He remembered what a healthy respect these fellows entertained for the guns in the possession of the club members. They were more apt to take it out in making all manner of tremendous plans against the peace of the campers which they would hardly be likely to carry out when their anger had had a chance to cool.
As he drew near the place, Frank found that a little hill interposed, just as the abrupt bluff did in the case of their own camp. This he would have to climb ere he could look down upon those he had come to observe.
There was more or less difficulty in reaching the top of this little elevation.
“They must go around here when entering the woods,” Frank concluded, after he had finally gained the top of the rise.
He hardly liked the idea of returning along the same difficult lines; but when he felt this disinclination he was really worrying over something that was fated never to come about.
By degrees he pushed forward until he found himself on the edge of a little declivity. Down below he could see the old dingy tent which he knew so well, also the fire of the Peters crowd.
The boys were gathered around, watching Pet, partly disrobed, trying to warm himself near the blaze; but if he was shivering outwardly with the cold, he seemed to be burning within, to judge from the motions he made while talking.
“Evidently Pet is making a vow to settle my hash the first time we meet. But I don’t seem to be trembling, that I can discover. I know Pet of old, and how easy he can change his mind,” Frank told himself, as he watched.
Unable to see just as well as he wished from where he first knelt, he moved a little to the left, as that seemed to promise a better view.
It was the last straw upon the camel’s back. Already, though Frank did not know it, the treacherous soil was giving way under his weight, and this move on his part aggravated the trouble.