Part 5 (2/2)
Max had his gun in his hands. He may have carried it out more as a precaution, or to keep the impulsive Steve from dodging in after it, than from any great expectation of finding a use for the weapon. And then again, its appearance would go far toward rea.s.suring poor Bandy-legs that the fear of the unknown beast returning to drag him away was reduced to a minimum.
Steve immediately made a pounce for the fire. Max thought he meant to knock it together, and perhaps induce it to flare up, so as to give them more light; but it seemed that the other was only after a smoldering bit of wood, which he swung around his head until it burst into a flame.
”Now, let it try and attack us, that's all!” cried Steve, as though quite ready to use his novel weapon after the manner of a baseball club, should a vicious bobcat emerge from the dark circle around them, and attempt any ”funny business,” as Steve called it.
It was thoughtful Owen who stooped down, and threw a little inflammable fuel on the remains of the camp fire, so that when it blazed up, which immediately happened, there was no longer darkness near the spot, as they could see far into the jungle that lay on the side away from the water.
”Now, what happened?” asked Max, turning on Bandy-legs for an explanation.
”Why, here's the way it was, fellers,” replied that worthy, bent on squaring himself with his chums; ”I was dreamin' of bein' home, when the old tomcat got a sudden notion that I'd been and stepped on his tail.
Gee; he turned on me like a flash, and grabbed me by the leg. Seemed like he was changed into a big striped tiger, then and there, for he started to drag me away, like he meant to eat me up. I got hold of the leg of the table, and held on like all get-out. That's when I waked up, and found that I was bein' yanked out of my blanket by some critter that did have hold of my left ankle. And it was Steve and not the table leg I'd been hangin' on to like grim death.”
”I should say you had,” muttered the one mentioned, who was now rubbing his arm where Bandy-legs had pinched it, ”and if you left a piece of skin as big as a fifty-cent piece below my elbow, I'll be glad, believe me. Bet you I'll be black and blue for a week of Sundays. You sure did give me the worst scare I ever had, with that whoop right in my ear, and then grabbin' me like a bear might.”
”And l-l-listen to him, w-w-would you,” remarked Toby, ”he s-s-says he was d-d-dreaming, fellers!”
”After this I vote that we tie Bandy-legs up, head and heels, with the rope we brought along,” ventured the aggrieved Steve, pulling up the sleeve of his pajamas to see what the damage might really be. ”If he's going to dream about cats going mad, and bust our nice sleep all to flinders in this way, why give him that small tent to himself. Blessed if I want him for a tentmate again.”
”But, Steve, I tell you it wasn't a dream after all; only I just happened to get things mixed, you see. Somethin' did grab me by the leg, and try to pull me out of the tent! If I'd been scared so I couldn't kick and yell, why chances are you'd be short one camp-mate right now, that's all.”
”Shucks!” grumbled Steve, hard to convince, ”talk is cheap; prove it, Bandy-legs!”
”I will, then!”
With that the other dropped down on the ground and started to roll up the left leg of his loose pajamas. He did so with a certain amount of confidence, as though he felt positive that he would be able to display such evidence, that even skeptical Steve might not dispute.
”Now, how about that?” demanded Bandy legs? triumphantly.
All of them lowered their heads to look. And a variety of exclamations attested to the fact that apparently Bandy-legs had carried his point.
”Scratches, as sure as anything!” commented Owen, seriously.
”Fresh done, too, ain't they?” demanded the victim, energetically, determined to clinch matters beyond all chance for dispute, while about it.
”That's right, they are,” Max chimed in with.
”P'r'aps if you looked sharp now, one could see where claws had raked me through the leg of my pajamas,” suggested Bandy-legs, satisfied to have cleared himself of the charge of having aroused his campmates simply because he happened to be visited with a bad dream.
”Well, I can't just say that's clear,” Max continued, ”but it looks like something had had hold of you by the ankle, just like you say, Bandy-legs.”
”And just add to that, it was pullin' me along in a big hurry, Max. Say, didn't I tell you that if there was anybody goin' to be eat up by cats, it'd be me?” wailed the victim of the night a.s.sault.
”That's all right, Bandy-legs,” said Steve, in a tone meant to be cheering; ”you know we've got a good rope along, and if you only choose to take the trouble to tie yourself to the tent pole every night, nothin' can't run away with you.”
Max had to laugh at the idea; and somehow that seemed to rather make things look a bit more cheerful. He made Bandy-legs show him just where he had been lying, and as it was between the other pair, it certainly seemed singular why any intruder should have picked the short-legged boy out for attention.
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