CHAPTER XXVII.
A STRANGE DISCOVERY.
The Banded Seven walked on through the woods in silence after their disagreeable enemy had left. They were all of them thinking over the strange turn of affairs.
It was Mark who broke the silence at last.
“I wonder what can have happened,” he said, “to cause Bull to turn about so suddenly?”
“I don’t think he has!” growled Texas.
“But he seems to have gotten up courage all of a sudden. I never thought he’d dare fight us.”
“I don’t believe he is,” was the ex-cowboy’s answer. Texas was less disposed than Mark to take a charitable view of his enemy. “I jes’ tell you it’s nothin’ but a bluff; an’ there’s mystery behind it, too. That air ole coward ain’t a goin’ to take a lickin’ from you.”
“I don’t see how he can do otherwise,” mused Mark, slowly. “He can’t get us caught if we keep in sight of camp. And he can’t trap us where you’ve got your guns, can he?”
“Wow!” gasped Texas, in horror. “Bet you’ boots he kain’t!”
“Well, then, what can he do?” demanded the other.
“I dunno,” was the answer, very dubiously. “But I’ll bet it’s somethin’, an’ somethin’ mean, too! Anyhow, I want to suggest somethin’. Let’s us fellers swear—the seven of us right hyar—that no matter what he does do an’ no matter what he does try—he gits that air lickin’ an’ gits it in a hurry. Hey?”
“Betcher life, b’gee!” cried Dewey.
“An’ ef Mark gets hurt one o’ the rest of us gives it,” added Texas, excitedly.
Which sentiment the Parson echoed with his usual solemn “Yea, by Zeus!” That idea just caught the seven plebes in the right spot.
They shook hands on it then and there, and swore a solemn compact. The form of it was this:
“Whereas, Bull Harris is a villain.
“Resolved, That if he don’t fight Mark to-night—which he won’t—we give him a licking to-morrow. And that incidentally—b’gee—we also wallop Merry Vance and the other two!”
That interesting resolution having been unanimously adopted by a majority of fourteen—for everybody was eager to vote twice—the Seven agreed to drop the unpleasant topic from their minds and proceed to the business for which they had come up, the clearing away of the remnants of their “banquet.” Accordingly they hurried on through the woods.
Even if they had not dropped the subject voluntarily they must speedily have forgotten it. For something very exciting was destined to occur in a few minutes. It requires a brief digression from our story to mention.
The scene of last night’s feast was only about two hundred yards from the camp, and so the lads had not very far to go. Reaching it, they pushed the bushes aside and hurried out into the clearing. A moment later, with one accord, they halted and gave vent to a cry of surprise.
The reason was very evident. When they had left that spot in their terrible haste the night before they had left the ground plentifully bestrewn with victuals. And now there was not a trace of anything to be seen, not even so much as a crumb of pie crust!
The Seven were so taken aback that for a moment they could not even guess at any explanation.
“Can some one from camp have been up here?” inquired Mark at last, “and eaten everything up?”
“But they wouldn’t have eaten everything!” objected Texas. “There were all sorts of scraps and crumbs and——”
“Bless my soul! yes,” interrupted Indian. “Because I had almost finished a pumpkin pie when I had to drop it and run. It was awfully good pie, too.”
“Perhaps it was some kind of animal,” observed Mark, smiling at Indian’s melancholy observation. “Perhaps it was squirrels and birds and so on.”
“Or perhaps a mountain panther,” suggested Texas.
Indian turned pale at that horrible idea and muttered:
“Bless my soul! Are there any panthers around here?” he added.
“Lots of ’em,” answered Texas, with a wink. Then he turned to Stanard: “How ’bout that, Parson?” he inquired.
The Parson cleared his throat with a grave and thoughtful “Ahem!”
“I must confess,” he said, “that my information as to the zoölogical distribution in this particular locality is considerably limited. The habitat of the animal, however, includes many regions of similar latitude and physical characteristics. But the felis pardus——”
“The what?”
“I mean the panther,” stammered the lecturer.
“Ahem! Er—what was I saying? Oh, yes! The felis pardus is a digitigrade mammal and also carnivorous. Consequently I should hardly support the hypothesis that he would disturb the various vegetable products which we left behind us——”
“Do you mean,” queried Dewey, solemnly, “that panthers don’t eat pumpkin pie?”
“Exactly,” said the Parson. “That was just what I was trying to say.”
“B’gee!” chuckled Dewey, “no one would ever have guessed it. But as you say, panthers eat meat. If one had been wandering about last night, therefore, it is probable that he’d have taken Indian instead of his pie.”
“Bless my soul!” gasped Indian. “Please don’t talk like that.”
“As to the further characteristics of the quadruped,” said the Parson, continuing his lecture, “I may say by way of an introduction to the subject that scientific research has disclosed——”
“Whoop!”
There is no telling when the Parson would have stopped talking if it had not been for that sudden exclamation, which made the six jump in surprise. It is needless to say that it came from Texas; during the conversation Texas had started on a private investigation, rambling around the clearing, like a bloodhound on a trail. The result had been his cry.
His companions, even the Parson, made a dash for the spot, demanding eagerly to know what was the matter. By way of answer Powers pointed to the ground. It was small wonder that he had exclaimed aloud; in the soft earth there was a deep footprint. It was of a human foot, and it was bare!
Robinson Crusoe was not one whit more amazed at his discovery than were the seven cadets over this exactly similar one. They stood and gazed at it in silent astonishment; and then suddenly the meaning of it flashed over them all and they glanced about them in terror.
“By George!” cried Mark, “it’s that wild man!”
“He must have been starving,” said Mark, lowering his voice instinctively. “By George! this isn’t a very pleasant state of affairs!”
“Oo-oo! Let’s run!” gasped Indian. “Bless my soul!”
None of them ran, but it would be only fair to say that all of them wanted to. And it was noticeable that nobody offered any objection to returning home very soon. After all, why should they stay? all traces of their feast were gone.
“I’ll feel a little more comfortable in camp,” observed Mark, “where my musket and bayonet aren’t so far away. Come on.”
“I reckon,” chuckled Texas, triumphantly, “you won’t be so ’fraid o’ letting me carry my guns after this. Hey?”
“I shan’t mind to-night, anyway,” was the answer. “We’ll probably have more than one enemy to watch out for. But we’ll fool ’em all, I hope. How about it, Texas?”
The question Texas answered by offering to bet his boots on it.
“Jes’ you wait till night gits hyar,” he said, “then we’ll see.”
Which they did, for a fact.