As the German boy gathered up the reins to back the wagon round, Piper stepped forward and checked him with an uplifted hand.
“Stay,” said Sleuth. “Pause a moment. Would you inform us if there are any dangerous wild beasts in this virgin forest? Are there likely to be animals prowling about against whose attack we should keep a nocturnal vigil?”
“Vot vas dot, a dog?” asked Carl wonderingly. “Didt you mean vas you to keep a dog to out vatch for vild animals? I didt not observation dot you had a dog aroundt anyvhere. Maype, howefer, you have vun your pocket in.”
Sleuth shook his head sadly. “It’s evident,” he returned, “that you are not wise to the delicate shadings of the English language. By a nocturnal vigil I mean a night watch.”
“Oh, yah,” nodded Carl. “Now I understooded it. You haf a night vatch your pocket in, in order dot der time can see you ven it iss dark. I peliefe maype it vas a goot kindt uf a vatch to have.”
“You haven’t answered my interrogation concerning the before-mentioned dangerous wild animals,” persisted Piper, unheeding the half suppressed merriment of his companions. “Are there any around these parts?”
“Last vinter,” was the answer, “my oldt man he didt see der feetprints uf a gouger, undt dot gouger didt off carry vun uf our sheeps.”
“A gouger?” cried Sleuth. “What is that?”
“It vas a gouger; a vild peast mit four feets undt claws undt two eyes undt teeth undt a goot appetite for meat undt plood.”
“A-a-ah!” breathed Sleuth, with a long, shuddering intake of his breath. “I knew there must be such ferocious creatures in this wild and desolate wilderness, but what a gouger can be has got me guessing.”
“Perhaps,” suggested Grant, “he means a cougar.”
“Dot peen vot I said already,” persisted the German boy. “Vale, I must along go uf I vill home get pefore dark. Goot py, undt don’t let dot gouger catch you.”
Turning with some difficulty, he drove away into the stilly woods, the bumping and creaking of the old wagon drifting back to the ears of the campers a long time after it had disappeared from view. Ere those sounds fully died out Piper brought forth his jack-knife, hastily cut open one of the burlap-covered bundles, and extracted a hatchet, with which he attacked one of the smaller wooden boxes.