“Listen!” he said abruptly.
CHAPTER XXI
“TOOT—TOOT—T-O-OOT!”
Hardly had half a minute silently passed when a thrill shot through each figure. No cawing crow could make that peculiar sound; no red-headed woodpecker tapping at the rotten limb of a tree utter a scream of similar import.
Elmer did not, like some boys would have done, immediately whirl triumphantly on his mates, and say impressively: “What did I tell you?” On the contrary he looked very happy as he simply said: “Sound familiar, boys?”
“It’s Perk, all right!” snapped Amos, joyously.
“Yes,” added Wee Willie in a tone of absolute relief, as though a tremendous weight had dropped from his narrow shoulders, “that’s the gay toot of the old tin fox-and-geese horn Perk always makes a habit of carrying around with him.”
“I agree with you, boys,” said Elmer simply, as he once again started to “lead the pack.”
All of them became quite merry from that moment on. It was as though the expectation of having their long quest rewarded by the discovery of the lost chum filled them with supreme happiness.
Naturally the first thing that sprang from this condition of affairs was a revival of reminiscences connected with that self-same tin horn of Perk’s, now destined to have new glory placed to its credit.
“I remember how Perk always carries that old horn along with him everywhere,” said Wee Willie, with a laugh. “Why, last winter when we went in sleighs to country barn-dances, on the way home at midnight, with the moon right overhead, and every fellow trying to get ahead in the mad race back, above the calls of the boys, and the laughing and shrieks of the girls when there was an upset, you could always hear that old horn tooting like mad. Perk just couldn’t be happy without it. They say he takes it to bed with him; and one night frightened his folks half to death by sending out horrible squawks while in his sleep.”