Camp Venture

ration of I

n easy day like this, I am going out into the sunset to look for a turkey. I'm not fond of salt meat

buckshot cartridges, inserted one loaded for turkeys

By this time darkness had set in and supper was ready. The boys were growing uneasy, but they c

erce light which completely blinded their eyes to everything in the gloom beyond. They had carelessly stacked their arms in a corner, a do

rty and quickly stepped between them and their arms. Then, with his rifle at his shoulder and hi

what lives up here don't want no visitors from down below. So throw up your hands and march right now, every one of you. I'll take keer o' your guns an' oth

The next instant little Tom leaped upon the mountaineer's back grasped his throat with both hands and dragged him to earth.

truggle would easily have got the better of him. But the other boys instantly came

ng them a broken arm, but the Doctor dressed the woun

must, and so I thought of the other plan, and jumped on his back instead. I knew I couldn't hold him down

Doctor, "you'd have been justi

, "but I shouldn't have slept well

octor, "and perhaps our friend the ene

of all, the mountain

en I gits hurt in a fair fight-least of all against a young chap like that. You see I had got the drap on you fellers, an' when he come up sort o' unexpected like and unbeknownst

taineer was eating voraciously and in s

Doctor. "You can't grow much in the way of

Now I've got somethin' friendly like, to say to you fellers. Fust off I want to tell you I'm not agoin' to bother you agin. I'm a believin' that you've come up here on a straight

ends here. We have come only to see if we can't get some money for her out of lands that have never paid her anything-no

"an' they's jails for them that tries to carry on business wit

We are here to make a little money in a perfectly legitimate way, by hard work. We are not interfering with any bod

ny body interferes with us i

reachers say. There's them that'll believe you're lyin', and 'll stick to that there belief till the cows come home, an' they'll make a mighty heap o' trouble fer you fellers ef you tries to stay here. They're men t

se you advise your friends to let us alone. Tell them that little Tom Ridsdale proposes to

t down the mountain this night, I would stay here alone to fight it out all winter. And every other fellow in our party feels just as I do. Go to your criminal friends and tell them that! But warn them that if they interfere with us we'll not wrestle with them, we'll shoot and we'll

mout just as easy have shot me through the body; an' then the tender way that the Doctor done up my arm! Why even a woman couldn't 'a' been tenderer like. Now I ain't got no quarrel with you fellers,

nd what's what. Now tell your friends what I've said to you. There! good night! I hop

ell in his ears the mou

Parmly, "to send that sort of de

em to know that we propose to stay here whether they want us to do so or not. And finally, we want them to understan

th, quoting, "we pledge our lives,

urse, when we're chopping ties and timbers, we'll need no sentinels. We'll keep our guns within easy reach, and so every one of us will be a se

ere to tackle that mountaineer. I had carried and dragg

side, but which was light enough when they got within its environment. There they found a deer, weighing perhaps a hundred and fifty pounds, which

night. His toilsome hunt, his painful carrying of the deer, his nervous strain over the necessity of encountering the mountaineer, and pretty seriously injuring him, and above all, his rise in wrath and his deliverance of a new Declara