PREFACE.

My DEAR LADS:

This story is complete in itself, but forms volume two of a set known under the general title of the "Boy Hunters Series," taking the heroes through various adventures while out hunting and fishing, in the woods and mountains, and on rivers and lakes.

The boys are bright, lively lads of to-day, with a strong liking for a life in the open air and a keen taste for hunting both big and little game, and for fishing in various ways. In the former volume, entitled, "Four Boy Hunters," they organized their little dun Club and obtained permission to go a number of miles from home and establish a camp on the edge of a lake. From this spot they were driven by enemies, and then settled at another camp, where they had various adventures and not a little fun, and in the end cleared up a mystery which had bothered them not a little.

In the present story we have the same boys and almost the same locality, but the time is now winter, and in the pages which follow are related the sport the boys had in the snow and on the ice, and something about a new mystery, which ended in rather a surprising fashion.

As I have said before, hunting, especially in our eastern states, is not what it was years ago. Almost all of the big game has disappeared, and the fellow who can get a deer or a moose without going a good many weary miles for the game is lucky. Yet in some sections small game is still fairly plentiful, and a bag full of rabbits or wild ducks is much better than nothing.

With best wishes to all who love the woods and waters, a gun, a dog, and a rousing campfire, I remain,

Your sincere friend,

CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCING FOUR BOYS

"Hurrah, boys, it's snowing at last! Aren't you glad?"

"Glad? You bet I'm glad, Snap! Why I've been watching for this storm for about six months!"

"There you go, Whopper!" answered Charley Dodge, with a grin. "Six months indeed! Why, we haven't been home six months."

"Well, it seems that long anyway," said Frank Dawson, who was usually called Whopper by his chums, because of his exaggerations when speaking. "I've just been aching to see it snow."

"So that we can take that trip we proposed," put in Sheppard Reed, quickly. "I guess we are all waiting for that."

"I am anyway," came from Will Caslette, the smallest lad of the four, who had gathered at their usual meeting place in the town where they resided. "Our camping out last summer was immense. If only we have half as much fun this winter!"

"We will have, Giant," broke in the boy called Whopper. "Didn't I tell you I was going to bring down sixteen deer, twenty bears, two hundred wild turkeys, a boatload of wolves, and—"

"Phew, Whopper! Every time you name 'em over the list gets longer!" cried Charley Dodge. "If you bring down so much game there won't be anything left for other hunters."

"Well, I'll leave you a bear or two," said Whopper cheerfully.

"Thanks awfully."

"Leave me one lone wild turkey, Whopper dear," came mournfully from Shep Reed.

"Say, if you're going to talk like that I won't leave anything," burst out Frank.

"Whopper may bring down all the game, but I'll wager he can't throw a snowball as straight as I can," said Charley, taking up some snow. "See that spot on the fence yonder? Here goes for it!"

The snowball was launched forth with swiftness and with a thud struck the spot directly in the center.

"Hurrah! A bull's-eye for Snap!"

"Humph! I can do that too!" cried Whopper, and forthwith proceeded to make a good hard snowball. Then he took aim, let drive, and the ball landed directly on the top of the one Charley had thrown.

"Good for you, Whopper!" said Charley enthusiastically.

"Ah, I could do that a thousand times in succession," answered the youth given to exaggeration, coolly. "Why, don't you know that one day there were six Tom cats on a fence and I took a snowball and hit 'em all?"

"What, with one snowball?" queried the little lad called Giant.

"Sure thing, Giant."

"But how?"

"Why, I made the snowball bounce from the head of one Tom cat to the head of the next," answered Whopper, unabashed.

"Well, if that isn't the worst yet!" roared Shep. "Say, we ought to roll Whopper in the snow for that!"

"Right you are!" cried Snap. "Come on!"

"Hi! hold on!" yelled Whopper in alarm, but before he could resist he was landed on his back in the snow, and the others proceeded to roll him over "good," as Shep expressed it. The rolling process at an end, a general snowball fight ensued between all of the boys, and also several others who chanced to be passing.

The scene was the town of Fairview, a place containing a main street and also another thoroughfare running to the tidy little railroad depot, where eight trains stopped daily. The town was made up of fifteen stores and shops, three churches, a hotel, and a livery stable, while just outside were a saw mill and several other industries. The place was located on the Rocky River, which, ten miles below, flowed into a beautiful sheet of water called Lake Cameron.

