“Wonder if there’s anybody at home. I don’t see any smoke,” Jack said, as they approached the little hut from the rear.
The front of the cabin faced the lake, and as they turned the corner both boys stopped short, giving vent to a cry of joy. Leading away from the door and extending out on to the lake were the tracks of snow-shoes.
“If there’s no one living here that means that Nip spent the night in this cabin,” Bob declared as he dropped the rope and, stepping up to the door, hammered on it with his fist. As there was no reply after waiting a moment, he tried the latch. The door was not locked and pushing it open he stepped inside closely followed by Jack. It was at once plain to be seen that the place had not been used as a permanent habitation at least for a long time. It consisted of a single room in which there was no furniture with the exception of a single straight backed chair and a small and very rusty stove.
“He was here all right,” Jack declared, as he untied the thongs of his snow-shoes.
“And I guess we’d better follow his example for tonight,” Bob quickly suggested. “It’ll save us quite a lot of work making a camp and if we can get a fire to going in that stove it’ll at least be warm. I believe we can do it,” he announced a moment later, after a hasty examination. “I imagine Nip left this morning and we couldn’t possibly catch up with him tonight, so we’ll stay here and get a good early start in the morning.”
In one corner of the room they were fortunate enough to find a few sticks of dry wood and some old newspapers and in almost less than no time they had the old stove roaring in good shape.
“If we only had brought along a fish line we might get a mess of fish out of the lake,” Bob remarked as he pushed another stick into the stove.
“If wishes were horses,” Jack began, and then suddenly stopped in the middle of the quotation. “Here’s your fish line,” he shouted, as he drew it from the inside pocket of his mackinaw. “Talk about luck. I remember now putting that line in my pocket just before we left home and it’s been there ever since. If you’ll cut some boughs for beds I’ll guarantee to furnish all the fish you can eat and then some.”
“It’s a go, but look out if you fall down on your bargain,” Bob laughed as he got the ax from the toboggan and started for the back of the cabin.
He had, however, taken but a few steps, when Jack shouted: