“And was it getting away with some of our fine stuff?” asked Teddy, in evident dismay, as his eyes roamed toward a little pile of duffle at the foot of another tree close to the tent.
“It sure was. That’s the ham lying right out there, now, where I guess he dropped it at seeing me. After this we’ve got to take that into the tent with us, if we want to save the same.”
“But are we going to let the scamp get off scot free, after nearly wrecking the expedition; because if we lost our ham I’d feel like our best friend was gone? For one, I’d like to let this thief know what we think of him. I think I could put a charge of Number Sevens under his jacket, from my little Marlin here, that would do the business in double-quick style,” and Teddy Overton patted the repeating twelve-bore modern gun he held, with the air of one who knew he could depend on its hard hitting qualities.
“Let’s spread out a little, so as to cover more ground,” suggested Dolph; and with that the three boys moved apart, each with his weapon half raised, so as to be ready for quick work, if the necessity arose.
The one who as yet had not spoken a single word, gave the fire a kick in passing, and this caused it to blaze up afresh, just as he knew it would.
“Good for you, Amos!” exclaimed Dolph. “That makes it better to aim by. Does anybody glimpse him yet?”
“Not I; but see here, Dolph,” Teddy went on to say, “you haven’t told us what sort of a beast it was. Must be along the cat order, or it wouldn’t try to steal a whole ham, and then take to a tree, when you poked your head out to see what was doing.”
“It sure was a cat, and the biggest I ever ran across,” Dolph hurriedly declared. “You see, the fire was burning kind of low, and it jumped so quick I didn’t get more’n a glimpse of the thing; but there was something queer about it. If you asked me right off the shoulder now, I’d be apt to say it had little bells hanging from its ears!”
Teddy burst out into a laugh.
“Hear that, Amos?” he cried. “Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes; she shall have music wherever she goes, eh? Sounds like that, doesn’t it? Now, I guess from what you say, Dolph, our bold visitor, that likes smoked ham so much, belongs to the lynx class of bob-cats.”