The Strange Cabin on Catamount Island

me of the others turned white with sudden alarm, as they also note

tanding, holding a rather short stick in his hand, with which he had doubtless b

tunately enough he had managed to spring back a pace

reful how you let her have a chance to reach you when she springs out.

to do execution, and at the same time have sufficient length. For now that they knew what its species was, the coiled serpent looked

stick that he thought would do the busi

l lest the natural headstrong nature o

ng her young, thinking that here was a chance to get away from all this turmoil, had slipped out of coil, and even started

away back to the Garden of Eden times the heel of man has been raised against venomous serpents. And somehow the close call

b in their hands, the destiny of that snake was written plainly, s

reptile's back, and from that instant t

he rattler was as dead as might be expected before sundown; for Owen declared that he had some sort

ery old thing that happens. First you shout out your boat's sinking, and while

you all so much trouble, boys; next time I run across a litter of little snakes, it's me to the wo

ed Owen; "some say snakes can hide their

have skedaddled off in the bushes. Perhaps they're old enough to take care of themselves, though

Yes, I just reckoned she'd come to see what I was doin' with her bunch of youngsters, a

ny looking appendage at the end of the tail; "it'll serve to remind you of what a s

"I'd just hate to have my folks know how foolish I was.

a dinner horn some time; better tha

are I got when Max here shouted out the way he did," admi

't be afraid that there's going to be any trouble again with that same lea

m the main river into the branch called the Big Sunflower, which, as the scene of their late succes

current, first one, and then another had some

these boats with some of the hard cash we earned that time

, who was working the paddle fairly well, though at times he made a bad stroke, and seemed

boy told me he'd hunted two whole days, and found just three mussels, which didn't turn up a

Max. "Think of them finding that there was a whole lot of ginseng gr

"and then started to plague the life out of us. But we c

f the sinuous river. But the Big Sunflower was an odd sort of a tributary; in fact, like the Misso

imes spreads itself into a bouncing lake. Why, right where Catamount Isl

his steady paddling for some hours now, and Bandy-legs was not the only one who grunte

hope, fellers," remarked Bandy-legs, pathe

long before we crossed th

t ahead," advised M

I think I can see something that looks just like an island around that bend yond

n. It was the island, sure enough; and as they picked up new vim at the prospect of being soon allowed to res

oomy, and as Bandy-legs declared, "spooky." Several had partly fallen during some heavy blow, and rested upon others that had proven better able to stand up against the wind. A fe

gruesome aspect of the place which they meant to make their stamping ground for a full week, unless they wished to bring down

on, and laughed, though truth to tell, there was n

ur island," he called out, as he dropped his paddle into the water agai

it's enough to make a fellow shiver just to look at it. And it smells like cats or skunks lived around here. But if the rest of

just then they were making for the lower shore of the isla

managed to jump out of his cranky cedar canoe. He acted as th

is he had to consider a number of things, such as a view of the river, nearness to the boats, a chance for drainage in case of a summer storm that mig

t begins to pall upon the party before the weekend. Everybody wanted to have a hand in that

ing and crackling fire, while they brought forward recollections of other occasions

so that he laughed with the rest, and appeared as joyous as anybody, sitting there and watching the curli

ny of his chums upon proving to Herb and his comrades, that they had been a lot of chumps

whip-poor-will; owls started to hoot back somewhere on the island; giant frogs boomed forth their

y-legs, though it was not often they heard them in

was frogs' legs, and that he meant to start on a hunt for some of those blustering fellows in the m

eir feet, and looked at each other speechlessly, while their faces certainly took on a degree of pallor that