Kitabı oku: «Five Little Starrs in the Canadian Forest», sayfa 3

After witnessing all of the branches of the work, the visiting party started back but Don and Dot looked behind, wistfully, many times before the trees hid the Jumpin' Jane from their view.

The men worked late that night as the following day would be Sunday when they could rest. Jim wondered what would be best to do – bank up the fires in Jumpin' Jane or let them die out and build fresh ones on Monday morning. Deciding to act upon the latter plan, he saw that everything about the great truck and engine was in perfect order, then ran after the men who had started for the clearing.

"The first thing Monday morning, we must have Jane hoist some of those small trees out of our way. They have been cluttering the work all afternoon, but I was so anxious to get those big trees down on the river crib that the little ones just had to lay there and wait a turn," said Mr. Latimer, as they reached camp.

Now, Don and Dot had plotted all afternoon just what they could do if they had an opportunity to run Jumpin' Jane. They overheard Mr. Latimer's sentence as he passed the little ice-puddle where the twins were sliding, and they looked at each other knowingly.

That night, just before the children were sent to bed, Don and Dot crept to the Cookee's bunk and asked for some bread and butter. The twins were great favorites with Cookee, so he grunted as he rose from his chair and went to the shed where he kept his stock.

"Oh, Cookee, those are nice apples!" hinted Don.

"Want some?" laughed the man, handing an apple to each child.

"An' I love crackers, too," added Dot, seeing a can of graham crackers standing upon the shelf.

"Here, now, take this sandwich, an' I'll give ye each a cracker," said the Cookee, handing a thick double slice of bread and jam to the children. Then taking out a handful of crackers, he gave them to the eager hands that were outstretched.

"Whist, now! run off to bed wid ye," laughed he, watching the twins skip across the clearing toward their own bunk.

As the twins were afraid that Lavinia might hear them talk inside, they whispered before they entered the bunk. Don placed a sandwich in each deep pocket of his mackinaw coat, and pushed an apple on top of each. The crackers were too tempting to keep, so they were gradually nibbled until all disappeared. The twins then stole softly to bed, to wait until everyone was asleep.

Dot did her very best to remain awake, but her eyes refused to obey orders and soon she was fast asleep. Not so, Don. He made up his mind to keep awake and, when his eyelids started to drop over his eyes in sleep, he pinched himself. Finding that this plan soon lost its effect, he sat bolt upright in bed until he heard Lavinia breathing regularly in her sleep.

Don slept in the upper berth, or bunk, so he had to scramble down without making any noise. He dragged his blankets after him, and then proceeded to wake Dot up without causing an outcry. Dot was tired and slept heavily, but he succeeded in rousing her after a struggle, and she began to remember the great fun they were going to have with Jumpin' Jane. She crawled cautiously out of bed and took her blanket out.

Both children donned their heavy clothing and pulled toboggan hoods down over their ears. Then wrapping the blankets about them, they opened the door on a crack to see if the coast was clear.

Being Saturday night, the men and elders of the camp were still in the dining-room. The timber-jacks were playing cards while the Starrs and Latimers were having a game of chess. All was quiet in the solemn light of the full moon.

"Good! We can get away easy," whispered Don, as he stepped carefully from the doorway.

Dot followed and closed the door behind her.

The twins ran forward as fast as they could until they were out of the circle of light shed by the great lanterns that were hung on trees all about the clearing. Then they went slower as they reached the cut-road.

"Yah! I'm sleepy," yawned Dot.

"So'm I," said Don.

"It's awful cold," shivered Dot.

"Wait till Jumpin' Jane gets fired up an' you won't feel cold," encouraged Don.

They tried to hurry over the frozen rough road but found the blankets an impediment, so Don suggested that they take them off and carry them instead. This was done and walking was much easier.

"I'm hungry, shall we eat the apple?" asked Dot.

"You'll be hungrier for breakfast if you eat the apple now. Remember, we ate the crackers," said Don.

So Dot stoically resisted the temptation to devour the apple in Don's pocket.

"Oh, I'm so tired! Let's sit down here a minute and rest," said Dot.

"No, you mustn't! Haven't you ever heard that it's dangerous to sit down in the cold when you're tired? Folks get frozen stiff that way," said Don.

After a long, cold walk – the latter half dragged out by half-frozen feet – the children reached the spot where the timber cutting was being done. The gaunt forest trees looked very weird in the moonlight, and Jumpin' Jane stood like a grim ogre waiting to swallow anything so small as the twins.

