“If you ask me, I’ll say he was a friend in need if ever there was one,” declared the young major. “I don’t know what we’d have done if he hadn’t come along.”
“It ought to be a lesson to us to be on our guard,” answered Fred.
“Now I am armed, oh, how I’d love to get a shot at those wolves!” remarked Andy.
“What about the horses?” questioned Randy. “We’ve got to find those animals. I think the quicker we get after them the better. If they’re allowed to stay away all night there’s no telling if we’ll ever be able to round ’em up.”
But rounding up the four horses proved easier than expected. None of them had gone away any great distance. Two of them were found on Sunset Trail just above the lake and the others in the bushes on the mountainside. They were rather difficult to handle for a few minutes, but presently calmed down when spoken to soothingly.
The boys did not know exactly what to do with the lean gray wolf that had been laid low by Billings’s bullet. At first they thought to skin the animal and save the pelt. But the hair was poor at this time of year, and none of the boys relished the labor, so they simply dragged the carcass down the lake shore for a distance, and then threw it in an opening between the rocks.
By nightfall the boys had erected their little shelter and had a campfire going, and all did their share in preparing the evening meal and in cleaning the dishes afterward.
“Wonder what will happen to-night,” said Randy, as they turned in, thoroughly tired out over the happenings of the day. “Maybe we’ll see more wolves, or a mountain lion or a bear.”
None of them cared to admit it, yet each was a trifle nervous, thinking that possibly the timber wolves might return. But nothing came to disturb them, and, having made sure that their campfire would not set fire to the forest around them, one after another fell asleep and slumbered soundly until after sunrise.
The next day proved to be one of unalloyed pleasure for all the boys. In the morning they went fishing and managed to get a good-sized catch. In the afternoon they tramped through the forest and there managed to bag several squirrels and also a somewhat larger animal which none of them could name.