The camp-fire made things look more cheerful, and a hearty meal did
much toward restoring good humor. Yet the boys felt sore over the
way Andrew Felps had treated them, and for this they could not be
blamed.
"To-morrow we'll have to locate all over again," said Snap. "And
if we want to be comfortable, we'll have to put up another cabin.
But we needn't to make it quite so complete as that other one was."
"Let us look around and see if we can't find some sort of a natural
shelter," suggested Shep---"some cave, or overhanging rocks, or
something like that."
"Where the rocks can come down and bury us alive," said Whopper.
"Wouldn't that be charming!"
"Whopper, you're as soothing as a funeral!" cried Giant. "We
ought to make you build the next cabin all alone."
"Well, I could do that if I had time enough," was the dry reply.
Among the trees the boys found a pretty fair shelter, and here
made themselves as comfortable as possible. They covered the
stores in the boat with the canvas, piled the wood on the camp-fire,
and then lay down to rest, leaving Giant to stand guard for the
first two hours of the night.
When Giant called Snap to relieve him it was already raining and
the wind was rising. The fire had died down and they did not
dare to stir it up for fear the wind would carry the sparks into
the forest and cause a general conflagration.
"I guess we are in for it," declared Snap, as he peered around
in the darkness. "Just listen to the wind rising!"
Giant retired, leaving the leader of the tour on guard. Snap
walked around for a bit, but then had to seek the shelter of the
trees as the rain came down heavily.
"Hullo! what's this?" came from Whopper, as he sprang up. "Say,
I thought somebody was throwing a pail of water over me!" The
rain had come through the tree branches directly down upon his
upturned face.
In a few minutes more all of the boys arose, as the wind was now
sending the rain in all directions. The tree limbs bent low and
threatened to break at every instant.
"Phew!" cried Whopper. "There goes my cap!" And he made a dash
after the whirling headgear, catching it just as it was sailing
for the lake.
A moment later came a gust of wind that almost lifted them from
their feet. The trees of the forest were bent lower than ever,
and amid the whistling of the tornado came a crack like that of
a big pistol.
"Look out for the tree-top!" yelled Shep, and pulled Snap to one
side. All jumped into the open and were just in time to escape
about ten feet of the top of the tree, which sailed through the
air and bit the lake surface with a loud splash. Then down came
half a dozen small branches, several with birds' nests on them.
"This is positively the worst storm yet," was Snap's comment,
after a perilous half hour had passed. "I am wet to the skin."
"Don't say a word," groaned Whopper. "I've got about a barrel
of water in my shoes and another barrel down my neck!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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