"Queer things!" almost shouted Ethan; "well, I like that now! Why, don"t you know that frogs"-legs are as delicate as squab. You"d think you had a spring chicken, only when you come to think, it has just a _little_ taste of fish about it."
"Oh! my, I don"t know as I"d fancy that very much," complained Lub.
"Huh! I know you better than to believe that, Lub," he was told by the other; "and I"ll just have to make sure to lay in a plenty, because I c"n see you pa.s.sing in your platter seven times, to say: "Please see if there isn"t just one more helping for me, won"t you, Ethan; they"re the finest things I ever set my teeth in, and that"s no lie!""
"Well, wait and see, that"s all," Lub concluded. "I"m willing to be convinced. I mightn"t care for a thing like that at home, with a white tablecloth, silver, and cut gla.s.s all around me; but then it"s a different case when you"re up in the woods, with your camp appet.i.te along, and going just half crazy because supper is so slow cooking, with all those odors stealing to your nose. Try it on me, Ethan; I"d be willing to taste even dog just once, if I was hungry, and met up with a bunch of Indians."
"I"m not afraid of the verdict," announced the boy who raised frogs, and thought he had a right to know considerable about them, since he topped the market with the gilt-edge prices he received.
So they talked, and joked, as the evening wore along. Several times they caught Lub in the act of yawning, and he was of course immediately poked in the ribs as they besought him to please not swallow the cabin while about it.
"But I tell you I am sleepy; and no matter what the rest of you say I"m going to get my bunk made up. I want to be in apple-pie shape for to-morrow, for I expect it"s going to be a red-letter day with us."
Each of them had carried a warm blanket in their pack, which was one reason for the bulk of these burdens. They had not been quite as heavy as they looked; doubtless the greatest load consisted of canned goods, and food of various kinds, which they would not have to pack out of the woods again.
Lub was somewhat fastidious about how he wanted his bed made up. Three separate times did he pull it to pieces again, to start in afresh.
"Hey, stop bothering so much with that!" X-Ray Tyson called out, having been observing what the other was doing. "You certainly are the greatest old woman I ever ran across, Lub."
"And you"ll never make a woodsman, as long as you"re so finicky, either," Ethan warned him. ""The happy-go-lucky kind is best in the end. They give their blanket a fling, and just crawl under. And they sleep the soundest too."
"Oh! well, I"ll learn some day, perhaps," said Lub, not at all disconcerted by all this raillery, for it fell from him as water does from a duck"s back. "But I"ve got it fixed to suit me at last. This bunch of dead gra.s.s rolled in the pillow slip I fetched will make me a dandy pillow. I"m glad you gave me a hint to bring one along, Phil."
"Old woodsmen use then? boots for a pillow," chuckled Ethan, which remark caused the particular Lub to shudder, and shake his head, as though he began to despair of ever reaching that point where he could claim to be a seasoned veteran.
While the others were again indulging in some sort of discussion, Lub, thinking he was un.o.bserved, sauntered over to one of the little windows which the builder of the birch cabin had arranged so that he might have light, and yet shut out the cold air of winter.
"Oh, come here, won"t you, Phil; there"s somebody walking along by the trees, and standing still to watch the cabin every once in a while!"
When Lub said this in a voice that trembled with excitement the other three boys of course hastened to scramble to their feet and reach his side.
"Whereabouts, Lub?" demanded X-Ray Tyson, eagerly, as he pressed his nose against the gla.s.s, and occupied so much s.p.a.ce in doing so that he prevented the others from having a chance to see fairly; so that Phil and Ethan deliberately drew him to one side.
"There, over yonder where the moon shines between the little second-growth trees!" the discoverer went on to say, huskily, and pointing a trembling stubby finger as he spoke. "There, didn"t you see then, boys?"
"There certainly is something, and it moved!" admitted Ethan.
"Oh! it"s a man, I"m telling you!" hissed Lub; "didn"t I see him plain as the nose on your face, X-Ray, and that"s going some. He was moving along where the shadows die out. Now he"s past that place. It"s a man, believe me; and he"s meaning to sneak in here to-night, to rob us.
There, see him moving again, will you?"
