Bones On Black Spruce Mountain (6 page)

"How did you do . . ."

 At the sound of a human voice the owl dropped from its branch and disappeared into the dark trees.

"Seth!"

"Sorry."

"I'll never get him back now."

"How did you learn to do that?"

"I don't know. Just practice, I guess. I've been trying to call owls all summer. I worked on it a long time, until I got the sound just right. Then they started coming."

"That's amazing. Do you think he really thought you were another owl?" Seth asked.

"Nah. I think he was down in the ravine and he said to himself, 'There's some crazy kid up there trying to pretend he's an owl. I guess I'll go see what he looks like.'"

They heard the owl call from upstream near the beaver ponds. Daniel called back, but the owl would not answer.

"Let's go to bed," Seth suggested. "We've got a hard climb tomorrow, and who knows, maybe we'll find a cave with a skeleton in it. I bet we'll find old tools and bottles and all kinds of stuff too. Man, I can't wait. It's going to be so cool."

"Yeah" was all Daniel said.

The boys fixed the fire and climbed inside the lean-to. As they lay quietly, they heard the sound of coyotes in the night. First the full, round yap, then the long, descending wail of an adult animal, then the sudden frantic yips of puppies, four, maybe six little wild voices each at a different pitch eagerly trying to imitate their parents but not quite succeeding. The yipping grew and grew until the whole night filled with the raucous noise.

The boys smiled to themselves. They could see the two adults trying to go about the business of teaching their young to hunt while the puppies paid absolutely no attention but instead chased each other through the woods, tussling and wrestling in a comic mock battle far more interesting to them than the boring task of stalking a mouse.

The boys listened as the sound moved up Tamarack Brook and headed for the high ground around Morey's sugarhouse. It was beautiful night music.

Then suddenly from behind the lean-to, off toward Eagle Ledge, came a heart-stopping scream—not a howl, not a wail, but a scream, unlike any sound either boy had ever heard before. It was a horrifying, insane sound that gripped the boys with fear.

"What was that!" Seth whispered.

"I don't know."

Both boys lay frozen in their sleeping bags, too afraid to blink.

Chapter 5

They didn't hear the scream again, but in the morning the sound still echoed through their minds.

"What do you think that was?" Seth asked.

"I don't know. I can't figure it out. I've heard bobcats before and that wasn't any bobcat. I just don't know."

The boys let it go at that, but as they prepared and ate breakfast, the memory of the scream hung over them like a bad dream bringing with it a vague but persistent fear of the day to come.

In spite of their apprehensions they finished break-fast and packed one backpack for the trip. Lunch would be leftovers from last night's supper. Along with the food they put into the pack the fifty-foot length of rope, the flashlight, and two candles, just in case they might be needed. Neither boy was really convinced they'd find a cave, but if they did, they'd need some light.

After the camp had been tidied and the 'fire well doused, the boys struck off on their predetermined compass bearing. It wasn't long before they began the difficult ascent up the northern side of Eagle Ledge.

The slope was so steep that the boys had to zigzag across the hillside, moving from tree to tree. Some places where it was particularly steep, they had to seize tree trunks and bushes and move hand over hand in order to make any upward progress. It was a dangerous game. Each small tree had to be inspected before they took hold of it; a dead, rotten tree could give way under the strain and send the boys tumbling down the hillside. On a slope this steep even a short fall might mean serious injury. When they finally reached a plateau near the top, both boys collapsed exhausted onto a soft bed of pine needles beneath the windswept trees.

They could see now that from where they were it was less than a hundred yards up a gentle slope to the top. They pushed on. They were sure that when they gained the summit they would be able to see a hundred miles in any direction. But when they got there, they found that the top of Eagle Ledge was still well below the tree line and the thick-set spruce and fir blocked their view. They were disappointed. Seth climbed a small spruce.

"Don't give up yet, Daniel. I can see the top of Black Spruce from here. When we get up there, we'll be able to see the whole world. Let's get going." Now they had to descend into the high, shallow basin that lay between Eagle Ledge and Black Spruce Mountain. When they reached the bottom of the basin, they found a small rivulet.

"I'm getting hungry," Daniel said. "Let's follow this stream up a little ways. Maybe we can find the spring that starts it and have lunch there. It must be almost noon."

A few hundred feet farther up the tiny brook, the rivulet disappeared completely. Daniel began shuffling around in the leaves with his feet looking for the wet place that meant the spring. Suddenly one leg dropped a full two feet, well above his knee, into a deep hole filled with water.

"Ugh, I found the spring!" Daniel said.

"Guess you did," Seth said, laughing, as Daniel pulled his dripping leg out of the water. "Let's clean it out and have lunch. By the time we finish eating, the water will be clear enough to make tea."

"Something's funny here," Daniel said.

"What do you mean?"

"In a place like this a spring always makes a big soggy area where it comes out of the ground, not just one deep hole."

The boys began cleaning the spring, raking away leaves with their hands and scooping out twigs and muck.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Seth exclaimed. "Feel the sides. This spring's been dug out and stoned up!"

The boys felt, through the water, the carefully placed, circular stone wall of a small well.

"Who would go to all the trouble of digging out • this spring and stoning up a well?" Seth asked.

"Maybe some hunter."

"That's an awful lot of work just to get a drink."

"Maybe there were some campers here Gist, That's possible," Daniel said.

"I guess."

