“Then it is a wolf, a genuine one, that howled, is it?” asked X-Ray.
“Hoot mon! it could no’ be annything else.”
“Would they dare attack your ponies, Mr. McNab?” continued Ethan.
“I dinna ken, laddie; but the baith of them have been accustomed to takin’ care o’ themselves ever sin’ they were knee-high to a duck. I would peety the wolf that was brash eno’ to tackle the heels o’ my ponies.”
The thought appeared to amuse McNab, for he continued to chuckle for some little time after he had snuggled into his waiting blanket.
It was a long night, yet nothing happened to disturb the campers. Phil slept in what he was pleased to call “detachments”; that is, he would lie there for an hour or so, and then raise his head to listen, perchance to crawl noiselessly out from his snug nest so as to place more fuel on the smoldering fire; and then under the belief that it would keep going for another spell again seek the warmth of his covers.
At last came the peep of dawn in the east. Phil saw it first, but he did not immediately arouse the others, for they were in no especial hurry, and his fellow campers seemed to be sleeping so soundly it was a pity to disturb them.
Indeed breakfast was well on the way when Lub came crawling out, blinking his heavy eyes, and looking as though he had only burst the bonds that fettered his senses with a great effort.
“What’s this I see and smell?” he exclaimed in a voice loud enough to awaken the Seven Sleepers. “Gone and stole a march on me, hey? Got breakfast started, and without calling on the head chef either? All right, go ahead; if I see you making any amateurish mistakes pardon me if I correct you. We want things done according to Soyer’s Cook Book in this camp. That’s what I’m studying at home, you know. He’s simply great. F’r instance, when he starts to tell you how to make rabbit stew he says: ‘First, get your rabbit! See how pointed his directions are? Now a lot of cook-books ignore that fundamental condition altogether. They seem to think rabbits grow on bushes, and all you have to do is to put out your hand and pull one in. First get your rabbit! That’s sound common sense for you!”
The others began to make their appearance and by the time breakfast was fully prepared all of them were ready to do justice to the spread.