“You mean,” said Hugh, “that if you’d known how bad it was you’d have gone off in the wagon and left things to burn?”
She drew her two younger children convulsively to her.
“Yes, I think I would,” she admitted. “The lives of my little ones are worth much more to me than even the farm buildings. But it would have been very cruel to have lost my home just when I was making the last payment to lift the mortgage.”
“Hugh! there it was again!” called out Ralph.
The boys of the Wolf Patrol always said Ralph had the ears of a fox. Either through natural causes, or because of the training he had received when trapping small fur-bearing animals during the winter time, Ralph certainly could catch sounds that were unheard by his mates.
At this fresh announcement new excitement arose.
“The same sound you heard before, was it, Ralph?” asked the scout master.
“As near as I could tell, it was, Hugh.”
“And you think it may have been someone shouting?” continued the other.
Ralph shrugged his shoulders.