“I’d like to see myself doing that cowardly thing, Tubby!” he exclaimed. “Possession may be nine points of the law, but in this case there’s something bigger than the law, and that’s self-preservation. That beast is going to pay for his meddling, if I know what’s what. Rob, how’d we better go at the job?”
“Just as you said a while back, Andy,” the scout master told him, “the hand of every man is always raised against such varmints in the woods as panthers and bobcats and weasels and such animals as destroy heaps of game, both in the fur and in the feather. If I could have shot that panther without harming the deer I’d have been only too pleased to do it; but the whole thing happened too rapidly for us. As to just what our plan of campaign now ought to be, that’s worth considering.”
They had deposited their bundles on the ground and stepped back, while both Andy and Rob held their guns ready for business. Tubby watching saw that the former continued to keep his eyes fastened on the chimney of the low bunk-house all the while he talked; and from that he drew conclusions.
“You’re thinking, I expect, Rob,” Tubby ventured to say, “that what goes up in the air must come down again; and that as the cat dropped into the wide-throated chimney he’s just got to climb up again, sooner or later. Am I right, Rob?”
“A good guess, Tubby, believe me,” chuckled Andy. “What we want to do now is to respectfully but firmly influence that unwelcome guest to get busy, and vamoose the ranch in a hurry. Say, I’m ready to give him the warmest kind of a reception as soon as he shows the tip of his whiskered nose above the top of the chimney.”
“Here, Tubby, lend me a hand,” said Rob, “and we’ll try to coax Mr. Cat to vacate his present quarters. Andy, I’ll lay my gun down alongside you here, and if yours isn’t enough to finish the rogue, snatch up mine in a hurry.”
Andy agreed to that, and so the other two walked forward again to the front of the long log building, where the door was situated. Tubby was curious to know how his companion expected to work that “influence” he spoke of, and cause the ferocious intruder to depart as he came. He awaited the outcome with considerable interest.
“First,” said Rob, as though he already had his mind settled, “we’ll pick up a few handfuls of these chips and twigs that are so plentiful.”
“Whee! but burning the old cabin down to get rid of a cat that stays inside would be what they’d call heroic treatment, wouldn’t it, Rob?”
“I’m not doing anything as severe as that, Tubby,” said the other. “We’re going to try the smoke cure. All animals are in deadly fear of fire, and smoke will cause even a horse to become fairly wild. We can make our little fire close to the door, and the breeze which happens to be just right, will carry some of the smoke under it, for notice that wide crack there. When the cat sniffs that odor you’ll see how fast he scrambles up that chimney again.”