The Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island | Page 7

ground hastened to close in around the foot of
the big tree, so as to welcome their patrol leader when he dropped from
the lower limb.
"Seems to me Thad acts kind of clumsy, for him," announced Step Hen;
"now, if it'd been Bumpus here I could understand it, because, well I
won't say what I was agoing to, because it might make hard feelings
between us; and with all his shortcomings Bumpus is a good sort of a
chap."
"Huh! dassent, that's what!" grunted the party indicated, making a
threatening gesture in the direction of his fellow-scout.
The arrival of the scout-master caused them to forget all other things.
Thad, as soon as he found his feet fixed on solid ground once more,
strode straight up until he faced Davy Jones, and suddenly called out:
"There's your panther, Davy!"

There was a craning of necks, a gasping of breaths, and then a series of
yells broke forth that made the nearby woods fairly ring with the
echoes.

CHAPTER III
THE CAMP ON THE LAKE SHORE
"Why, it's only a big owl!" shouted Giraffe.
"Hey, Davy, shake hands with your yellow-eyed panther!" roared Step
Hen.
Bumpus snatched up his bugle, for he held that office in the Cranford
Troop, and let out a piercing series of blasts that would have
undoubtedly frightened any wild animal, had there been such within a
mile of the camp on the lake shore.
It was a large owl that Thad grasped in such fashion that the bird could
not reach him with its curved beak, though it made several vicious
lunges, as though anxious to fight the whole patrol at once.
He had kept it hidden under his coat when descending the tree, and now
gripped it firmly by its two splendidly colored wings.
"Well, it did have yellow eyes, all right," complained the dejected Davy;
"and as it stuck there in that black hole, how was I to know it was only
a harmless old owl, a hooter at that?"
"If you think he's harmless just try and lay a finger on him," said Thad.
"Why, he'd snap you like lightning; once let that beak strike, and you'd
lose a piece of skin as big as a half dollar. He's a savage bird, let me
warn you."
"Oh! say, can't we, keep him for a pet?" ejaculated Bumpus, who could
hardly take his eyes off the bird, for its plumage was certainly beautiful,
being a combination of creamy yellows and nut browns, while two

bunches stuck up like horns from the region of his ears.
"I've got a nice little chain we might put around one of his legs, and
what fun we'd have with the thing while we were afloat on the raging
lake," Step Hen went on to say.
"Allan, get on that thick pair of gloves we brought, and see if you could
fasten the chain to his leg. It would be worth while to have some sort of
pet along with us; because Bumpus has kicked over the traces long ago,
and won't let us make a baby out of him any more," Thad went on to
remark.
When he had protected his hands in this way, Allan had little difficulty
in adjusting the slender but strong steel chain which Step Hen had
brought with him, intending to use in case he managed to capture a
raccoon, or some other small beast, for he was especially found of pets.
When they had fastened the other end of the chain to something, the
owl sat on the limb of a tree, and gazed at them with blinking eyes.
There was still enough of daylight, with all that glow in the western
heavens to interfere with his sight more or less, and he simply ruffled
up his feathers in high dudgeon, and kept trying to pick at the chain that
held his leg.
"Now, that's what I call a pretty good start," argued Step Hen, as he
stood in front of the chained owl, and admired his plumage; "perhaps
later on I might happen to land a 'coon or a mink, who knows. I've
always believed that I'd like to have a pet mink, though somebody told
me they couldn't be tamed."
"Yes," went on Giraffe scornfully, "if you had your way the whole
boat'd be a floating menagerie, you've got such a liking for pets. The
mink would soon be joined by a 'possum; then would come a pair of
muskrats; after which we'd expect to find a fox under our feet every
time we stepped; a wolverine growling like fun at us when we made the
least move; a squirrel climbing all over us; a heron perched on the
garboard streak, whatever that might be; and mebbe a baby bear