CHAPTER XI
JEEK ENTERS
Four boys were out of their bunks in a trice. Four pairs of eyes peered through the darkness. Four pairs of ears listened to the howling of the wind and the crunching noise of something pressing hard on timbers. Four active minds tried to determine what was wrong.
It was Frank Allen, who, by his method of preparedness, saved the moment.
The beam of a flashlight shot forward from where he stood beside his bunk, lighting up a small circle, which circle darted here and there, hunting, ferreting out the cause of this noise.
The house still stood to all appearances. A heavy wind howled into the room.
Frank moved quickly to the living room, followed by the other boys, and there they saw that the entire sash of the window on the east had been smashed in, the branches of a tree protruded through the opening into the room, and, driven by the wind, it swung to and fro, the crunching being the weight of the tree against the side of the house.
“Get into your boots, fellows, and get your heavy coats on,” commanded Frank quickly, even as he advanced to light the hanging oil lamp.
The first two matches, flaring up for a moment, bravely trying to hold their own, went out before the onslaught of the stiff breeze that came in past the intruding branches.
The third trial was successful, Frank having learned from the first two experiences what needed to be done to save the match.
The hanging lamp was lighted, and even though the wind raced through, it burned steadily.
“Get the two axes, fellows,” Frank called to his three companions, while he hurried back to the bunk to get his boots and his mackinaw.
Outside, standing at the east side of the house in the front, they saw that a giant white pine tree, a great fellow that had stood waving its branches in many a storm over a period of scores of years, had given way at last to the onslaught of this steady wind.
It had fallen across the house in such a manner that, unless they found a way at once of relieving the weight, the giant might continue its fall and cave in the roof of the house, for a very large part of the tree extended well past the eaves.
The trunk still swayed at a distance of about ten feet above the roof, and therein lay the danger.
“Lanky, you find a log, or a couple of them, and try to wedge ’em in between the ground and the trunk so as to brace it against the wind!” came the sharp command of Frank, who, at the first sight, decided what had to be done.
“Buster, you and Paul get that rope behind the house and we’ll tie the trunk back and see if we can fix it so that it will swing!” he gave the next command.
In a very few minutes Frank saw two logs wedged tightly under the trunk, relieving the pressure somewhat. But he realized that if the tree should suddenly give way above the logs, there would be nothing less than a large torn hole in the roof.
The rope was cast about the trunk, about fifteen feet from the spot near the ground where it had snapped, and this line was taken back to a tree to the eastward, a low-built hemlock which had a strong butt.
The rope had been hooked at a point where the branch grew out from the great white pine, so there was no danger of the rope’s slipping downward.
This being done, and the wind not having abated its steady blow for a single second, the next move came:
“All three of you fellows grab the end of that rope and commence pulling steadily, as hard as you can, while I cut her away at the bottom.”
Frank took one of the axes, and, taking a position on the opposite side to that on which the rope was tied, he commenced cutting away the remaining hold of the torn trunk.
Crunching, creaking, slapping up and down, moving first to one side and then to the other, the great pine tried to settle down on the roof.
Frank’s reliance was the wedge, for he hoped that this would act as a sort of swinging joint, and once the trunk was severed, and with the pull on the rope applied in the opposite direction, the upper part of the trunk would slide away from the house.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The strokes of the axe fell steadily, each one fairly on top of the one before. The tree creaked and groaned.
Then, of a sudden, with one single blow, well directed, Frank sent the axe through the wood that still acted as an anchor, gave a loud yell to the boys to pull hard, and, with a swing downward, then back up, then down, the tree rocked.
It was a moment of anxiety—but the boys won!
The steady pull on the rope, with the wedges acting away from the house, caused the trunk to settle downward and to slide backward, toward the east—and the lads saw the butt end strike the ground twenty feet away, only the topmost branches of the big pine striking the roof of the house.
The sky in the east cracked open slightly, and the light of the sun came through. Daylight was upon them.
“Fellows, we sure saved the roof of the house!” Frank heaved a sigh of relief when the tree finally settled into place.
“Yes, and there’s the firewood that we have to get out to-day,” laughed Lanky Wallace. “I’ll carry in the two logs over there under the tree, and that’s my part of the work.”
