“Are you crazy, Frank?” Bob demanded, puzzled, while Art and Farnum took their eyes from the coverts ahead to look at Frank in astonishment.
“Crazy? No more than usual,” Frank replied, as he completed disrobing, and now lay naked under the spreading branches of the spruce. “But I’m going to slip into the water and float down to that hill, then get in behind the reindeer and stampede them. You see what’ll happen then, don’t you?”
Bob stared at his companion, wide-eyed. Dawning comprehension crept into his eyes, and he began to smile. Then he chuckled.
“You little hound,” he said, employing a pet expression among the boys, denoting admiration.
“But, say, what’s the idea?” demanded Art sharply, from his position several yards away.
Frank had started wriggling forward, and waited until he was close to Art and Farnum before replying. Then he repeated his assertion that he intended floating downstream until behind the slow-moving herd of reindeer, when he would land and attempt to stampede them.
“You see how it is,” he said. “You yourselves admit that we’re in a tight place. Lupo’s forces have cover in that long grass, and can wait us out. Here among the trees there is no grass to hide us. The minute we get up and start to move around, we expose ourselves. Therefore, the best thing to do, is to drive them out of their cover, isn’t it?”
“Sure,” said Art. “But how you going to do it with——”
He was about to ask how Frank intended to drive their enemies from cover by stampeding the reindeer, but Frank grinned at him, and he paused. Dawning comprehension came into his eyes, too.
“That’s it,” Frank said. “I see you get my idea.”