"Oh! but she looks awful!" whispered Dot, as they drew near the great black thing.

"I hope her fires didn't go out! We couldn't have a speck of fun if they were," worried Don, as he climbed up inside the caboose to investigate.

Don had flung his blanket over Dot's arm while he climbed into the machine, but soon he reappeared and told Dot to come in out of the cold, taking the blankets from her while she got up.

CHAPTER V
JUMPIN' JANE'S ANTICS

"HERE, Dot, throw the blankets down on that seat," said Don, pointing to a tiny bench next to the boiler.

"I don't see's it's any warmer in here than outdoors," grumbled Dot, rubbing her eyes and yawning again.

"Soon will be. I haven't looked at the fire, yet," returned Don, as he tried to open the fire-pot door.

"Gee! fire's most out! I've got to get some wood an' keep her going or we won't have any fun in the morning."

"There's some pieces right by your side," said Dot, seeing a few sticks of pine lying by the fire-pot.

"Good stunt! This'll keep her going till I can get some more."

"I saw a big heap of pine knots and thick chunks of wood piled in a heap back there," Dot yawned.

"Ah, stop your yawning an' help me, can't you!" cried Don, with exasperation as the wood refused to burn.

"What d'ye want me to do?" asked Dot, testily.

"Go back and get some of those chunks," replied Don.

"I will if you go with me, but I'm not going to walk past those woods alone. A bear might jump out!"

"Pooh, no bears about – wish there were, then we'd have some fun catching him," bragged Don.

"Yes you would, like you did the brown calf on the canal," teased Dot. As the calf-bear story was one Don preferred forgotten, he made no answer, but prepared to accompany his sister.

"When we get back, that wood in there will be burning," said he, taking a last look at the smouldering pine.

The twins found the heap of wood and took as much as their arms could carry. This was strenuous work for the chunks were heavy and awkward, and the children cold and tired. They managed, however, to lift them to the engine room and then Don easily dragged them over to the door.

Meantime, his fuel had ignited and the pine was beginning to burn brightly. One of the large chunks was thrown in and the children felt better. As soon as the chunk started blazing the whole place began to grow warmer, and the children grew drowsier.

They laid down in their blankets to talk plans for working Jumpin' Jane, but soon fell asleep.

They might have slept on until found by Jim in the morning, but the fire died down again and the cold made the twins restless. Finally, Don sat up and grumbled for more covers. Finding himself on a hard floor he soon recalled their escapade. He looked about. The moon had set and a grey streak showed through the cut announcing that dawn was on its way.

"Guess I had better not sleep any more," said Don to himself, as he got up and looked into the fire-pot.

"Gee, she's most out again!" said he, looking about for kindlings.

Some twigs and small pieces of pine were in a box not seen in the dark of the night, so Don threw them all into the embers and as soon as they were burning, he pushed one of the chunks of pine inside. He looked down at Dot and was about to call her to duty, then thought better of it and decided to have a roaring fire going before he made her get up.

In the growing light he found all the pine wood he wanted and soon had a fierce fire blazing away in the engine. The sparks that flew out of the funnel shot up and seemed to act like tiny demons dancing in the wind that tossed them up and over the trees.

Dot awoke with the noise Don made about the engine, and jumped up to see what was cracking the engine to pieces.

"It's the steam!" explained Don. "I haven't found the right valve to turn it into the feeder."

"Why, Jim said this big black handle did it," advised Dot, taking hold of a valve handle.

Don turned it a bit and immediately the feeder began banging and cracking like a cannon.

"Sounds just like our radiator in the playroom at Oakwood, doesn't it?" grinned Dot.

"Yes," said Don, absent-mindedly, as he looked out of the little window at the small trees lying about.

"We may as well carry those trees out of the way for the men to begin work tomorrow. You know, Mr. Latimer said he would have to get them cleaned out of the path for the big ones to come down," said Don.

"But – can you work Jane?" asked Dot.

"Sure thing! Didn't Jim show me just how to do it?"

"What do you want me to do to help you?" asked Dot.

"We'll have breakfast first, then we'll go to work," replied Don, taking the sandwiches from his pocket.

"I'm glad now that I didn't eat my apple, 'cause I'm so awful hungry. I just can taste how good those pancakes and maple-syrup tastes this morning," said Dot, smacking her lips.

