A little later Hugh reached the camp and, after putting his rifle inside the tent, said, “Well, boys, I see you’ve got some fresh meat, and I’m mighty glad of it. I’ve had quite a walk and am feeling pretty wolfish. Let’s get supper and then, after we’ve eaten, we’ll have a whole lot of time to talk.”
CHAPTER XIV
A LYNX VISITS CAMP
“WELL, son,” said Hugh, as the two pulled on their shoes in the gray light of the next morning, “I slept mighty well last night and I reckon your conscience didn’t trouble you much, did it?”
“No,” said Jack, “I didn’t know what was going on two minutes after I rolled my blanket about me.”
“It’s mighty dark this morning,” said Hugh. “Either we got up early, or else there’s a big fog;” and when they put their heads out of the tent, sure enough, the mountains were covered with mist and a few flakes of snow were falling.
“Well,” said Hugh, “it’s no time to climb the mountains to-day, unless the weather clears, and it seems to me that it’s mighty cold. Maybe we’re going to get snowed in here.”
“That wouldn’t be very nice,” said Jack. “I hope we won’t have a big snowstorm.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “you boys go out and look after the horses. We’ve got to keep our eyes on them; it would be pretty bad to be left afoot and, if it does snow, the horses will be wanting to get down to the prairie again.”
The boys went and did as they were told, and changed the two horses that were picketed to fresh grass, saw that the others were all near at hand, and then returned to the fire.
Meanwhile, the snow began to fall more and more thickly and, after breakfast, Hugh said, “Now, boys, I believe we’re going to have a real snowstorm. Let’s get these ropes, blankets and saddles covered up as well as we can, and then we’ll go down to the point where we came out of the timber and build some sort of a fence there, so as to keep the horses from going back to the prairie. We’ll have to picket them all to-day and they’re not likely to pull up their pins, but we’ll make it as hard for them to get away as we can.”