Part 8 (1/2)
The Scotsrasp
”Sakes! But I' for another hour I suppose, noo, that I'?
You're no' by chance just twa o' them muckle moths that's come into h,” Arnold laughed in reply, and Alf added--
”Terribly human we are, for we've lost our way in the forest, and we're beastly tired as well as hungry”
”Lost--tired--hungry?” repeated Mackintosh ”That has a human sound--terribly human, as you say” Then he turned towards the half-breed, who had been standing an ais?” he deis hear,” was the quiet reply of the native, to which the Scot retorted angrily--
”You heard? And yet, one owk instead o' hustling for food as fast as your legs can ! You dinna ken the firsto' the word 'hospitality' Off wi' you!”
There was no need to repeat the order, for the half-breed immediately disappeared within the tent, and the al sound of tin-as evidence of his haste to supply the want
Mackintosh then turned to the boys
”Noo then, rest yourselves, laddies Sit doon by the fire, and you'll soon have a bit o' sois is slow to understand, but he's quick enough when he kens what's wanted”
Not unwillingly, the chums soon stretched themselves in comfortable positions beside the camp-fire at either side of their eccentric host
Bannock, however, still eyed the strangers with suspicion, so Mackintosh was forced to introduce the dog forent animal extended a paith all the air of one who is accustomed to polite society
”He's a fine chap,” explained the Scot ”There's no' a single thing that he canna do (according to the leees to do in his ain way Noo, come here, Bannock, and lie dohile oor freends spin us their yarn They've no' told us yet who they are, where they co”
”That's a yarn that's quickly told,” remarked Bob The half-breed by this tienerous supplies of cold deer, da which he placed a pan on the fire in preparation for coffee ”It's a yarn that won't take long in the telling, though, if you'll excuse me, I'll eat while I speak”
”Eat awa',” assented the other, while he lit a corn-cob pipe to satisfy his own immediate wants ”There's plenty mair where that came frae, and the coffee will soon be ready!”
Arnold then launched into a brief recital of his and his chu with the departure of their fathers on the previous --
”So all this afternoon we've been wandering about trying to find a path back to our camp, so as to start afresh by the river course But it was no use”
”And westill if it had not been for a strange accident that led us here,” added Alf, at which reht that be? The soond o' Haggis's nightingale voice?”
”No--at least, not in the first place We heard that later What first started us in this direction was a curious sort of light that we discovered on one of the trees And while ere exahts on other trees in a straight line with one another Strange, wasn't it?”
”Very,” returned the Scots for a naturalist,” said Bob ”I noticed that there was a perfect cloud of ht A collector of moths and butterflies would reap a harvest I suppose you've noticed the lights as well as we?”
”H' that I painted the trees mysel' this afternoon,”
was the reply ”It's an invention o' my own I'm what _you_ call a collector of ist is a shorter way o'
putting it Well, there's many folks stick to treacle--Idabs of treacle and speerit on trees to attract the nocturnal creatures That's all very fine and good But you canna carry gallons o' treacle on a tramp like this, when your whole outfit must be packed on one pony So says I to ht; I must invent a composeetion o' phosphorus to take the place o' treacle' And those lights that you found on yon trees are the result”
”And a splendid idea it is!” exclai at school ”Is it a success?”
”Magnificent I've foundthat I'll open the eyes o' the Royal Edinburgh Entoet back again after my journeys But----” The speaker here paused in his enthusias there's other matters o'