To those who have read a previous volume of mine entitled, "Four Boy Hunters," the lads skylarking in the snow need no special introduction. For the benefit of others let me state that Charley Dodge was the son of one of the most influential men of that district, a gentleman who was a school trustee and also part owner of a big summer hotel and one of the saw mills. Sheppard Reed was the son of the best-known local physician, and he and Charley,—always called Snap, why nobody could tell—were such chums they were often spoken of as the Twins.

Frank Dawson had come to Fairview a little over two years before, and had speedily made himself a prime favorite. As we have seen, he loved to exaggerate when telling things, yet with it all Whopper, so called, was as truthful as anybody. As Snap said, "you could always tell Whopper's whoppers a mile off," which I think was something of a whopper in itself, don't you?

The youngest lad of the four was Will Gaslette, always called Billy or Giant. He was the son of a French widow lady, who thought the world of her offspring. Although Will was small in size, he was sturdy and self-reliant, and promised to become all that his mother hoped for him.

During the previous summer the four boys had organized the Fairview Gun Club and obtained permission to go camping for a few weeks in the vicinity of Lake Cameron. They had started in high spirits, and after a number of minor adventures located on the shore of the lake. From this spot, however, they were driven by a saw mill owner named Andrew Felps, who ran a company that was a rival to the concern in which Mr. Dodge had an interest. The boys were made to give up their comfortable camp, and then they went to Firefly Lake, a mile away. Here they hunted and fished to their heart's content, being joined in some of their sports by Jed Sanborn, an old hunter and trapper who lived in the mountains between the lakes. They had some trouble with Ham Spink, a dudish youth from Fairview, who, with some cronies, located a rival camp across the lake, but this was quickly quelled. Then, during a forest fire, they captured a long-wanted criminal, and came home at last loaded down with game, and with the firm determination to go out camping again during the winter.

"We couldn't spend our time more pleasantly," was what Snap said. "Just think of a cozy camp in the snow, with a roaring camp-fire, and plenty of game on all sides of you! Um! um! It's enough to make a fellow's mouth water!"

"Oh, we'll have to go!" had been Shep's answer. "Of course we'll have to go to school, but we are going to have a long vacation around the holidays—"

"And we can ask for our Christmas presents in advance," Giant had interrupted. "If we go out, I know what I want?"

"What, Giant?"

"A pair of snowshoes."

"Oh, we'll all want those," had come from Whopper. "And sleds, too—for our traps."

"That's right."

"And another shot-gun."

"Yes, and plenty of blankets. It's no fun to camp out in winter if you can't keep warm."

And so the talk had run on, until the winter outing of the Gun Club became almost a certainty to them. But there were certain restrictions, one of which, placed on all of the boys by their parents, was that they should end the term at school with good averages in all their lessons.

"You must get at least eighty-five per cent. out of a possible hundred in all your lessons," said Doctor Reed to Shep, "otherwise you cannot go," and the other parents said practically the same thing to Snap, Whopper and Giant. And then the boys pitched in with a will, resolved to come out ahead, "or know the reason why," as Snap said.

CHAPTER II

A QUARREL IN THE SNOW

The snow lay on the ground to the depth of four inches and was still coming down thickly. It was the first fall of the season, and was late,—so late, in fact, that the boys had been afraid there might come no fall at all. Fast and furiously flew the snowballs and each lad was hit many times.

"How is that?" sang out Whopper, as he planted a snowball directly in Snap's ear.

"And how's that?" returned Snap quickly, and sent a chunk of soft snow down Frank's collar.

"Wuow!" spluttered Whopper. "Hi! that isn't fair! Oh, my poor backbone!"

"Here you are, Giant!" called out Shep, and hit the little lad in the back. "Sorry, but it can't be helped. I—Oh, my!" and Shep bent double as a snowball thrown by Giant with much force took him directly in the stomach.

"Just to remember me by!" sang out Giant. "Here's another," and the ball struck Shep in the elbow. "Small favors thankfully received and big ones granted in return. There you are!" And still another snowball landed on Shep's neck.

Five other boys had come up, and now the contestants were lined up on both sides of the street not far from a corner, where there was a turn running down to the depot. As the snowballing went on a distant locomotive whistle sounded out and the afternoon train from the East rolled into the station. Several passengers alighted and among the number was Andrew Felps, of the Felps Lumber Company, the man who had caused the boy hunters so much trouble the summer previous.

Mr. Andrew Felps was in a bad humor. He had gone to the city on business and matters had not turned out as he had expected. Now he had gotten back, dressed in his best, and wearing a new silk hat, and he had no umbrella with which to protect himself from the snow-storm. More than this, his coachman, who generally met him when he came in on the train, was not in sight.

