Wee Willie and Elmer had been observing a perceptible change that was coming over the weather. In fact the day had been unusually hot, even for late summertime, and after summing up various portentous facts the weather sharps came to the conclusion that before another dawn they were likely to have a chance to test the rainproof qualities of their newly patched cabin roof.
“Something brooding, that’s certain,” Wee Willie asserted, as he mopped his perspiring brow, having been chopping wood a short time before, with the result that the perspiration was standing out in beads.
“Did Perk go fishing again?” asked Elmer; “I’ve missed him for some time now.”
“I don’t think so,” the other replied, “for there’s his jointed rod standing over against the cabin right now. I remember seeing him walk off; and come to think of it he went toward the east, and the river lies to the west here.”
They looked at each other, with a growing uneasiness.
“Ten to one,” asserted Wee Willie, “Perk’s gone off on a little tramp in hopes of starting a mother partridge whirring before him. You know what he is when he gets any sort of notion in his head.”
“But we ought to have warned him against doing that,” Elmer hurriedly said, “remembering how one of his besetting sins has always been to get lost!”
With the prospect of a storm ahead they saw reason to feel concerned over Perk’s continued absence.
CHAPTER XIV
A STIRRING NIGHT AHEAD
“I’m afraid we’re in for trouble about Perk, Elmer,” the tall chum observed, his freckled face set in a frown.