As soon as they reached the foot of the mountain they stopped for a rest and a council of war, as Jack put it.
“We’ve got to be mighty careful now,” Bob told them. “They’ll treat us rough if they get us in their power again. They’ll think we put the officers onto them and they’ll have little mercy.”
“None comes nearer to it I’d say,” Jack declared.
“We go heap quiet,” Kernertok advised with a solemn shake of his head.
“Frankly it’s my opinion that you’d better stay here and let me go up alone,” Bob proposed. “One can go with less noise than four, you know.”
“Not much,” Jack objected. “We’ll hang together in this.”
“White boy no go alone,” Kernertok shook his head and Bob did not insist, realizing that they were probably right.
It was a hot day and the climb up the mountain was hard and both boys were puffing when they reached a point only a few rods from the cave. But Kernertok was not in the least winded.
“Now we’re almost there,” Bob said as they came to a stop. “You wait here and I’ll creep up and see what’s doing. Oh, I’ll be careful and yell if they get me,” he added as he saw that Jack was about to object again.
Kernertok nodded assent and Bob crept noiselessly away. They had followed the path up the mountain but now he left it and stole around to the right so that he might get a view of the front of the shack. He made not the slightest sound as he worked his way through the thick underbrush and soon was crouching behind a bush from which he had a good view of the shack by slightly parting a couple of branches. Not a soul was in sight and the place had a deserted look which went far toward convincing him that they had not returned. Still there was the light which the old man had seen the night before and he decided to wait awhile before coming to a conclusion.