Inside the house things did not look so pleasant. The east window was completely out, the panes were all broken, and there was nothing in sight with which to make repairs.
The boys stirred up the fire, but the wind blew ashes all over the room as it darted through the fireplace and escaped up the chimney, whiffing in one direction and then sucking in.
“Let’s find boards and nail them across that window. That’s all there is left to do,” said Frank.
“But where are the boards?” asked Paul.
Frank waited not a moment. He knew as well as the other boys there were no boards at the house, but he also realized that he did not know what was in that shack down by the lake.
As full daylight came upon them, he strode out of the house and down to the shack to learn what was there. And on opening the door he saw several things—three canoes standing on end and about a dozen thin boards, ten inches wide, stacked up in the corner, among other things.
Grabbing three of the boards, he came out of the shade, forgetting that he must hold them flat side down, and the wind caught the full ten inch width and whirled him around like a top, spinning him twice around and landing him in a heap in the snow.
It was Lanky Wallace who saw the occurrence. He came dashing from the house to help.
Frank was not injured, but he had been knocked around so suddenly and without any chance to protect himself or to regain his balance, so that in falling he went across the boards stomach first, the breath being knocked out of him.
Between the two boys the boards were lugged up to the broken window, and they yelled for a saw and a hammer.
It was Buster who got the tools, while Paul grabbed up nails which he saw lying on the mantel over the stove in the kitchen. Fifteen minutes later the wind was partially shut off from the room—at least enough to permit the boys to have a fire inside.
“Now, fellows, let’s get some newspapers—there ought to be some around here somewhere. We’ll make some flour paste and line the inside of these boards so that the air can’t get in so easily,” Frank ordered next.
When this was done, the boys prepared their breakfast and started the fire in the living room, chatting the while over the excitement of the falling tree.
“I thought the end of the world had come,” said Paul.
“I knew it!” laughed Lanky.
During the morning the boys took turns cutting the great white pine into firewood. First the branches had to be trimmed away, laying bare the trunk. Then came the arduous labor of cutting it into four long pieces so that it could be more easily handled and turned over.
It was in the afternoon, their young bodies tired, yet refreshed by a good dinner, they started out on the lake to fish.
All idea of using the spot which they had used as a water hole was cast aside, none of the boys thinking they could get fish so near to the shore line. So, trudging out on the lake, not having brought their skates, they reached a point fully an eighth of a mile distant from the shore and here cut a square of about two feet.
They dropped lines in and waited for a while without results. Then, of a sudden, one bob went under and Lanky Wallace brought a medium sized pickerel out—one that had been too anxious to find something to eat.
“First hit!” gleefully yelled Lanky. “That’s the way to play this game! You fellows want me to show you how? It’s just this way,” and Lanky got the fish off the hook, baited it again, and stood around the hole for fully a half hour, getting nothing more—while the other boys each got a bite and each landed his fish.
With four fish, they went back to the camp, where two of the boys, Frank and Buster Billings, dressed them for the evening meal.
In the meantime Lanky and Paul went out for a stroll along the lake to look things over preparatory for the morrow, when they intended getting down to the business of camping—that is, getting some game and fish. They considered the little expedition of the afternoon as a try-out, just to see whether the fish were biting.
In a few minutes the two boys came back to the camp hurriedly, breaking into the kitchen where Frank and Buster were at work.
“We’ve got some news, but it isn’t very good!” exclaimed Paul. “Up the road by the lake we saw three men coming with packs on their backs, and they look like Jeek and his two cronies.”
Frank was not disturbed by this news.
“I suppose they are camping up here somewhere,” he very slowly remarked. “Lots of people come up here, you know.”
“Yes, that’s true. But that fellow Jeek isn’t a happy sort of neighbor to have, is he?”
“Can’t be any worse than the tramps,” replied Frank.
“I’m not sure of that. Jeek has a bad reputation while the tramps looked like just ordinary hoboes.”
Paul thought that more importance was vested in the arrival of Jeek and his pals than Frank was willing to concede. What Frank was thinking no one knew. He held his counsel and continued to receive the news with a smile.
“There they go—right past the place!” exclaimed Paul, pointing to three men who were keeping in the trail, passing to the east.
“Maybe they’ll meet those tramps and make a happy family reunion,” laughed Lanky, and with that the subject was changed.