CHAPTER XXIV
RAFE IS CROSS
Sammy Pinkney awoke to hear barking. But it was not Tom Jonah, as hehad dreamed it was. He was chilly, too, and when his eyes got used tothe semi-darkness of the cave he was sleeping in, Sammy discoveredthat Rafe had deliberately removed the share of the bedclothes thathad been over Sammy and spread them over himself.
"Aw, say!" muttered Sammy. "Ain't he fresh?"
Then Rafe barked again.
"He certainly has one fierce cold!" muttered Sammy. "I ain't got theheart to start nothing on him."
Instead he got up and crept over, to the fireplace where there werestill some red embers. Rowdy, or somebody, had evidently been up morethan once to put fuel on the fire, and now Sammy did the same and blewthe coals until the wood caught and blazed.
Beside the fireplace was a great stack of billets of seasoned wood.Evidently this cave had been used as a living place for a long time;or perhaps it had merely been stocked with fuel for a long time.
Sammy hoped it was well stocked with food, too. For Sammy was hungry,right then! It seemed to him that the rabbit stew had been eaten along time before. There was no clock; but judging from the way he felthe thought he must have slept the clock around.
He wondered if the storm had ceased. Was there likelihood of theirbeing able to get back to Red Deer Lodge this morning (if it wasmorning), or would they have to remain until some one came to dig themout?
The fire having sprung up now, and the flickering light aiding him tosee his way about the cavern, Sammy moved toward the entrance. Thisaperture beside the huge bowlder was scarcely higher than Sammyhimself. Before it Rowdy and Rafe, the two strange boys, had hung apiece of matting. When Sammy pulled this matting away he sawsnow--snow that filled the hole "chock-er-block," as he expressed it.
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" muttered the startled Sammy, "I guess it did snowsome. How are we ever going to dig out of here?"
There was a slab of wood standing beside the opening, leaning againstthe rock. Sammy seized this and began to dig desperately at the snow.
So interested did he become in digging through the bank that filledthe cave entrance that he did not pay much attention to where he flungthe snow behind him. He was still digging like a woodchuck whenRowdy's voice reached him:
"What are you trying to do? Going to fill this cave with snow?"
"Say!" said Sammy, "it's getting-up time. And there's an awful lot ofsnow here. I guess we're buried alive, that's what I guess!"
Just then Rafe coughed again, and his brother hopped up and went tohim.
"Don't scatter that snow all about, Sammy," he commanded. Then toRafe: "What's the matter, Rafe, dear? Don't you feel any better?"
"I'm--I'm chilly," chattered the boy with the cough.
"I'll cover you up better," said Rowdy, getting his own blanket. "Andwe'll have more fire and some breakfast. Are you hungry, Rafe?"
"I'm thirsty," said Rafe, rather whiningly. "I want some--somecoffee."
"I'll make some right away. Don't be sick, now, Rafe. I don't see whatwe should do for you if you got sick. What _are_ you scratching for?"
"Because I itch," replied Rafe drowsily.
But he snuggled down under the coverings until the coffee should bemade. He seemed in a pleasanter humor, at least, than on the eveningbefore.
Rowdy bustled about, making coffee and stirring up some kind of breadby the light of the fire. Soon the fuel heaped upon the blaze made thecave warm again, although the smoke set them all to coughing.
The two little girls woke up. Dot demanded a light.
"I don't like this old smoky fire to see by," she complained. "Whydon't you keep your fire in a stove, Rowdy?"
"Haven't a stove," replied Rowdy promptly. "How did you girls sleep?"
"All right, I guess," Tess replied. "What are you doing, Sammy? Can wego home this morning?"
Sammy was still digging. He tramped the snow into a corner behind him.But the more snow he dug out of the hole the more there seemed to be.He took a round stick as tall as he was himself and pushed it upthrough the snowbank, and it let in no light at all.
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" he cried. "There's all the snow in the world blowninto this hole, I guess. We'll never get out of here!"
"Oh!" squealed Dot, "don't say that, Sammy. Of course we must get out.It's coming Christmas, you know, and I've got to finish my motto thatI'm making for Ruthie. It's got to be done, and I didn't bring it withme."
"But," said Tess, yet with some hesitation now, "the folks will surelycome to find us. Don't you say so, Rowdy?"
"If they know where you are," said Rowdy.
"But we didn't tell 'em," growled Sammy, coming to the fire to getwarm.
"That'll be all right," Dot declared, seeing no difficulty. "Tom Jonahwill find us. You know, we never can hide from Tom Jonah."
Tess explained to Rowdy that Tom Jonah was a dog, and a very good dog,too. But she secretly had some doubts, as did Sammy, that the old dogwould be able to find them away down at the bottom of this hole wherethey had coasted. She was careful to say nothing to frighten Dot, orto discourage her.
