CHAPTER XII
LAYING PLANS
"Is that the way you keep a promise, Phil?" asked X-Ray, reproachfully,as he came crawling out of the shack, to find it beginning to getdaylight, and with the sentry busying himself before a cheery fire,where he meant evidently to forestall Lub in starting breakfast.
"Oh! the joke is on you, that's all," laughed Phil.
"I don't see how," complained X-Ray, who really felt hurt in that he hadnot been allowed to stand his share of the night watch after being toldhe might.
"You'll have to learn to figure better, that's all, my boy," the othertold him.
"Figure; how's that, Phil?"
"Well, learn to judge distances that are millions of miles away, to bemore definite. Look over there to the west; see that star just goingdown? Well, that's the one you told me would set in two hours afterJupiter disappeared. I've been watching it right along, and somehow itjust refused to vanish. There, I believe it's just dropped out of sight.If you were asleep, X-Ray, I'd think it my duty to go and get you ondeck, because I promised I would."
X-Ray looked a bit foolish, and then laughed.
"Another time I'll see to it that I'm Johnny on the spot!" he declared."Chances are you knew I'd figured wrong at the time, Phil?"
"What if I did, it wasn't in the bond that I should take you to task forthat blunder. A little thing of this kind is going to impress it on yourmind better than any words of mine could ever do. You'll never forgetagain to prove your sums so as to make doubly sure."
And Phil was right. X-Ray would never look up at the stars and try tofigure on how long it would be before a certain one would set, withoutremembering his error of judgment, and taking especial pains that it wasnot repeated.
The others soon made their appearances, hearing this talking outside.
"Whew! but it's sharp this morning!" exclaimed Ethan as he joined them."That blanket of mine isn't as warm as it might be, and I don't believeit's all wool and two yards wide. Where's the ax?"
"Going to cut some wood so as to get warm?" asked X-Ray Tyson.
"What, me?" cried Ethan, pretending to scoff at the idea; "why, fact isI want to chop a hole in the lake ice, and take a bath just to get myblood in circulation. They say there's nothing like it, you know."
All the same, after he had picked up one of the axes he was found to becutting wood, which proved his daring assertion that had made Lub gaspto be pretty much in the nature of a great "bluff."
The boy was sitting by the fire where Lub had found him a place. Lub hadinsisted on Phil giving over the completion of breakfast into hischarge.
"I've been elected chief cook by unanimous vote," he said, as he waved abig spoon about his head to emphasize his assertion; "and I expect youall to do what I tell you."
So he set them each one a task, Phil "spelling" Ethan at the woodpile,X-Ray to fetch plenty of fuel up, and Ethan something else when he hadrecovered his wind after his recent violent exertions.
As he cooked the breakfast Lub talked confidentially to the boy, who waslooking quite contented and happy, as indeed who would not when findingsuch good friends, and being treated to such bountiful spreads?
"Are we going to try and take him back to his mammy to-day, Phil?" askedEthan, later on, as they sat on the log, and discussed the eggs andbacon and coffee and flapjacks which had been produced so bountifullyunder the deft manipulation of the obliging Lub.
"Oh! what's the hurry?" the cook hastened to say; "it's threateningagain, you can notice if you look at that bank of storm clouds coming upyonder. Better put it off a while. We've got oceans of grub, you know;and I like to feel him wrapped up in a blanket with me first-rate."
All of them looked to Phil to give the deciding word, though as a rulehe always consulted his chums before saying anything, and tried to haveit so that majority ruled the camp.
"I quite agree with Lub," he went on to say, quietly, as he gave thatindividual a smile, and then nodded his head toward the little chap.
"Good for you, Phil!" burst out Lub, clapping his hands together indelight.
"I don't altogether like the looks of things over there where thoseclouds are coming up," continued Phil. "It wouldn't be the nicest thingin the world to try to take this boy miles away, and then get caught ina howling blizzard. We'd do better to hold our horses and see what turnsup."
"Oh! then you expect that some one may come along looking for him, doyou?" asked X-Ray, jumping to conclusions.
