"Why worry?" spoke up Hippy. "We are being led, but what"s the odds who is doing the leading so long as we are led?"
"Pure logic," observed Miss Briggs.
"From an illogical source," added Emma in an undertone.
They proceeded along the lumber road for fully ten miles, fording two streams, then halting at a sawmill on the banks of a river. The mill had not yet started operations. Tom got off and looked the property over, consulted his map, then the journey was resumed. Just beyond the mill they came upon another of the now familiar blazes, directing them to proceed to the right and follow the river bank.
"The blazer fellow evidently knows where we wish to go. Do you know where we are, Mrs. Shafto?" called Tom.
"Yes, I know now. It"s the Little Big Branch River, though it ain"t much of a river yit. We got a long ways to go before we git to the place where ye folks are goin" to hang out for a spell. I reckon we"d better make camp just before daylight."
No one offered objection to her proposal. All were weary and cold, as well as hungry and sleepy. Emma was swaying in her saddle, frequently catching herself napping and straightening up just in time to prevent falling from her horse, while the others, noses and lips blue, shivered and made no effort to control the chattering of their teeth.
"Oh, why was I ever induced to leave my happy home?" wailed Anne. "This is the worst of all."
Nothing more was heard from any of them until Joe Shafto finally announced that they had reached the end of their night"s journey.
"Rustle something for the makin"s, and we"ll have heat and a hot drink right smart," she called.
While Hippy tied the ponies and fetched water for them, Tom gathered firewood and started the fire for breakfast. Tea, being the quickest drink to make, was brewed, and gulped down by the Overlanders almost as fast as Joe could, pour it.
"How fu--fu--funny you look," chattered Emma, nodding at Miss Briggs.
"If I look as funny as I feel, I must be a scream," retorted Elfreda.
"Here, here! Don"t I get any of that?" cried Hippy, coming up at a run.
Tea was served to him.
"Ah-h-h-h! Nectar of the G.o.ds! Now if some one will kindly prepare a little food, I shall offer deep and sincere thanks; then seek my downy couch for sweet repose."
"Hippy is the first to thaw out," chuckled Tom.
"He always was soft, anyway," reminded Emma.
"And we are all blue-noses this morning," added Nora laughingly.
Under the warming influence of the tea, their spirits soon revived, and when the campfire was laid and set going a little distance from the small cook fire, sighs of relief were heard on all sides.
Day was just breaking when the party laid down by the fire for a much needed rest. Pine needles were their beds that morning. No one had the ambition to help build a lean-to, nor did one care to wait for some one else to make it.
Noon found them still asleep, with the exception of Grace, who had risen two hours earlier to get breakfast for Tom who was about to leave for his work, perhaps not to return for some weeks. The Overlanders were to make a permanent camp further down on the Little Big Branch, and, when Tom Gray returned from his first "cruise," he was to follow the river until he found them.
"Rather indefinite," laughed Grace. "However, you aren"t much of a woodsman if you can"t find us with such directions, though don"t cut off the bends in the river or you surely will miss us. We do not intend that our camp shall be over-conspicuous."
Tom said his good-bye and, mounting, rode away and disappeared in the forest. Grace stirred up the fire and added fresh wood so that her companions might have warmth, for the morning was chill, and then called them.
Spirals of smoke were rising above the trees from the campfire. Joe Shafto looked up at it, and shook her head disapprovingly.
"If there"s one low-down jack within fifty mile of us on high ground, he"ll have us spotted for certain," she rebuked. "Great fire--great smoke for Indian signaling."
"Thank you. I had not thought of the smoke," answered Grace. "How shall I stop its smoking?"
"Pour water on it till it"s out, then build a new fire. Never mind. Too late now. The damage"s done, and a little smoke more or less won"t matter no how."
Breakfast, noon breakfast, proved to be so satisfying that no one felt inclined to pack up and move on.
"Girls, what do you say to the suggestion that we make camp here until some time to-morrow?" questioned Anne. "We are in no hurry, except that we do not wish to be overtaken by Peg Tatem"s gang, which, it doesn"t seem probable that we shall be."
"Yes! Stay!" cried the Overlanders.
"Is that satisfactory to you, Mrs. Shafto?" asked Grace, turning to the guide.
"I kin stand it if ye kin."
"We stay," announced Grace. "Let"s build our sheds after we have settled our breakfasts and are able to summon some ambition."
Their sleeping quarters were finished before dark, and then the girls rambled along the river, here and there startling a buck or a doe into sudden flight. There were no man-made trails here, no sounds other than the murmuring waters of the Little Big Branch and the voices of nature, to which Emma Dean listened, nodded or shook her head as if she and those voices were holding converse. The laughing teasing of her companions failed to swerve Emma from her newfound hobby.
That night, as they snuggled under their blankets, clear and cold out of the silence pealed a mournful howl, long-drawn, strange and full of the wild.
Nora and Anne buried their heads under the blankets to shut out the sound.
"What was that?" cried Elfreda.
"A wolf--an old she timber wolf--a varmint," answered the forest woman from her lean-to.
"And it bids us beware of perils near at hand," droned Emma in a far-away voice.
"Will you stop that?" demanded Elfreda. "You give me the creeps."
"I think it is perfectly wonderful," breathed Emma. Then with greater emphasis she exclaimed, "Such a voice in the wilderness is an inspiration. How I wish Madam Gersdorff might be here to hear it. Girls, you don"t know, you cannot dream what a wonderful woman she is."
"I"d like to see _anybody_ dream with you setting up such a chatter,"
complained Anne.
"Please, please, Emma, let the wolves howl if they wish. We can"t stop them, but that is no reason why you should keep us all awake. We need sleep," begged Grace Harlowe laughingly.
After a few muttered protests, Emma subsided, and only the faint yelps of the dreaming bull pup and the noisy slumber of Hippy Wingate disturbed the deeply impressive silence of the great forest. That he might better guard the camp, Hindenburg had been tied out to a tree on his long leash. Lieutenant Wingate had built a miniature lean-to for the pup to crawl under in the event of rain, but Hindenburg was already under it, stretched out on the yielding browse bed, one little brown ear vigilantly erect to catch the slightest sound. Emma Dean declared that the dog must be deaf in that ear, for he never seemed to hear with it.
The bull pup"s slumbers were not disturbed that night, nor were Henry"s.
The bear lay at the rear of Mrs. Shafto"s lean-to all night long, curled up into a furry ball, but with the break of day he was off in the forest for the choice morsels of food that he knew were there for him to pluck.
After the campers awakened, the forest woman"s shrill call soon brought the bear ambling back to camp, but they observed that he was restless, now and then lifting his nose and sniffing the air, punctuated with an occasional throaty growl, but the bull pup, flat on his back, feet in the air, was sound asleep on his browse bed.
"Henry, what"s the matter with ye? I reckon maybe ye smell some varmint that"s hangin" "round waitin" fer the leavin"s of the breakfast,"
scolded Joe.
The bacon was on the fire and the aroma of coffee in the air when a loud hail warned the Overland Riders that they were about to receive an early morning call.