"It's out there just beyond the picket lines, and some of you must go after it. You see the mountaineers who 'held me up' and then made friends with me, agreed to bring it to camp under my solemn promise of safe conduct. Bill Jones was at the head of them. But as they drew near the camp and saw the pickets, their courage failed them and even my invitation to come and breakfast with us, could not entice them within the picket lines.

"'We don't want to take no risks,' they said, 'an' you kin bring out some fellers to git the bar, so ef you don't mind, we'll leave it right here an' say good mornin'.' And with that they scurried off up the mountain."

Jack, Harry, Ed and Jim volunteered to go out after the bear, and with no little difficulty they at last got him to camp, where they proceeded to dress him. Tom, in the meantime, ate such breakfast as there was on hand, and, rolling himself in his blanket, stretched his tired limbs before the fire and fell at once into slumber. The other boys left him asleep when they went to their work, but considerably before noon he joined them with his axe.

That night a "council of war," as they called it, was held.

"Now that our house is burned up," said Jack, "we may as well begin to get ready for our descent of the mountain. Of course, we could sleep out of doors in this spring weather, but there is no use in doing it longer than we must. We sent the last two bridge timbers down the chute to-day.

We have only twenty more ties to get ready and if we work hard we can do that to-morrow and next day. That will leave us nothing more to do except to work up the waste into cordwood and send it down. My calculation is that we can leave here one week from to-morrow morning if we are reasonably industrious. Tom's bear and the other game he'll get, will keep us in meat for that time, and if the Doctor can leave his patients a week hence, we'll go."

"Oh, as to that," said the Doctor, "I could leave them now. They need nothing now but nursing, and it won't be very long after we leave before the road will be open for the lieutenant to send them all down the mountain."

Thus with glad thoughts of a speedy homing, the boys rolled themselves in their blankets and stretched themselves out to sleep by the fire and under the stars.

"By the way, Tom," said Jim, just as Tom was sinking into slumber, "you forgot to look for that hole in the sky that you made last night."

"Well, you'd better make a hole in your talk pretty quick, Jim, if you don't want a bucket of water poured over you," said Jack. "Lie awake as long as you like, but keep quiet and let the rest of us sleep."

CHAPTER x.x.xVI

_A Start Down the Mountain_

Just a week later the boys were ready to quit Camp Venture and proceed down the mountain, or as Tom, quoting the mountaineers, put it, they prepared to "git down out'n the mountings."

They had fully accomplished their mission. They had done a great winter's work. They had sent down the mountain every tie they were permitted by their contract to furnish; they had sent down many n.o.ble bridge timbers and greatly more cordwood than they had expected to cut.

Their work was done, except that before going home they must go to the headquarters of the railroad contractors, at the foot of the mountain, adjust their accounts and collect the money due them.

As the best mountain climber among them, the one who had met and overcome more mountain difficulties in his time than any other, and the one who best knew how to "look straight at things and use common sense," Tom was chosen to direct the perilous descent over the cliffs.

The boys were all heavily loaded, of course. Each had his axe, his blanket, his extra clothing and four days' rations to carry. Each also had his gun and there was one extra gun--the rifle that Tom had captured from the mountaineer--to be carried. "For," said Tom, "while we have no use for the gun, I've agreed to deliver it to its owner whenever he chooses to call for it at my mother's house, and I tell you, boys, a man's first obligation in this world is to keep every promise that he makes no matter what it costs. I'd take that fellow's rifle down the mountain if I had to leave my own behind in order to do it."

"You are right, Tom," said the Doctor, "and boys, I propose that we take charge of that gun and carry it turn and turn about for Tom, for he is otherwise the worst over-loaded fellow in the party."

For Tom had his skins to carry--the panther's hide, three big bear skins, several deer hides, and a large number of pelts from racc.o.o.ns, opossums, hares, squirrels and other small game.

"In fact," said the Doctor, "I move that we throw Tom down, take away his load, and divide it equally among the entire party."

"That's it. That's the way to manage it!" cried the boys in chorus. But Tom would hear of nothing of the kind. "You fellows may help me with the mountaineer's rifle, if you choose, but I'll manage my bundle of skins for myself. Thank you, all the same. After all, our luggage isn't going to bother us half so much, going down the mountain this way as it would if we went down by the regular trail."

"Why not, Tom?" asked Jack.

"Well, I'll show you after awhile," said Tom. "And in the meantime, Doctor, I'm going to take all your delicate and expensive scientific instruments, and myself pack them so that they will endure the journey without injury. If carried as you have them, there wouldn't be one of them that wouldn't lie like a moonshiner by the time we 'git out'n the mountings.' Let me have them, please."

The Doctor, curious to see what the boy was going to do, turned his instruments over to him and carefully observed his proceedings. Tom began by selecting a number of the smaller skins, which, instead of drying, he had "tanned" with brains, corn meal-rubbing and other devices known to him as a hunter. These were as limp and soft as so many pieces of muslin, but greatly tougher. With them Tom carefully wrapped each instrument separately, securely tying up each with string, which the boy seemed always to have hidden somewhere about his person in unlimited quant.i.ty and variety of sizes and kinds.

