“’Tain’t another one; it’s the first one come back, just like I told you she would.” Billy peeped into the box. “I thought so,” he added; “she’s brought another bee with her. When they go back they’ll bring some more till the whole darn hive knows just where this little old box is.”
It was even as Billy said. Presently the bees were clustering thick around the box and were continually arriving and departing, forming a double line straight to the hive in the hollow heart of some forest giant beyond the clearing. In the meantime the second bee had carried the good news home and rallied a force of workers, so that soon two lines were established.
“What will we do, split up and you follow one line while I follow the other?” asked Spud.
“How do you expect to follow the line if you ain’t got the box? Think a bee’s goin’ to take you by the hand and lead you?” asked Billy sarcastically, forgetful that this was a wholly new experience to Spud. “We’ll stick together and work out the first line, and then if we have time we’ll try the other.”
He drew out his knife and blazed the stump on which the bee box sat. Then squatting down he carefully sighted along the second line of bees and cut a rough arrow with the point indicating the exact line of flight. “Now,” said he, “we can come back any old time and run down that line.”
He next sighted along the line they proposed to follow out first till his eye encountered a slender young spruce on the far side of the clearing. With this for a marker he slipped the cover on the box while several bees were within, and taking it with him walked straight to the tree he had sighted. On the nearest stump he placed the box and removed the cover. At once several laden bees reëstablished their bearings and started for home. It was the quick return of one of these which had drawn from Spud the exclamation exposing his ignorance of the sex of working bees.
The northern edge of the clearing marked “bounds” in that direction for the camp, and only by special permission might the boys go beyond. Spud, less reckless than Billy, or at all events less certain that even a “barrel” of honey would buy Dr. Merriam’s pardon for deliberate infraction of the rules, hesitated.
“Let’s give it up now, and run the line out to-morrow,” he suggested. “We can tell the big chief and get his permission to go out of bounds.”
Billy balked. “Oh, you quitter!” he growled. “Look at that line runnin’ now and you talkin’ about givin’ it up! Say, Spud, I picked you to come in on this with me ’cause I thought you had some sand. You can go on back, but I’m goin’ to find that tree! It can’t be more’n a little ways in anyway, the bees are making such a short flight. Anyhow, who’s going to know if we do go out of bounds? We can find the tree and then to-morrow ask permission to go out of bounds. Then we can open up the tree and get the honey.”
The excitement of the hunt led Spud to lend an all too willing ear to Billy’s argument. “All right,” he growled, “I’m with you, but let’s hurry up and get back.”