Victor shook his head. The thought was preposterous.
“He couldn’t have known there would be any such chance, and if he wanted to do us harm he would have done it long ago. B-r-r-r-r! I’m cold!” muttered the lad with a shiver.
The matter was becoming serious, for if their clothing was gone they were in a woeful plight indeed. You will bear in mind that coats, trousers, caps, stockings, shoes—everything had disappeared. The theft included the underclothing that had been removed and cleansed by the boys, as well as the extra suits taken from the pack carried by Zigzag. Since these made up the only two undersuits owned by the brothers, you will admit that their situation could not have been more cheerless.
A curious fact was that their guns had not been disturbed, though both were left leaning against the boulder on which the clothing was laid, and must therefore have been seen by the rogue.
“We’ll have to go into the water to get warm again,” said Victor, with folded arms, bent form and rattling teeth. “I don’t see that we can do anything but wait till Mul-tal-la comes back.”
“What can he do?”
“If he can’t find our clothes he can go out and rob some bears or other wild animals of theirs, and let us have ’em”——
George Shelton caught a flying glimpse of a tightly rolled bundle of clothing which at that instant shot through the air and, striking Victor in the back of the neck, sent him sprawling on his hands and knees. George turned to see the point whence came the pack, and at the same instant a similar one landed full in his face and knocked him backward. But he had caught sight of Deerfoot, the Shawanoe, who rose from the farther side of an adjoining boulder, and both heard his chuckle, for he could not resist the temptation of having a little fun at the expense of the brothers.
“We might have known it was you,” exclaimed Victor, clambering to his feet and proceeding to untie the knots in his shirt and drawers, and finding it no slight task.
“We won’t forget this,” added George, warningly; “you think you are very smart, but we’ll catch you some time when you are not watching.”