Chapter XXVIII: When the Pit Trap Worked

Dick had just succeeded in hurriedly dressing on the following morning, after the regular turn in the lake, when some one nervously gripped his arm. Turning, he discovered, just as he expected, that it was Dan with an eager look of anticipation on his face.

“Dick, you haven’t forgotten, I hope?” was his anxious greeting.

“Oh, no! if by that you mean I’m to go along with you to the trap,” answered the other, smiling at the look on Dan’s face.

“You won’t be long, I hope, Dick?” Dan continued, pleadingly, as the other turned back toward his tent.

“I’ll join you just as quickly as I can, Dan.”

“And Dick, did you happen to wake up during the night? If so, tell me: Was there any sort of noise from that region?”

“Nothing that I noticed, Dan; though I slept sounder than usual I’m afraid. But we’ll soon settle that, you know.”

“Whew! I’m all in a tremble to find out,” muttered the other, as he cast another quick glance toward the quarter where his thoughts were centered.

Dick took pity on him, and did hurry, even postponing some of his customary morning duties until later. He found Dan waiting, almost consumed with impatience. No one noticed them steal quietly off, which was just as well. Indeed, Dan breathed an audible sigh of relief when he made sure of this fact.

“Course if there isn’t any Old Man of the Woods squatting down in my pit trap,” he went on to explain as they walked, “we needn’t hurry to say anything about it. If anybody happens to mention the subject later on I’ll tell ’em I hardly expected to strike oil the first thing, and that they’ve just got to give me time.”

Like most boys Dan was very sensitive to ridicule, as his words proved. Dick said nothing further, for already they were beginning to draw near the spot where the pit had been dug.

That Dan was very much on the alert his actions speedily proved. He suddenly clutched his companion rigidly by the arm, and his voice was husky with self-suppressed excitement as he gasped:

“Dick, I do believe it worked after all!”

“What makes you think so?” asked Dick, who had as yet seen nothing to disclose this fact.

“Because the bait is gone!” continued Dan, growing more and more excited. “I hung it up on that branch you can see moving in the wind, and now it’s bare. No danger of its having fallen off either. Something’s taken it, Dick!”

“So? Then let’s move along and make sure,” remarked the second boy.

Ten seconds later Dan made another discovery.

“Oh! the mat over the hole has been broken in, Dick--it certainly has!” he cried in growing excitement.

“Good enough!” his chum observed. “Then let’s hope Mr. Gorilla is right now down in the pit, waiting for us to come and explain what we mean by deceiving a poor old simian in such a mean way. Come along, Dan. The chances are you’ve caught him.”

All doubt was removed shortly afterwards, when creeping cautiously up the two boys peered over the edge of the pit. Most of the covering had been dragged down with the heavy descending body of the gorilla when he fell in, so that enough daylight managed to struggle to the bottom to disclose a fearful sight.

There sat the gorilla, blinking his wicked little eyes up at the faces of his captors, of whose presence he seemed to be fully aware. He was all that Dan had pictured him, short of stature, with an immense girth of chest, long muscular arms, and squatty lower limbs. Ugly though he seemed to the boys, Dick was rather of the opinion that the animal could not be quite as ferocious as those of his species when met in their native Borneo haunts.

“He must have got used to folks in the years of his captivity,” Dick remarked to the shivering Dan; “and that’s why he doesn’t take on dreadful, now that he understands he’s caught in a trap, and will have to go back to his cage again.”

“My stars!” muttered the entranced Dan, “if he’s a tame gorilla deliver me from ever running across a real wild one. All the money in the world couldn’t tempt me to drop down in that pit alongside that old chap. Ugh! excuse me! Even the thought of it makes me creep all over.”

“We’ll try not to have any such accident as that,” remarked Dick, experiencing a squeamish feeling himself at the idea. “And now, what are you going to do with Bob, since you’ve trapped him?”

“I’ve figured all that out,” replied Dan. “We’ll have Mr. Capes find where that circus proprietor is holding out this week. There must be ways of doing that, you see. And then he can wire him that his gorilla is trapped, and for him to come along as fast as he can, with a cage and experienced help to get him out.”

“That’s a good scheme, Dan,” commended the other, slapping his chum on the back. “And in the meantime we’ll have to see that the old fellow doesn’t want for his regular allowance of grub.”

“No danger of his climbing out, is there, Dick?”

“I should hardly think so,” the other replied, after again taking a survey of the deep pit. “The only way he could ever do that would be to dig holes in the side, and I don’t believe he’s up to that game. Anyhow we’ll keep tab of his doings, and if we find he’s trying a game like that we’ll check him in a hurry.”

