“Indeed I have not! Let the other girls go and fish, Tally, and I will show you how I can weave the tips as well as ever I did,” bragged Betty.
“I shall remain with Betty to cut the hemlock branches, while she makes the beds,” said Hester.
“Um-ra-m! me show you-all goot place for sleep,” hinted Tally; as he spoke he pointed to a sheltered nook made by a huge rock on one side, and a thick undergrowth of bushes and aspens on the other two sides; the fourth side was the approach from the clearing.
“Not far over dere you fin’ alla beddin’ you-all need,” explained the Indian, waving a hand at a clump of fine hemlocks.
Meanwhile Julie and Joan had gone with the two men to find a suitable place from which to fish. The sun had gone down, and the lake had changed from a warm rose hue to a chill gray. The silence which could be felt was broken only by the pulsating sounds from the woods. As they sought along the lake edge for a good place to stand, quite unexpectedly, from a tree directly overhead, a loon shrilled a warning to her mate across the lake. But the mate sent back his wild laughter at the unbased fears entertained by his wife. As the scouts moved slowly along, feeling as if they were one with the wild creatures of this spot, they almost forgot they were sent to fish for their supper.
But in a short time they had caught a goodly mess of fish and returned to camp. As the first day’s long ride had wearied them, no one wished to stir after supper, and Mr. Gilroy merely said: “Tally, are the horses all right for the night?”
“Sure! Tally fix hosses first,” returned the Guide.
Every one was soon asleep that night, and Tally knew not how long he had been sleeping when he suddenly sat up. He thought he heard one of the horses whinny, but all was quiet, so he stretched out again. Just before he dozed off, however, he wondered if, by any chance, a wild beast could sneak up and attack them. This thought caused him to dream fitfully and he started up again to satisfy his mind regarding the animals. Looking at his Ingersoll he found it was one o’clock in the morning.
Tally got up and found the ponies quiet and safe; but, to his great surprise, he heard a horse’s hoofs on the river trail. Hastily he climbed up on a high bowlder and from there he could glimpse the river sparkling in the last rays of the fading moon.
As he stood watching and listening for new revelations from the trail, he thought he saw the flash of a pocket searchlight. The whole discovery seemed so out of the ordinary to the Indian that he decided to creep along the faint lake-trail made by wild animals and reach the river-trail before the rider passed the spot where the two trails met. It was not mere curiosity which induced Tally to do this, but the inborn wariness of the Guide who feels he is responsible for his party.