Lish put a stop to the conversation by grabbing the axe and going at the pile of fuel in front of the cabin as if he meant to do something; but when he had cut a few sticks of half-decayed wood he was tired enough to stop and rest.
“Say, pard,” he exclaimed, “I’ve been a prospectin’ to-day! The varmints aint by no means as plenty about yere as they had ought to be, but I know whar thar’s piles of ’em in a leetle valley ’bout ten miles deeper into the hills. We want to go whar the wolves is, ye know; so to-morrow mornin’ we’ll pack up bright an’ arly an’ dig out.”
“Oh, that’s what you want, is it?” thought Tom. “Well, I don’t care where we go. I’ve got to endure your detestable company all winter, I suppose, and I might as well be in one place as another. I shall not see a happy day anywhere.”
“What do ye say, pard?” exclaimed Lish.
“I say all right,” was the indifferent reply.
That this was all the wolfer wanted was evident from his actions. He threw down the axe, declaring that he was awful tired after his long tramp, and picking out the warmest place beside the fire, he took possession of it, leaving Tom to cook the supper and cut the wood besides.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
A CLIMAX.
At daylight the next morning breakfast had been eaten, and the two wolfers were on their way to their new hunting grounds, Lish leading his pony, which was loaded with their outfit and the skins they had secured, and Tom bringing up the rear.
If the latter had been as skilled in woodcraft as his brother was he would not have been long in finding out that Lish had told him a falsehood regarding his movements of the previous day.
There were no signs of a trail in the gorge which they followed from one valley to the other, and that proved conclusively that the wolfer had not been along there during the last twenty-four hours.