Read Ebook: Wilderness Honey by Pollock Frank Lillie Edwards H C Harry C Illustrator

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Ebook has 635 lines and 31106 words, and 13 pages

"Is that Mr. Brown?" cried Bob. "This is Bob Harman--of Harman's Corners, you know. No, I'm not there just now. I'm running a bee-ranch up north. A bee-ranch. Honey-bees, you know. Yes. Yes, we have a lot of splendid comb-honey. Are you in the market?"

For a moment he listened attentively.

"We have about a hundred dozen 'Fancy' and about fifty dozen 'No. 1,'" he continued. "We ask and .50 a dozen for the two grades, freight paid to Toronto."

"What an awful price! We'll never get it," whispered Alice, startled.

"Don't speak. You'll shake his nerve," Carl muttered.

"No," Bob was saying into the transmitter. "We wouldn't care to take much less. There's been a bad crop everywhere, and honey is scarce this year. Oh, we couldn't think of taking that. What's that? All right. In an hour, then. Good-by." He turned away from the telephone.

"They actually had the nerve to offer .25 for the 'Fancy,' and for the other," he said. "They said they had bought a lot of 'Fancy' at , but I think that was pure bluff. And I thought they were sure to give us a square deal! Well, I'm to ring them up again in an hour, and if they won't come up to a decent figure, there are other dealers in Toronto."

It seemed a long time to wait. Alice carried her gift of honey to Mr. Farr, and came back reporting that he had seemed much pleased. But he had shaken his head grimly at her account of the poor season.

"The old skinflint needn't worry," said Carl, angrily. "He'll get his money all right."

"Yes, but I'm not going to sacrifice that honey," said Bob with decision. "It's cost us too much--with cats and moose and stings and bears and wendigos. It ought to be worth a dollar a pound. If we can't do well in Toronto, we'll ring up Montreal. Honey prices are often better there."

They did not wait much beyond the hour in calling Mr. Brown again, and this time Bob got him with very little delay.

"Yes," he said in reply to some question, "I've thought it over, and we can't possibly accept what you offer. We'll shade the price to .80 for the best grade, but we think we should have at least .50 for the other. It's really beautiful honey."

He listened a moment and frowned. "Hold the line a moment," he said at last. "I must consult my brother."

He turned to Carl and Alice, holding his hand over the transmitter, so that their conversation should not leak through to Toronto.

"He says his best figure is .60 and .30, cash down," he said in a low tone. "What shall we do?"

"Take it, by all means. That isn't so bad," said Carl, anxiously.

"Yes, take it--take it!" Alice begged. "We mustn't lose the sale."

Bob looked at them thoughtfully for a moment, and then an expression of determination crossed his face. He turned back to the telephone.

"Sorry--can't do it!" he said, firmly. "We will take .70 and .40, but that's positively our last word. We're thinking of shipping to Montreal."

Alice turned pale, and clutched Bob's arm in remonstrance, but he paid no attention to her.

"No," he said into the telephone, "I'm not trying to drive any hard bargain, Mr. Brown. But there's scarcely any comb-honey this year, and prices are going up. Shall we ship? All right. That will be satisfactory. We can ship to-morrow or the day after. Good-by!"

He hung up the telephone and made a wild leap into the air.

"Victory!" he exclaimed. "We get .70 and .40, cash on delivery. About twenty cents a dozen more than we'd counted on. It was the mention of Montreal that fetched them, for they were keen to get the honey. We're saved!"

"Frenzied finance!" said Carl, who had been jotting down some figures on a scrap of paper. "But it comes to 0, and with the 0 we've got we'll be able to make our payment all right. Let's get that honey shipped at once."

First, however, they had to arrange for a teamster to go out to the apiary for the honey; then they had to make some purchases in the village, and when they had finished their errands, it was too late for the long pull up the river that afternoon. So they all stayed at the hotel and started up-stream at eight o'clock the next morning.

It was nearly noon when they arrived at the apiary landing, and they were tired, but light-hearted with success. They went up toward the cabin with their arms full of packages, and suddenly Alice, who was in front, uttered a sharp cry.