Don took out an apple and laid it on the floor, but seemed not to remember his own.

"That's only one – where's the other?" asked Dot.

"Gone!"

"Where? did you lose it?" asked Dot, sympathetically.

"No, I ate it this mornin' when I woke up. I did a heap of work long before you got up and I had to have something to stay my stomach," admitted Don, in the words often heard from Jim.

"Then break mine and take half," offered Dot.

Never backward in such things, Don thanked his sister, and split the apple in two.

Breakfast over, the two went to work in their exciting experiments.

"Now, you go over by that tree trunk and wait for Jane's arm to run out. The moment I blow the whistle, you watch out for the tackling clutch to come down and lock it around the tree. Then, I'll work the arm and bring the tree over by the roadside and drop it in the ditch," explained Don.

"You're sure you know which thing to pull out or push in," ventured Dot.

"Sure – watch me!" and Don opened the valve that sent steam into the feeder. He pulled a lever at the left and immediately a great vibration started as the travelling crane, or arm, swung about their heads and tossed the steel cables about in the air.

"Hi, that's the way, all right!" laughed Don, at his successful experiment.

Dot saw the cables with the grappling hooks swing over her head and dodged down inside the caboose.

"You go over to the trees and play you're a timber-jack. I'm the engineer that runs Jumpin' Jane," ordered Don.

Dot jumped down and ran over to the place where several small pine trees lay parallel upon the ground. Don started the lever and watched the travelling crane swing around on the opposite side of the skidder from that where Dot waited to hook up the grapplers.

"Humph! guess I pushed on the wrong side of the board," murmured Don, as he pushed the other lever over on the right hand side.

He forgot to pull the first one back in place so the arm swung over to the right and back again to the left, then reversed until its cables with grappling hooks were swinging back and forth dangerously near to the children's head.

Dot screamed: "Turn her off, for goodness sake! Those hooks'll tear us to pieces!"

Don was nervous over the error and wondered why they acted that way. Suddenly, he saw that he had not turned off the first lever. As soon as they were both shut off the arm remained where it was, and the cables gradually stopped swinging.

"Say, Don, how long shall I stand here waiting?"

"Just a minute – I'm trying another handle," said Don.

He had spied a smaller handle near the large one, so he turned on the large one that sent the crane out over Dot's head, and then, seeing that the cables were almost over a log, he pulled back the small lever.

"Wait a minute, until I catch hold of these lines," shouted Dot, but Don had already pulled the small lever over.

As he did so, the grappling hook caught hold of Dot's belt of patent leather that fastened her heavy coat about the waist. The smaller lever locked the irons and Dot was swung up high in the air as Don pulled back the large lever. He was so intent upon the machine that he failed to see his sister up about twenty feet in the air suspended over the logs.

Dot was so surprised that she failed to utter a sound for a moment, but as soon as she felt herself going up in the air she started to scream. One scream after the other rent the quiet forest morning until Don became so excited he forgot which lever to pull that would let the crane come down to the ground again. He pulled out the right one and swung Dot over to the forest trees, then he pushed it back and swung her back again.

Meantime, no one missed the twins for they were supposed to be asleep in bed. The chess game was very exciting and, after that, Cookee served some hot lemonade and cakes, so that the men and bosses enjoyed a veritable party. It was later than usual when they said good-night and Mrs. Starr went to her cabin to find Babs dreaming and beating the bed in her effort to wake up.

In the morning, Jim had a lame back and stayed in bed longer than usual. Being Sunday morning, the breakfast was later than on work days, and Jim took advantage of this.

Lavinia awoke and called the twins but received no answer. She jumped up and looked in the bunks. Dot's was empty but pulled to pieces, while Don's sheets were dragged down and the blanket gone. Instantly, Lavinia recalled kidnapping stories, and bears and Indians carrying away little children.

She opened the door and cried for her mother to come.

"Mumzie, I can't find the twins, and I can't think where they have gone!" wept Lavinia.

"Oh, just about somewhere with Mike," replied Mr. Starr, to console Lavinia and allay his wife's fear.

"But their blankets are gone and Don's bed hasn't been used," said Lavinia.

Mr. Starr stepped up and examined the upper bunk.

"Oh, yes, it has, Viney, but he forgot to pull down the second sheet.

"You see the dent in the pillow where his head lay," said Mr. Starr, in a tone that made them all feel easier.

