“Maybe if he eats that he won’t want to get me,” thought Bert. “But how long shall I have to stay here?”
The wildcat, having eaten Bert’s lunch, which did not take long, looked up at the boy on the rock. It sniffed at the base of the big stone, and reared up with its forepaws against it.
“You can’t climb here!” called Bert aloud. “If you do I’ll hit you on the nose with snowballs!”
And then, as though to add to the boy’s troubles, it began to snow hard, a wall of white flakes falling around the lone laddie on the big rock.
CHAPTER XXII—FOUND AT LAST
Bert Bobbsey was really frightened and alarmed, caught as he was in the storm on the big rock, with a wildcat sniffing around at the bottom. He could not even see well enough to throw snowballs at the creature, and, even if he could have driven it away, he felt that it would not be safe for him to come down off the big stone.
“He can’t get me while I’m up here, I don’t believe,” said Bert to himself. “But I can’t stay here very long, or I’ll be snowed under. What shall I do?”
Indeed he was in what he said afterward was a “regular pickle.” And then Bert thought of calling for help. He wondered why he had not done that before.
Standing up on the high rock Bert sent his voice shouting out into the storm.
“Help! Help! Help!” he shouted.