"It's possible," he was told. "If they care at all for the child, whenhe's missed it seems to me there would be some stir; and one of thefirst things that ought to occur to his father would be to notify anycampers around here, so they could be on the lookout for the kid as theytrailed through the bush."
"Phil is right," asserted Ethan Allen, hastily. "It's sure up to Baylayto get a move on him and do something, if he's lost his boy. He couldn'texpect to stay at home and wait for others to find the lost child."
"We don't know," said Phil, "but the chances are the mother and fatherhave been pretty near being distracted because by now they must feelthere's no chance of the kid being alive, unless he was picked up by aroving hunter or trapper."
The boy listened to all they said, though of course it was not likelythat he understood much of it. He could see nothing but friendly smileson each one of the four faces by the fire; and he knew as well asanything could be known that his lines had fallen in pleasant places.
When this matter had been settled all of them seemed to be relieved of aweight. The fact of the matter was they had already taken a great fancyto the waif, and like Lub none of them wanted to see him depart.
It did begin to blow and snow heavily ere another hour had passed. X-Raydeclared that from the signs they were in for a fierce blizzard; and hetold some fearful stories he had read concerning these dreadful storms.
Lo! and behold the treacherous weather played him a sly trick, for thesun came out even while he was in the midst of the most doleful yarn,and his chums gave him a merry laugh in consequence.
At the same time there was enough of threat in the clouds to keep themin camp that morning, finding plenty to do to employ their time.
In prowling around Phil had made several little discoveries concerningthe abiding places or haunts of certain small fur-bearing animals thatfrequented the border of the lake. His collection of flashlight pictureswas lacking in some particulars, and he believed it would pay him tocommence work trying to obtain results while on the spot.
"I wouldn't want to go back home without a few additions to my splendidseries of flash exposures," he told the others while getting thingsready so that he could place his cunning little trap when the shadows ofevening began to gather; "and I want to see if the animals up here inthis half Arctic region are as obliging as they are down in our sectionof the country, so as to take their own pictures for a poor hard workedphotographer who needs sleep, and can't afford to sit up all night justto press a button and fire the cartridge."
"You always make it a paying business for the victim, Phil," declaredLub; "for you give him a jolly lunch to settle for his trouble. Huh!seems to me I'd like to just pull a string and get a flash if only itmeant grub every time, and no harm done. They're a lucky lot, I'll bebound."
Lub had taken a turn during the morning in trying to talk with thetongue-tied boy. Of course it could only be done through the use of manysigns, although there was always a chance that the little chap mightknow a name if he heard it.
"When I kept repeating the word Baylay I could see that he seemedinterested," Lub told the others. "It's too bad we didn't ask Mr. McNabwhat the names of the Baylay kids were. I've tried every one I couldthink of and none seemed to fit. He shook his curly head every time asif he wanted me to know he owned to no such name. I reckon now they mustbe out of the ordinary."
And it afterwards turned out that Lub was quite right when he chanced tomake this assertion, for the boy's name was indeed out of the ordinary;so it was no wonder Lub failed
to strike it in his vocabulary.
Noon came and found things just about as before.
Some of them had been half expecting to see a bulky figure pushingtoward the camp; but the hours had crept on without such a thing comingto pass.
"It's too late now to think of starting out to try and find the placewhere the Baylay cabin is located," asserted Ethan, when the afternoonwas fairly well advanced, and the clouds seemed to have given up thebattle for supremacy, for they were retreating all along the line,leaving a cold blue sky in evidence instead.
"Of course it is," Lub hastened to add, a wrinkle making its appearanceacross his forehead, a "pucker" Ethan always called it, and which wasapt to show whenever the fat chum became worried over something orother.
The quick look he took in the direction of his charge explained thecause on this particular occasion. Lub always was fond of kids, and theyloved him too. In this case the fact of their visitor being a waif ofthe snow forest had more or less to do with his feelings; and then,besides, the poor little chap being unable to do more than make thosedistressing sounds when he did want to express his feelings the worstkind brought a pang to Lub's tender heart.
"Yes," Phil decided, "it would be foolish to attempt anything of thekind now. It can wait until morning. They've given up all hope by now,I'm afraid, so they'll not be apt to suffer much worse for a little moredelay. And getting the boy back safe and sound will make them all thehappier."
