CHAPTER XVI
THE TRAIL IN THE SNOW
Wonder, amazement, then anger. After the first exclamation of surprise the boys stepped quickly into the great living room, looked in all directions. Not a word passing from one to the other for several minutes.
“Ransacked! Robbed!” at last Frank managed to think aloud for himself and the rest of the boys.
Knives, forks and spoons gone, hanging lamps gone, several of their most useful cooking utensils gone, their fishing tackle gone, the stock of ammunition gone, every can and package of food gone! Completely ransacked!
Frank yanked open the heavy front door and peered outside. There, plainly visible, though covered a little by the snow, were tracks in the white blanket that carpeted the earth to show that several men had come in by this way and had left by this way!
The boys stood looking at the trail of footprints out to the main trail along the lake.
“They came in here just at the end of that snowstorm—which means some time early this morning,” said Frank, decisively.
“Leaving not a thing to eat nor eat it with!” Lanky Wallace roamed back to look at the scene of devastation.
“It’s the work of that fellow Jeek!” explosively said Frank Allen, shutting the front door, walking back to the others.
The boys stood and discussed the situation in its every detail, trying first to ascertain what they should do.
“Well,” remarked Lanky after the talk had run on for a while, “we’ve got venison outside—better cut it up right away and take care of it. We can cook it over the fire in here, and if we are without knives and forks, we yet have our hands with good fingers on them.”
“Yes,” said Buster as he came around from another search over the shelves, “they left us some salt and pepper, I notice, and they also left us that big fork over there on the hook. They didn’t take the dishes, so we can eat venison before we have to start home.”
“We’re not going to start home!” Frank spoke up very sharply. “We’re going to find these fellows. They can’t come in and rob a place without having some trouble about it!”
Though the other boys had said nothing about that side of it, they agreed with their leader heartily in his attitude, starting to lay plans at once.
“It looks as if this fellow Jeek has finally decided to get even for killing his dog. He thinks he can chase us back to town by getting all our food—but that’s stealing!” exclaimed Frank. “He has left tracks in the snow, a perfect trail, and we’ll follow it up to the end.”
“When do we start?” asked Lanky, ready to go.
Frank walked again to the door, looked out at the weather, saw the clouds were low again, that it was getting dark, and wondered whether an immediate start were not the best.
“Not at once!” he decided, turning back to the waiting boys. “We have come a long distance on a small amount of food. We have the stuff that was left—that’s that much. And we have the venison. Let’s turn to right now, prepare that deer for the feast, cook it on the fire in here, get our bodies well fit to take care of the trip—and then go after these fellows.”
“But it looks as if a snow might come and cover up the trail,” suggested Paul.
Frank agreed this was right, but the chance had to be taken, since without sustenance they would stand a poor chance of putting up a battle against these men—not necessarily a battle of weapons or of fists, but a battle to outwit them and get their goods once more in their possession.
Though the camping expedition had seemed to be wiped out, though enthusiasm was for a time at a very low ebb, the youthful view of the silver lining behind the blackest of clouds came to their aid. Enthusiasm once more entered their systems, the deer was cut properly after having been skinned, and the quarters allowed to hang for a while in the open to freeze. All the animal heat had disappeared while they brought it across the lake, but they wished to make sure. And a few more hours would do no harm, provided it did not snow.
At mid-afternoon they started the roasting process, one hour later they were feasting around the great broad oaken table, using their fingers where knives and forks had heretofore been in use, but with appetites that had been whetted to a keen edge.
When they had finished their dinner of venison, the boys carefully cleaned up, hid away the remainder of the food which they had brought back from the over-lake expedition, pulled their guns down from the mantel, cleaned them, and made general preparations to follow the trail in the snow.
“We’ve got to find where that trail leads, then we have to decide, after we get on the ground, what to do,” said Frank. “We can’t make our plans too far ahead.”
Even as they were talking over matters and were getting down their weapons, Lanky bethought himself of something which he had seen a few days before, and he wondered if, by any chance, he might see the same thing. Out of the room he went, through the great door at the front of the cabin, and looked into the snow to study the tracks.
Here and there the snow, just the last few flakes which had fallen, had almost obliterated the tracks of the feet; that is, the sharpness was dulled to some extent. But, not content with the sight of the first tracks nearest the door, Lanky bent far over and followed them for a distance of almost a hundred yards.
