WHAT CARL’S PAIL CONTAINED.

Approaching the camp on their return, the three boys became aware that at least one of their companions was up and stirring, for the clear, ringing strokes of an axe were echoing through the woods in the vicinity of Pleasant Point.

Now there is in the sound of an axe, when heard in timberland, something strangely cheerful and enlivening, especially if the hour be early morning and the sun is in the sky. In a subtle way it seems suggestive of that mysterious time in the practically unknown Dark Ages when man, newly awakened to the knowledge of his superiority over all other animals, came forth from his black cave and built himself a house of wood. There is a joy, too, in the wielding of an axe by strong hands, in swinging it lightly and deftly and driving the blade home, and in the thrill of the yielding shock which passes with each blow from the handle to the fingers that grip it. And as a healthy, strength building, body invigorating exercise, the use of an axe in the open air makes tame by comparison the swinging of Indian clubs, tossing of dumb-bells or yanking at chest weights. As a tonic and a builder of strength and vigor, no doctor’s prescription can equal the use of the axe.

Gray smoke, rising from the point, told that a fire had been started, and near this fire, feeding it, sat Sleuth Piper. Crane appeared with an armful of wood, which he cast upon the ground. Then, perceiving the returning boys, he glowered upon them reproachfully.

“Think yeou’re smart, don’t ye?” he cried. “Think yeou’re smart, sneakin’ off without wakin’ a feller up. Well, what’d ye ketch?”

Sleuth, putting another stick on the fire, did not deign to look around.

“Nothing dud-doing,” confessed Springer, coming up and dropping the empty basket. “I’m afraid grim starvation stares us in the optic. And Piper is to blame for it.”

Still Sleuth did not turn.

“Piper is to blame for it,” repeated Phil, with pretended condemnation. “Even in the tributaries of this lake, the streams which flow into it, the fish have heard of his arrival and——”

At last Piper turned. “Oh, go off somewhere by yourself and lie down,” he snarled. “You make me sick!”

“Dud-dear me!” grinned Phil. “The great detective, the bold pioneer, the marvelous angler, is extremely touchy this morning.”

“Joshing before breakfast sometimes produces unpleasant feelings,” laughed Grant. “We’ll all feel better, I opine, after we eat.”

“And, fortunately,” said Stone, “there’s a good supply in the larder.”

“You fellers didn’t have no luck at all, did ye?” chuckled Crane, evidently finding some satisfaction in this. “Up to date I’m the top-notch fisherman, and yeou’ll have to go some to beat me.”

“Oh, but we sure did have fun,” returned Rodney.

“You bet,” eagerly agreed Phil; “regular circus. Wait till I tut-tell you about it.” Stuttering somewhat more than usual in his eagerness, he related the amusing story of the encounter with the Simpsons, and his ludicrous description of the elder man’s plunge into the pool caused even Sleuth to crack a smile.

They were still laughing over this affair when, to their great surprise, Carl Duckelstein appeared upon the scene.

“Whoa! Stop!” cried the Dutch boy to the old white horse, that was now attached to a light but rickety wagon. “It iss no further you vill haf to go py this direction. Pack up undt around turn.”

Before getting out he headed the horse away from the camp. This accomplished, he gave the animal some unnecessary advice about standing still and not running away, after which he turned cheerfully to greet the campers.

“It peen again a goot morning,” he beamed. “You vas glad to see me, I oxpect.”

“We sure are,” returned Grant, “though you near gave us heart failure by your early arrival. How did you ever succeed in waking up at such an unearthly hour?”

“Oh, sometimes I up vake when you didt not oxpect me,” replied Carl, getting the can of milk and at the same time carefully removing from the wagon a sizeable tin pail with a cover, the latter being held securely in place with a leather strap that passed the longest way round the pail.

Watching him, the boys noted that he handled that pail carefully, placing it gently on the ground some distance from the wagon, after which he delivered the milk.

“What yeou got in there?” asked Crane, pointing at the pail.

“Oh, nefer you mindt about dot,” was the mysterious answer. “Vot I haf in der pail got is somethings my own amusements for. Yah.”

He could not have chosen a better way to stimulate the curiosity of the boys.

“Show us what it is, won’t you?” urged Springer.

The Dutch boy shook his head. “I couldt not so do. It vould not be safety.”

“Oh, come on,” entreated Sile. “Jest give us a peek.”

“Maype vot I haf got vould out come.”

“It must be something mighty dangerous, considering the way you’ve got it sus-strapped up,” said Springer.

Piper rose to his feet. “I scent a mystery,” he declared in a low, sibilant tone, his eyes fixed on the pail as if they would bore it through.

Crane stepped forward, whereupon, with evident great excitement, Duckelstein hastened to intercept him.

“Don’t let it touch you!” cried Carl. “Maype it vill bite you.”

“Get aout!” retorted Sile. “There can’t be nothing in that pail big enough to hurt if it did bite.”

“I varn you to avay keep.”

“Then yeou’ve got to tell us what it is. If yeou don’t tell, I’ll open the thing anyhaow.”

“Maype you vould not peliefe uf I should toldt you.”

“Oh, go on. Course we will.”

Eagerly the boys gathered near while Carl seemed hesitating, and all urged him to tell what the pail contained. After shaking his head again and again, he repeated: “Maype you vould not peliefe.”

They assured him of their absolute faith in his veracity.

