Both the hunters had work to do that night; and, as soon as supper had been eaten, they set about it; Oscar devoting himself to the deer, while Big Thompson removed and stretched the skins of the otter and mink he had shot during the day. 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 scout, was an expert in all that pertained to the trapping and preserving of skins, and he handled his knife with a dexterity that excited Oscar’s admiration 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 elk, and that would be a disappointment to me. After I have eaten breakfast, I’ll take a stroll down the brook 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 hearty 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 kin tell a man’s name by seein’ the size of his hoofs 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 entirely 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 bent his steps toward the bluff on which Oscar had killed the mule-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 windings among the hills and gorges, 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 concealment, 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 butt 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 dispelled.
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 scattered about, and the whole untidy and neglected appearance of the camp, fully satisfied him that he had made no mistake.
262A plain trail led away from the camp, and this had been made by ............