CHAPTER IV
LOST IN THE STORM
"What you do here?" demanded Pierre, standing with his back againstthe door and facing George with a snarl of hate and suspicion.
"I got lost!" was the quick reply.
"You go 'way!" shouted the trapper.
"Aw, what's the matter with letting him stay here all night?" askedThede. "These boys are hunting and fishing, and the kid got lostin the swamp. He's all right!"
"He follow me!" insisted Pierre.
"Sure, I did!" George replied, trying to give the impression thatthe matter was rather a good joke on himself. "I heard yousmashing through the bushes and I thought you were some kind of awild animal, and so I followed you up. I got so far away from campthat I couldn't find my way back. Then I saw your light and camehere."
"Where your gun?" demanded Pierre, pointing suspiciously to theboy's empty hands. "You no shoot without gun!"
George drew an automatic from his pocket and held it up in thefirelight. Pierre eyed it enviously.
"We hunt with these things!" the boy said.
Pierre continued to regard the boy with suspicion, for a long timebut he finally seated himself before the fire and began to grumblebecause Thede had not been more active in the preparations forsupper.
"It's a wonder you wouldn't come home and get supper yourself oncein a while!" exclaimed the boy, "You needn't think I came up herein the cold to wait on you, Old Hoss!" the lad added with a wink atGeorge. "I didn't leave my happy home for any such menial service."
Pierre grumbled out a few sentences in mongrel French and proceededto prepare a solitary meal. Thede winked at George and begancooking enough supper for both of them.
George was thinking fast while the boy was sweating before thescorching heat of the fire. He was wondering whether Thede hadtold him the exact truth concerning his connection with Pierre. Hewas wondering, too, whether the boy had told all he knew of theLittle Brass God.
Here were two parties in the Northern wilderness in quest of thesame thing! It occurred to the wondering boy that Pierre mighthave been sent into the Hudson Bay country in quest of theindividual who had purchased the Little Brass God at thepawnbroker's shop.
This, he argued, would be just about what Finklebaum would belikely to do. On the discovery of his loss, he would naturallyseek some one familiar with the northern country and dispatch themin quest of the lost prize. In case this should prove to be thefact, the boy Thede might not have been taken into the confidenceof the two men.
He might be telling what he believed to be the truth concerning thematter. The advantages to the pawnbroker of this secretarrangement would be many. In the first place, anyone followingPierre would naturally suppose him to be the person havingpossession of the Little Brass God. This would naturally causeinvestigators to entirely lose sight of the real possessor inshadowing the man sent out to recover the article.
Another point which the boy considered was the possibility of theLittle Brass God having been robbed of his treasure before beingplaced in the pawnshop. This idea, however, he soon rejected forthe reason that no one would know better than the man who inspiredthe larceny whether the will was still retained in the cavity ofthe toy. Had he secured the document, he would be the last one tooffer a high reward for the return of the odd casket in which ithad been contained.
While the boy puzzled over the case, Pierre and Thede sat down totheir evening meal. George was invited to join them in the repast,but declined on the ground that he had eaten supper not longbefore. After the meal was over, Pierre took up his rifle and leftthe cabin, scowling at George over his shoulder as he took hisdeparture.
"He's pretty sore about your being here," grinned Thede.
"I don't know why he should be."
"Perhaps he thinks you've come up here to steal this little BrassGod."
The boy was very anxious to get back to his chums in order that thesituation might be thoroughly discussed. They were in the HudsonBay country in quest of the Little Brass God, and here was Thede onthe same mission. It seemed to him that if Pierre had really hadthe toy in his possession, Thede would have caught sight of it, atleast,
The more he thought of this phase of the case, the more he wasinclined to believe that Pierre was also in search of the LittleBrass God.
"Pierre will be apt to raise a howl if I leave the cabin alone,"the boy finally said. "He's fierce when he gets mad!"
"You don't seem to be afraid of him," replied, George.
"I'm afraid of him all right," the other replied, "but I don'tintend to let him know it. I've got one of these billies inside mycoat, all the time, and if he tries any funny business with me I'llknock his block off!"
"He could cut you into shoestrings while you are asleep!"
"Yes, I suppose so, but be won't do anything of the kind!"
"Well, come on over to camp," urged George. "It isn't so very muchof a walk. I guess we can make it in half an hour."
Thede hesitated, but finally dressed himself for a cold journey,and fixed the fire so that no damage might be done by it during hisabsence.
"How long has Pierre lived in this cabin?" asked George, as theboys started out. "It looks like an old building."
"I guess he found it standing here deserted and just moved in," wasthe reply. "I don't think he knows much about this country."
"Do you think he has any idea that the Little Brass God is in suchgreat demand?" asked George. "No, I don't think he has."
"Then, why should he keep it hidden away, even from you, threehundred miles away from civilization? I should think he'd want tohave the thing out once in a while, just to take a look at it,anyway."
"I should think so," agreed Thede.
The boys made their way over the morass and entered the thickundergrowth. Now and then George flashed his electric, but he didnot keep it burning steadily for the reason that he did not care tohave Pierre trailing them back to the camp.
"Are you sure you passed this way when you came to the cabin?"asked Thede as they walked along. "I don't seem to find any trailhere."
"It seems to me I came along here," was the reply. "If it wasn'tso blasted dark, we could tell whether we were going in the rightdirection or not, all right!"
As the boy spoke, he lifted a hand to his face and raised the netwhich protected his features from the mosquitos, still flyingabout, although the night, apparently, was cold enough to freezetheir wings stiff.
"They won't bother you much more," Thede commented.
"How do you know that?"
"Because there's a snow storm coming up!"
"Then we'd better be getting a move on!" advised George. "If weget caught up here in a snow storm, it'll be 'Good-night' for us!"
"We're going as fast as we can," replied Thede, "but I don't knowwhether we're going in the right direction or not. It seems likewe've walked far enough to be at the camp."
In five minutes the searchlight revealed a drift of snow in theair, and ten minutes later the ground was white. A cold wind blewout of the north, shifting at times to the west, and the boysshivered under the chill of it. Still no welcome light from thecamp.
"Can you find your way back to the cabin?" asked George after theyhad walked at least an hour.
"We've got to find our way somewhere pretty soon!" the otherreplied. "If we don't, we'll freeze to death!"
The boys walked for what seemed to them two hours more, and thenThede, who was in advance, stumbled over a tree bole lying at thefoot of a gentle slope. He rose rubbing his elbow and turned theflashlight toward the front.
"I know where we are now," he said. "We're about eight miles fromthe cabin. This place here is called Bear Ridge, and it's aboutthe only collection of rocks and caverns that I know of in thisdistrict."
"Can't we find a cavern to crawl into?" asked George, his teethchattering with the cold.
"If we find a cavern," advised Thede, "we're likely to find acouple of bears packed away in it!"
"I don't care if there are a hundred bears!" grumbled George."I'll freeze to death if I stay out in this snow another minute!"
After a long and difficult climb the boys came to a ledge of rockand crawled into a small opening revealed by the searchlight.
"The beds are all full tonight, I guess," George said shivering."I hear Bruin kicking about being disturbed."
Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds; Or, The Signal from the Hills Page 4