“Something hit the cabin,” Barry said, as he reached for his clothes again.
“Yes, and it took part of the chimney,” Mac pointed out. “I’ll get a light and we’ll see what it was.”
Kent threw the remaining wood on the fire, and Mac lighted the lantern. It was just five o’clock, an hour which rather surprised the boys, as it was still pitch dark outside. They dressed as quickly as possible, waiting for further sounds, but all was still.
“Do you suppose that somebody bumped against the side of the cabin?” Mac asked.
“Bumped it with a battering ram if he did,” Barry retorted. “That thump was on the roof. Let’s see what it was.”
He seized the lantern, and the others followed him out into the early-morning air. The blackness was growing faintly gray in the east, and before very long the sun would be up. But the boys were not interested in these things at that moment. They walked out to a place where they could look at the roof of the cabin.
One glance told the story. A big limb had blown down and landed on the roof, knocking off a corner of the chimney. Part of the limb had slid down the back part of the roof, but the heaviest portion was still balanced on the peak of the roof.
“A tree limb!” Kent cried. “We might have known it.”
“A big one, too,” Barry observed. “We’ll have to pull it down before we leave this cabin.”
“I thought the whole house was coming down when it hit,” Mac grinned.