“If he didn’t happen to see our smoke, or run across McNab when the farmer was getting out of the bush, of course he wouldn’t be apt to come this way. In that event the man would spend all his time scouting the snow woods around the place where we picked up the kid.”
“He must be a smart tracker, Phil?”
“It stands to reason that he is,” replied the other; “and I can give a good guess why you say that, Ethan. You think he may try to follow the boy from the time he started out, with his little popgun under his arm, just as he had seen his daddy go forth many a time on a hunt for fresh meat.”
“If he did, and the wind hasn’t drifted the dry snow so as to cover the trail all up, why in the course of time he’d reach the spot where we found the kid; and as the trail ended there he might guess somebody had found him, or else the wolves had carried the boy off.”
“That’s true enough, Ethan; but as the wind has been blowing more or less ever since, and the snow is like powder, I’m afraid that trail of the boy has been covered long ago. Even the smartest tracker couldn’t keep it long. But we’ll have to wait and see what turns up.”
They sat there before the fire for a long time. There was so much to talk about that the time passed before they knew it. Lub had some while since managed to get his little charge tucked away under the capacious blanket, and he now declared his intention of joining him.
Phil insisted upon taking the first watch on this particular night, and while the other pair may have had some idea as to what his reason was they did not ask any questions.
“You’ll wake me in good time, remember, Phil,” had been the last words of X-Ray as he smothered a tremendous yawn; and then followed Ethan under his blanket.
Phil sat there watching the fire, which he meant to keep burning cheerfully all through his time on guard. If any one were heading for the camp through the snow woods that welcome pyramid of flame would serve as a guidepost to their steps. And somehow Phil seemed to have the utmost confidence that sooner or later his vigilance would be rewarded.
An hour, two of them almost had passed, and beyond the customary noises of the night nothing had broken upon his hearing. The wind murmured and fretted among the pine-tops; or a limb creaked mournfully as it scraped across another. A snow owl called to its mate in the deeper recesses of the woods; perhaps some daring little creatures came creeping from unknown recesses under various roots, and hunted for crumbs of food near the camp.