Later on, after they had all partaken of the fine meal that George prepared, he doing his level best to show Uncle Caleb that there were other cooks as well, Elmer caught Lil Artha making certain gestures in his direction. He could manage to guess what it all meant, and believed the other wanted a chance to talk with him outside.
"I wonder what the weather promises for to-day; and I think I'll step out to see how things look," Elmer presently remarked carelessly.
"I'll go along and give you the benefit of my vast experience as a weather prophet!" exclaimed Lil Artha, jumping up; "the rest of you stay inside, because too many cooks spoil the broth, and two of us ought to be enough to settle this job with the clerk of the weather."
It happened that George was still busy with some of his dishes, about which he saw Uncle Caleb was unusually particular, in that he used two separate waters in washing the same; while Toby was busily employed in looking over some traps he had discovered hanging from a nail, and evidently seldom used; so that neither of them dreamed of leaving the comfortable cabin, and braving the outside air just then.
"What's all this about, Lil Artha?" demanded the scout master, after the door had been carefully closed behind them.
"Why, I happened to know that you saw that ugly looking guide moving around in the middle of the night, Elmer; and I thought you must have noticed that he threw something away when he was standing there in the doorway?"
"I did see him do that, and I knew you were on the job, too, Lil Artha," Elmer went on to say; "but if you've made a discovery, hurry up and tell me what it is, because I haven't thought to put my sweater on, and it's pretty chilly here."
"Well, I was that curious to know what it could be the fellow threw away," continued the tall scout, "the first thing this morning, before any of the rest of you had peeped an eye open, I got up, and came out here to look around."
"And did you find anything?" asked Elmer, his own curiosity aroused by now.
"I had to go back and forth a heap before I came on a little hole in a snow drift that looked like something had dropped in there," continued Lil Artha, in a highly mysterious fashion. "So I began to dig down, and pretty soon my hand touched this!"