“Huh! I kinder guess not any,” remarked the skeptical Perk, with a look akin to disgust on his face; “they’re a heap too lazy to move, ’cept to come to their three meals a day when off duty, and kept in camp. Same men when on a raid robbin’ some border bank; holdin’ up a train; or nice healthy jobs like that, kin act like a pack o’ half starved locoed wolves.”
“I was just thinking,” continued Jack, who seemed never to lose a point worth considering, “that perhaps we’d better make sure our eats are kept secure. Such places as this cavern would be attractive dens for foxes, and such predatory varmints, who’d like nothing better than to steal every scrap of food we’ve got; which would be a serious thing, I’d allow.”
“Wall, I kinder guess it sure would, by hokey!” exclaimed Perk, quickly aroused, as the danger loomed along the line of possible starvation, “an’ it ain’t agoin’ to happen either, if I have to stick ’raound all night long. Grub an’ me air the best o’ friends; an’ I’d go a long way to defend sech a good pal.”
“Hardly be so serious as that, buddy,” advised Jack, seeing how his suggestion had awakened lively fears in his companion’s breast. “Plenty of loose stuff lying around in here, so we’ll just cache our food supplies, by covering the pile with a heavy weight no beast could budge.”
“Yeou said it, partner, an’ I’ll take a look ’raound till I kin pick aout the best place to build aour fort. Watch my smoke, Jack, boy.”
It did not take him long to find what he sought, after which they speedily arranged things to suit their idea of security.
“There she be,” Perk remarked, in a satisfied tone, as the job was finished. “If any red fox or kiote kin scratch his way under that stack o’ dornicks I’ll eat my hat—an’ ole dungarees in th’ bargain. I ain’t a luggin’ good eats all the way from San Diego, an’ payin’ aout lots o’ coin fur the same, jest to make a holiday fur four-footed thieves.”
“Both of us are dead for sleep, I reckon,” ventured Jack, as they lay on the rocky floor, Perk indulging in the luxury of a pipe of his favorite Turkish mixture for solace; “and perhaps we’d be wise to snatch a few hours while we may—we’re up against a pretty hard proposition, and there’s no telling just what lies ahead of us. How about it, Perk?”
“Shucks! I’m willin’ enuff to lay off; an’ mebbe naow I ain’t glad I done fetched them two woolen blankets along as we had on aour cots aboard the ship. They sure helped to make up a fine load; but right naow they’ll be wuth all they cost me on the hike.”
“And I’ll bless your long-sightedness in thinking of our comfort,” Jack hastened to assure him. “Bare rocks like these are hardly in the same class with a good spring bed, and plenty of covers. We’ll skip some sore bones because of having these to tuck under us, Perk.”