Chapter Sixteen ~ The Stone-Thrower Again

as told to Ryl by Knut

Knut assigned sections to everyone, leaving Trixie and Honey at the site of Cap’s “encounter”. Though it might have made more sense to send Hallie, who was very familiar with the terrain, with her own group of New York Bob-Whites, he kept her in his own group, reluctant to be parted from his remaining sibling. With Cap in danger, he simply wasn’t ready to let Hallie too far out of his sight. And, he concluded reluctantly, it would probably be best if Hallie and Di spent a little time apart.

Joe Country changed people, he thought. Mostly, it brought out the best in people. He didn’t have Cap’s gift for becoming one with the land, but spending time in the park woke a part of his soul that would otherwise lie dormant. For Di, however, he suspected that being vulnerable in a completely different setting than she was accustomed to, was amplifying her insecurities and fears. As much as he loved his sister, he knew that at the moment Hallie would have little to no patience with anyone who wasn’t as utterly focused as she herself was.

At the same time, he couldn’t quite stop second-guessing his decisions. He might be the oldest Idaho Belden, and he had a natural inclination to lead, but not in Joe Country. Here, Cap was the final word, the nature authority. He had no doubt that his younger brother could find signs that the rest of them would walk right past, or, worse, trample underfoot. Still, they had to try.

Straightening his shoulders, he motioned for Hallie and Mart to follow him. As they moved further from the other groups, the silence became thicker, and the air heavier. When a twig snapped under Mart’s careless tread, he had to stop himself from glaring. They were all, he reminded himself, doing the best that they could.

“What’s that?” Hallie whispered, breaking the silence several minutes later.

Knut followed her line of sight to where a something glinted in the filtered sunlight. He stepped off the path and reached for the object, grimacing when he encountered the tab from an aluminum pop can.

“Litter,” he said shortly, and left it. Normally, he would have put it in his pocket until he could dispose of it, but even without Cap’s well-trained eye, he could see that an animal had incorporated the tap into its nest, and he wasn’t about to mess with the creature’s home. The animals of Joe Country were adapting to humans, and Knut wasn’t at all sure that was a good thing. It made far more sense for humans to leave the animals and their habitat

They continued walking, searching the surrounding area so intently that Knut could feel the strain in his eyes. Normally, Joe Country was a place of wonder, with a new miracle of nature everywhere he looked. Today, it was a labyrinth, specifically designed to thwart his goal of finding something, anything, that would lead them to Cap.

“What’s that?” It was Mart who spoke this time, his voice only slighter louder than Hallie’s had been.

Mart thrust his hand into the bush and brandished his prize.

“The nugget bag!” Hallie squealed, and plucked it from Mart’s triumphant wave.

Unfazed, Mart beamed. “We found it!” he whooped, his face split in a wide grin.

“Empty,” Hallie lamented, carefully inspecting the contents. “Let’s go tell the others!” she urged, clutching the nugget bag like a lifeline.

“Not so fast,” Knut cautioned, though he smiled at their enthusiasm. “If the nugget bag is here, there might be other clues, too.”

Mart turned back to the bush, vibrating with excitement that Knut wished he could share. The nugget bag was a good clue, and it was what he’d been hoping to find, but in the end, did it get them any closer to finding Cap?

“A barrette!” Hallie called, and lofted her trophy for the others to see.

“That’s Di’s!” Mart exclaimed.

“And what’s this?” Knut asked, holding out his upturned palm.

“My button!” Hallie pocketed the treasure. “It came off my jacket,” she explained, and patted her pocket in satisfaction. “This will save me trying to find a match.”

They continued to search, but the area had yielded all of its treasure. Knut led the way back to the camp, torn between relief that they’d found the nugget bag, and disappointment that it hadn’t immediately led them to Cap. When they finally reached the others, Knut let Hallie and Mart announce their find.

“Where was it?” Trixie asked, her eyes bright with curiosity.

“Caught in the bushes, right where we found the cookie,” Knut admitted. “I don’t know how we overlooked it before.”

“We were too excited about the cookie.” Hallie displayed the rest of the haul, leading to a slight ruffling of feathers when Di rejected the barrette. Eager to avoid any more spats between the two girls, Knut examined Trixie and Honey’s haul.

“What’s so wacky about finding this stuff?” Hallie scoffed, proving that she was still on edge. “You’re in gold country, and those are prospector’s tools. There’s been a sniper at work,” she deduced.

“The station wagon!” Trixie recalled.

“That’s right—there were mining tools in that old wagon. I wonder if these things can have anything to do with Cap’s disappearance.”

“I’d say yes if it wasn’t a sasquatch that attacked Cap. What need would it have for gold?” Knut asked.

“I don’t know,” Hallie flung back, “but the nugget bag is empty, isn’t it? The pack rat ran across one nugget and the locket, but he didn’t hoard Tank’s gold. I poked around in every treasure room in that rat mansion. There wasn’t an extra flake!”

Mart picked up the tweezers. “If that’s a sniper’s tool, you’ll have to show me how to use it. I haven’t a clue.”

