“Aweel, he did spend some time up aboot this way,” the driver replied. “You see, the mon has a family, for all his wild ways, and somehow he manages to support the wife and childer and a raft o’ dogs, though it’s a mystery how he does the same.”
“Children you say, and up here in this wilderness?” exclaimed Lub, looking more or less surprised.
“Oh! ay, a pair o’ thim I’m tawld, tho’ for the matter I couldno’ say for certain, since I never ha’ set eyes on the same. They tell me that the wife is a wee sma’ woman, but that she has been known to subdue her giant husband as no mortal man ever dared.”
“Gee! I’d like to see her do it, then,” asserted X-Ray, impulsively, of course never dreaming at the time that any such opportunity would drift his way.
When noon came they stopped and made a fire, so as to have hot coffee, which of course every one declared to be very refreshing, for they were chilled more or less by the long inaction.
Then it was on again deeper into the wilderness. The road had been abandoned for some time, since it turned sharply in the wrong direction, heading for the lumber camp on the river. Besides, the vicinity of such a place, where trees were falling all day long, and rough loggers calling out or singing at their labor, could not be reckoned a good hunting-ground, since the game would be scared away.
As the shadows began to lengthen the boys were cheered by hearing Tammis declare they were now close on the spot he had in mind. Once before some years back he had piloted a hunting-party up here, and from all accounts the prospects for big game were much better this season than for a long while back.
One of Phil’s hobbies was along the line of flashlight photography. Indeed, he had become quite fascinated with the idea of “shooting game with a camera,” and was even losing some of his hunter spirit that had until recently been such a pronounced part of his make-up.
He had already made quite a collection of wonderful pictures, and yearned for other worlds to conquer. Some of these days he declared he meant to take a trip into the fastnesses of Darkest Africa, where he could snap off the wild animals in their native haunts—elephant, lion, rhinoceros, hippopotamus and every other species of creature that lives in jungle and swamp and forest in the country which Roosevelt had recently visited on his great hunt.
Of course Phil expected to add to his collection while on this jaunt; and since Ethan was a born hunter, with X-Ray backing him up, they could supply the camp with what fresh meat was necessary, leaving Lub to manage the culinary department, and lend Phil a helping hand if necessary.