“You needn’t lament over that,” Kent consoled. “It would be quite a job to bring that lightning dodger down with a rifle.”
At noontime they halted and made temporary camp. The twins cut into the wet wood and hewed to the center for the dry heart of it. The other two boys scraped away the snow and piled some rocks for a fireplace. After some fanning and blowing, the damp wood caught fire and blazed up.
Kent searched among the articles on the sled and then straightened up. “Say, look here. Did anybody think to bring coffee?”
The other three boys looked at one another blankly. “I didn’t,” Barry admitted, and the twins admitted the same.
“We can live without it,” Mac pointed out.
“Sure we can, but you know how good it tastes on a camping trip, especially in winter. We haven’t even got cocoa along. And I was sure that the sled was fully packed! Is there any place that we can get it along the line?”
“We could swing away from the river a little bit and get it at Fox Point,” Barry said.
“We’ll do that, then. I guess we can go without it for a few days. Come on and get your plates out.”
The journey was resumed immediately after dinner, and they skated for a few miles. Then some rocks made it necessary for them to go around, and they walked some more. Chancing to see an old mill on a branch of the river, they explored it, and before long nightfall was upon them and they stopped to make an overnight camp. Two small camping tents were set up and sleeping bags spread out. Then they made a fireplace and gathered a supply of wood. By the time that the fire was going it was pitch dark, and the flames flashed up into the inky blackness like living tongues, throwing the black tree trunks into bold relief against the white background of the snow-covered earth.
“Fellows, this is just right!” Tim exclaimed, looking around him with delight. Barry and Kent were bent over the fire, and Mac was coming in with a load of wood on his shoulder.