Fairview Boys at Camp Mystery/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V
WINTER FUN
For a moment, in spite of Sammy's warning, neither of his chums was able to move. Nor, for that matter, was Sammy either. As snakes are said to charm birds by looking at them steadily, so the sight of the old hermit, if such he was, seemed to charm the three boys into standing still there in the snow on the shore of Pine Island.
It was rather a scary scene, with dusk falling, amid a silence that was more startling than noise would have been. The old man rose up from the snow-covered bushes, seeming to tower more than six feet in height. He looked steadily at the boys.
Then Sammy found his voice again, and yelled:
"Come on, fellows, run!"
"That's right! I'm with you!" added Frank.
And by this time Bob Bouncer had gotten over his first fright, so he, too, added his voice to those of his chums.
"Hit him!" he cried. "Throw a snowball at him!"
"Don't you dare do it!" came from Sammy. "That'll make him awful mad! Run for all you're worth!"
This seemed the best advice, for really the old man, in spite of his long white hair and beard, that made him look something like the pictures of Santa Claus, had not a kindly-appearing face. He scowled, as though very angry at the boys.
As yet he had not said a word, only, as he rose to his full height, he made a move as if to come from behind the bushes, back of which he seemed to have been hiding.
"Here he comes!" yelled Sammy. "Come on, fellows!"
They needed no other warning. The three boys took to their heels, and crashed over the snow and bramble-covered ground to the edge of the frozen lake.
"You'd better get away from here!" yelled the strange old man after them. "If I catch you around here again, I'll"
But the boys did not stop to hear what he would do to them. They did not even stop to fasten on their skates, but ran over the ice, slipping and sliding.
"Is—is he coming?" gasped Bob.
"I don't know. Look back and see for yourself," said Sammy.
Bob did so, but as one cannot very well run over slippery ice and look backward at the same time, what happened to Bob can be easily imagined.
Down he went in a heap, rolling over and over, and sliding along as well.
"Hey, fellows!" he cried. "Don't leave me. Help! He'll get me sure! Stay with me!"
His appeal touched the hearts of his chums.
"We can't leave him like that!" said Frank.
"No," panted Bob. "We'll have to stay with him."
They slid along, unable at first to stop on the slippery ice, and then they slowly came to a halt. Turning, they went back to pick up Bob, but he had already scrambled to his feet, and was running after them.
"He isn't coming," said Frank, catching sight of the strange man, standing on the shore of the island, near where the boys had landed. "I guess he isn't going to chase us."
"It's a good thing, too," panted Bob.
"Why?" asked Frank, with a smile.
"Because if he'd come after me I'd have hit him with my skates; that's what I would!" boasted Bob.
"What did you run for then?" asked Sammy.
"'Cause you fellows did. Think I was going to stay there all alone and tackle him? I was not! So he isn't coming after us; eh?"
"No, there he stands," answered Sammy, peering through the darkness. They could just make out the old hermit, and as they looked they saw him shake his fist at them. Then he disappeared behind a tree.
"Well, come on, let's get on our skates and make for home," proposed Frank. "It's getting late, and the folks will be worried."
"That's right," agreed Sammy. "But I guess, after this, you fellows will believe what I tell you about hermits and—and things; won't you?"
"Well, you were right about the hermit," admitted Frank. "He sure is there. But that doesn't say there's treasure on the island."
"Treasure! Of course there is!" insisted Sammy. "Did you ever know of a hermit where there wasn't treasure? That's what hermits are for—to guard a treasure."
"Well, maybe," said Bob, slowly. "Anyhow if there was treasure on the island, I wouldn't want to hunt for it if that terrible old man was guarding it."
"I would," spoke Sammy, bravely. "Maybe he doesn't look so scary by daytime. I'm coming up again."
"I'm not!" exclaimed Bob. But none of the boys knew how soon they would again visit Pine Island, nor what strange adventures they would have there.
They soon had their skates on, and struck off across the frozen lake toward Fairview and their homes. It grew darker and darker, but presently the stars came out, and as the ice was glaring white they did not have much trouble seeing their way.
Reaching home, they found their parents just beginning to get alarmed about them, fearing there had been some accident on the ice. The boys told of their adventure, but in their own homes, with the lamps lighted, and warm fires glowing, the encounter with the hermit did not seem so terrible as it had at the time it happened.
"If I see him again I'm going to speak to him," declared Sammy. "I'm going to ask him why he doesn't want anybody on that part of the island."
"Better not," advised Sammy's father. "He may be harmless if let alone, but his mind may be diseased, and if you annoy him he might do you some harm."
"Well, I'll ask Mr. Jessup, the hunter, about him then," decided Sammy, and his father thought this might be all right.
There were happy days in Fairview now. Winter had set in to stay, it seemed, and there was skating and coasting enough to satisfy everyone.
Sammy and his chums told their friends of their trip to Pine Island, and of having seen the hermit, and several of the smaller boys of their acquaintance shivered with fear. A number of the larger boys, including Jed Burr, at once said they were going up and see if they could not find the hermit themselves.
Jed Burr, I might say, was quite a different boy now. He no longer was a bully, tormenting those younger or weaker than himself. His suspension, and the apology he had had to make, seemed to have taken good effect on him.
Then, too, he was looked upon somewhat as a hero, from having gone back to rescue the little boy at the time when it was thought the school was going to be toppled over by an earthquake.
"I like Jed now," said Sammy, one day.
"So do I," added Bob.
"He's real kind," said Frank. "Yesterday I had to bring home from the store a heavy basket of potatoes. Jed met me and carried it for me."
