The boy was so much interested in what his guide was doing that he made very little progress with his own task.
Big Thompson, having spent many a year in the woods before he became a government scout4, was an expert in all that pertained5 to the trapping and preserving of skins, and he handled his knife with a dexterity6 that excited Oscar’s admiration7 and envy.
His work being done at the end of an hour, he lighted his pipe and watched the boy until he grew sleepy, and then he bade him good-night and sought his blanket.
257Nothing more was said about the unknown hunter, and Oscar never thought of him again until the next morning, when he awoke to find that the guide, after preparing breakfast for his employer, had taken his rifle and set off by himself.
“He has gone out to see who my rival was,” thought Oscar, as he threw off the blankets and drew on his boots. “I hope he will find him and bring him here to live with us. There is room enough in the cabin for three, and there is game enough in the valley to keep us all busy. If he stays off there by himself, I am afraid he will shoot that big elk8, and that would be a disappointment to me. After I have eaten breakfast, I’ll take a stroll down the brook9 and see if I can find some of Thompson’s traps. When I see how they are set, I’ll put out some for myself. I might just as well earn a few extra dollars while I am here as not. I have spent a good deal of the committee’s money that I had no business to spend, and every cent of it must be replaced.”
Having disposed of a hearty10 breakfast—it was astonishing what an appetite the cold, 258bracing air from the mountains gave him—Oscar shouldered his rifle and left the cabin.
He was gone all day; and when he came back, just before dark, he carried over his shoulder a fine bunch of mink and otter, which he had found in the guide’s traps and deadfalls.
He had taken particular notice of the nature of the localities in which these traps and deadfalls were set, and thought he had learned enough to warrant him in beginning the business of trapping on his own responsibility.
Big Thompson had already returned, and supper was nearly ready.
“That’s what I have done to-day,” said Oscar, as he entered the cabin and exhibited his bunch of game. “Now, what have you done?”
“I’ve found out that we’ve got the country to our own two selves ag’in, like we’d oughter have,” answered Big Thompson. “That feller has dug out.”
“I am sorry to hear it,” said Oscar. “I was in hopes you would find him and bring him back with you.”
259“I might have fetched him here if I’d found him, an’ then ag’in I mightn’t. I don’t reckon ye’d make friends with every feller ye’d meet in the settlements, would ye? Wal, ’taint safe to do so out yere in the hills, nuther. Most likely he heared ye yellin’ an’ shootin’ yesterday, an’ has gone off to find more elbow-room.”
“I should think he ought to have heard me, if he was anywhere within a mile of the valley,” said Oscar, with a smile. “I tell you I awoke the echoes. But it seems to me that you fellows want a good deal of elbow-room. I wouldn’t care if there were a dozen other hunters here. Do you know who he was?”
“I didn’t see him,” was the answer.
“But do you know who he was?” repeated Oscar, who saw something in his guide’s manner which led him to the belief that he wasn’t telling all he knew.
“Look a-yere, perfessor! Do ye s’pose I kin1 tell a man’s name by seein’ the size of his hoofs11 in the snow?” demanded Big Thompson. “No, I can’t. My ole pop, when he larnt me trailin’, never told me how to do that.”
260Oscar was entirely12 satisfied with, the reply. He little imagined that the guide, although he uttered nothing but the truth when he affirmed that he had not seen the man, could, nevertheless, tell all about him.
When Big Thompson left the cabin, at the first peep of day, he bent13 his steps toward the bluff14 on which Oscar had killed the mule15-deer; and, after an hour’s rapid walking, found his trail, as well as that of the unknown hunter.
This he took up at once, and followed through all its numerous windings16 among the hills and gorges17, until at last he came to the spot where the tracks, which had thus far been a good distance apart, were made in pairs.
“This is whar he stopped when he heared the perfessor’s gun,” said the guide to himself. “Then he went on a few steps an’ stopped; then a leetle further, an’ stopped ag’in, an’ that’s the way the tracks were made so clost together. Finally, he branched off this yere way, t’wards the bluff, to see who it was a-shootin’ down thar in the valley.”
Big Thompson also “branched off” at this point, following the trail to the edge of the 261timber; and, by taking his stand behind the same cluster of bushes that had served the unknown hunter for a concealment18, he could see the spot on which Oscar stood while he was examining his prize.
Taking up the trail again, he pursued it at a swifter pace, his knowledge of woodcraft enabling him to pick out every tree and bowlder behind which the hunter had stopped to survey the ground before him; and, after another hour’s rapid travelling, came within sight of a smouldering camp-fire.
He ran up to it at once; and, dropping the butt19 of his rifle to the ground, halted to take a survey of its surroundings.
The guide had already told himself who Oscar’s rival was; and, if there were any lingering doubts in his mind as to his identity, they were now all dispelled20.
The hastily constructed shelter, under which the snow was almost as deep as it was in the woods, the carcasses of the wolves that were scattered21 about, and the whole untidy and neglected appearance of the camp, fully22 satisfied him that he had made no mistake.
262A plain trail led away from the camp, and this had been made by two persons (one of whom wore boots) and an unshod pony23.
The owners of the camp had eaten an early breakfast, and set out to find less populous24 hunting grounds.
The guide followed their trail until he had made sure of their direction, which he knew to be another valley among the hills a few miles away, and then he turned about and retraced25 his steps.
