Puzzled thoughts over these questions seemed to follow Rick in his sleep, for he dreamed that he and Chot were trying to rescue Uncle Tod from the Indians who had unexpectedly started on the war path. Rick was dimly conscious that Ruddy was moving uneasily about in the night, and he also thought he felt the dog’s cold nose on his face as if Ruddy were trying to awaken him.
But Rick slept on, and so did Chot, until the morning sun streamed in through a window, betokening that the storm was over.
Then they heard Mr. Campbell calling them. He had left his bunk, and was in the main room, and, as he called, there was that in his voice which showed wonder and alarm.
CHAPTER VIII
“GONE!”
“Anything the matter?” asked Rick, as, followed by Ruddy and Chot he hastened from the bunk room into the main apartment where the cold gray ashes had replaced the cheerful, blazing fire of the night before.
“Anything wrong?” Chot wanted to know.
“Well, I don’t know that you could call it wrong,” said Mr. Campbell with a pat on Ruddy’s head, “but our hosts seem to have disappeared! Did you hear them go in the night?”
“Have the men left?” asked Rick.
“I don’t see any signs of them,” was the answer. “And I slept so heavily that I didn’t hear a sound. Did either of you?”
“I thought I felt Ruddy moving around in the night,” Rick answered. “But I didn’t wake up or hear anything.”