They were all much interested in Rowdy's preparations for breakfast.He produced a strip of bacon and he fried some of this in a pan whilethe bread was cooking. There was no butter, and the coffee was rathermuddy; but not even Dot complained, as long as she got her share.
While they ate, they talked. At least, Rowdy and the visitors talked.Rafe drank the coffee and ate his share of the breakfast, and thenwent back to the bed and heaped almost all the coverings over him. Hehad little red specks on his chest and arms, and he said he could notget warm.
Sammy was desirous of getting out through the cave entrance to see ifit had stopped snowing and what the prospect was for clear weather.But he dug for an hour after breakfast without accomplishing much.Then Rowdy came to help him.
"I tell you what I think," said the Milton boy, in a low voice, so thegirls would not hear. "I b'lieve all that snow that was up on thathill has just come tumbling down before this cave--so there!"
"An avalanche!" gasped Rowdy.
"I don't know what you call it. But that's what I think," repeatedSammy. "We'll never dig out of here in this world."
"But I guess we've got to," said Rowdy sharply. "We can't live herelong."
"It ain't a bad sort of a place," said Sammy cheerfully. "I guessRobinson Crusoe didn't have a better cave."
"He had more food than we have," said Rowdy thoughtfully. "And youkids do eat a lot. If I'd known you were coming here to live I'd havebrought more stuff to eat--I surely would!"
"Can't we catch any more rabbits?" suggested Sammy.
"How are you going to catch rabbits when we can't get outside thiscave?" returned Rowdy. "I guess all boys are foolish. That sounds justlike Rafe."
"Say! You're a boy yourself," said Sammy, in surprise. "You needn'ttalk."
"Oh!" rejoined Rowdy, and said nothing more for a time.
But they gave up digging through the snowbank. The snow seemed packedvery hard, and it was difficult to dig with a slab of wood. If therehad been an avalanche over the mouth of the cave their chances fordigging out were small, indeed. Luckily none of the children realizedjust what that meant.
Living in the cave was some fun, as Sammy declared. At least, it hadthe virtue of novelty. The time did not drag. They played games, paidforfeits, and Tess told stories, and Rowdy sang songs. He had a verysweet voice, and Tess told him that he sang almost as well as Agnesdid.
"And Agnes sings in the church chorus," explained Tess.
"And I think you cook 'most as good as a girl," said Dot. "I guess youcook 'most as good as our Linda, at home, in Milton."
If Rowdy considered these statements compliments he did not say so.Indeed, he seemed to be very silent after they were made. He satbeside Rafe on the bed for some time, and they whispered together.Rafe seemed to get no better, and he slept a good deal.
So did the other children sleep, after a while. Having n
o means oftelling whether one day or two had passed, after eating a second timethey all curled down, covering themselves as best they could, andfound in slumber a panacea for their anxiety.
It was not Sammy who awoke the next time, but Tess. She became wideawake in a moment, hearing a sound from somewhere outside of the cave.She sat up to hear it repeated.
Something was scrambling and scratching in the snow. She even heard a"woof! woof!" just as though some animal tossed aside the snow andblew through it. Tess was badly frightened.
"Sammy! Rowdy! Oh, please!" she cried. "Is it a bear?"
"Is what a bear?" demanded Rowdy, waking up in some confusion. "Iguess you've been dreaming, Tess."
"That isn't any dream!" cried the Corner House girl, and she sprangup, seizing Dot in her arms.
Rowdy screamed now; not at all like a boy would cry out. He leapedfrom the bed and ran to the other side of the room. There, hanging ontwo pegs, was a small rifle. Sammy had eyed it with longing. But Rafe,awakened as well, shouted:
"No good taking that, Rowdy! It isn't loaded. You know I shot away thelast cartridge at that old fox."
"Oh, Rafe! I told you then you were foolish," said Rowdy. "What shallwe do?"
"What is it?" yelled Sammy, tumbling out of bed.
"It's a wolf!" replied Rowdy. "I can hear it! Listen!"
Dot added her voice to the din. "Tell that wolf we haven't anything tothrow to him, so he might's well go away," she declared.
Rowdy ran to the hole in the snow. It seemed to be suddenly lighterthere. Was the beast that was scratching through letting daylight intothe cave?
Rafe shrieked and leaped out from under his coverings.
"You'll be killed, Rowdy! Don't go there!" he cried.
Dashing across the floor of the cave, he seized Rowdy and pulled himout of the way.
"Give me the gun!" he ordered, wresting it from Rowdy's hands. Heseized it by the barrel and poised it as a club.
"Get out, Rowdy!" he commanded. "This isn't any place for a girl!"
At that amazing statement the little girls from the old Corner Houseand Sammy Pinkney were so utterly surprised that they quite forgot thesavage animal that seemed to be trying to dig into the cave to attackthem.
The Corner House Girls Snowbound Page 24