"You never catch Uncle Jeb saying anything till he's sure," I said, "and even then, it takes him a couple of minutes to get his pipe out of his mouth. He says when you aim always aim as if you had only one bullet and it was the last one in the world."
"That's him all right," Bert said.
"Well, there's no good worrying," I told him; "we'll just get back as soon as we can."
"What do you say we row across and cut through Nick's Valley?" Bert asked, "It's shorter."
"I'm game," I said, "the quicker the sooner."
"We can follow the old creek bed," he said. "Know where that is, don't you?"
I said, "Believe me, the only bed I know anything about is the one I sleep in. I don't see how you find out so many things, especially as you were never here before."
"Oh, I like to just prowl around," he said, "that's the way with tigers."
"I notice you always have a stick, too," I said.
He said, "Sure a stick's good company. I just root around with it."