Abel carefully kept his watch, scanning the dark edge of the forest; but there was no further interruption, and the men worked away, with only a brief pause for refreshment.
Then the sun dipped below the pines, and as darkness approached Dallas let his axe rest on the young pine he had been trimming, and turned to his companions, with a look of despair in his eyes.
“Yes,” said the Cornishman good-humouredly, “we cut out more stuff than we can finish to-night, my son. It’s a bigger job than I thought. We shall have to knock off now. What’s to be done about the fire?”
It was risky work, but the watch was well kept while water was boiled and bacon fried. Then a hasty meal was made, and as the darkness fell the fire was quenched by throwing over it a bucket or two of water.
It was hard enough to do this, for though the ground was clear about them, snow lay on every rocky hill, and the night promised to be bitterly cold. But the exposure to an enemy would have been too great; so after selecting one of the huge spruces whose boughs hung down to the ground for a shelter, and dragging the sledges close in, the question arose of continuing the watch.
“Tchah! It’s as dark as pitch,” said the Cornishman. “Nobody could see. Let the enemy think we’re watching. They won’t come. We must chance it. Wrap up well, and have a good night’s rest.”
This advice was taken, and soon after all were sleeping the sleep of exhaustion, and awoke at daylight without a fresh alarm.
The previous day’s tactics were resumed, and the toil over the raft went on, but there was still so much to do in the way of bracing and strengthening the rough craft so that it might withstand the fierce currents and concussions they were to expect at the lower part of the lake where the rapids began, that the hours glided by till late in the afternoon, and still the task was not done.
“Who could have thought it would take so long?” said Dallas at last. “You see, we have everything to cut.”
“No one, my son,” said their big friend, smiling; “but I bet we shouldn’t have got the job done for us in double the time.”