“Yes,” said Larry. “We brag a good deal about our civilization, and how much we’ve gained on the old cavemen; but I’ve often wondered what would happen to one of us up-to-date folks if he were dropped down in the middle of a wilderness like—well, like this, for instance, with no tools or weapons and nothing to eat. Would we have to go hungry to-morrow if we shouldn’t find Dick?”
“Golly!” said Purdick, “I’m sure I should. Why, we haven’t seen a single eatable thing since we started out yesterday noon!”
“Game, you mean? I suppose that’s because we weren’t looking for it. But there is plenty of game in these mountains, just the same; big game, at that. What I’ve wondered is if the up-to-date man, bare-handed, could manage to catch any of it.”
“Not this one,” laughed Purdick.
“Fish, then?” Larry suggested. “These clear mountain streams are full of trout, you know.”
“Yea!” Purdick chuckled. “Imagine a fellow catching trout with his hands!”
“I’ll bet it could be done—if the fellow were hungry enough,” Larry maintained. “But I’m not going to sit up and argue with you. I’m all set to turn in and sop up a little more sleep.” And with that he burrowed in the tree-branch bed and turned his back to the fire.
It was deep in the night that Larry, sleeping the sleep of the seven sleepers, felt himself shaken by the shoulder.
“Wake up!” Purdick was saying, and his teeth were chattering. “L-l-look over there—across the creek!”
Larry raised his head and looked. The camp-fire, backed up by a good-sized windfall log they had dragged down to it, was burning quite brightly, but its circle of light did not reach much beyond the little stream brawling and splashing a few feet away. On the opposite side of the stream a thicket of young cedars came down close to the water’s edge, and in the heart of the thicket two balls of green fire appeared, steady and unflickering.