Elmer looked at him, and then smiled grimly.
"Oh! well, if that's what you've got troubling you, it's all right, Lil Artha," he went on to say, meaningly. "I kind of imagined you were thinking of something else. And if some one should take a notion to skip out, remember it's no business of yours. We wouldn't want to detain any one against his will."
"Sure, I didn't mean to try to," acknowledged the tall scout, "'less, f'r instance, he tried to loot the whole shebang, when I'd think it my duty to cover him, and then call Uncle Caleb."
"I don't think you'll find any need of doing that, Lil Artha," continued Elmer; "fact is, all the signs point just the other way."
"Hope so," grunted his chum; and this was all that passed between them.
Later on the cabin became quiet, except for the heavy breathing of those who were sound asleep. Elmer dozed. Somehow, although he was desperately sleepy, he did not appear to be able to lose himself for more than brief intervals at a stretch.
Perhaps it was his strange surroundings, although Elmer could hardly believe such to be the case, for past experiences were against it. He could remember sleeping soundly on more than a few occasions when danger threatened; he had helped guard the saddle band of horses on his uncle's ranch when rustlers in the shape of horse thieves were operating all through the vicinity; and on being given a chance to snatch an hour's sleep had lost himself as soon as his head touched the ground.
The wind moaned through the branches of the trees without. Now and then Elmer believed that he could hear faint sounds that might proceed from certain of the four-footed denizens of that great snow forest around them, possibly searching for food while the night lasted, since they hugged their dens in the daytime.
Once he saw Lil Artha thrust his head out from his bunk, and stare at the figure bundled up in those blankets on the floor. This told the scout master that Lil Artha had not been able to quite get over the suspicions he had formed, and which Elmer believed to be wholly unwarranted.
It must have been long after midnight when Elmer, chancing to once more awaken, on glancing out from his bunk saw that Zack Arnold was no longer lying there on his well side, and wrapped in sleep.