“No, but you bet I’ve got his picture here,” Bob assured him. “You just wait ten minutes and I’ll show it to you,” and followed by Jack he rushed into the office while the foreman remained outside talking with some of the men.
“If we didn’t hit it it’s all over but the shouting,” Bob declared as he dipped the film into the hypo solution.
“I guess you’re right there, they’d never wait to give us another chance,” Jack agreed as he anxiously watched the film.
“Hurrah! We’ve got it all right,” he shouted a moment later, as Bob held the film up for inspection, “and it’s a dandy too.”
Without waiting for it to dry, they rushed out and in another moment were displaying the result of their effort to Tom and Baptist, who, at the moment, happened to be talking together.
“Oui, by gar, you geet heem all reichte,” the latter declared as he held up the film for others to see.
The picture went far in restoring the confidence of the crew, but Tom and the boys well knew that the remembrance of that weird cry in the night had by no means left their minds.
It was some two hours later when Tom and the boys were once more in the office discussing the situation. They had passed the interval with the men in the bunk house trying to get them in better spirits. Bob had taken out his guitar and led them in singing as he often did, but it was easy to see that the hearts of the men were not in the songs. There was still a strain and the very air of the room seemed laden with uncertainty. Earlier than usual the men began, one by one, to slip into their bunks and by eight-thirty only a half dozen were sitting about the stoves. Earlier in the evening Tom had made another short speech in which he told them that in case they heard the cry again they were not to be alarmed.
“Me an’ the byes are sure a goin’ ter find out what made it afore mornin’ and don’t yer fergit it,” he assured them.
He would have called for volunteers but he well knew that, although anyone of them would risk his life for a much less reason against any physical danger, it would be next to impossible to persuade them to go far from the bunk house that night.