In Camp on the Big Sunflower | Page 3

beat the band."
"T-t-tain't so," stoutly declared Toby. "I s-s-saw the eyes, and believed I c-c-could make out all the rest. G-g-go on, Max; what's next?"
"Are you sitting in the same place?" asked the other, quietly.
"I am," replied Toby.
"Now point exactly to the spot where, as you say, you saw the staring eyes," Max went on.
"T-t-that's easy done. S-s-see where that bunch of wintergreen p-p-pokes up l-like the tuft of an Injun's war bonnet--r-r-right there it was, Max."
"All right," remarked the other, quickly. "Now, the rest of you just hold your horses a bit and give me a chance to look around."
"You bet we will," declared Bandy-legs.
"If anybody can find out the facts, Max will," asserted Steve.
The four boys watched with considerable interest to see what Max would do. They had the greatest confidence in this chum, whose knowledge of things pertaining to the woods far exceeded that of any other member of the club.
First of all Max stepped to the fire, and they could see that he was looking it over carefully.
"He's after a torch, that's what," asserted Steve.
"S-s-sure he is," echoed Toby.
"There, he's found what he wants," declared the boy with the crooked legs; "and it's a jim dandy one, too. Now he's heading for the place you saw your big cat, Toby."
"N-n-never said 'twas my cat!" flashed up the other, aggressively.
"Well, you're the only one that saw the beast, anyhow," declared Bandy-legs, stoutly.
"Oh, let up on all that talk, fellows, and watch what Max does," Steve broke in, impatiently.
"And," remarked Owen Hastings, speaking for the first time, "if it should turn out to be any sort of a wild animal, look out how you shoot."
"I s-s-should s-s-say yes," added Toby. "G-g-go mighty slow, boys, w-w-while our c-c-chum is in front."
"Then don't you think of throwing that tomahawk, Toby, remember," cautioned Bandy-legs.
"Shucks! you're only t-t-talking to hear yourself," grunted the other, in scorn.
Meanwhile Max had advanced, torch in hand.
He gave no evidence of any concern, and to all appearances seemed to take very little stock in the possibility of meeting with some species of dangerous wild beast.
They saw him bend down, and at the same time thrust the blazing fagot of wood closer to the ground.
"He's discovered something, sure as you live, and I bet you it's a track," asserted Bandy-legs.
"Huh! s-s-see him pickin' something up. P'r'aps it's an owl's feather," sneered Toby.
"Now he's beckoning to us to come on, fellows!" cried the eager Steve.
With that the entire bunch started forward, filled with a desire to learn what Max had discovered.
He was smiling as they hurriedly approached, and yet at the same time the frown upon his face told that Max found himself puzzled.
"Say, was it a w-w-wildcat?" bubbled forth Toby.
"Or a big Virginia horned owl?" demanded Steve.
Max shook his head to both questions.
"Nixy, fellows, you've got another guess coming," he remarked, soberly. "Fact is, the eyes Toby saw staring at him through the bushes belonged to a half-grown boy, and a badly scared one at that!"
CHAPTER II
TREASURE HUNTING.
Strange to say, Toby, usually the last to gather his wits together, was on this occasion the first to give expression to his overwrought feelings.
"Gee! that's a s-s-screamer you're g-g-giving us, Max," he burst out with.
"But what makes you say it's a boy, Max; why not a man, when you're about it?" asked the skeptical Steve.
Max held up something he clutched in his hand.
"That's a boy's cap, reckon you'll all admit," he asserted, quietly.
"It sure looks like it," admitted Bandy-legs, bending forward to examine the article in question.
"And a mighty tattered cap in the bargain, I should say," remarked Owen, who was something of a bookworm, filled with a theoretical knowledge concerning subjects that, as a rule, his cousin Max had personal acquaintance with.
"All right," Max went on, "I found this here, right where Toby saw the staring eyes. But that isn't all, fellows. Look down where I point, and tell me what you see."
Bandy-legs and Toby could not make anything out of the queer-looking marks they saw revealed by the light of the torch.
With the others it was different.
"Somebody's been kneeling here, for a fact," declared Steve.
"Here's where his knees pressed in the earth; and you can see how his toes dug holes yonder," Owen remarked, pointing.
"Just so," Max went on; "and when you notice how short the distance between knees and toes is, you'll agree with me it was a boy."
"That's all right, Max," spoke up Steve; "but why would he be a scared boy--why didn't the chump walk right into camp and join us?"
"Perhaps this boy has some reason to be afraid. Perhaps he got an idea in his head that we'd come up here to hunt for him! And when he saw Toby looking straight at him, he fell into a regular panic right away."
"You m-mean he