Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-05-23


ice and all out of our holes and
caught on our lines. | had rather
sneaking bunch that there was
going to be dirty work at the
crossroads, so with a motion to
the Duke, | walked over to where
the fish were Hopping around and
began kicking them into pile
and when | had finished | hollered
to the Duke to bring a sack. |
left four or five of the incest ones
by themselves for Spoonbill and
was just turning to thank him,
when | felt an avalanche pass over
me and | landed some fifteen feet
due north in a snowdrift. When |
picked myself up, the Duke and
Spoonbill were exchanging salvos
and tho the Duke wasn't a child
in arms but a sizeable chunk of
hard raw meat with a grip and
punch that spelled paralysis, |
could see from my ringside couch
that Spoonful had it over him
like a tent and that if he ever got
his graphing hooks on the Duke
with his none too good back why
it would be curtain for His Grace
in short order; so rather dazed
and logged | passed to the assault.
Spoonful saw me coming and
aimed a haymaker at the Duke
with his left and then came for
me. The Duke lodged and as
Spoonful turned to me he landed
all feet and hands in action right
on Srooonbills back and hung on.
Well the rest of it was a joke. No
matter how much he might use
his elbows on the Duke that ter
rier hung on with a strangle hold
and | pounded his front yard till
the old generator turned off the
juice and he wilted in a heap.
| helped the Duke from under
the mass of the vanquished and
we packed up our stuff and picked
our way up the thoroughfare into
Scattering Rye and thence to our
shack. Just as we were disappear
ing up the thoroughfare we look
ed bac k and there by our fire we
saw Spoonbill pick himself up and
very woozily hit the home trail.
So ended the first episode Of the
rather ignominious duel of the
Duke and l with Spoonbill, the fin
ale of which was melodramatic
enough.
1t was nearly a week before the
Duke was able to be up and
around after the little skirmish.
The strain ON his sore back and
the jabs of Spoonbills elbows were
enough to send him to the blank
cts in earnest. Spoonbill evident
ly had all he could digest for
while. If he could have caught
one of us alone he probably would
have taken it upon himself to-
mop up the North Woods, for
alone we could have been fish for
him, but together, twas a differ
ent thing; all he could see then
was an endless series of headaches.
A few days later, the Duke was
out on the trap line when | left
for town. 1t had been our habit
to go to town together ON these
foraging trips but this time | had
to beat it before he came in. He
were about six miles out, but with
the skis slipping as they were that
day, | made town in just about
nothing flat. AS you probably
know the village of Pigeon River
is sprawled haphazardly along the
upper course of the Pigeon just
above the dam. Just picking up
after the haymaker dealt it by the
slipping away of the big timber,
1t is even yet a typical old time
lumber town, in spite of it's con-
ceit otherwise. Many of its build
ing along Main street have a de-
cided list to starboard strangely
suggestive of the pre-Volstead era,
and there is much on the inside
of many Of them that would still
suggest the good old days that the
old die-hards are ranting about,
when we had our rights and be-
fore we lost our personal liberty.
From a distance the place smelt
abominably of high insurance
rates, bad hootch and scandalmon-
gers, but it wasn't so bad as it
smelt, at a closeup.
| slipped into Kawalds and got
all the stuff that the Duke and l
could possibly cram into ourselves
in the next couple weeks, and
after chewing the fat with Khiny
for a while, eased into the Thirsty