At that the two returned scouts found places on the log, and started to relate how they had come upon the panic-stricken chef, who by degrees had told the whole remarkable happening, beginning with his mistake in scalding a stray dog under the impression that it was a prowling wolf, down to the minute they came upon him hiding there, and afraid to go back to the camp lest he be confronted with that furious giant of a woodsman, wild to avenge the insult to his four-footed pet.
Never had Lub and X-Ray listened to a more curious and thrilling story. They almost held their very breath as they hung upon every word, with a look of intense interest stamped on their faces.
“Now,” said Phil, when everything they had learned had been told, “what do you two think about it? Was the Terrible Badger the man we’ve been hearing so much about since coming up here—Baylay?”
“Must be that he is,” announced X-Ray, promptly.
“Well, the indications all point that way,” Lub remarked, in his slow fashion, as though he might be still weighing things in his mind. “There are so few persons up around here that it couldn’t well be any one else. So we’ll have to take it for granted the owner of the dog is Baylay.”
“Hurra! since Lub has finally figured it out the rest of us needn’t bother about it any more. Lub has settled the thing beyond all dispute,” laughed Ethan.
“Well, I guess you’ll find that I’m right,” ventured Lub, who often took himself very seriously, and in this way sometimes intensified the joke.
“How about that grub, chef?” asked Ethan; “that little tramp seems to have put an edge on my appetite.”
“Huh! as if it wasn’t always sharp enough,” Lub told him; “but if there’s nothing more to listen to I suppose I might as well get busy. You see, I’ve got a pot of beans cooking there, which has been on more’n two hours, so I should think the things would be fairly done. And along with that we’re going to have some fried ham, with eggs to follow, coffee, cakes, and then crackers and cheese for those who feel that way.”
“Well, if it will hurry things up any I’m ready to pitch in and help you, chef,” Ethan told him.