“I understand sunthin’ now that I didn’t quite see into afore,” thought he. “Lish knowed that me an’ the perfessor would be sartin to strike fur this valley, and that’s why he put that thar writin’ on to Ike Barker’s door. He reckoned that if Ike tuk back his muel, as a’most any other feller would ’a’done, that would knock us in the head, an’ him an’ his pardner would have the country to themselves. But that thar leetle game didn’t work, did it, Lish? I knowed it was yerself the minute I seed yer trail a-dodgin’ ahind all them trees an’ rocks. Ye knowed the perfessor was a-hollerin’ fur me, an’ ye didn’t want to see 263me, did ye? No; I reckon ye didn’t—kase why, when we set eyes on to each other, we’ll pull ha’r, me an’ you will.”
The guide did not explain all this to his employer, because he knew, as well as if Oscar himself had told him so, that there was something between him and Lish the Wolfer, or between him and his partner, whoever he might be.
When Oscar read the note the ranchman found fastened to his door, he was nearly overwhelmed with excitement, or something else, and the guide had noticed it. So had Ike Barker, and the two had discussed the matter after the boy fell asleep in his bunk26; but, of course, without arriving at any solution of the mystery.
It was plain enough to Big Thompson that his young employer knew more about one or the other of these two worthies27 than he cared to reveal; but he had never said anything to him about it, for he knew that it was no concern of his.
If Oscar were in need of his assistance, and chose to take him into his confidence, he would 264give him all the help he could. Until then he would keep his mouth closed.
This was the way Big Thompson looked at the matter, and the conclusions at which he arrived showed that he was as expert at following out a course of reasoning as he was at following a trail.
During the next three weeks our hunters employed their time in much the same way that they had employed it during the three days the incidents of which we have so minutely described. They had come out there to hunt and trap; and they went about their business as regularly as a carpenter or a book-keeper goes about his daily work.
Oscar passed one day in stalking some of the numerous herds28 of elk that roamed in the upper end of the valley, and the next in visiting traps he had set along the banks of the brook.
Good luck attended all his efforts except in two, or, we may say, three instances. He never went out after the elk that he did not succeed in bringing down one; and, whenever he made the round of his traps, he always 265brought to the cabin at least half a dozen, and sometimes more, valuable fur-bearing animals.
He had secured another mule-deer—a doe—which was a fit companion for the buck29 he had killed; he had prepared for mounting several fine specimens30 of the beaver31, otter, mink, and marten tribes; he had knocked over two or three gray foxes, and a common wolf which he found feasting on a deer he had slain32; he had bagged some representatives of all the game-birds with which the woods were inhabited; and the pile of furs he intended to sell, and which grew larger every day, satisfied him that he could refund33 every dollar of the committee’s money that he had advanced to assist Leon Parker and his brother Tom, and have a handsome surplus left to put into his own pocket.
These things made his heart light and his sleep sound; but he became nervous and impatient when he reflected that, with all his careful stalking, he had not been able to get a shot at that big elk with the splendid antlers; that he could not obtain so much as a glimpse 266of the thieving wolverine which was making a business of robbing his traps, or of the panther which serenaded him and his companion nearly every night.
The guide, who had heard so much about that big elk that he became as anxious to secure him as Oscar was, advised the boy to run him down on horseback; and at last Oscar consented to try it.
Then he found that he had missed a good deal of sport during the time he had devoted34 to still-hunting.
An elk, when he is disturbed by a hunter, makes off at a trot35 which is the very poetry of easy and vigorous motion.
So rapid is his pace, and so long-winded is he, that the hunter who would overtake him must be mounted on a fleet and enduring horse; and, furthermore, he must push him hard enough at the start to make him “break his trot”—that is, compel him to change his gait to a gallop36.
Although he can trot twenty miles without showing any signs of fatigue37, going up the side of a mountain, or through a dense38 forest, 267where the way is obstructed39 by rocks and fallen trees, with as much ease, apparently40, as he would pass over an open prairie, a short gallop—even on the smoothest ground—exhausts him; and then the hunter can ride close enough to him to use his rifle or revolver.
Oscar knew all this, for his guide had more than once explained it to him.
Hunting on horseback was easier than hunting on foot; and, after his first day in the saddle, Oscar never went elk-stalking again.
He lived on horseback during the daytime, for he always rode the guide’s pony; the guide himself rode the mule.
This much-abused animal, although he was the very personification of laziness and obstinacy41 when hitched42 to the wagon43, was all life and animation44 when he had a rider on his back.
He proved to be very light of foot; and, on more than one occasion, tested the speed of the pony to the utmost.
He was very knowing, too, and it was not many days before Oscar found it out. If it had not been for that same mule this expedition 268would have ended in failure, in spite of the success that had thus far attended them.
He did something that raised him to a high place in the boy’s estimation; and anybody who struck that mule a blow after that, in his presence, would have been very likely to get himself into trouble.
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1
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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otter
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| n.水獭 | |
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3
mink
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| n.貂，貂皮 | |
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4
scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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pertained
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| 关于( pertain的过去式和过去分词 )； 有关； 存在； 适用 | |
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6
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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7
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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8
elk
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| n.麋鹿 | |
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9
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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10
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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11
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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12
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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13
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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16
windings
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| （道路、河流等）蜿蜒的，弯曲的( winding的名词复数 )； 缠绕( wind的现在分词 )； 卷绕； 转动（把手） | |
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gorges
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| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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18
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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20
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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25
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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26
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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worthies
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| 应得某事物( worthy的名词复数 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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28
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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30
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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31
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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32
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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refund
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| v.退还，偿还；n.归还，偿还额，退款 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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35
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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36
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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37
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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38
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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39
obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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40
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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41
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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42
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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43
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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44
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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