X-Ray looked a bit foolish, and then laughed.
“Another time I’ll see to it that I’m Johnny on the spot!” he declared. “Chances are you knew I’d figured wrong at the time, Phil?”
“What if I did, it wasn’t in the bond that I should take you to task for that blunder. A little thing of this kind is going to impress it on your mind better than any words of mine could ever do. You’ll never forget again to prove your sums so as to make doubly sure.”
And Phil was right. X-Ray would never look up at the stars and try to figure on how long it would be before a certain one would set, without remembering his error of judgment, and taking especial pains that it was not repeated.
The others soon made their appearances, hearing this talking outside.
“Whew! but it’s sharp this morning!” exclaimed Ethan as he joined them. “That blanket of mine isn’t as warm as it might be, and I don’t believe it’s all wool and two yards wide. Where’s the ax?”
“Going to cut some wood so as to get warm?” asked X-Ray Tyson.
“What, me?” cried Ethan, pretending to scoff at the idea; “why, fact is I want to chop a hole in the lake ice, and take a bath just to get my blood in circulation. They say there’s nothing like it, you know.”
All the same, after he had picked up one of the axes he was found to be cutting wood, which proved his daring assertion that had made Lub gasp to be pretty much in the nature of a great “bluff.”
The boy was sitting by the fire where Lub had found him a place. Lub had insisted on Phil giving over the completion of breakfast into his charge.