“There is a pile of wood near the fire now,” pointed out one boy.
“Yes, but that wood is going on right now,” replied Ted, piling the pieces of cut wood on the red fires. “We will have to hustle and cut up a big supply so that Buck and the boys will have a guide when they come back. Light the lanterns and we’ll get busy.”
The lanterns were lighted and they plunged into the fringe of the woods. The sound of several axes rang out as their owners began to chop the wood for the fire supply. The lanterns were placed on the ground and made a neat ring near them and in the circle of this ring they chopped off dead limbs and split logs. As soon as the wood was collected they carried it back and piled it beside the fires.
Both fires were now going at their best and the light cast from them lighted up the camp from all angles. Some of the boys would have stopped with their first load, but Ted knew that they might have to wait a long time before their companions returned, so he kept them at the task. The pile grew and grew until it towered above their heads, and in this way fully an hour went by. At last Ted felt that they had enough.
“All right, that will be enough,” he called.
The work was not yet all over, for the wood which had been dragged in required to be split into convenient lengths, although some of the big logs were piled on entire. While the work went on they kept looking up toward the mountain, but no sound reached them and they speculated on the fact.
“They must have had to run a long way,” said Alfred, as he split wood.
“I guess they went clear over the mountain,” nodded Ted. “It may be that they are trailing the man.”
“You don’t suppose that anyone has hurt them, do you?” another boy asked, anxiously.
“I hardly think so,” smiled Ted. “One man, no matter how strong he is, would have a big job in front of him if he tried to run off with that bunch of fellows. I guess they’ll be back pretty soon.”