Chapter Seven ~ The Pack Rat

as told to macjest by Cap

It felt good to finally relax after the stress of not only hearing but seeing a Sasquatch. Cap knew some of the New Yorkers were still skeptical, even after seeing the huge eighteen inch footprint.

Not Trixie, though. She had some smarts going for her. Cousin Mart, on the other hand… Cap wasn’t sure what to make of this wise-cracking clown who spouted words even his high school teachers would have a hard time recognizing. Yes, Mart would bear watching, especially the way he ate. They’d be lucky to have enough food to last the duration of their camping trip.

For now, the water felt good, what with the trek up to see Tank. Ice cold water always felt good after a hike. Even if his brother didn’t appreciate it.

“This water is c-c-older than Tank’s ice house!” Knut yelped.

Ha! Knut didn’t get out enough.

“So’s your brain, honorable cousin, if you didn’t test the surface first.”

Okay, maybe Mart wasn’t as much of an idiot bookworm as he’d thought. Still, Idaho honor needed to be defended. Cap winked at his brother. He scooped water into one of the buckets they’d brought down to refill with creek water. There could never be enough on hand when camping.

He tilted his head toward Mart, who was busy looking at the sky. Knut winked back and grabbed another bucket. Cap mouthed 1-2-3. Together, they splashed water on Mart, who hadn’t fully immersed himself. The loud shrieks more than made up for the long-winded explanations he’d had to endure all day. That boy had something to say about everything!

After a good dousing and some more horse play, they reluctantly returned to camp. The water did feel good – once you got used to it.

Not that he’d tell Knut or Mart that.

Cap took one last patrol around the camp site to make sure everything was secure, and all scraps of food had been safely disposed of. One could never be too careful out here. The morning visit from the sasquatch had proved that. Knut and Hallie knew better, but he still wasn’t sure about his cousins or their friends, no matter how much Hallie had bragged about them.

Hallie had spent part of last summer in Sleepyside. For the first couple of weeks after she returned, Hallie had nothing but praise and admiration for the East Coast branch of the family. To hear her talk, there wasn’t anything the cousins, their friends – especially that fella named Dan – couldn’t do and do well.

After watching them here, he wasn’t so sure about them. Well, Jim Frayne seemed all right and appeared to be as attuned to nature as Cap himself.

One good thing had come out of that trip, if nothing else. Hallie and Trixie seemed to have worked out some of their issues. They hadn’t argued or poked at each other yet.

Satisfied that all was well, Cap crawled into the tent he shared with Mart. The younger boy was reading by flashlight.

Sheesh, not again.

With a groan, Cap unrolled his sleeping bag, pulled off his moccasins, tucked them in the base of his bag to keep them warm and bug free, and crawled in. He pulled the bag over his head as far as it would go. That did the trick to block out all light. Within minutes, he was fast asleep.

He was chagrined the next morning to learn he’d slept through the theft of some of their food.

Cap was just crawling out of his bag when he heard Trixie talking. “Oh, Miss Trask, please don’t walk around till we see what kind of tracks were left. What we need is an experienced tracker.”

Uh-oh, something must have happened. Time to get up. Cap popped his head out of the tent and spoke to the group before they did mess things up. “Be right with you.”

He ducked back into the tent but not before he spotted Trixie heading to her tent to change. Chuckling, he pulled on his moccasins. Trust his intrepid cousin to not want to miss a thing.

Things certainly weren’t dull with Trixie around.

As soon as Cap joined the crowd in the kitchen area, he asked the most important question. “Where did all of you walk this morning? Did anyone walk around the back of the food chest?”

If they were going to prepare breakfast, they would have walked to the front of the chest. If it was an animal, it would have circled it first, trying to sniff at it.

If it was an animal.

Trixie must have finally realized the same thing. “It doesn’t make sense that an animal would have taken egg cartons! Wouldn’t it have bumbled around, make a mess, trying to pick up a pawful of eggs?”

“The wrappings are gone, too,” Honey added alertly. “I should think an animal would have been attracted by the meat odor and would have torn off the wrappings.”

Cap understood now why Trixie and Honey were thought to have the makings of becoming detectives. They asked sensible questions and made good observations.

Predictably, the whole lot of them wanted to examine the grounds. They’d make more of a mess than they’d uncover. Cap made sure he got out before the rest so he could look for tracks in the most likely area.