A cloud of robber bees hung roaring about the cabin. The door, which they had left locked, stood half open. They dropped their parcels and rushed up. The main room was swarming with bees, but fortunately the screen door into the honey room was shut, and they had not been able to get in, though they were trying hard.

But a glance through the wire showed that the honey had been pillaged. The piles of supers were overturned; so were the stacks of full shipping cases, and half of them seemed to be gone.

Alice gave one glance through the door at the wreck and then dropped on a bench and hid her face in her hands. Bob rushed into the store-room, with Carl at his heels.

A great part of the best honey was gone--nearly all the "No. 1" grade and some of the "Fancy." They could not tell accurately at the moment how much. More than a thousand pounds seemed to be missing, but the thief had abstained from taking any of the unsaleable sections.

"It can't have been gone long!" said Carl, excitedly. "Let's see if there are any tracks."

As they hastened out they noticed that the heavy staple that held the padlock had been pried off. The ground near the door was too hard to show tracks, but a little way from the river they found footprints heading toward the cabin, and in the gravel along the shore they found the mark where a boat had been drawn up.

"Gone by water!" said Bob grimly. "Do you suppose it was that half-breed squatter?"

"There's no one else living along the river within ten miles. He must have seen us all going down the river yesterday, and knew that he had a clear field. What fools we were to leave all that honey. We're done for now!"

"Not much!" returned Bob. "If that fellow has the honey, we'll get it back. Here, come along!"

He led the way rapidly back to the cabin, took down his rifle, and began to fill the magazine with cartridges. Carl picked up his shotgun.

"Bob! What are you going to do?" exclaimed Alice.

"Get that honey back," replied her brother shortly. "Going down the river."

"Well, if you're going, I'll go too and paddle the boat."

"No, you stay here, Allie. There won't be any shooting, but this is no girl's business. Stay here and get the bees out of here and things straightened up. We won't be long--I hope!"

Alice looked entreating and frightened, but Bob was immovable. Carrying their guns, the two boys went back to the boat and in another minute were shooting down the stream as fast as the oars and current could take them. As they went they decided upon a plan of action. They did not want any collision with the half-breed. If it came to weapons, it would mean somebody killed or wounded, and that would be worse than losing the whole crop of honey. They only wanted to make sure that he had really stolen the honey, and where he had hidden it. Afterwards they would see about recovering it.

They landed near the great slough, left the boat, and went cautiously through the woods to the edge of the clearing. No one was in sight. No dog barked this time, and the cabin door was shut.

"Perhaps they've gone away with the haul," muttered Bob. "The only way is to go up and find out."

So they marched boldly across the stumpy field to the cabin, and knocked.

There was a startled exclamation from within. Larue rose from a seat where he was doing something with a large piece of buckskin, and he looked black as he saw the two boys standing armed in the doorway. His wife, a tall, rather handsome and shabbily-dressed woman, stopped short in the middle of the floor, looking frightened. Two pretty, gipsy-like children slunk into the background.

"Only a little--not enough to talk," replied Bob. "Mr. Larue, our house was broken into while we were away, and about a thousand pounds of honey stolen--over 0 worth. We came to see if you knew anything about it."

"Me? How should I know anyt'ing about zat?" returned Larue.

It was hard to put the accusation direct, and Bob hesitated a little.

"The honey was taken away by boat. You have a boat, and you're the only person that lives down this way, so--"

"You say I steal your honey?" cried the squatter angrily. "I tell you I know nottings about it. Look! Is the honey here?"

Carl and Bob both looked, and Bob sniffed as well, and sniffed again with suspicion. The cabin was all one large room, and a thousand pounds of honey certainly could not have been concealed in it. It contained only the simplest furniture, a dirty cooking stove, a table, two rough beds, on which were spread the two fine bearskins that Alice had seen, and a small cupboard. But Bob suddenly darted forward and picked up a small fragment of honeycomb from the floor under the table.

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