Part 13 (1/2)

”Say, I was thinkin' about that same thing this afternoon, when sittin'

on that log fis.h.i.+ng,” spoke up Steve.

”Then you remembered something about it, did you?” asked Owen.

”That's what I did,” came the ready response. ”But it was a long time ago, and I must 'a' been only a little kid then, because I don't seem to just recollect the whole story.”

”Tell us what you do remember, Steve?” suggested Max.

”Yes,” continued Bandy-legs, ”I'd give a lot to know whoever was silly enough to want to live on this wild-looking old island, where in the spring they say the flood sometimes nearly covers everything. You c'n see the drift hanging to the b.u.t.ts of some of the trees right now, and all pointin' downstream.”

”Good for you, Bandy-legs!” exclaimed the pleased Max; ”I never thought you'd notice such things. Owen and myself were talking about it; but when you get to paying attention to such small matters it shows that you're just bound to make a good woodsman some fine day.”

”You bet I am,” confided the other, cheerfully, his eyes glistening with pleasure at hearing one he respected so highly as Max Hastings hand out praise in this manner.

”Go on, Steve, tell us what you know,” Owen observed, encouragingly.

”Well, I just happened to hear my dad talkin' with another gentleman once, and it was about this same island up here. They called it Catamount then, like they do right now. He said that a long time before, a man by the name of Wesley Coombs had bought the place for a song from the owners, and with his wife and baby here, started to clear the timber off. So you see 'twas him that put up the queer little old cabin here.

He thought he could have a great home of it in time.”

”Yes, I saw a number of big trees that must have been felled with the ax years ago,” Max remarked at this point; ”and I was wondering about it.”

”W-w-what happened to W-w-wesley C-c-combs?” asked Toby.

”It was a mighty sad thing, my dad said,” Steve went on, a tremor in his own voice, for Steve was tender-hearted after his fas.h.i.+on; ”you see, the first winter he was here he made quite a heap of money trappin' furs, and fis.h.i.+ng through the ice for pickerel that he sold in town. Then in the spring the floods came and the whole little family was wiped out; though the cabin, bein' built so strong, held out against the freshet, and it has ever since, too.”

”All drowned, Wesley Coombs, his wife, and his baby, too; that's a tough story of the old island you're giving us, Steve,” remarked Owen.

”Well, they said as how the man was saved, but he was stark starin' mad; and my dad said he died later on. I never could get that story out of my bead for a long time. It gave me a bad feeling this afternoon when I remembered the same, and I thought of that little cabin once being a happy home.”

”Gee! I hope one of them same floods don't take a notion to swoop down this way while we're camped on Catamount Island!” declared Bandy-legs.

”Oh, well, we'd get home in a hurry if it did,” remarked Steve, indifferently. ”You know, they said our canoes couldn't sink, because they've got air tanks fitted away up in the bow and back in the stern.

All we'd have to do would be to lash ourselves to 'em with pieces of that rope, and float along till we got opposite Carson, when we'd yell for help. Yes, Owen was right; that rope might come in handy one way or another, yet.”

”For shame, Steve,” called out Max; ”trying to mike Bandy-legs nervous again. There never was a flood at this time of year, take my word for it. But we'll try and make ourselves as secure as we can, with our canoes in the bargain; because, if those Shafters did take it into their heads to raid us tonight, we want to be ready for them.”

And it was with that idea in mind that the campers busied themselves for half an hour or so before the time they had set for crawling under their blankets, and ”wooing the moose,” as Bandy-legs put it, meaning to cast a sly reflection on the well-known habit Steve had of snoring in his sleep when lying on his back.

CHAPTER XI.

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE SECOND NIGHT.

”Owen, Owen, wake up!”

When Bandy-legs dug his elbow into the side of his sleeping chum, and whispered these words in his ear, naturally enough the said Owen could not help but awaken.

”What ails you?” he asked sleepily; and even Steve stirred as though the sound of their voices had aroused him.