But in this Bob was mistaken. He had had just sleep enough to make it practically impossible for him to keep awake. He struggled against the desire for an hour or more and then succumbed. Dawn was breaking through the trees when he awoke. For a moment he wondered where he was and then as memory returned he started up with an exclamation of disgust.
“I’m a good one to keep watch,” he told himself. “If Jack finds it out he’ll kid the life out of me and serve me right too,” he added as he leaned back against the tree.
It was still too dark to see more than a few feet and he waited until the shadows lifted and it was nearly daylight. Then he parted a bush and looked toward the cabin. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Then he got slowly to his feet and stepped around in front of the bush. The cabin should now be plainly visible but nothing in the shape of a cabin greeted his vision.
“Wonder if I’m seeing things,” he muttered. “I mean I wonder if I’m not seeing things that I ought to see,” he added.
He moved a little nearer to where the cabin had stood and finally, as nearly as he could judge, he was standing on the exact spot which it had occupied. Not only had the cabin vanished into thin air but he could not find the slightest trace to indicate that a cabin had ever been there.
“It’s too many for me,” he muttered as he slowly made his way back to where Jack was sleeping.
The boy was sleeping so soundly that Bob was loath to disturb him, so he made his way to the little stream where he drank and washed his face.
“Perhaps I’ll be able to see better now that I’ve got some of the sleep washed out,” he muttered as he started back again.
But if he had hoped that the cabin would put in a reappearance he was doomed to disappointment for there was no cabin there.
“The trouble wasn’t with my eyes anyway,” he thought as he again retraced his steps.