“Well, he may come yet,” Rex said as they once more sat down.
“You never can tell,” Bob agreed.
The time dragged slowly on, until Bob’s watch told him that it was nearly three o’clock.
“Goodness, but I’m sleepy,” he said as he got to his feet.
“Same here.”
“I’m going to take a look up back, if you don’t mind,” Bob said. “I’ll only be gone a few minutes.”
“Go ahead. I’ll keep watch here.”
Bob was gone a little longer than he expected. He was very thirsty, and running across the tiny bed of a stream, he followed it up hoping to find a spring. He soon located it and, after drinking his fill, he stopped to cut a strip of birch bark from a tree. With this he fashioned a dipper that he might take some water back to Rex.
“I’ll bet he’s thirsty,” he thought as he started back.
To his surprise Rex was nowhere in sight when he returned. He sat the birch bark dipper down and, with the aid of the flash light, looked about all around the place where they had been sitting.