Part 14 (2/2)

”Demon dancers fits them,” said d.i.c.k. ”It's a good name.

Yes, they've gone, and I don't think they'll come back. Wolves are smart, they know when they're wasting time.”

When they finished jerking their buffalo meat and venison, d.i.c.k took the fine double-barreled shotgun which they had used but little hitherto, and went down to the lake in search of succulent waterfowl. The far sh.o.r.e of the lake was generally very high, but on the side of the cabin there were low places, little shallow bays, the bottoms covered with gra.s.s, which were much frequented by wild geese and wild ducks, many of which, owing to the open character of the winter, had not yet gone southward.

The ducks, in particular, muscovy, mallard, teal, widgeon, and other kinds, the names of which d.i.c.k did not know, were numerous. They had been molested so little that they were quite tame, and it was so easy to kill them in quant.i.ties that the element of sport was entirely lacking.

d.i.c.k did not fancy shooting at a range of a dozen yards or so into a dense flock of wild ducks that would not go away, and he wished also to save as many as he could of their shot cartridges, for he had an idea that he and his brother would remain in the valley a long time. But both he and Albert wanted good supplies of duck and geese, which were certainly toothsome and succulent, and they were taking a pride, too, in filling the Annex with the best things that the mountains could afford. Hence d.i.c.k did some deep thinking and finally evolved a plan, being aided in his thoughts by earlier experience in Illinois marshes.

He would trap the ducks and geese instead of shooting them, and he and Albert at once set about the task of making the trap.

This idea was not original with d.i.c.k. As so many others have been, he was, in part, and unconscious imitator. He planted in the shallow water a series of hoops, graded in height, the largest being in the deepest water, while they diminished steadily in size as they came nearer to the land. They made the hoops of split saplings, and planted them about four feet apart.

Then the covered all these hoops with a netting, the total length of which was about twenty-five feet. They also faced each hoop with a netting, leaving an aperture large enough for the ducts to enter. It was long and tedious work to make the netting, as this was done by cutting the hide of an elk and the hide of a mule deer into strips and plaiting the strips on the hoops. They then had a network tunnel, at the smaller end of which they constructed an inclosure five or six feet square by means of stout poles which they thrust into the mud, and the same network covering which they used on the tunnel.

”It's like going in at the big end of a horn and coming out at the little one into a cell,” said Albert. ”Will it work?”

”Work?” replied d.i.c.k. ”Of course, it will. You just wait and you'll see.”

Albert looked out upon the lake, where many ducks were swimming about placidly, and he raised his hand.

”Oh, foolish birds!” he apostrophized. ”Here is your enemy, man, making before your very eyes the snare that will lead you to destruction, and you go on taking no notice, thinking that the suns.h.i.+ne will last forever for you.”

”Shut up, Al,” said d.i.c.k, ”you'll make me feel sorry for those ducks. Besides, you're not much of a poet, anyway.”

When the trap was finished they put around the mouth and all along the tunnel quant.i.ties of the gra.s.s and herbs that the ducks seemed to like, and then d.i.c.k announced that the enterprise was finished.

”We have nothing further to do about it,” he said, ”but to take out our ducks.”

It was toward twilight when they finished the trap, and both had been in the cold water up to their knees. d.i.c.k had long since become hardened to such things, but he looked at Albert rather anxiously. The younger boy, however, did not begin to cough. He merely hurried back to the fire, took off his wet leggings, and toasted his feet and legs. Then he ate voraciously and slept like a log the night through. But both he and d.i.c.k went down to the lake the next morning with much eagerness to see what the trap contained, if anything.

It was a fresh winter morning, not cold enough to freeze the surface of the lake, but extremely crisp. The air contained the extraordinary exhilarating quality which d.i.c.k had noticed when they first came into the mountains, but which he had never breathed anywhere else. It seemed to him to make everything sparkle, even his blood, and suddenly he leaped up, cracked his heels together, and shouted.

”Why, d.i.c.k,” exclaimed Albert, ”what on earth is the matter with you?”

”Nothing is the matter with me. Instead, all's right. I'm so glad I'm alive, Al, old man, that I wanted to shout out the fact to all creation.”

”Feel that way myself,” said Albert, ”and since you've given such a good example, think I'll do as you did.”

He leaped up, cracked his heels together, and let out a yell that the mountains sent back in twenty echoes. Then both boys laughed with sheer pleasure in life, the golden morning, and their happy valley. So engrossed were they in the many things that they were doing that they did not yet find time to miss human faces.

As they approached the trap, they heard a great squawking and cackling and found that the cell, as Albert called the square inclosure, contained ten ducks and two geese swimming about in a great state of trepidation. They had come down the winding tunnel and through the apertures in the hoops, but they did not have sense enough to go back the same way. Instead they merely swam around the square and squawked.

”Now, aren't they silly?” exclaimed Albert. ”With the door to freedom open, they won't take it.”

”I wonder,” said d.i.c.k philosophically, ”if we human beings are not just the same. Perhaps there are easy paths out of our troubles lying right before us and superior creatures up in the air somewhere are always wondering why we are such fools that we don't see them.”

”Shut up, d.i.c.k,” said Albert, ”your getting too deep. I've no doubt that in our net are some ducks that are rated as uncommonly intelligent ducks as ducks go.”

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