Part 25 (1/2)
Here began a narrow path into the woods. The spoor of the two animals led into this path, and the boy and girl tramped along after them.
”I guess nothing frightened them,” said Neale, ”for they appear to be trotting right along at an easy gait. They must have pa.s.sed this way in the night. And that's kind of funny, too.”
”What is funny?” asked Agnes.
”Why, deer--especially two, alone--ought to have been hiding in some clump of brush during the night. They don't go wandering around much unless they are hungry. And there is plenty of brush fodder for them to eat along the edge of the swamps, that is sure.”
”Are you sure they are deer?” asked Agnes. ”They couldn't be anything else, could they?”
”I reckon not,” laughed Neale. ”I say! who lives here?”
They caught a glimpse of an opening in the forest ahead. Then a cabin appeared, from the chimney of which a curl of blue smoke rose into the air. There were several smaller buildings in the clearing, too.
”Guess we have struck that old timber cruiser's place,” Neale said, answering his own question.
”Oh! Mr. Ike M'Graw!” cried Agnes. ”Now we can ask him if he shot the fox last night.”
”But where did these deer go?” exclaimed Neale, stopping on the edge of the little clearing and staring all around.
For here the tracks they had followed seemed to cross and criss-cross all about the clearing. That wild deer should frolic so about an occupied house was indeed puzzling. He saw, too, that there were human footprints over-running the marks of the split hoofs.
Suddenly from around the corner of the cabin appeared the long, slablike figure of the woodsman. He saw them almost immediately.
”Hullo, there!” he cried. ”Ain't you out early? I wouldn't have been up near so early myself, if it hadn't been for those confounded shoats of mine.”
”What happened to the pigs?” asked Neale, smiling.
”They broke out o' their pen. Always doin' that!” returned M'Graw.
”Run off through the woods somewhere, and then come back and made sech a racket around my shanty that I can't sleep. Confound 'em!”
Neale suddenly saw a great light. He seized Agnes' hand and squeezed it in warning. With his other hand he pointed to the marks in the snow.
”Are those the pigs' footprints?”
”Yes. I just got 'em shut up again,” said the woodsman. ”Come in, won't you? I guess my coffee's biled sufficient, and I'm about to fry me a mess of bacon and johnnycake.”
”What do you know about that?” murmured Neale to the giggling Agnes.
”We followed those pig tracks for deer tracks. Aren't we great hunters--I don't think!”
CHAPTER XVI
THE KEY
The interior of Ike M'Graw's cabin was a place of interest to Neale and Agnes. There was not much room, but it was neat and clean. There were two bunks, one over the other at one end of the room. At the other end was the big, open fireplace.
There were andirons, a chimney crane for a pot, a dutch oven, and a sheet-iron shelf that could be pushed over the coals, on which the old man baked his johnnycake, or pan-bread.
The coffee pot was already bubbling on this shelf and gave off a strong odor of Rio. The bacon was sliced, ready for the frying pan.