Part 10 (2/2)

”Yes,” answered Jim Chenowith, ”and, of course, the strain on the chute will never be so great again, now that the bark has been stripped off its poles. It must have been a tremendous trial when that big log slid down, resting so heavily on the poles as to strip off every particle of bark that it touched!”

”Thanks for your compliments, boys,” said Jack, ”but now we've got to set ourselves to work. Between now and six o'clock we've got to send down all the ties that we've got ready, and all the cordwood besides. So quit talking and come on.”

It was hard work. The railroad ties were so heavy that it required two boys to each to handle them comfortably, and the supply of cordwood was large enough to tax all the industry of the camp to complete the work before six.

In the meantime Tom had gone to the cabin to prepare supper, keeping up his sharp lookout all the while.

After supper had been disposed of, Tom quietly took his own double-barreled shot gun, slipped a charge of buckshot into each of its chambers, belted a loaded cartridge holder round his waist, and went out ”just to look around,” he said. Tom was so given to this sort of prowling, both by day and by night, that none of the boys attached any importance to his present movements. Had they thought anything at all about it, they would have felt certain that little Tom had gone out only to stroll around the outskirts of the camp, as it was his habit to do.

Instead of that, however, he walked straight to the chute and presently clambered over the edge of the cliff, and by holding to bushes dropped to a ledge below. Thence, he had a very precipitous but practicable path before him for at least half way down the mountain.

Hard working and early rising as the boys were, they enjoyed their evenings in front of the great fireplace in their hut, and usually they did not go to bed till ten o'clock. This gave them three or four hours of enjoyable fireside conversation, and, as they arose sharply at six in the morning during these short days it left them eight hours for sleep, and that is quite enough for any well man, however hard he may have worked in the open air during the day.

But when bedtime came and little Tom did not reappear, they all began to feel uneasiness. Still, it was well understood in the camp that ”Little Tom knows how to take care of himself,” and so one by one the boys went to bed, all but the sentinel.

About midnight, Jim Chenowith, who had been on guard, came into the hut and aroused his comrades.

”I say, fellows,” he said, in a deprecative voice, ”I hate to disturb you, but I'm getting uneasy about Tom. It's twelve o'clock now, and he hasn't returned to the camp.”

Instantly the entire party sprang out of bed and each began to slip into his clothes.

”We must build a bonfire,” said the Doctor, as a first suggestion. ”You see, Tom may have lost his way, and it isn't easy to find one's way about in these mountains of a dark night. If we build a bonfire, he will be able to locate the camp. If anything worse has happened to the boy, why we will--”

The Doctor did not complete his sentence, but the other boys understood, and with one voice they answered in boy vernacular: ”You bet we will!”

CHAPTER XIII

_A Night of Searching_

The bonfire was quickly built and stout, willing hands piled upon it the brush left over from their chopping till the blaze of it rose thirty feet into the air, illuminating the entire mountain side.

So far as anybody could plan there was nothing else to be done while the night lasted, except scour the woodlands and thickets round about, hallooing now and then; but nothing that the boys could do produced any result. Hour after hour pa.s.sed and still Tom did not appear.

”It would be useless,” said Jack, ”to go off into the darkness to look for him. We simply must wait for daylight, particularly as we don't know what direction he took. Possibly by daylight we may track him. But unfortunately there is no snow on the ground.”

”Unfortunately there will be snow on the ground before daylight comes,”

said the Doctor, who had conceived a great affection for little Tom, ”and it will obliterate whatever tracks the boy may have made. All the indications are for snow, and indeed it is beginning to snow now. I tell you, boys, we must make some torches and study the ground by their light. Perhaps we may find Tom's tracks before the snow covers them.”

The suggestion was no sooner made than it was carried out, and by the light of great, flaring torches the whole party minutely scanned the ground, beginning at the cabin door, and prosecuting their researches in every direction.

After an hour of this work, the Doctor called out from a point near the chute:

”Come here, boys!” and when they came he said:

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