"Just one more of the twins' tricks of mischief," added Mr. Starr, as he went out to look for Mike.

But Mike was nowhere about either, and the family were all quite sure that the old trapper had taken the twins out on some new hunt very early in the morning, and the twins had thought the sport would be enhanced if it were kept secret. So, the camp sat down to breakfast without a misgiving as to the twins' welfare.

Early that same morning, Mike stole out of his tiny cabin and made for some distant traps he had set the day before.

The day was cold and invigorating and Mike loped over the ground, straight through the maze of forest trees as if he were following a pathway. He reached his traps and found one sprung but nothing in it, and the other one just as he had left it. But tracks all about in the light covering of snow showed that several large animals had sniffed at the bait and tried to get it away.

Mike's eyes smiled with gratification as he said to himself: "Mike make big one! Him come agin for supper!"

Then, seeing there was nothing he could do, he decided to walk down by the river and see how much timber had been piled in the roll-ways.

From there, he started up the cut from the river toward the forest-timber where stood the Jumpin' Jane.

Several times he stopped and put his ear to the ground to listen, then shook his head.

"Mike go old! Mike hear noise!" said the Indian to himself.

After loping some distance he was sure he heard the call, and stood perfectly still to await another sound. It came.

"Mike good ear!" commented the old trapper as he started on a swift run up the road.

Coming through the dense growth of trees when quite near the clearing, Mike saw the cause of the shouting.

There hung Dot, by belt and garment, high up in the air, while just under her were several immense logs. She was too frightened to kick or squirm, which saved her from a painful fall.

Don was trying to climb out on the iron derrick when Mike came on the scene.

"Dun – no, no!" cried Mike, running over to hold Don.

"Mike get lil' gal down," concluded he.

"You can't budge it, Mike. I've tried in every way," wept Don, who was more frightened at seeing his beloved twin hanging so high above his head, than Dot was.

Mike had no intention of using the machinery to lower the derrick, but he resorted to an Indian manner of rescue.

He sought for and found a rope coiled up near some trees. In this he made a loop which he flung with such dexterity that it shot over the upper end of the derrick, just above the grapple that held the cables. By pulling on the other end of the rope, Mike slipped the knot so hard and fast that nothing could have moved it from the grapple.

He then ran the other end of the rope about the trunk of a tree in a line where Dorothy hung. This end he fastened, and Mike then started, hand over hand, up the inclined rope until he reached the cable where Dorothy was suspended. Here he threw an arm over the cable and twisted his legs about the rope. In this way he kept his hold of the rope while sliding himself closer to the little girl. In a short time he saw what had clutched her.

"Doot, put arms in Mike's neck!" advised the Indian.

Dot turned her head as far as she could and saw Mike's head just beside her. She tried to squirm about but could only get her left arm about the Indian's neck.

"Doot hol' fast?" asked Mike.

"Sure as anything!" replied the brave little girl.

"No hands slip?" queried Mike.

"Nope! I can hang on your neck like a string of beads."

Mike smiled in spite of the danger and felt assured of the undertaking.

He lifted the child with one hand as his other, that was slung over the cable, cut away the belt and coat that were caught in the irons.

"Now, hol' tight!" warned Mike, as the last shred was severed and he swung the little girl about and held her fast.

"Hip, hip, hurrah!" yelled Don, as he jumped up and down with excitement.

An answering call seemed to come from the direction of the camp, and Don wondered if they knew of the escapade.

It was not so easy for Mike to get hold of the rope again with his hands as it was to climb up on it, for Dorothy had to be held with one arm.

After many maneuvers, however, the old trapper managed to shift the little girl upon his chest, where both her arms could hold fast about his neck. Then he slid down the inclined rope and soon felt the ground under his feet.

At the same time, a number of timber-men, with Mr. Starr, Mr. Latimer, Paul and Meredith, came running out of the road that led to camp. They were just in time to see Mike make his descent.

"What's all this?" asked Mr. Starr, suspicious of the twins' mischief.

"Lil' Doot hang oop there," replied Mike, not knowing how she got there, or that he was leading Don into punishment.

"Don, what does this mean?" insisted Mr. Starr, sternly.

"Well, you see, Daddum, Dot and I know all about engines, so we thought we would help the men clean away these little trees," Don started to explain.

"Yes, and try to see just how much fun and daring you could get out of it!" remarked his father.

When the whole story was told, Don's father reprimanded him severely, and Don promised never to be so venturesome again.