“Well,” Franklin grinned, apparently as fresh as when he started, “the fire’s almost all in, too, and I guess we three can handle it.”
They had just started to trail away northward over that weary stretch of line, leaving the boys asleep where they were, when Professor Mertz, who had gone home the night before, strode over the brow of the hill with a big pack sack on his back.
“By George, Mertz,” Sturgis cried gratefully, “you’re the best-looking man, with that pack on your back, that I’ve ever seen.”
“How’s the fire?” Professor Mertz asked anxiously.
“It’s all over but the shouting,” Sturgis assured him, “if we can just keep awake long enough to patrol it for the rest of the day. It was pretty hot down there by that lake, but the boys fought like good fellows and stopped her. It can’t get by below.”
“Where are the boys?”
“Sound asleep right where they dug the last shovelful of dirt. They hit the ground and were snoring before the dirt fell.”
“Pretty tough one for a starter,” chuckled the professor. “You fellows look pretty tired yourselves. I brought five men down with me and put them to patrolling above here. Guess they can handle it all now. Dan was in a pretty tight hole back there.”
The strain relieved and the necessity for keeping at it removed, Sturgis and Franklin sat down with a thud, and would probably have joined the boys if the sight of the pack sack had not kept them awake. The professor soon had the coffee boiling and the supplies spread out temptingly. Getting the boys awake was a harder task, but the mention of something to eat aroused even the most weary and they fell to with a will.
It was agreed that the fresh men should be left to maintain the patrol until six o’clock that night, and all the rest should go back to camp in the wagon. It was a tired crew, but they kept their spirits buoyed up by the feeling that they had won a great victory and made good. They tuned up for the Lodge and sang lustily in answer to the cheers of the summer boarders who turned out to see them go by. The songs heralded their approach long before they reached the camp, and all the non-combatants were out to welcome them. They presented a begrimed and bedraggled spectacle, but they were supremely happy.