Dan began to take on the airs of a world conqueror. The look of anxiety gradually left his face, giving way to one of conscious triumph. Indeed, it must be confessed that he puffed his chest out a little as, in company with Dick, he returned to the camp.

Their coming was noticed, if their flitting had passed without comment.

“Any luck, Dan?” called Andy Hale, who was trying to get his refractory crop of bristly hair to stay down, always a difficult morning task with him.

“Say, do we have gorilla steak for breakfast?” demanded Nat Silmore, trying to be funny, though his recent actions had shown that the presence of the animal in the vicinity of the camp was anything but a joke with him.

“Oh, well, you can settle that yourself,” said Dan, carelessly. “I make a standing offer right here and now. Any fellow who cares to drop down into that pit this morning may have all my coop of homing pigeons free, gratis, for nothing.”

The offer caused a sensation.

“Did you get him, Dan?” demanded Eddie Grant.

“Whoop! Dan’s trapped the old thief after all! Bully for Dan!” yelled Peg.

“Did you, Dan, and is the Jabberwock mad about it?” asked Andy Hale.

Even the grown members of the party evinced considerable interest in the matter. Mr. Bartlett knew that some of the boys, more impetuous than wise, would be apt to rush toward the pit in order to gratify their curiosity. He wished to warn them of the danger involved in carelessness.

“Mr. Holwell,” he said, “Dan invites us all to come and see for ourselves. But before we go I wish to tell the boys to be very particular not to crowd up close to the edge of the pit. If the earth crumbled under any one and he fell in I’m afraid he’d never come out alive again.”

Accordingly, the boys promised to exercise the greatest care. Then the whole troop followed in the wake of the proud originator of the scheme to trap the disturber of their peace.

Judging from the broad grin decorating the face of Dan Fenwick when he looked around once or twice, it was the happiest moment of his whole young life. He could understand the feelings that must have filled the heart of some ancient conqueror, when crowned with the laurel wreath of victory and watching the strings of captives paraded before the throngs filling the public square in Rome.

The captured gorilla must have been quite used to seeing human faces about his cage, for he never once got up from his squatting position, but just blinked up at them, and scowled frightfully.

“Deliver me from meeting that chap in the woods after night sets in!” remarked Clint Babbett.

“And Nat, I’m going to ask your pardon for laughing at you because you yelled when that monster took to playing leap-frog over you,” said Peg Fosdick, humbly. “If I waked from a sound sleep and saw him sailing past I reckon my heart would nearly jump out of my mouth with fear. Say, he’s the limit!”

“Look at the muscles in his arms, would you?” cried Andy Hale. “Huh! no wonder he smashed that first trap of yours to flinders, Dan. After this I can easily believe the stories about a gorilla tying a gun-barrel into a knot.”

The sight of the beast sitting so close to them, though unable to do them injury, was so fascinating that Mr. Bartlett had to order the boys back to the camp.

“And remember,” he added sternly, “not one of you except Dan or Dick must ever approach this place without special permission. What that rascal might do should any one fall into the pit I am not prepared to say. So far we’ve managed to get on without any serious trouble; and we don’t want our camping trip to be marred by tragedy. Please remember those are my positive orders, and I shall hold each one of you responsible for any disobedience.”

The boys had never seen Mr. Bartlett so serious, and his words made a deep impression on even Nat and his two reckless cronies. But the camp director knew it was no time for trifling; and he believed in closing the stable-door before the horse was stolen, not afterwards, when it was too late.

Breakfast followed, after which preparations were made looking to the departure of the guests. All of them declared they had enjoyed their too brief stay greatly, and shook hands with each member of the camp guard. The berries had been placed in the carriers provided and were loaded into one of the boats, which Elmer and Peg offered to row over to the landing.

Mr. Bartlett had been privately asked by the minister to select Asa Gardner to help Leslie ferry the three guests across to where their car awaited them. Of course, Mr. Holwell had an object in so doing, wishing Asa to understand that he was considered a member in good standing of the party, and that whatever the past held in the shape of regrets need not bother him a particle now.

Asa looked quite cheerful. With the capture of the thieving gorilla the last doubt had been removed from his mind. Dick secretly found himself rejoicing with the boy who had had to fight so desperately in order to conquer his evil tendencies. He meant to keep in close touch with Asa after this, realizing that the person who has won a victory over himself deserves ten times more credit than those who have never had to engage in a fight with their weak natures.

In good time the car started back toward Cliffwood, with a long journey before the travelers. And across the intervening water came the cheers of those who from the distant island watched the departure of the guests. A few half wished they, too, were starting for dear old Cliffwood. It was only natural that a feeling akin to home-sickness should for a moment grip their young hearts. But all this was soon forgotten, when they began to plan for another day of good times.