Part 8 (1/2)
”Now I'm delighted to hear you say that, Rufus,” Lil Artha told him; ”and I promise to instruct you at the first opportunity; Alec, too, if he is so minded.”
”I am verra curious aboot it, and ye can count on me being a listener whenever ye begin the lessons. Aye! it would hae been peetiful if Rufus had been struck. I'd hae sucked his wound with ye, Lil Artha, or done anything else ye asked.”
Rufus laid a hand on the Scotch boy's shoulder fondly.
”I'm sure you would, Sandy,” he went on to say, for sometimes he used that name in speaking to his comrade, though always with affection. ”But after that fright I guess I'm done working for today. Let's go back to camp.”
No one raised any objections, so they prepared to return. Lil Artha managed to fasten a strong cord to the tail of the rattlesnake, which Alec said he would drag after him. The long-legged scout had already shown the two tenderfeet the cruel looking curved fangs in the partly shattered head, as well as the sickly, green-hued poison that could be pressed from the sack by using a stick on a certain part of the said head. They had been greatly impressed, and likewise shocked to realize what a narrow escape both of them had had from near-death.
All the way back the talk was of the hidden perils that lie in wait for unsuspecting pa.s.sersby in the woods. This ranged from wildcats to rattlesnakes and adders and scorpions. Lil Artha seemed to be a ”walking encyclopedia” of knowledge along these lines; part of this he had picked up through personal experience, and the rest came through extensive reading, or hearing others tell about it. A scout may find scores of ways for learning useful things, if only he cares to bother about doing it.
Later on they approached the camp.
George, who had managed to get through with his numerous odd jobs and was resting, seemed surprised, to have them come back so soon.
”Huh! guess you got tired of the job quicker'n you expected, Rufus!” he called out lazily from his seat on the soft moss under a tree. ”All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, they say. But what in the d.i.c.kens is that you're dragging along after you, Alec? Great Scott! a rattler!”
George scrambled to his feet, filled with excitement. His eyes stared at the four-foot reptile, which still showed signs of life; and Lil Artha had a.s.sured Alec its tail would continue to jerk until sundown, even though its head be cut clean off.
”I hope it didn't strike any of you fellows?” George went on to add with a vein of fright in his voice.
The story was quickly told, and the convinced George had to measure the reptile with his tape line, finding it only an inch or two short of four feet.
”As big a rattler as I ever saw,” Elmer told them. ”They have them five feet long down in Florida, I understand, those diamond-back fellows; but as I haven't been there I can't say anything about it. For a Northern snake this one is certainly a whopper.”
”Lil Artha has promised to get the rattle for me,” remarked Alec. ”Rufus had the first choice, but man, he said he'd never sleep easy nichts if he had it hangin' on the wall of his room at home, thinking about his narrow escape. But it's a verra curious thing to me, and I don't care a bawbee about the sound. It wasn't _my_ ox that was gored, ye ken.”
George was acting now in something of a mysterious manner. Elmer noticed this and was looking at the camp-keeper out of the tail of his eye, as though trying to guess what was in the wind. He felt certain that George had a secret of some kind or other, which he was holding back, just for the satisfaction it gave him.
Lil Artha was an observing chap, as we happen to know; and before long he too noticed the same thing. This, however, was after he had seen Elmer observing George closely, with a line across his forehead that told of a puzzled mind.
The tall scout was not the one to bother himself about trying to solve a thing when there was a short cut to the answer. He believed that the best way to get at the meat in a cocoanut was to smash the sh.e.l.l.
”Here, what's brewing with you, George?” he suddenly demanded, facing the other.
George grinned, and then hastened to say:
”What makes you ask that, Lil Artha?”
”Because I know right well you've got something of a surprise up your sleeve, and you're aching to spring it on us. What have you been doing since we left camp? Now don't you squirm, and try to keep us in the dark. Own up, George, and tell us.”
So George, seeing there was no escape, apparently, determined to let the ”cat out of the bag.”
CHAPTER IX
THE STRANGE MESSAGE JEM LEFT
”WELL, we've had a visitor in camp since you fellows all went away!”
George confessed.