"Bah! I'll have to walk I suppose," muttered the saw mill owner, as he looked around for a carriage and found none. "Just the time you want a rig you can't find one. I'll discharge Johnson as soon as I reach home."

With his coat buttoned up around his neck, and his head bent low to escape the scudding snow, Andrew Felps hurried away from the depot and up to the main street of Fairview. Then he made another turn, presently reaching the spot where our heroes and the other lads were having their sport.

"Hi! here comes old Felps!" cried Giant. "We ought to give him something to remember us by!"

"Don't you do it!" returned Snap quickly. "He doesn't know what fun is, and he'd be sure to make trouble."

Some other boys were coming up, and the snowballs began to fly more furiously than ever. Snap, Shep, Whopper and Giant were on one side, and a boy named Carl Dudder and five other town lads on the other side. In the midst of the rallies came a yell of alarm, followed by several loud cries of rage.

"Hullo! look there!" exclaimed Whopper. "Old Felps has been knocked into the middle of next month. There goes his hat in the snow too! Who threw at him?"

"I didn't," answered Giant, promptly.

"Neither did I," came from Snap.

"Nor I," added Shep.

The saw mill owner was flat on his back, his silk hat on one side of him and a package of books and papers on the other.

"Maybe he slipped on some ice," suggested Snap.

"Hi! hi! who threw that snowball!" roared Andrew Felps, savagely, as he arose to his feet. "You young villains! I'll have the law on you for this!"

He scrambled to his feet and glared around him. All of the boys had stopped throwing at once and gazed at him curiously.

"Ha! I know you!" went on Andrew Felps, striding up to Snap. "It was you who hit me in the ear and knocked me down!"

"No, sir, I did not," answered Charley.

"I know better! I saw you do it!"

"You are mistaken, Mr. Felps! I was throwing across the street."

"Don't tell me! I know better, Dodge. You hit me and you did it on purpose."

At this Snap merely shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll have the law on you," fumed Andrew Felps.

"Snap didn't hit you," said Shep.

"Ha! then perhaps you threw the snowball," said the saw mill owner suspiciously.

"I did not."

"I know you boys, and I have not forgotten your work against me last summer," growled Andrew Felps.

"And we haven't forgotten you," answered Snap, coldly. "You have no right to accuse me of something I didn't do."

"Bah! If I find out who hit me I'll make it warm for him!" And having thus delivered himself Andrew Felps picked up his silk hat and his bundle and went on his way, in a worse humor than ever.

"Isn't he a darling?" observed Whopper sarcastically. "How I would love to own him for a brother!"

"I wonder who did hit him?" mused Snap. "The snowball couldn't have come from over here."

"I know who hit him," said a little boy named Benny Grime.

"Who was it, Benny?"

"Ham Spink."

"Ham Spink!" cried Snap and Shep in concert.

"Yes."

"Why, he isn't here," said Whopper.

"He just came up, threw one snowball, and ran away. I guess he meant to hit somebody else and the snowball hit Mr. Felps instead," went on the small boy. "Don't let him know I told you, or he'll wax me good for it."

"I shan't tell Ham," said Snap. "But this is strange," he continued.

"Thought Ham was too much of a dude to throw snowballs," was Whopper's comment. "Why, he wears a new necktie every day now, and new patent leather shoes, and new gloves, and—"

"Don't pile it on too thick, Whopper," laughed Shep. "But I admit, he is a dude and no mistake."

"And a sneak—to run away as soon as he hit old Felps," finished Giant.

There was no time to say more, for the snowball battle was again raging, more furiously than ever. The balls flew on all sides, and grown folks, coming in that direction, kept out of the way as much as possible.

"Here comes old Mammy Shrader!" cried Snap, presently. "We must be careful not to hit her."

The woman he referred to was old and feeble and very short sighted. She had a faded shawl over her shoulders and carried a market basket on one arm. She went out nursing among the poor people and was well known throughout the entire neighborhood.

As the old woman came on a snowball was thrown at her from the other side of the street.

"Say, don't do that!" called out Snap, angrily. "Leave Mammy Shrader alone!"

He has scarcely uttered the words when another snowball was thrown at the aged female. This hit her on the cheek and caused her to utter a cry of pain. She tried to save herself from falling, but could not, and went down in a heap.

