"Had enough?" asked Peter, smiling. "Turn back any time you fellows say.
Want to quit?"
"Quit! Never!" declared Shelby. "Go home when you like, or stay as long as you please, but no quitting!"
"It"s goin" be nice now," put in Joshua, who was always sensitive to any discontent with his beloved North land. "Nice fishin", nice sleepin",--oh, yes!"
And there was. Rest that night on couches of spruce branches, that rocked like a cradle, and smelled like Araby the Blest, more than knit up the raveled sleeve of the hard day before.
And when they fished in a small, rocky stream, for heaven sent trout, contentment could go no further. Unless it might have been when later they ate the same trout, cooked to a turn by the resourceful Joshua, and then, lounging at ease before a camp-fire that met all traditions, they smoked and talked or were silent as the spirit moved.
The black firs showed gaunt against the sky; the stars came out in twinkling myriads and the dash and roar of the river was an accompaniment to their desultory chat.
"If I were a poet," Blair said, "I"d quote poetry about now."
"Your own, for choice?" asked Shelby, casually.
"You _are_ a poet, Gil," said Peter. "I"ve noticed it all the way along.
You don"t have to lisp in numbers to be a poet. You just have to----"
"Well, to what?" asked Blair, as Peter paused.
"Why, you just have to want to recite poetry."
"Yes, that"s it," put in Shelby, quickly; "understand, Gilbert, dear, you don"t have to recite it, you know, only want to recite it. If you obey your impulse,--you"re no poet at all."
"I"ll restrain the impulse then,--but it"s hard--hard!"
"Oh, go ahead," laughed Kit, "if it"s as hard as all that! I"ll bet it"s highbrow stuff you want to get out of your system!"
"Yes, it is. In fact it"s Browning."
"Oh, I don"t mind him. Fire away."
"Only this bit:
"You"re my friend; What a thing friendship is, world without end.
How it gives the heart and the senses a stir-up, As if somebody broached you a glorious runlet----"
"That"ll do," laughed Peter. "That"s far enough. And you didn"t say it quite right, any way."
"No matter," said Blair, earnestly; "I mean the thing. Without any palaver, we three fellows are friends,--and I"m glad of it. That"s all."
"Thank you very much," said Shelby, "for my share. And old Pete is fairly overflowing with appreciation,--I see it in his baby-blue eyes----"
"I"ll baby you!" said Peter, with a ferocious smile. "Yes, old Gilbert, we"re friends, or I shouldn"t have picked us as the fittest for this trip."
"Good you did, for the fittest have the reputation of surviving."
"Let up on the croaks," Peter spoke abruptly. "Have you noticed any fearful dangers, that you apprehend non-survival of them?"
"No; but----"
"But nothing! Now, Blairsy, if you"re in thoughtful mood, let"s go on with that plot we started yesterday."
"What plot?" asked Shelby.
"Oh, a great motive for a story or play. Setting up here in the Labrador wilds and----"
Shelby yawned. "Mind if I doze off?" he said; "this fire is soporific----"
"Don"t mind a bit," returned Peter gayly; "rather you would, then Gil and I can maudle on as we like."
And they did. Both were of a literary turn, and though they had achieved nothing of importance as yet, both hoped to write sooner or later.
"A story," Peter said, "maybe a book, but more likely a short story, with a real O. Henry punch."
"H"mph!" came in a disdainful grunt from the dozing Shelby.
"You keep still, old lowbrow," advised Peter. "Don"t sniff at your betters. There"s a great little old plot here, and we"re going to make a good thing of it and push it along."
"Push away," and Shelby rolled himself over and dozed again.
"Where"s Joshua?" asked Crane, later, as, the talk over, they prepared to bunk on their evergreen boughs.
"Haven"t seen him since supper," said Shelby, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Queer, isn"t it?"
Queer it surely was, and more so, as time went by and they could find no trace of their guide.
"He can"t be lost," said Kit; "he"s too good a scout for that."
"He can"t have deserted us," declared Peter. "He"s too good a friend for that! He"ll no more desert us than we"d desert one another."
"Well, he"s missing anyway," Blair said, undeniably; "then something must have happened. Could he be caught in a trap?"
"Not he! he"s used to them about. No, he"s had an accident, I think."
Peter"s eyes were anxious and his voice told of a fear of some real disaster.
The dusk fell early and though only about nine o"clock, it was as dark as midnight. Clouds had obscured the stars, and only the firelight relieved the black darkness.
But after an hour"s worriment and distress on the part of the three men the guide returned. He looked a little shame-faced, and was disinclined to reply to their questions.
"Come, now, Joshua, own up," directed Peter; "I see by your eyes you"ve been up to mischief. Out with it!"
"I--I got lost!" was the astonishing reply, and they all burst into laughter. More at the rueful countenance, however, than at the news, for it was a serious matter.
"You, a guide, lost!" exclaimed Shelby. "How did it happen?"
"Dunno. Jest somehow couldn"t find the way."