"Yes, I do believe it is a man, bending over at that," agreed Phil.
"He"s moving off, seems like," observed X-Ray, who had not altogether fancied Lub"s allusion to his nose, because it _was_ rather large.
"Mebbe he"s seen us peeking out and thinks it"s time he sheered off?"
suggested Ethan.
"Had we better collar him, Phil?" asked X-Ray, who was inclined to be very quick in his actions, and often without due thought making some move he was likely to regret later.
"No, that would be silly," decided Phil. "The only weapons we"ve got consist of one revolver, a couple of camp hatchets, and some hunting knives. How do we know what he might do, or how many of them there may be? Let him look at the cabin, and then go away. I don"t think we"ll be bothered by anybody."
"And I"m not going to lie awake thinking about it," said Ethan. "If he comes in here, and finds anything worth while, we could surround him and make him go shares, you know."
"There, he"s moving off at last," said Lub; "but I don"t like all this mystery. Who is he, and what does he want? We"d be happier if we moved on, and built a cabin somewhere else."
"What!" exclaimed the belligerent X-Ray, "clear out when Phil owns the whole shebang, and has invited us up? Well, I guess not!"
CHAPTER V
THE SUDDEN AWAKENING
"Thought you meant to go to bed, Lub?" said Ethan, some little time afterwards, as they were all sitting around again.
"Oh! somehow I seem to have gotten over my sleepy spell," admitted the other, frankly; "perhaps it was the excitement over seeing that prowler outside that did it. I"m as wide awake as a hawk right now."
"Well, it"s just the other way with me," X-Ray remarked, yawning almost as furiously as Lub had been doing before; "I"m getting dopey, and mean to turn in pretty soon. If nothing else happens to bother, n.o.body"s going to hear a word from me after I hit the hay."
Lub looked at him painfully, but he did not think it best to ask further questions lest he stir up a hornets" nest. There was something on Lub"s mind. Phil understood this from various signs. He began to get an inkling as to what its nature might prove to be, when several times he saw the other lean forward and look long and earnestly up the chimney.
"What d"ye expect to see up there, Lub?" asked Ethan, who had also it seemed been watching the other. "This isn"t the time for old Santa Claus to come down with his pack of toys. His reindeer need snow for their sledge, you know."
"Will you let the fire go out when we turn in, Phil?" asked Lub, ignoring all such little annoyances as this.
"Why, I suppose so," he was told. "If it was cold weather it might be a different thing; but to-night is pretty warm, and we"ll get little air in here, with the door closed. Yes, the last wood has been thrown on the fire; and to tell the truth there"s only a handful more in the house, which we"ll save to start things with in the morning."
"What did you ask that for, Lub?"
X-Ray made this inquiry. He realized that the other must have something on his mind, or he would not have spoken as he did. And X-Ray was curious to know what its character might turn out to be.
"Oh, nothing much; only it strikes me that"s a whopping big chimney, that"s all," replied the other, a little confused.
"I see what you mean," said Phil; "you"re thinking that even if we do close the door as we intend, if a thief wanted to get in here he could creep down such a wide-throated chimney? Well, I shouldn"t be at all surprised if he could, providing he took the notion."
"I hate to think of being sound asleep, and not know a single thing about it," pursued Lub, "You know how I caught that darky stealing our chickens last winter? I set a trap for him, and gave him such a scare that he just crouched in a corner of the coop with all the hens cackling like mad, till father went out and got him by the scruff of the neck."
"Mebbe you"d like to set one of your fine traps here then, Lub,"
suggested Ethan.
"I think I could do it, if the rest of you didn"t object," Lub pursued.
"Please yourself," said Phil.
"I"m off to bed right now," added X-Ray Tyson, "so you c"n have the whole blooming field to yourself. Be sure you don"t get nabbed in your own contraption, Lub. Now, you may smile at my saying that, but it wouldn"t be the first time a bitter got bitten."
Both Phil and Ethan began to stretch, and exhibited other positive signs of being ready to turn in. It would appear that none of the rest of them gave much thought to the possibility of their having unwelcome visitors during the night. Lub envied them their calm indifference; but he felt that he would not be doing his whole duty unless he carried out that idea of the trap.