two days later merriwell’s party moved from the island to a high, dry point on the mainland, where the tents were repitched and where they hoped to spend the remainder of their stay on lily bay. it was an ideal camping place, and freer from mosquitoes than the island had been.
hans told merriwell quite privately that the stings of those island mosquitoes were almost as bad as the stings of the “trout” he had caught.
except that the sun was torridly hot during the midday hours, the weather was almost perfect. the skies were clear and blue, the bay placid. trout, genuine trout, took the hook readily. the canoeing was all that could be desired. merriwell, too, had secured some splendid views of wild life with his ever-ready camera. one of the finest of these was a trout leaping. when developed, the photograph showed the trout in the air above the surface of the lake, with the water falling from it in silvery drops, and its scales glinting in the sunlight.
another fine view was a moonlight scene of a portion of lily bay, from the headland where hans had done his fishing.
“i shall always regret that i didn’t snap the camera on that buck while he was making such a gallant fight against those dogs,” merriwell often declared. “that would have been great. but really, i was so excited over[43] the buck’s peril that i entirely forgot that i had a camera.”
but he had caught other scenes and views, that were highly satisfactory, if they did not quite compensate for the fine scene of the combat between the hounds and the buck. whose the hounds were they had no means of knowing, but caribou suggested that they probably belonged to a gentleman who had a cottage not far from capen’s.
highly as merriwell regarded john caribou, there could be no doubt that there was something mysterious about his movements. merriwell had once seen him steal out of camp in the dead of night, an act for which the guide had no adequate explanation when questioned. in fact, merriwell’s questioning threw caribou into singular confusion.
the day the camp was moved, jack diamond saw the guide meet a stranger in the woods, to whom he talked for a long time in the concealment of some bushes, in a manner that was undeniably surreptitious. still, merry clung to his belief in the guide’s honesty.
hans dunnerwust had become valiant and boastful since his great success at catching “trout.” he wanted to further distinguish himself.
“uf i could shood somedings!” merriwell once overheard him say in longing tones.
this remark, which hans had only whispered to himself, as it were, came back to merriwell with humorous force a couple of days after the setting up of the camp on the mainland.
[44]
“if only hans could have come across this!” he exclaimed.
it was a dead doe lying in the woods not far from the camp. it had been shot, and after a long run had died where merriwell had found it, nor had it been dead a great while.
“the work of poachers,” said merriwell, with a feeling of ineffable contempt for men who could find it in their hearts to slaughter deer in this disgraceful and unlawful manner. “i wish the strong hand of the law could fall on some of those fellows.”
this was not the first evidence he had seen that poachers were carrying on their dastardly work around that portion of moosehead lake known as lily bay. a wounded deer had been noticed and distant shots had more than once been heard. he was beginning to believe that the dogs which had followed and attacked the buck belonged to these poachers.
after pushing the deer curiously about with his foot, merriwell was about to turn away, when he chanced to see hans dunnerwust waddling down the dim path, gun in hand. it was plain that if hans continued in his present course he could hardly fail to see the dead deer.
“just the thing!” merriwell whispered, while a broad smile came to his face. “if i don’t have some fun with hans i’m a dutchman myself!”
he put down his camera and rifle, and, lifting the body of the doe, stood it up against a small tree. by means of ingenious propping, he contrived to make it stand on its stiff legs and to give it somewhat of a natural appearance.
[45]
“it’s natural enough to fool dunnerwust, anyway!” he muttered, picking up the camera and gun and sliding into the nearby bushes.
hans came down the path, carrying his rifle like a veteran sportsman. he was looking for game, and he found it. his eyes widened like saucers when he saw the deer standing in the bushes by the tree.
“shimminy gristmas!” he gurgled. “id don’d seen me, eidher! uf dot deer don’d shood me, i like to know vot vos der madder mit me, anyhow! you pet me, i pud a palls righd t’rough ids head und ids liver. a veller can shood a teers dot don’d ged any horns, i subbose, mitoudt giddin’ arresded py dose game vardens! i vill shood him, anyhow, uf i can. yaw! you pet me!”
he dropped to his knees, then began a stealthy approach, for the purpose of putting himself within what he considered good shooting distance. he was less than eighty yards from the game when he first saw it, but he knew so little about rifles that he doubted if his gun would carry so far. it is not easy for a fat boy to crawl stealthily sixty yards on his hands and knees, dragging a gun along the ground, but that was the task that hans dunnerwust now set for himself.
merriwell, hidden in the bushes, shook with laughter, as hans began this cautious advance. when half the distance was passed, hans rose to a half upright posture and stared hard at the deer. this was an opportunity for which merriwell had been waiting. he drew down on hans the camera, but scarcely able to sight it accurately for laughing. the picture caught, showed hans all[46] a-tremble with eagerness, his mouth wide open, his eyes distended and staring.
assured that his game was still in position by the tree, hans got down on his hands and knees again and made another slow advance.
when no more than twenty yards separated him from the deer, he lifted himself very cautiously and drew up the gun to take aim. he was shaking so badly he could hardly hold the weapon. merriwell focused the camera on him at this instant and caught another view of this great hunter of the moosehead country.
as he took the camera down, he saw hans trying to shoot the gun without having cocked it. again and again hans pulled the trigger, without result.
“if only some of the other fellows were here!” merriwell groaned, fairly holding his sides. “he’s shaking so i’m afraid he won’t hit the deer, after all.”
he had arranged the deer so that the slightest touch would cause it to fall.
hans put down the gun and anxiously turned it over. then merriwell saw his puzzled face lighten. he had found out why the weapon would not go off.
this time when he lifted the rifle it was cocked. then he pressed the trigger.
when the whiplike report sounded, the deer gave a staggering lurch and fell headlong.
hans dunnerwust could not repress a cheer. he sprang to his feet, swinging his cap, and ran toward the fallen doe as fast as his short, fat legs would carry him.
“id’s kilt me! id’s kilt me!” he was shouting.
[47]
fearing it might not be quite dead, he stopped and drew his hunting knife. it did not rise, however, it did not even kick, and, made bold by these circumstances, hans waddled up to it and began to slash it with the fury of a lunatic.
“whoop!” he screeched. “i god id! i shooded id! i vos a teer gilt! who said dot hans dunnerwust coult nod shood somedings, eh?”
merriwell trained the camera on him once more, as he stood in this ferocious attitude, with the knife extended, from which no blood dripped, and looked triumphantly down at the deer at his feet. then merry rose and advanced.
hans turned when he heard the snapping of the bushes, and was about to bolt from the place, but, seeing that it was merriwell, he changed his mind and began to dance and caper like a crazy boy.
“you see dot?” he screeched, proudly pointing to the dead doe. “dot vos a teer vot kilt me shust now. tidn’t you heered id shood me?”
merriwell’s face assumed a look of consternation.
“i’m very sorry you did that,” he declared.
“vy? vot you mean py dot?” hans gasped.
“the game wardens are likely to hear of it.”
the face of the dutch boy took on such a sickly look of fright that merriwell relented.
“but you didn’t think, i suppose?”
“yaw! dot vos id.” hans asserted. “id shooded me pefore i know mineselluf.”
“perhaps it will be all right for you to take the head[48] in to show the boys what you have done,” merriwell suggested.
this was pleasing to hans, and so in line with his heart’s desire, that he immediately decapitated the doe, and proudly bore the head into the camp, as proof of his skill as a deer-stalker.
