“Huh, don’t you fool yourself.”
“Never do.”
“Looks like we were in for a spell o’ weather.”
“Sure does. But this isn’t getting to bed.”
“I’ll bet you go to sleep,” Jack whispered, as he crept off toward his bed.
“And I’ll bet I don’t,” Bob replied, but Jack was too far away to hear him.
It was nearly one o’clock, as he saw by the luminous face of his wrist watch, when he heard the same cry that had awakened him the night before. It was very faint at first, but each time it was repeated it came nearer, till he judged that it was within a half a mile.
“Funny it doesn’t wake any of them,” he thought as he crept softly down toward the lake.
As he approached the water’s edge he felt, rather than saw or heard, that something was near him. He listened intently. Not a sound, save the lap of the water and the gentle sough of the rain as it fell on the trees, came to him. And still that vague feeling of the nearness of some large object persisted.
“Wonder if I’m going bugs,” he thought, as he tried in vain to pierce the darkness.