Part 7 (1/2)
CHAPTER VIII
A PERIL THAT LAY IN WAIT
IT was an hour and more after the surveying party had trooped forth, bearing their paraphernalia for a good afternoon's work, when Elmer happened to remember something. He was himself getting ready to take another tramp, though in a different direction than his morning stroll took him.
”Seems to me, George,” he remarked, casually, ”I've heard you say you liked honey pretty well?”
George stopped fretting over what he was doing, and licked his lips at the mere mention of the word ”honey.”
”Finest stuff that ever was made; that is, when you get the real article, and none of that sugar-water imitation some bee-keepers put on the market nowadays, which tastes as insipid as mucilage. Yum! yum!
makes my mouth water when I think of all the good times I used to have when we kept bees. But father had the misfortune to upset a hive, and got so badly stung that he bundled the lot off at a bargain price to an old farmer. But what makes you speak of it now, Elmer? Just to tantalize me, because that was one of the things I had Rufus put on his list and he forgot to get, worse luck.”
”Oh! I only wanted to say that perhaps we may find a chance while we're up here to lay in a store of luscious honey, if we have half-way good luck, George.”
”Does that farmer keep bees, and do you mean some of us can take a run back to his place to buy a bucket of comb?” asked George, eagerly.
”Better than that,” chuckled Elmer. ”I've noticed a great many wild bees working in the flowers, and I think I can track them to their woods hive. Once we find where they hold out, it won't be hard to chop the tree down, and take our fill of the newest stores.”
”A splendid idea, Elmer, I give you my word if it isn't!” cried the other, looking greatly pleased. ”It certainly takes you to think up fine things. And when you start to follow the honey-makers home, please let me go along. I've always wanted to see how that dodge is worked.”
”We'll all be on deck,” the scout-master a.s.sured him; ”for above everything else I want the tenderfoot squad to learn a practical lesson on how easy it is for an experienced woodsman to find his bread and b.u.t.ter and sweets by using his brains instead of hard cash. But we'll lay our plans tonight while we sit around the fire.”
”Off for another tramp now, are you, Elmer?” George continued, as he saw the other pick up his handy stick again.
”Well, yes; I don't like to waste such a glorious day; and there's really nothing for me to do around camp, since you've taken the run of things in your hands.”
”Going off to see that wonderful child fiddler again. I suppose, Elmer?”
”You guessed wrong that time, George, because I've laid out to follow after our civil engineering party, and see how Rufus is getting on with his work. He certainly is in love with it; and his father will be unwise if he doesn't encourage the boy in every way possible. I tell you, a host of fellows have made failures of their lives because their parents insisted on their taking up some profession they hated.”
”Just so, Elmer,” chirped George, ”a case of round pegs in square holes, so to speak. And when I get to the point of choosing what I want to be as a man, I hope my folks won't force me to go contrary to my liking.”
Knowing George's stubborn qualities, Elmer could easily guess that the Robbins tribe would have a pretty hard task of it bending _him_ to their will. However, he did not say this, not wis.h.i.+ng to either offend George or arouse his argumentative powers, but started forth on his tramp.
”'Course you'll just keep an eye on their trail, won't you, Elmer?” the camp-guardian called out after him.
”It would be silly to try any other way, George,” he was told.
So Elmer went on. The tracks left by the three surveyors could hardly have been overlooked, even by the veriest greenhorn at trailing, for they had none of them made the least attempt to hide their footprints.
So Elmer had an easy task of it, and indeed could employ his extra time in observing many things around him.
He saw the mother rabbit start out of the bunch of gra.s.s where doubtless her offspring lay hidden, and with halting steps act as though badly injured. Elmer laughed, and clapped his hands as though in keen appreciation for her cleverness.
”The same old trick birds and small animals always play when they want to lure a trespa.s.ser away from their nest,” he told himself; ”by endangering themselves in the desire to save their young. She coaxes me to rush after her, so as to wean me away from her brood. If I started she'd go off a little farther, and then stop once more to coax me on again. I've seen a hen partridge do the same thing, fluttering along the ground as if with a broken wing. Now just for fun let's see if I'm not right.”
He had carefully noted the exact spot where the mother rabbit first appeared, and stepping over that way parted the tall gra.s.s. Instantly there was a hurried scurrying, as a number of small but nimble half-grown rabbits darted this way and that, as if greatly frightened.
”Don't kill yourselves trying to escape, little bunnies,” said Elmer, greatly amused; ”because I wouldn't harm a single hair of your pretty bodies. But I tell you the thousand-and-one lessons that a fellow can learn from Nature's big book ought to be enough to make every boy want to become a scout, and take up the study of outdoor life. There's something fresh and new every day one lives.”