"We'll do it—you may depend upon that," answered Frank, as he disappeared in a closet opening off the room in which he and his cousin slept.
When he came out again, he carried a light, silver-mounted rifle in one hand and a game-bag and powder-horn in the other.
"We must have something to eat, too. It gives one a fearful appetite to climb over these hills. You go and get the lunch just as if we were going to school, and then come out to the barn, and you will find me there with the guns."
To this Leon silently assented, and went into the closet after his hunting accoutrements, which he handed over to Frank.
While the latter was slinging the game-bag and the powder- and shot-flasks over his shoulders, Leon opened the door and ran downstairs.
In the hall he met his mother.
"I was just coming to call you," said she. "You boys will be late at school if you do not make haste. Your lunch is all ready."
"We're just going to start," said Leon. "But not for school. We have had quite enough of that," he added to himself, as he hurried through the hall and turned into the kitchen.
Cramming the lunch into his pocket, he slipped out of the back door and ran toward the barn.
When Leon reached the barn, he found Frank waiting for him. He had watched his opportunity, and, as soon as his aunt went out of the hall, he descended the stairs, opened the front door, and made his way around the house to the place of meeting.