“Tell us quick, or open she comes,” threatened Sile.

“Vale, listen,” said the Dutch boy, with a sigh of resignation. “Didt you efer catch a young gougers?”

“Cougars!” exclaimed Rodney, regarding Carl suspiciously. “Do you mean to say you have young cougars in that pail?”

“Some young gougers hass me in dot pail,” solemnly asserted the fat boy. “It vas not easiness to catch does gougers.”

Crane suppressed a burst of incredulous laughter.

“What sort of a mare’s nest is this?” he scoffed.

“It vas a mare’s nest not,” snapped Carl; “it vas a gouger’s nest. I seen dot nest yesterday der voods in, but when it vas daylights dose gougers vill pite, undt I avay kept. Vhen it dark got I up crept undt der gougers caught. I haf them der pail in. Yah.”

“Tell it to Sus-Sweeney,” jeered Springer.

“Sweeney didt not know me,” answered Carl soberly, “undt so he couldt not tell it to me. You didt consist to know vot vas der pail in, undt now you haf out found.”

“Who do yeou s’pose is goin’ to believe such ridiculous stuff?” demanded Crane.

“I couldt not help him,” asserted Carl sadly, “uf it didt not peliefe you.”

“Take off that strap. Take off the kiver and let us see.”

“I vould not do dot uf one thousand tollars vould gif you to me!” excitedly cried the fat boy. “Money couldt not inducement me. Der minute dot cofer peen off took der gougers vould out pop.”

“Aw, say, that’s silly. Yeou jest watch me take it off.”

Duckelstein grabbed at Sile’s arm.

“You vill avay let my gougers get!” he shouted frantically. “It vas not right vhen so much troubles has made me to catch them.”

Grinning, Crane pushed the anxious lad away.

“I’ll be keerful,” he promised. “I’ll jest unbuckle the strap and lift the kiver a bit, so we can take a peek without lettin’ the critters get aout.”

“Eferypody get avay off!” shouted Carl, as Sile advanced upon the pail. “Uf one of dose gougers does out come, he vill chump at you. Uf one of dose gougers should pite you, you vill knew it.”

Apparently very much alarmed himself, he backed behind the tent, round which he peered at Sile.

“Somehow, Ben,” said Grant, speaking to Stone in a low tone, “I’ve got a notion that it may be a right good plan to keep at a safe distance. That Dutch boy doesn’t seem as sleepy as usual this morning.”

Standing a rod or more from Crane, Piper and Springer eagerly watched the proceedings of removing the strap and opening the pail. On his knees, Sile performed this action, gently lifting one edge of the cover and leaning forward to peer through the crack. Suddenly something like a bullet seemed to leap forth from that opening, striking the inquisitive boy squarely between his eyes.

Over upon his back went Crane, giving utterance to a yell of astonishment and pain. One of his feet, flung out, struck the pail, which upset, the cover flying off. Instantly a swarming, buzzing mass of angry hornets rose from the nest that rolled out of the pail.

“Ow! Wow!” howled Crane, scrambling to his feet and frantically waving his arms around his head. “Jumpin’ Jehosaphat! Ow! Murder! Help! Confaound the——Ouch! Yeow!”

Attracted by his frantic gyrations, the hornets swarmed upon him in a mass, all of them as mad as hornets can be, and eager to do their duty. They plugged him on the jaw, back of the ear, on the wrist, and they got into his hair, and sought to bore through his clothing. Yelling like an Indian, he danced and thrashed about, while the others, without an exception, made haste to retreat from the zone of danger.

“I toldt you dose gougers vould pite!” shouted Carl. “You couldt not plame me when a varnings I gafe you.”

“Run for the water, Crane!” cried Stone. “That’s the only way to get rid of them. Run!”

For a moment or two the tortured lad stumbled round in a circle, and then, still uttering wild howls, he ran toward the lake, into which he plunged and disappeared. The hornets trailed after him and hummed angrily over the water, beneath which, encumbered by his clothing, Sile was swimming in a desperate effort to get as far away as possible before he rose for a breath.

“Lie low and keep still, everybody,” warned Stone, as a few stray hornets buzzed and circled around the point. “If we find it necessary to pull Sile out to save him from drowning we will do so, but he’s a good swimmer.”

All the way round to the end of the point Crane swam, rising eventually in the deep water close to the bold rocks. In this manner he succeeded in eluding his vicious little pursuers, and they soon turned back to circle and buzz around the nest that lay on the ground near the overturned pail.

“Are you hurt mum-much, Sile?” asked Springer, cautiously creeping toward the rocks, behind which Crane remained with only his head showing above the surface of the water.

“Hurt!” was the wild retort. “I’m killed! Bate them critters plunked me in more than twenty places. I’m dying! Wait till I get my hands on that infernal Dutchman! I’ll wring his neck! Can yeou see any of the critters araound here?”

“They’ve gone back to their nest, I guess. You can cuc-come out.”

Cautiously Sile lifted himself and crept out upon the rocks, to which he clung with some difficulty. One eye was almost closed, there was a huge lump on his jaw, and he was marked in various other places. His friends gathered near to condole with him.

“Yeou wait!” he moaned——“yeou wait and see what I do to the scalawag that played this miserable trick on me! Where is he?”

They looked around for Duckelstein, but he was gone, and the absence of the old horse and the wagon indicated that he had taken the precaution to depart in a manner that would not make it necessary for him to return immediately.