But taking the blame didn’t mend matters. The dagger was gone. Worse than that, we knew the man who took it was near. Probably he was watching us that very minute. We drew closer together and looked all around. We went outside and looked, but everything was silent and deserted as if we were the only people on the earth.
“It’s ten miles to town,” says Binney.
“Well,” says Mark, “we’ve l-l-looked after ourselves before, and I guess we can m-manage it this time.”
But, for all that, there were four boys there on that little mountain lake who had their hearts right in their mouths ready to bite them.
CHAPTER IV
“He knows we’ve stored our food over here,” says Plunk.
Mark shrugged his shoulders. “If that was all I had to w-worry about,” says he, “I’d start whistlin’ a tune.”
He walked to the door and stood looking out for quite a while. Finally he turned around and asked if anybody had seen a strong rope lying about.
“There’s a big coil of half-inch rope up-stairs,” says I, “and a pulley alongside of it.”
“F-f-fetch it down,” says Mark.