CHAPTER XXXI.
IMMEDIATE WANTS SUPPLIED.
It is no wonder that Harry and Jack were for the moment so dumfounded that they could do little else than stare at the sight of the three haggard and pinched faces which gazed imploringly into their own.
“Don’t say you won’t give us anything,” cried Pete Sully, seeing they did not reply. “We are starved--we haven’t had a mouthful to eat since yesterday morning!”
“My gracious!” It was Jack who uttered the exclamation. “Nothing to eat since yesterday morning!”
“It’s too bad, Sully,” put in Harry. “We’ll cook you something just as quick as we can.”
“Never mind cooking it; give us one of those birds raw!” cried Dixon. “We can’t wait.”
“Here is a bit left of our lunch,” said Jack. “Eat that while we are building a fire. What’s the trouble--couldn’t you shoot anything?” he went on. “And why haven’t you a fire?”
“We lost our matches--they were in our traps, which were taken from us, and the snow kept us from going for game,” said Sully.
“We did try to shoot some, but we couldn’t hit anything,” chimed in Len Spencer.
The three starved youths were too weak to assist in gathering fuel for a campfire, so Jack and Harry let them sit still while the two of them bustled around with all speed.
Soon a big blaze of brush was soaring skyward, around which the half-frozen trio crouched. Three of the birds were cleaned and spitted, and it was not long before the smell of the broiling meat filled the air.
“Oh, but that smells good!” exclaimed Dixon, taking in a long whiff. “Don’t keep it over the fire too long, please!”
“Here you are,” returned Harry, passing the bird over whole. “Take my advice, and don’t down it too fast, or your stomach won’t stand it.”
Sully and Spencer were also supplied with a bird each, and it was a sight worth seeing to behold them tearing and chewing the meat like a starved dog does a long-sought bone.
While the trio ate, Jack and Harry said nothing. They broiled one of the hares, and of this took a small portion, passing the remainder over to the unfortunates. But the two young hunters kept up a big thinking.
How had their enemies been humbled! Here they were craving food in the most abject fashion known. Neither Jack nor Harry could find it in his heart to upbraid them for their former misdoings.
“This makes me feel like myself once more,” said Sully at length, after he had finished his bird, and was attacking a bit of the other meat. “If you fellows hadn’t come along we would have been corpses by night!”
“Where were you bound?” asked Jack.
“We were trying to get to Rudd’s Landing, but the heavy snowstorm overtook us, and we got lost and finally wandered here.”
“Where are we now?” asked Dixon.
“You are several miles from the lake,” returned Harry. “You can never go across it in this storm.”
“We’ve got to go somewhere,” put in Spencer, dismally. “Oh, I wish I was home! You’ll never catch me trying to go camping in the woods in the winter again!”
“When did you leave Rudskill?” asked Harry of Sully.
The bully of the town hung his head. For once he felt thoroughly ashamed of himself.
“We left the same day we had the trouble with you about the iceboat,” he replied, in a low voice. “We made up our minds to have a rival camp.”
“Did you come up by the way of Rudd’s Landing?”
“No, we took the cars to Bagsville.”
“And then went down into the valley and built the lean-to?”
“Yes, after we--we came to your camp,” faltered Sully.
“And played ghost and took our traps, eh?” said Jack, a little bitterly.
“Yes; but Bascoe, I hope you--you’ll forgive us,” faltered Sully.
“It was awful mean to do, and now you are treating us so good--better than we deserve,” put in Spencer, in a choking tone.
“It got us into a lot of trouble,” remarked Harry. “We came near being arrested for the chickens you stole.”
“We didn’t steal any chickens,” cried Dixon.
“You didn’t! Well, those farmers thought so. That’s the reason they took your traps.”
“We bought those chickens from some men on the road,” said Spencer. “But we only paid fifteen cents apiece for them, and after the men were gone we came to the conclusion that the fowls must have been stolen, and we were sure of it when those farmers took our things.”
“Then why did you run away--why didn’t you come out boldly and explain matters?”
“We knew it would do no good, for the evidence was all against us, as we had been hunting near one of the farmer’s places, and he had seen us. Besides, we didn’t want to meet you fellows after we had taken your traps.”
A silence followed, and then Spencer came and placed his hand on Harry’s shoulder.
“Say, won’t you forgive us, Webb? I’m sorry, and I know Pete and Bill are, too.”
“Well, let it pass,” returned Harry, briefly.
“I guess you have suffered enough,” added Jack. “But, mind you, no more funny work in the future.”
“I’ll never do any harm to you fellows again!” cried Pete Sully.
“Nor I,” exclaimed Billy Dixon. “You fellows have been kind when we didn’t deserve it.”
The fire had burned a trifle low during the talk, but now Jack and Harry replenished it, and soon the cave-like shelter was as warm as toast.
In the meantime the snow came down as thickly as ever outside, and the wind whistled merrily through the brush and trees around and above them. A doubtful look came into Harry’s face as he listened to it.
“What time is it, Jack?” he asked.
“Nearly five o’clock.”
“Can we make camp before it gets too dark?”
“It will be hard work. But once on the creek the darkness ought not to bother us. But what of these fellows?” Jack continued, in a low tone. “We can’t leave them behind.”
“And we can’t very well take them along,” said Harry.
“If it wasn’t for the others wondering what had become of us, we might stay here over night and go back in the morning,” Jack went on, after a thoughtful pause. “This seems a very good place to roost.”
“But the others would think we had missed our way in the snow and got lost, and they would worry themselves sick. We said nothing about remaining away over night,” replied Harry.
“We might leave these fellows here until to-morrow, and then come back and show them the way,” Jack suggested.
“Don’t leave us alone, please don’t!” cried Spencer, who was the greatest coward of the party. “Take us with you!”
“You are not strong enough to walk to our camp,” said Harry. “You would play out before you got half-way.”
“Well, don’t leave us, that’s good fellows,” said Dixon.
“One of us might stay and the other might go back,” suggested Harry. “And then in the morning the party from here could start down the creek.”
“That’s so,” put in Sully, eagerly. “One of you stay, and leave some of the grub behind.”
The matter was talked over a few minutes longer, and then it was decided that this plan should be followed.
A cent was tossed up to see who should undertake the immediate return to the camp on the creek, and the lot fell to Harry. He left all the game behind but two of the wild turkeys, and five minutes later had disappeared in the swirling snow beyond the shelter of the cliff.