And Jed himself was glad that he had "turned over a new leaf." He was finding out that it is more fun, in the end, to be good than to be bad. And Jed's teacher was glad, too, for he gave her less trouble.
So, as I say, Jed and some of the bigger boys in the school, having heard of the experience of Sammy and his chums, had decided to go to Pine Island, to see if they could not find the hermit.
"Will you come along, Sammy, and show us where you saw him?" asked Jed.
"I will, if Bob and Frank will," was the answer.
But Bob and Frank would not go, and Sammy would not go without them. So Jed and his chums set off by themselves on their skates for Pine Island. They were gone nearly the whole of one Saturday, but when they came back they were disappointed, for they had seen nothing of the hermit.
"I guess you fellows dreamed it," said Jed, with a laugh. "Or else you saw shadows on the snow."
"We did not dream it!" declared Sammy.
"And can shadows holler at you?" Bob wanted to know.
"No, but maybe you heard an echo," suggested Jed.
"There couldn't be any echo unless somebody said something," spoke Frank, "and we heard that hermit speak as plain as anything, and we weren't saying a word."
"Well, it's queer we didn't see him," returned Jed.
Several days passed—days filled with many winter joys. Sammy and his two chums made themselves skate-sails. They took some sticks, and stretched cloth over them, something between the sail of a boat and a kite in shape. Then, holding these sails in their hands, they would let the wind blow them over the ice. Thus they could skate without getting tired out.
Then there were sleighing parties, and coasting races on the big hill back of the schoolhouse. Sammy and his chums made themselves a bob, by fastening two low clipper sleds together with a long plank. It had a steering wheel, and a bell that sounded, as the bob went down hill, to warn everyone to get out of the way.
More snowball battles, and the building of snow houses and snow-men made up other fun for the boys and girls.
"I'm going to make the biggest snow house that ever was put up in Fairview!" exclaimed Sammy, one day. Like everything else he did, or had a part in, Sammy wanted his undertakings to be out of the ordinary.
"All right, we'll help you," said Bob and Frank.
They started the snow house in Sammy's yard, as he had proposed it. A dozen large snowballs were rolled, and put in line on four sides of a square. These were to be the walls of the house. The walls were made quite high. Then inside of them was piled all the snow the boys could gather. They cleared the ground for some distance about the house, and Sammy's father said if only they would work as hard cleaning off the sidewalks in winter, they would be doing a good thing.
"But cleaning sidewalks isn't any fun," declared Sammy, and his chums agreed with him.
They were going to make a big snow pile inside the walls of balls, and then hollow it out, leaving a roof of snow on top. This would be the house. Besides the door, by which the snow would be shoveled out, there were also to be windows.
All went well for a time. Then, when the house was nearly finished, Sammy's father came out to look at it.
"You're making your roof too thin, boys," he said. "It will fall in on you."
"Oh, I guess not!" boasted Sammy. "We want to have the walls and roof thin, as that gives us more room inside."
"Well, you mind what I'm telling you," said Mr. Brown.
Hardly had he spoken when Sammy, who was using his shovel to scrape some snow from the ceiling of the house, sent his shovel right through the roof.
"Oh!" he cried.
He did not have a chance to say anything more, for, just then, the whole roof fell in, burying himself as well as Frank and Bob out of sight.
"I told you so!" cried Mr. Brown.
However, little harm was done, as the roof was too thin to hurt any of the boys. They began to dig themselves out, with Mr. Brown's help, and soon were outside the ruins of their snow house.
"That's too bad," said Bob.
"It sure is," agreed Frank.
"And it was all my fault," admitted Sammy, with a sigh.
"Never mind," went on Bob. "We can put boards across the walls, now, for a roof, and cover them with snow."
"I think that would be the safest plan," spoke Mr. Brown. The boys had much fun after that, in their snow house.
"Say, when are we going to take another trip to Pine Island, and look for—" began Sammy Brown one day, about a week after the falling in of the snow house roof.
"Were you going to say look for the hermit?" asked Bob, with a laugh.
"No, I meant Mr. Jessup, the hunter. I think it would be jolly to go up and camp there."
"It would," agreed Frank. "But we have to go to school. It wouldn't be much fun just to go for one day. I'd like to stay a week."
"Well maybe we could go when the Christmas vacation comes," suggested Sammy. "I'm going to ask my folks, anyhow."
"So will I!" cried Frank.
"And I," added Bob.
They were on their way home from school that afternoon, talking over the proposed trip to Pine Island, when, as they came within sight of Rainbow Lake, Sammy uttered a cry.
"Look!" he exclaimed, pointing. "The ice must have all melted. There's a sailboat on the lake!"
"Sailboat! That isn't a sailboat!" said Bob.
"No, it's an ice yacht!" cried Frank. "Come on down and let's see who has it. Maybe they'll give us a ride."
The boys broke into a run, and soon saw that what Frank had said was true. It was an ice-boat—one built with runners, like big skates, and a sail, fixed on a mast, standing up in a platform—shaped like a triangle. The boat was skimming swiftly over the ice.
"Say, that's all right!" cried Sammy. "I'm going to make one of those!"
"There he goes again!" laughed Frank.
"Well, I am—you'll see!" went on Sammy. "Come closer, and we'll look how they're made. That seems to be a new kind."
The three chums went out on the ice toward the skimming boat.
Suddenly there was a cracking sound, a deep boom, like a shot from a distant cannon, and a wide crack appeared in the ice, just in front of the ice-boat. Before those aboard could turn aside, the front part of the craft had slid into the cold waters of the lake, and several figures were seen floundering about.
"Come on!" cried Sammy, breaking into a run. "We've got to help save them!"