UNBIDDEN GUESTS IN CAMP
“What do you think of Badger?” asked Grace as she and Elfreda were preparing for bed.
“He is an odd fellow, but I reckon all guides are more or less peculiar. So are we for that matter.”
Grace admitted the truth of the statement.
“Will you folks please keep quiet in there? Don’t you think I want to go to sleep?” demanded Stacy from an adjoining tent.
“It will take more than talking to cause you to lose sleep,” piped the voice of Emma Dean.
“Don’t interrupt, young man. We are having a private conversation,” begged Miss Briggs laughingly. However, she and Grace finished their talk in lower tones, and soon after that quiet settled over the camp, the guide being curled up in his blankets by the fire, long since sound asleep.
It was shortly after midnight that Grace, awakened by the snorting and stamping of the ponies, sat up to listen. She knew that something had disturbed them, but before she could get up to investigate, the camp was startled by a wild yell from Stacy Brown, who occupied a little shelter tent by himself.
“Yeow—wow! They’re after me!” howled Stacy, rushing from his tent in a high state of excitement. By this time the Overlanders were running towards him, Jim Badger in the lead.
“They’re after me—right after me!” explained the fat boy almost incoherently.