In the meanwhile, attracted by the sudden decision of the lean fellow, the other boys had gone to one of the windows, and from this vantage-point they watched the peculiar actions of their friend.
But Lanky, just about to give up, discovered what he had gone out to find, and came running back to the cabin, waving to the boys as he saw them looking out at him. They opened the door hurriedly, asking what he had found.
“Had an idea in the old bean!” he exclaimed, entering the door and pushing the boys back. “Listen, Frank! Remember what we noticed the other day down at Todds—the print with the metal crescent on it? Well, it’s here! Sure as shooting! Come on out here and I’ll show it to you.”
He led the way out of the cabin, Frank alongside, as they took two sides of the tracks, so that they would not be obliterated, and Lanky led straight to the particular prints which he had found. Frank stooped over to look, the other two boys following inquisitively.
“There it is. Plain as day. The print with the crescent mark on the left heel. That bird that was at Todds is also along with the fellows who looted our cabin. See?” and he pointed to the marks which were so evident at a spot where the snow had failed to hide the prints from view.
“I also notice there are four men this trail,” said Frank, as he more carefully studied the tracks. “The next question is, who can the four be? Jeek had two others with him, which makes three. Of the tramps there were only two. Now, where do the four come in?”
This question was too hard for the boys just now. They thought over it for a few minutes, but decided to give it up.
There was no time to be wasted. The skies had not cleared and the chances were yet they would have more snow.
Frank suggested they go back to the cabin and get ready to leave at once. This they did. Coming out of the cabin, each one armed, everything in thorough readiness, they proceeded to follow the trail through the snow.
It did not lead to the trail along the lake, but crossed this at a point a quarter of a mile away from the cabin, and started for the mountains alongside those in which the boys had been two days before when they encountered the bear and the snakes.
It was difficult to follow, inasmuch as the snow had not yet packed down hard, and because they wished to be sure when the trail made any change.
Though they chatted a little, a word here and there, in general they kept their eyes glued to the trail in the snow.
Of a sudden they saw a division in the trail—two of the tracks led up toward the mountains while two others turned sharply to the left and took a direction back to the lake trail.
“There were four!” exclaimed Frank. “They divided here, two of them going one way and two the other. Now, the question is, which way do we follow? Which of these two sets of fellows has our stuff?”
“Why, the ones who are going up into the hills, of course,” Lanky answered promptly. “Let’s follow that way, and if we’re wrong we can come back and go the other.”
Still Frank stood at the dividing of the trail in the snow, not yet decided on which way he should lead. When he finally reached the conclusion that Lanky’s suggestion might be the best, he turned and started up the mountain side, keeping in the tracks.
“I notice the print with the crescent shaped piece on the heel has disappeared,” said Lanky after they had proceeded several yards. “You fellows go ahead—I’m going back to see if it goes the other way.”
Leaving them, he darted down the path again, reached the division of the trails, studying the prints closely which led away from this one. There, plain as day, step by step, he could see the print, plainer now than it had been when they started, showing that the snowfall had ended when the men got this far.
By the time he had rejoined the boys they had proceeded up the trail several hundred yards, finding the climb growing more difficult as they went, but undaunted by any such hardship.
At the crest of this high hill they looked down into another glen, but noticed that the tracks turned to the left to follow a small plateau which connected with another mountain in that direction.
Frank strained his eyes to discover any sign of habitation, but saw nothing that might indicate the presence of living beings. Not a sign of smoke, no hut nor cabin, just the snow everywhere, with these tracks leading across the plateau.
“Do you think we ought to make any effort to hide so as not to be seen as we go?” asked Buster.
“Hardly any use to try,” dryly remarked Frank. “We have to follow this trail, and our hope merely lies in the trees here and there which might protect us from being seen. I am wondering whether they might expect us to follow them.”
Lanky expressed the opinion that they expected the boys to break camp and start for home when they saw their cabin had been despoiled of all useful and necessary articles.
“Here’s where they drop into that valley,” Frank remarked when they had gone another quarter of a mile. “Wonder if this leads to a cabin or anything of the kind. Maybe it goes to a cave.”
“They’d fit well in a cave full of snakes!” snorted Paul Bird. “Just where they belong!”