Wilder Boys: Chapters 20–24

Seeing Jake's frustration, Skeet put his hand on the older boy’s shoulder. “Don’t be hard on yourself. We all have different talents. It takes brains and brawn to survive out here. Never forget that patience and practice are the most important survival tools.”

“Nice blue grouse," Skeet said, admiring the bird. "How you going to cook her?”

Jake was skeptical, but while the food cooked, Skeet suggested that they practice making arrows to pass the time, now that they had plenty of feathers.

Taylor hurried to try out the new arrows. He hung a plate from a string about twenty feet away and let three of the arrows fly. The first two missed, but he impaled the plate with the third arrow.

Jake busied himself stitching together two rabbit pelts, until he realized that Taylor had been gone for ages, and it was seriously dark outside.

"Hello?” he called, but the outhouse was empty. Jake stood under the night sky, perplexed.

He climbed toward it, and as he approached, he could see the silhouette of his brother against the night sky above him.

“Taylor, what are you doing?” Jake exclaimed, rushing up and wresting the phone from him.

Jake made his way across the rocky land when suddenly both he and Cody froze. Up ahead, they heard a terrible whining cry like a banshee.

At the far end of the cave cowered a bobcat kitten about the size of a house cat, but at the mouth of the cave snarled a full-grown mama bobcat. Jake immediately sized up the situation.

He considered tying a tourniquet, but remembered that they should only be used to stop extreme bleeding.

Besides being pale, Taylor had started sweating profusely.

Jake wasn’t sure what he would find, but along the trail he spotted several yarrow plants, with wispy grayish leaves and constellations of tightly spaced white flowers.

When the water had almost boiled, he poured some of it over the gauze to form a kind of warm poultice that he placed directly onto Taylor’s wound.

Jake made Taylor drink more of the cold Oregon grape concoction, then boiled more water and stirred in a seven-grain cereal mixture Skeet had given him.

Skeet stroked his beard. "This isn’t my area of expertise,” he answered. "But I think it might be worth checking out. I could drive you into town for a look around. If things seem sketchy, we can skedaddle on outta there.”

Jake screamed inside his head, watching as the stocky surly figure of the man they thought they’d left behind forever stormed out of the truck and slammed the door behind him.

"There’s no wind,” Taylor observed. “We won’t have any trouble.”
“Don’t be too sure," Skeet warned. “I’ve seen boats capsize on this lake. Now, hurry up!”

Cutting between Cow Island and the north tip of Moose Island, the boys headed out into open water, making a beeline for Waterfalls Canyon on the far side of the lake.

Suddenly a gruff voice said, “Don’t be too sure.”

Bull grinned meanly. "Your meddling is through. Better say a prayer.”

The man, realizing the enormity of what he saw in front of him, simply held out his arms and motioned the boys forward.

"Boys, I am so sorry. I never meant to put you through all this. But I have to say that I’m proud of you. You've coped with more than any kids your age should have had to. In fact, I shouldn’t even call you kids. What you’ve done goes beyond what many men could do.”

“The northern lights,” Jake murmured, suddenly understanding.
“We’re fortunate. It doesn’t usually come so far south. It must be a good omen.”

Jake just stared at the majestic sight above him and let out a contented sigh, unable to believe what he was seeing or who was sitting next to him.