"We"ll eat in another hour, I guess, if that suits the crowd," replied d.i.c.k.
"I"m ready to eat right now," coaxed Dutcher.
"But you don"t belong to the crowd," retorted Dave Darrin grimly.
"Unless you want to put up with bread you"ll have to wait until the crowd is ready."
"Potatoes will be the first thing ready for dinner, Hen," observed Prescott mildly. "As you"re not doing anything outdoors, you might get busy peeling a big pan of potatoes."
"See here," flared Dutcher, "I told you before that I"m no servant, and----"
But d.i.c.k had risen, for the clock informed him that it was time to relieve the shift out in the deep snow.
"Suit yourself, Hen," replied Prescott. "If you don"t peel the potatoes, and some one else has to do it, then you won"t eat any hot dinner to-day. That"s flat."
"Isn"t d.i.c.k Prescott just a mean bully?" growled Hen to himself, as the "relief" stepped outdoors to resume work.
"See that Hen keeps busy peeling and washing potatoes," d.i.c.k advised Greg in pa.s.sing.
Then the three rested shovelers took up the task. The path was now approaching the cook shack at the rear of the cabin.
"Queer, isn"t it," inquired Dave, "that we don"t see a blessed thing of Mr. Fits to-day, and that there"s no smoke going up his chimney."
"Perhaps he has left these parts," suggested Tom, rather hopefully.
"How could he?" Dave wanted to know.
"Maybe he went last night."
"I doubt if he could get away, even last night, at the hour when we turned him adrift," Darrin contended. "A man might have gone a quarter of a mile, but he couldn"t go a whole mile."
"He hasn"t been out to-day, at any rate," declared d.i.c.k. "There isn"t a trace of a track anywhere near the shack."
"Let"s dig up to that window and look in," suggested Dave.
This was done. A few minutes later the three boys stood at the window, glancing in at all they could see of the small interior. Beyond the stove and chairs there appeared to be nothing to see.
"Well, our dear friend Fits isn"t on the premises--that"s certain,"
remarked Dave Darrin.
Which conclusion might be true, or, again, might not.
CHAPTER XIII
A VISITOR BY THE AIR ROUTE
When the boys awoke next morning the fire was still burning, though there was not enough of it left to prevent a thin layer of ice forming over the surface of the water in the barrel. Tom Reade slipped from his bunk, drawing on shoes and trousers, and quickly placed a few more logs over the embers. A few minutes after that it was warm enough for the rest to slip out of their bunks and dress hurriedly--all except Hen Dutcher.
Greg soon busied himself, tea-kettle in hand, with thawing the ice around the bottoms of the sliding shutters.
"No tracks at the cook shack," announced young Holmes. "And say, fellows, it has stopped snowing."
"Well, for once in my life," smiled d.i.c.k, "I think I"ve seen enough snow. I just wonder how the folks in Gridley are getting through it."
"Oh, they must have the streets broken, after a fashion, and some sort of paths on the main sidewalks," responded Tom Reade judicially.
All were now at the windows, looking out over the scene. At only two of the windows, however, could a level view be obtained; the two others were completely blocked by piled up snow. The rest of the windows could be used for observation purposes when the Grammar School lads placed boxes on which to stand.
"The snow looks soft yet," declared Dave.
"It is soft; you can see that in the way that the wind catches it up in flurries," d.i.c.k argued.
"Then we can"t get far in it to-day," decided Tom Reade. "We can"t travel far over the snow until we have a cold spell for twenty-four hours that will freeze the top of the snow into a hard crust."
"When that crust comes we just will travel," muttered Dave.
"Getting tired of camp?" grinned Dalzell.
"No, Danny Grin; but you forget something."
"What?"
"We"ve got a duty to perform. As soon as we can get where there"s a telephone, we"ve got to send word to the Gridley folks that Mr. Fits is in these parts."
"But Mr. Fits isn"t here," Greg objected.
"That"s so," Darrin admitted slowly. "And yet the rascal must be somewhere around, for he couldn"t get far in such a blizzard as we"ve been going through."
"What I"m even more anxious about than Mr. Fits is telephoning the news to the home folks that we"re all safe here, and as snug and comfortable as can be," d.i.c.k interposed. "Whee! But our folks must be worried about us. They"ll never let us go camping again in winter."
"Oh, I don"t know about that," argued Dave. "If we only prove to them that we can weather such a time as this, without sickness or disaster, they"ll be ready to believe that we can take care of ourselves anywhere on earth."
"Why, there isn"t anything very hard about taking care of ourselves here," d.i.c.k continued. "All we have to do is to show a little industry.
We"ve got everything at hand that we could possibly need. But I wish the home folks knew how comfy and happy we are."
"I"d like to see myself out of this," grumbled Hen Dutcher, lying huddled in his bunk under the pile of overcoats. "Say, fellows, is it warm enough for me to get up yet?"
As all of the real boys in the party were already up, none of them thought it necessary to answer Hen, who presently slid out of his bunk and began to dress rapidly.
"What are we going to have to eat this morning, and when?" Hen wanted to know.
"I guess we"ll have a light breakfast this morning," hinted Reade.
"Why?" demanded Dutcher, his jaw dropping.