"That's a trick I learned in hunting," he said, when questioned. "You can never have too much string with you."

Next he packed these bundles together, interposing dried and stiff hides between the several parcels, and again securely tied them together. Then he took the hide of his "Ursa Major," which was still "green" and limp, and which, as the boys suggested, "smelt uncommonly bad," and rolled the whole bundle in that, "skinny side out," binding it securely with stout twine. Finally he wrapped the stiff dried hide of the first bear he had killed, and the equally stiff panther's hide over all, as a sort of "goods box," he said, and, with a piece of red keel, he playfully marked on the panther's skin, "Gla.s.s! Handle with care."

"But now who is going to carry all this load?" asked Jack.

"Tom and I," said the Doctor, quickly. "The skins are Tom's and the instruments are mine. So we'll take some more of Tom's string and rig up some handles by which he and I can carry the bundle."

"You see," said Tom, "we may possibly have to drop it over a cliff now and then, and I've tried to do it up so as to stand that without breaking the instruments. But I think we can manage to avoid that. At any rate, we'll try. Now, come on, boys."

They had already taken leave of the lieutenant, and with four days'

rations in their haversacks--for the lieutenant had supplied them with those military conveniences--haversacks--they began the descent of the mountain by that difficult way that Tom had followed on the night when he inspected the stills.

It was nine o'clock when they started. They made their way with comparative ease for nearly an hour. Then they came upon a bluff of formidable proportions and difficulty. Here Tom's experience and generalship came into play for the first time.

"All lay off your loads," he said. "Now, Harry, you are a discreet fellow and a good climber. Strip yourself of everything that can possibly embarra.s.s you, and go down over the bluff. Remember what I have told you about bushes. Some of them cling tenaciously, while some of them give way in their roots at the first serious pull. Never trust one of them, but hold on by two always, and support yourself by your feet on every projection of rock you can find, so as not to overtax the bushes.

When you are holding by two bushes, never let go of one to catch another lower down till you have satisfied yourself of the security of the other one by which you are holding on, and then grab the new one as quickly as you can. Make your way to the foot of the cliff, and we'll then let all our baggage and arms down to you with twine. You are to receive it all, untie the twine and let us pull it up again for the next bundle. When all our luggage is down, we'll climb down ourselves. There isn't any serious difficulty about it if we're careful. As I told you boys awhile ago, there isn't any such thing as accident. It is all a question of carefulness."

Harry did his part well in making the descent of this first precipice and the work of lowering the arms and luggage, including every boy's haversack--for it was imperative that in the bush climb down the cliff, no boy should carry a single ounce of unnecessary weight--occupied full two hours' time.

The Doctor was the last to go over the edge of the precipice, and he alone met with mishap. Jack, with his heavy weight, had preceded him, and the bushes, already weakened by the strain the other boys had given them, were some of them almost torn out by the roots from the rock crevices in which they grew. So when the Doctor was about half way down, one of them gave way suddenly, leaving the Doctor's right hand with no support and swinging him around in very perilous fashion. But the Doctor had by this time become a good deal of an athlete, and instantly realizing his danger, he swung himself around on his toes, which rested in a crevice of the cliff, and grasped with his right hand a sharp edge of rock which protruded some inches from the face of the cliff. It was a perilous hold, as the boys, looking on from below, clearly saw, and one that obviously could not be long maintained. But the Doctor had his wits about him, and after a moment's pause, he grasped another bush which held securely, and five minutes later he was on the ledge below.

Here it was decided to halt for the midday meal. A fire was built; the game which had been brought--or at least so much of it as was needed for this meal--was broiled upon live coals, and a pot of coffee was made--for of that sustaining article the original supply had not yet been quite exhausted.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

_Down the Mountain_

By this time the boys were excessively tired. Climbing down over bluffs is weary work. So after dinner they stretched themselves out for a nap with their bundles under their heads in lieu of pillows.

An hour later they roused themselves and set out again upon their toilsome journey, carrying their packs as best they could, and scrambling through underbrush and over fragments of rock that had fallen from the cliffs and hills above and now seriously obstructed the pa.s.sage.

At last they came to the shelving rock, mentioned in a preceding chapter. This was a perfectly bare stretch of rock, extending down the hill for nearly a quarter of a mile, at an angle which made walking upon it impracticable.

"Now, fellows," said Tom, "get your parcels together and slide them down the hill. The thick woods and bush tangle at the bottom of this rocky incline will bring them to a halt. Then I'll go down alone and find out if the way is practicable. If I get down in safety the rest of you can follow, doing precisely as you've seen me do."

"But, Tom, I protest," said the Doctor. "You mustn't take all the risk."

"Oh, you'll have risk enough for your own share," answered Tom, "after I've done the trick. It's only that I've done this sort of thing before, and can show you fellows how. In the meantime, send the parcels down."

Then one after another, the shoulder packs were started and went speedily down the rocky incline and into the woodlands at its foot. The guns, of course, were not risked in this fashion, but were securely strapped upon the shoulders of those who were to carry them.

When all the luggage had been sent down, Tom began his descent, calling to the others:

"Now watch me carefully, boys, and see just how I do it."