“Oh, Ree!”
“Blessed stars, John!” was the startled, whispered answer. “How did you come here? Don’t you know Lone-Elk is watching the house this very minute?”
But nevertheless it was with a feeling of much relief and real pleasure that, when Jerome had whispered back, “Well, I guess I do,” Ree told him to creep in through the “cat-hole,” while he himself noiselessly double-barred the cabin door.
“Why, you had me scared into a catnip fit,” said Kingdom, still whispering, as he felt about in the darkness for John’s hand.
“Did I? But say, do you know it’s snowing? And how I’m to get away again, now that I’m here, without making a trail that a blind man could follow, I’m blest if I can tell.”
“Never mind that now, old chap,” was the hopeful answer. “Rest yourself and I’ll see what I can lay hands on for you to eat. I’ve got a few things to tell you after awhile.”
“Things to tell, Ree? Cracky, so have I!”
And Lone-Elk, sullen and ugly, determined and relentless, still watched the cabin with unremitting perseverance from the deeper shadows of the woodpile at the clearing’s edge.
CHAPTER XIV—THE MYSTERIOUS CAMP IN THE GULLY
“Honestly, my neck’s out of joint, looking around trees all day,” John declared. But he was so light-hearted, so glad to be home again, that he fairly giggled as he spoke.