a straw; “say as much as—six or seven years?”

“I’m dead sure it hasn’t,” he was told positively. “In the first place, other persons besides us have visited the old cabin here from time to time, and some one would surely have found it. Then again, look how smooth the steel of the discolored blade is; it must have rusted if it had been exposed to the weather for even a few months. Oh! no, Amos, whoever the tramp is, he surely put it where I found it, and this very night.”

“I—guess you’re right, Elmer,” fell in trembling tones from the lips of the other, still looking peaked and white. “W—would you mind my looking at it?”

“Certainly not,” said Elmer, at the same time thrusting the queer knife into the other’s hand, eagerly stretched out to receive it.

All of them could not help but notice how his hand trembled violently from some sort of emotion as the fingers closed about the haft of the knife. Evidently there was some element about the find of Elmer that affected Amos Codling. He turned the knife over, and stared hard at the buckhorn handle as though fairly fascinated, while the other three watched him with surprise bordering on amazement.

While the trio continued to stand there gaping, Amos hastily thrust the object back into Elmer’s hand. He almost acted as though shuddering at its touch, and anxious to get it out of his possession.

“Guess—I’ll go and lie down for a bit,” he managed to say in a fairly steady voice. “I’ve overdone it in tramping to-day, and feel worn out. Don’t bother about me, boys; I’ll—be all right soon.”

With these words he stalked hurriedly into the cabin.