“I’m just looking around, that is all. Can’t you sleep?”
“I was sleeping until you flashed your light in here! What are you looking for?”
“Come on outside a minute,” directed Ted, still in the same low whisper. Buck made motions which led his chum to think that he was tossing aside his blanket and then he joined him outside of the tent, grunting as his feet touched the cool earth.
“Gosh, this ground is cold! What in the world are you—”
“Buck, did you see a light before?”
“Yes, when you passed by with the lantern.”
“That’s just the point—I didn’t pass by with any lantern! I was awakened by a flash in my eyes and then as I looked out of the tent flap I saw the light dodge down this way. Somebody who doesn’t belong to the camp is prowling!”
Buck was impressed at once. “But we don’t know if everybody is in their tents,” he pointed out.
“They are all in my tent and I suppose they are all in yours, but we don’t know about the others. The worst part of it all is that we can’t go snooping into the tents to see, because if we wake the youngsters up we’ll throw a scare into them. I guess we’ll have to do all the investigating ourselves.”
“I’ve got a flashlight inside and I think I can locate it,” whispered Buck. “Hope I don’t wake anybody up!”