Part 6 (2/2)
”Yes, what has happened to it? It's as black as the Professor's hat.”
All eyes were fixed upon the cook. ”I don't care, I couldn't help it. If any of you fellows think you can do any better, you just try it. Cook your own meals if you don't like my way of serving them up. It wasn't my turn to get the breakfast, anyway.”
”Our cook evidently has a grouch on this morning,” laughed Walter. ”Doesn't agree with him to take a midnight bath.”
”The bath was all right, but I object to having my cooking criticised.”
”The bacon does look peculiar,” decided Professor Zepplin, sniffing gingerly at his own piece.
Ned's face flushed.
”What did you do to it to give it that peculiar shade, young man?”
”Why, I soused it in the creek to wash it off, then laid it in the fire to cook,” replied Ned.
”In the fire?” shouted Tad.
”Of course. How do you expect I cooked it?” demanded the boy irritably. ”I cooked it in the fire.”
”I could do better'n that myself,” muttered Stacy.
”Didn't you use the spider?” asked Walter.
”Spider? No. I didn't know you used a spider. Do you?”
”He cooked it in the fire,” groaned Tad.
”Peculiar, very peculiar to say the least,” decided the Professor grimly. ”Gives it that peculiar sooty flavor, common to smoked ham I think we shall have to elect a new cook if you cannot do better than that. However, we'll manage to get along very well with this meal. If we have to get others we will hold a consultation as to the latest and most approved methods of doing so,” he added, amid a general laugh at Ned's expense.
Breakfast over, blankets were rolled and packed on the ponies. About nine o'clock the Pony Riders set out for the foothills, after first having consulted their compa.s.ses and decided upon the course they were to follow to reach the point, some fifteen miles distant, where they expected to pick up the guide.
”Seems good to be in the saddle once more, doesn't it?” smiled Walter, after they had gotten well under way.
”Beats being in the river at midnight,” laughed Tad. ”Bad-eye looks as if he needed grooming, too. Ned, I take back all I said about the bacon this morning. You did me a good turn last night. If it hadn't been for you, Chunky and I wouldn't be here now. I couldn't have held to that rock much longer.”
”Neither could I,” interjected Stacy wisely.
Ned gave him a withering glance.
”You are an expert at falling in, but when it comes to getting out, that's another matter.”
”How blue those mountains look!” marveled Walter, shading his eyes and gazing off toward the Rosebud Range.
”I hear there are some lawless characters in there, too,” Tad answered thoughtfully.
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