"For shame!" ejaculated Shep and ran to help the old woman to arise. In the meantime Snap, with flashing eyes, hurried across the street and confronted Carl Dudder. As my old readers know, Carl Dudder was a close crony to Ham Spink and had done his full share in making our young friends uncomfortable during the summer outing.

"Dudder, aren't you ashamed of yourself?" said Snap.

"What are you talking about?" demanded Carl Dudder, although he trembled a little as he spoke.

"You threw those snowballs at Mammy Shrader."

"I didn't."

"You did—I saw you."

"That's correct—I saw him too," put in Giant, who had followed Snap. In the meantime Whopper had followed Shep, and both were doing what they could for the old woman.

"See here, Snap Dodge, I don't want you to talk to me," blustered Carl Dudder. "I know my own business."

"You ought to be knocked down for throwing at Mammy Shrader."

"You can't knock me down!" growled Carl, doubling up his fists.

"A fight! a fight!" cried several boys, always ready for an affair of that sort.

There was an awkward pause. Snap did not wish to fight, and yet he wanted Dudder to understand that he was not afraid.

"I think I owe you something from last summer," said Dudder, coming closer and sticking his chin in Snap's face. "I haven't forgotten that."

"Yes, but you seem to have forgotten that we about kept you from starving to death," answered Snap calmly.

"And that's no joke," came softly from Giant.

"You keep your oar out, little one," grunted Dudder, turning to glare at Will.

"You and your crowd acted very meanly last summer and you know it, Dudder," said Giant, not in the least abashed. "Your treatment of Mammy Shrader is on a par with your other actions."

"Shut up!" roared the other boy, and made a quick pass at Giant's head. But the small boy dodged and the fist struck Snap on the shoulder.

The next instant Snap hauled off, struck out, and Carl Dudder measured his length in the snow.

CHAPTER III

THE RESULTS OF SNOWBALLING

Carl Rudder had not expected this telling blow and he was so dazed it was several seconds before he turned over in the snow and arose to his feet.

"Good for you, Snap!" cried Will. "That's the way to serve him."

"Wha—what do you mean by hitting me like that?" demanded Dudder, glaring at Charley, but still keeping a safe distance.

"What do you mean by hitting me?" demanded Snap.

"I'll punch your head good for you!

"Try it—if you dare," answered Snap, defiantly, and he took an aggressive step forward, at which Dudder retreated.

"I'll fight you another time—when you haven't so many friends around," said Carl Dudder lamely, and then turning on his heel he started away, followed by one of his cronies.

"If old Mammy Shrader is hurt, you'll be to blame," called Snap after him.

"He's a coward," was Giant's comment. "I wish I had got a whack at him. He is much larger than I am, but I am not afraid of him."

While this scene was transpiring Shep and Whopper had helped old Mammy Shrader to a seat on the porch of a house not far from where she had gone down. The old woman complained of a pain in her side and it was next to impossible for her to take another step.

"I'll have to go home," she panted. "But how am I to get there?"

"Here comes Mr. Sell in his grocery wagon," cried Whopper. "Perhaps he'll give you a ride."

"Maybe he will—I buy my things from him," answered the old woman.

The grocer was stopped and the situation explained, and he readily volunteered to take Mammy Shrader to her home, located at no great distance. He and the boys helped her into the wagon.

"The boy who struck her ought to be horsewhipped," said the grocer. "Fun is one thing, but hitting an old woman is quite another."

"Just what I say," answered Shep.

"Well, I knocked him down anyway," said Snap, coming up, and Giant told the details of the brief encounter.

Snap volunteered to go with the grocer, and between them they soon had Mammy Shrader at her home and lying on a couch. Shep hurried home and told his father the particulars of what had occurred.

"I will drive over and see her," said the doctor, and as his horse was hitched up he went immediately.

"She is suffering from a sprain and from the jar," said the physician, after an examination. "She must take it easy for a week or so." Then a neighbor, who had dropped in, said she would look after the patient during that time.

"Carl Dudder ought to be made to pay for this," said Doctor Reed.

"The Dudders won't pay anything—Mr. Dudder is as miserly as they make him, even if he is well off," said Whopper.

"Perhaps he can be forced to pay," replied Snap.

When Carl Dudder heard that a doctor had been called in to attend Mammy Shrader he was much frightened. He went to consult Ham Spink about it. The two were hand-in-glove in everything.

"Are they sure you threw the snowball?" asked Ham Spink, pointedly.

"They say they saw me."

"Who says so?"

"Oh, Snap Dodge and that crowd."

"Always that crowd!" muttered Ham Spink.