"That's the way it treats me always," affirmed Lub, lookinginexpressibly relieved at hearing the dictum pronounced that meantanother night with his little blanket-mate; "I never wanted a thing realbad, and kept being put off and put off but that it got to be what mymother would call an absorbing passion with me."
"Yes, just like the baby in the bath leaning over and trying to reach acake of well known soap, you'd 'never be happy till you got it,' eh,Lub?" jeered X-Ray.
"It's contradiction that makes men great," said Lub, ponderously."Difficulties bring out all there is in a fellow, and Phil will tell youso too. The life that flows on calmly never amounts to much. That's whatmakes these mountaineers such a hardy lot; they have to fight foreverything they get, while the people on the fertile plains make an easyliving."
"Gee! listen to the philosopher talk, will you?" said Ethan, pretendingto be much surprised, when in truth he knew very well that once in sooften Lub was apt to drop into this moralizing mood, and air some prettybright views, for the benefit of his comrades in arms.
"No trouble now telling where that other camp is," X-Ray informed them."All you have to do is to take a glance over that way, and you'll see athick black smoke rising up."
"If we'd had any idea there'd be trouble lying in wait for us aroundhere," ventured Ethan, "we might have kept them guessing where we hadour camp. It would be easy to pick out good dry wood, of which there isplenty lying around, and using only that kind. It gives out so littlesmoke they never would have noticed; whereas the half-green stuff tellsanybody with half an eye where the fire is."
"What you say about the wood and the smoke is all very true, Ethan,"remarked Phil; "but all the same I doubt whether it would have preventedtheir finding our location, once Mr. James Bodman started to make thingsinteresting by offering a bonus to his guides to smell us out. They'dhave heard us chopping, it might be, for in these still woods soundscarry a long ways when the air is just right."
"Yes, I guess that's so," X-Ray admitted, "because several times I'vebeen positive I heard the sound of a faraway ax at work; and I noticedthat the wind was coming from that quarter too."
"To-night we keep watch as we planned, eh, Phil?" Ethan asked.
"We'd be wise to do it just as long as we expect to hang out around thissection, and that crowd is over there," he was informed.
"Yes, and I ought to be given the first watch, because I managed to getoff so slick last night," asserted X-Ray; "promise me that, won't you?"
"If it's going to worry you the sooner we say yes the better," laughedPhil; "so we'll consider that the night is to be cut up into thirds, andI choose the second watch for my turn; Ethan, you have to tag on at theend."
"So long as I get my full share of the work it doesn't matter a bit tome where I come in; but let there be no tricks on travelers playedto-night. What's fair for one is fair to all."
"I suppose you mean to count me out, as usual?" complained Lub, feeblyprotesting.
"You have all you can do attending to the grub question," said X-Ray,sternly. "If you do happen to wake up in the night, and can't get tosleep again, why you might employ yourself fixing up in your mind somenew dish you want to spring on us as a surprise. But as a sentry, wideawake and vigilant, you know you're a rank fizzle, Lub. Now please don'tfire up, and want particulars, because I'd hate to rake up bygonehappenings."
"Oh! well, if you're three to one against me there's no use in mykicking," admitted Lub, trying to look only resigned, whereas in spiteof him a grin would persist in spreading across one side of his rosyfeatures.
He had done his duty in showing a willingness to take part in theprotection of the camp; if his chums were a unit in deciding against himhaving a share in the sitting-up business he could not say anythingmore.
"Your part to-night will be to see that our little friend here is keptcozy and warm," Phil told him, as he patted the boy on his curly head,and was surprised when the little fellow in the gratitude of his heartsuddenly seized hold of his hand and actually pressed it to his childishlips.
Never would Phil Bradley forget the sensation he experienced uponreceiving mute evidence of affection; it drew him more than ever to thehapless one whom affliction had marked for its own in refusing him thegreat gift of speech.
"Hello! listen to all that row going over there, will you?" cried X-RayTyson.
As they started up with strained ears there came floating on the windfaint but unmistakable sounds that somehow thrilled the listenersthrough and through.