Uncle Billy fixed his first, to show them how. As the heavy soles of his boots were already studded thick with sharp hobs, he didn’t have to put in any short spikes. But into each sole, with the help of a key wrench, he screwed eight sharp steel spikes more than an inch long, and four more into each heel.
“I’d hate to be catching when you tried to slide for home,” Bennie said. “Those are wicked looking hoofs!”
“Now make yours just as wicked. And be sure you get the spikes in straight and firm,” his uncle answered. “Everything on this trip so far has been a mere picnic to what we are going to get tomorrow. It’s not only going to be the hardest work you ever did in your life, but the most dangerous. We can’t have anything wrong with our equipment.”
Everybody who didn’t already have plenty of sharp hobs in his boots also screwed in a large number of short steel spikes, in addition to the long ones. Then all the shoes were freshly oiled, to make them as nearly water-proof as possible, and Uncle Billy got out the amber goggles, to see if they were unbroken. He also produced a stick of grease paint.
“What’s that for? Are we going to act in a play?” Dumplin’ asked.
“No, but we are going to paint our faces, just the same. You’ll be glad enough of this stick before the sun sets tomorrow.”
After supper the cook made ready six small packages of lunch, for Norman was going to make the climb, too, and the doctor wound up his alarm clock.
“Bed, boys!” he ordered.
“Oh, no, not yet!”
“Who’s captain here? Bed, I said! We get up at three o’clock sharp tomorrow morning.”