"We'll keep our eyes on him," answered Snap. The boys were glad enough to crouch close to the fire and get dry and warm. They piled on as much wood as possible, and drank a large quantity of hot coffee, to keep from taking cold. And thus the night wore slowly away. Each got a few "cat naps," but that was all.
About three o'clock the storm went down and by sunrise the rain and the wind were a thing of the past. The boys were around early, and they gave Jeff Thompson such a breakfast as they thought he needed. The negro begged for his liberty, and when he could not get it began to grow abusive.
"Here, none of that!" said Snap, decidedly. "You keep quiet, or
I'll place a gag in your mouth."
"I ain't gwine ter let no foah boys do me up!" cried the negro.
"Let us gag him!" cried Whopper, and began to make a gag of a tree root. But then Jeff Thompson cooled down and said no more.
The young hunters hardly knew what to do, and after a consultation it was decided to look for their own rowboat and then take a message to Ham Spink's crowd. The boat was easily located in the daylight, and Whopper rowed across the lake and told his story to the rival campers.
"Humph! that negro ought to be locked up!" said Ham Spink. "He took the very best of our stores!"
"Well, you will have to help take him to town," said Whopper.
"We'll do that, too," was the answer.