“Gosh! doant it beat the Dutch, Jack, haow chumps like that kin lick up all the cream on a pan o’ milk, leavin’ the skim stuff to honest folks? But yeou said yeou’d picked up a heap o’ pints, which I’d hear ’bout later on. Aint that time come ’raound yet, buddy?”
“Hold your horses, Perk; that news can keep until after we get located in our new sleeping quarters. Suppose we divide up all this stuff you’ve fetched, along with what we already had on hand; so I can help tote the same. I can see with one eye how you must be fairly worn out with what you carried all the way up here. Come, let’s get a move on, partner.”
Perk did not show much signs of being so dead tired, judging from the alacrity with which he scrambled to his knees, and busied himself making up the two packs. One, which he evidently fully intended for himself, was about twice as heavy as the other; seeing which, (and comprehending the usual generous spirit of this big-hearted chum) Jack managed to pick it up when the other was not looking, and absolutely refused to surrender when appealed to.
“Not any, partner,” he told Perk, resolutely; “what do you take me for, a weakling, or a shirker? If you say much more I’ll sling both packs over my shoulder, and leave you to trot along in the rear. I’ve done nothing but loaf all day, while you were as busy as a beaver. Get out, and stay out, d’ye hear, boy?”
He led the way, and seemed to know just where he was going, passing around a dozen great rocks that barred their passage. Perk marveled at his pal’s skill and memory as a guide, never pausing to question his route, but following the circuitous trail as though he had trodden the same for a long time.
Finally, when they had descended the slope for a short distance, Jack stopped in front of a minor cliff, and pointed to the fissure in question.
“I’ll go on ahead with my flashlight, and you keep close to my heels, Perk,” he explained. “So far as I could tell there’s nothing apt to trip us up; but its just as well to be on your guard, with a clumsy bundle on your back, and your legs being a bit tottery after that long climb. Ready, buddy—then in we dip.”
Perk could not keep from feeling something of a thrill as he followed his partner into the fissure, which seemed to widen the further they advanced. Presently he could no longer glimpse either wall, and hence came to the conclusion they must have already reached the large cavern mentioned by Jack earlier in the evening.
Coming to a halt the leader shifted his hand torch in such a fashion that both of them were now able to see the walls, as well as the high ceiling of the natural cavern. Perk could not repress an exclamation of mingled satisfaction and awe.
“Hot-diggetty-dig! but aint this jest grand?” he burst forth. “Me always a feelin’ a yearnin’ inside to glimpse what yeou’d call a reg’lar cavern, like Tom Sawyer an’ Huck Finn explored, daown on the bank o’ the Mississip; an’ here she be like magic. Say, this takes the cake, partner.”