“As easy as falling off a log, once you begin to notice the heavenly bodies, and their relations to each other,” Jack told him. “I’ll take pleasure in putting you on the right track any time you see fit.”
“But about that sound, could it have been a blast of any sort, Jack?”
“That’s hard to say,” the other replied, looking thoughtful, Toby saw. “It may be they are doing some quarrying miles away from here; or else some railroad is being cut through the hills.”
“But even if that’s so, Jack, why should any one want to set off a blast in the middle of the night, tell me?”
“I give it up, Toby. Possibly before we leave this region we may have found out an answer to your question. Forget that you heard anything queer, that’s all. We expect to scour this whole region up here, and if anything like that is going on, as likely as not we’ll learn all about it.”
Toby looked strangely at his companion as 23 though a suspicion may have arisen in his mind to the effect that perhaps this queer sound had something to do with the mission that Jack had undertaken in coming to the Pontico Hill country; but Toby had the good sense not to press the matter any further, though his boyish curiosity had undoubtedly been exercised.
When breakfast was ready, they made themselves as comfortable as the conditions allowed. Already there was a vast improvement over the arrangements of the preceding night. Two short logs had been rolled up so as to serve as seats while they discussed their meals. This was much nicer than squatting on the ground in attitudes that severely tried the muscles of their bodies. Toby promised to make a rude but serviceable camp table upon which their meals might be served. And a host of other things were considered by means of which their stay in the woods might be made much more comfortable.
They talked of numerous things besides those that concerned the present outing. Football came in for a fair share of their attention, because the fever to excel in sports had already seized hold of these Chester boys, and in the fall they hoped to put a sturdy eleven in the field that would be a credit to the town.
Besides this other sports were mentioned, especially those having an intimate connection with the season of snow and ice. Lake Constance offered a fruitful field for iceboating; and there 24 could hardly be a finer stream than the crooked Paradise River when it came to skating distances during a Saturday, or in the Christmas holidays.
So the time passed. They had actually cleaned out the coffeepot and both fryingpans of their contents, but at least no one could ever complain of getting up hungry in that camp–not while Steve had anything to do with the cooking. His flapjacks had turned out to be a big success, and Toby in particular was loud in praise of them; though by the way he winked at Jack when declaring them the best he had ever devoured, barring none, it was plainly evident that he was saying this partly in the hopes that the gratified Steve would repeat the dose frequently.