There were no fresh animal tracks near the food. There were a lot of footprints, but by this point they were too jumbled and crossed over numerous times to make any sense of. Time to call everyone back. A quick whistle did the trick.

“As far as I can tell,” Cap announced, “no animal has visited the camp.”

“Guess you don’t count pack rats. I heard one on our tent roof last night,” Hallie shared.

Well, pack rats were good at sneaking around. They wouldn’t have messed with the food. They far preferred shiny things.

“Don’t worry, Diana.” Hallie was busy reassuring her friend. Cap wasn’t sure the nervous girl was going to be able to last much longer on this camping trip. “If he steals your family jewels, he always leaves something in trade.”

At least Hallie payed attention to his wildlife stories. She was all right, for a sister.

Within minutes she had returned from a quick trip to her tent. The pack rat had left something – a nugget!

More time had to be wasted explaining about prospectors and snipers to the out of towners. They weren’t getting anything done this way. Unfortunately, they were too caught up in this pack rat business. Cap decided it might be best to set things straight about the pack rat so they could back to the important problem – the food theft.

“Pack rats are smart, but not that smart. They’re just curious. They’re attracted by shiny objects, but they can carry only one thing at a time. When they see something they like, they just put down object number one and trot on with object number two.”

Cap noticed Mart carefully listening to every detail. It was hard not to smirk at the realization that Mart would eventually bore someone to tears with this information. Cap choked back a laugh at the thought that he wouldn’t be that victim.

“How big’s a pack rat?” asked Jim.

Cap measured air between his hands. “Oh, about eighteen inches, and half of that length is tail. They’re just big rats.”

Di made a face.

Fortunately, Brian brought the discussion to a close with an offer of breakfast. Cap made sure he got to the food before Mart. Brian did make pretty good pancakes, after all. It felt good to finally eat after all the excitement.

After breakfast it was time to set the tent to rights. Cap had been in such a hurry to help with tracking that he’d left everything a jumbled mess.

Surprisingly, Mart followed. That was odd. Mart didn’t strike him as being overly worried about neatness. Cap remembered all too well what Mart’s side of the bedroom looked like the last time he’d visited Sleepyside.

Cap barely had time zip up and roll his sleeping bag – it helped to keep the bugs out – when he spotted food on Mart’s side of the tent. Food?

Hallie had said these New Yorkers knew what’s what. That was hardly the case here. Cap could feel his temper flare. He grabbed the sandwich and apple. Mart tried to get it back, but stopped when he saw Cap’s angry glare.

“Are you trying to get us killed, you idiot?” Cap yelled and stormed out of the tent.

Mart’s apologies weren’t going to cut it. He’d have to show this city boy the reality of living in the woods and the only way to get his cousin’s attention was…

Cap dumped the sandwich and apple in the trash can. He whirled and faced Mart. “Don’t let that happen again.”

“Cap, that was a perfectly good sandwich. It could have been put in the food box.”

Not if it’s been in the tent all night, thought Cap angrily. Who knows what has gotten into the sandwich or if it’s still any good? I don’t plan on finding out. He tried being reasonable.

“It was in our tent – where you know it didn’t belong – and now it’s in the garbage.”

“What’s wrong with stashing away a snack? I always chew when I read!”

Cap felt like tearing his hair out. Did the great fool need everything spelled out?

“Not in our tent! And if you don’t know what’s wrong, let me tell you.” Cousin Mart was going to get an earful. Let him take some real information back home. Maybe it would teach him a lesson finally. “That bear cub we’ve heard bawling has a mother and a father and brothers and sisters and cousins. They all have noses and claws, and I’m not about to have a bear in our tent just because it smells your apple. And bears aren’t the only animals in the forest! How’d you like to wake up with a skunk sticking its nose in your sleeping bag? A rat bite isn’t much fun either.”

“Contrary to popular opinion, I’m not stupid – I do live on a farm you know.” Mart said defensively.

Obviously, nothing was going to get through that thick skull.

“That’s not bear country!”

Cap decided it was probably wiser to leave before he said anything else. It wasn’t fair to everyone else that they’d had to witness this blowup. He turned his back on Mart and everyone else and stormed off to the deeper part of the woods to cool off.