The boys unpacked lunch and ate. By the time lunch was over, the water in the small well had cleared and the boys dipped a pail into the well and made tea. It had been a hard morning's climb, and they needed a cup of tea and a short rest before beginning their assault on the mountain.

Near the well, stuck like a wart on the side of the basin wall, was a small bulge in the earth about eight feet broad and eight feet high. Daniel settled himself against it while Seth puttered with the last of the fire. As Daniel scrunched around to get comfortable, he suddenly fell backward into a room, a cave inside the bulge. He rolled over quickly and backed out.

"Seth! Get the flashlight!"

"What?"

"Get the flashlight!"

Hurriedly the boys cleared away the debris from the opening and crawled in. They turned on the light. They were in a small room, maybe six feet wide by six feet long by four feet high. They could see the old logs that had been laid against the basin wall to make the room. This thing was no accident. It was man-made. Or maybe boy-made.

The flashlight scanned the ceiling, the walls, then the floor. There in the corner was an old shovel and next to it, covered with dust, an old glass canning jar.

"Daniel, how did . . ."

Both boys were stunned. They crouched in the center of the dark barrow while the realization of where they were swept through them like a chilling wind.

The first year, in the fall, some canning jars of vegetables and meat disappeared from the cellar and a couple of horse blankets and an old pair of woolen pants disappeared from the barn. . . . Then the second year no food or clothing disappeared, but a shovel and a hoe came up missing.

"I'll get the candles," Seth said.

With the candles lighted and set around the barrow in the loose dirt of the floor, the boys, without saying a word, began searching every inch of the now well-lighted room. The remains of an old horse blanket, the blade of a hoe, a few more canning jars, a small can of nails.

The story was true!

Although they had found almost all the things they'd ever heard about in the story, the boys kept searching, looking for that final, absolute confirmation that it was true. Carefully their fingers raked through the dust of generations. Here and there they came upon another piece of metal or a small fragment of cloth, but no skeleton.

When every inch of the room had been combed, the boys crawled out of the barrow and sat shaken, their eyes squinting in the brilliant light of day.

"I can't believe it. I just can't believe it," Seth said. "It's true! The story's true!"

"Well, not all of it."

"What do you mean?"

"We didn't find the bones, did we?"

"No, we didn't, but we know he was here. We know, he spent a few years here."

"We do not! We've got no proof he spent a winter here. He just couldn't."

"Maybe he slept. I mean hibernated, like a bear."

"All winter? Come on, Seth!"

"Why not?"

"Because a bear's got a bearskin coat to sleep in.

That kid didn't."

"How do you know? Maybe he killed a bear and made himself a bearskin to sleep in."

"Holy cow, Seth, you should write adventure stories. You've got the imagination for it."

"Really. Maybe he did make it. I've read about how some people can slow their bodies down like they're dead, like a woodchuck. Maybe he did that."

"Come on."

"Well, we've got proof he lasted more than one winter. We found stuff Mr. Bateau said was stolen the second and third year. That proves he survived up here."

"It does not!" Daniel said. "Maybe Mr. Bateau got things mixed up. It was a long time ago and people forget the truth. Maybe the kid stole all that stuff the first fall. The kid could have taken all that stuff, got-ten ready for winter, and then when he realized he couldn't make it, he took off, went away somewhere, took up with some people."

"That's crazy."

"Why? It could have happened that way. Maybe the kid got out. Maybe he found a family, somebody to take him in."

"Daniel, you're just making up a story! You're ignoring all the facts."

"I am not! If you're so interested in the facts, tell me where the bones are. Where did they go?"

"Maybe an animal dragged them off, maybe somebody stole them. I don't know what happened to them, and you don't either. I just think he survived up here."

"What've you got against the kid escaping?" Daniel demanded. "He's got as much right as anybody to have family, doesn't he? What've you got against him finding somebody to live with?"

"I've got nothing against it! You just keep refusing to believe the story. You've been fighting the truth since the first day. It's all true and you know it; you're just too pigheaded to admit it! What's it take to make you believe?"

"A lot more!A damn lot more!"

There was a long silence. Then Daniel began again.

"Seth, look, pretend just for a minute, pretend he got all ready to spend the winter up here and then he took off, to Canada, say, where he could start life over again. He found a family . . . "

"You already said that."

"I know, I know. But just pretend that's what happened. They took him in and he grew up like any other kid."

"But how could he just find a family?"

"I don't know! He just could, that's all!"

"Okay," Seth said, "I'll admit it looks like the kid did get away, but that stuff about his finding a family is ridiculous. Why do you like it? It's crazy."

"Not to me. It's not crazy to me. I can't explain it. I just like thinking about it that way."

"Well, I still don't get it."

Daniel put on the backpack. "There's no point in talking about this anymore. Come on, let's go."

Chapter 6

Seth leveled the compass in the palm of his hand and waited for the needle to stop rotating. "What's that bearing we're supposed to take?" he asked.

"South 5 degrees east."

"Yeah.Looks good. It should take us up over the side of the basin. If we go due west when we get up there, we ought to hit the summit pretty close."

They moved up out of the basin and headed toward the back side of the mountain. The fear and apprehension the boys had felt earlier that day were gone. The discovery of the barrow, the old tools and jars, the pieces of blanket, had answered the nagging, anxious questions that had hovered in the backs of their minds. But what made them feel good, especially Daniel, was their failure to find the bones. It took the terror out of the story, bled it of its horror. The boys could relax and enjoy the rest of the hike. It was a beautiful day, and as they headed for the top of the mountain, they were in high spirits.