Relieved to find a topic of conversation that was unlikely to upset his sister, Knut sat on one heel. “Here’s what sniping looks like. You pick out a crack in the bedrock. It’s all filled up with silt, sand, small gravel, grass roots, rotten leaves, bugs—stuff like that. You take your screwdriver, and you loosen all this goop. Then you scoop it up with a spoon and dump it in your gold pan. If you don’t have a gold pan, a frying pan will work.”

“There’s a gold pan in the station wagon,” Trixie recalled.

Knut’s dark eyes sharpened with interest. “Chances are the guy’s been sniping long enough to have all the tools. If you can’t reach the bottom of the crack, you break open the rock with your pick. You put everything you find in the pan, even plants. Sometimes those little tiny hair roots are twisted around a flake of gold.”

Knut felt his tension ease, just a little, as he described the process of sniping. This was something that he understood, something that made sense in a way that that Cap’s encounter with the sasquatch didn’t.

He demonstrated with his hands, remembering how he’d made those motions in real life with his father, with Tank, and with his brother. None of them were here now, but he felt their steadying presence as he remembered lessons learned with them.

“Is that what Tank does?” Trixie asked, bringing his focus back to the group.

“No, not anymore,” Hallie answered. “He’s a hard-rock miner.”

Knut jerked a thumb toward the head of the canyon. “Tank found gold in an outcrop up there on the mountain. He staked his claim and has his own one-man operation. He doesn’t snipe.”

Tank had been lucky with his find, and Knut had to believe that his luck would continue to hold, no matter what had happened to him. The group fell silent. To give himself something to do other than worry, Knut began opening cans of meat, vegetables, and gravy. Hunter’s stew was an easy and satisfying meal, and though he wasn’t hungry, he knew they all needed to be in top form for whatever happened next.

When he served the food in cereal bowls, he saw that others were struggling with their appetite, too.

“You’re refusing to eat because you know what’s really in it,” Mart accused Hallie.

Knut wavered between amusement and offense.

“I’m worried about Tank,” Hallie confessed.

Knut set aside his own bowl. “So am I. If Cap doesn’t come in tonight, or if we don’t find him tomorrow, we’ll go check on Tank. I just hate to take off six or seven hours before Ron comes.”

“Ron?” Trixie asked, and Knut could practically see his sister’s temper flare.

“Oh, Trixie,” Hallie said impatiently. “We told you about Gloria’s brother. He’s coming to help look for Cap.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Trixie said, but she sounded distracted. Senses on full alert, Knut tried to determine what had caught her attention. The birds had gone silent, as if something... or someone had disturbed them.

Thunk.

A rock whizzed out of the forest, hit the plastic glass Mart held, and splashed his drink in a sticky circle.

“What’s going on?” Mart demanded. “Come on, you guys, cut it out!”

“Count noses, fella,” Knut said quietly, his eyes trained on the direction from which the rock had been thrown. “We’re all right here.”

A pebble drilled a hole through the piece of bread Honey held. Honey dropped the bread and smothered a scream as a third pebble spanged against the jam jar and dropped to the tabletop.

Forcing himself to remain calm, Knut picked up the pebble and rolled it between his fingers. “This is a river stone. See? It’s water-washed and smooth.”

“It’s carrying around a supply,” Jim declared.

Nobody mentioned the name of the animal, but Knut was sure that it was filling everyone’s mind, just as it was his.

Sasquatch.

“Shall we try to act normally?” asked Miss Trask.

Knut frowned. “Evidently it’s stationed itself to bombard the camp. I think it could hit us if it wanted to. It must just be trying to scare us.”

“Guess what! It’s succeeding!” Honey said, her voice wobbling as she voiced Knut’s own thoughts.

“To think that it’s only got a slingshot,” Jim said nervously. “It’s really ridiculous when you stop and think about it.”

“It doesn’t feel too ridiculous when that slingshot is right on target,” Trixie groused, rubbing her calf.

“Isn’t there some way we can protect ourselves?” Di asked, a tear rolling down her cheek.

Trixie gulped. “We could build a big fire and make sure there’s a firebrand for each of us to use.”

Knut led the way to the fire, closely followed by the rest of the group. He didn’t know how much good Trixie’s plan could do, but he didn’t suppose it could hurt. Fire was an effective deterrent against many animals, but a sasquatch? If it could use a slingshot, would fire frighten it?

“Now we should be able to fend off the beast until we can reach the truck,” Jim said.

“The tires!” Trixie reminded him.

“We finished that job,” Brian assured his sister.

“Tell you what,” Knut said. “I’ll go bring the truck right in close to the fire.”

“Oh, Knut, no!” Hallie cried. “The sasquatch will get you!”

“Not if Mart and I go with him,” Mart said.

Without further discussion, the boys raced to the truck. It wasn’t until they were halfway to the truck that Knut realized the sasquatch had primarily targeted the women of the group. He didn’t know if Jim and Mart had come to the same realization or not, but when he increased his pace, they followed suit with no argument.