“Then the hound began to growl kind of low, and his hair was bristling, but he did not show any sudden desire to take a jump down the mountain side, as he would under ordinary circumstances, and I didn’t urge him because I thought he showed mighty good sense.”
CHAPTER IV
THE LOST MINE
“‘Anybody down thar?’ I yelled, but my voice was blown down my throat, and you couldn’t have heard it six feet away, as the wind was doing all the talking that night. So I stepped back into my cabin, followed by the dog, who kept growling to himself like a man with a grouch.
“No sooner was I inside than I let the heavy bar down across the door, and, when it fell into place, I drew a full breath, for I felt nervous at the action of the dog, and it was terrible lonesome, just as bad as being adrift on a raft in this ocean.”
“I’d take the land every time,” cut in Tom. “It’s what’s under you makes you so scarey on the ocean.”
“I don’t know but that the constant motion of the sea makes it kind of company for a man,” remarked Jim.
“Don’t tell me that,” said the shepherd with a quizzical look in his eyes, “from my recent experience that same motion will separate you from what is nearest to you. Anyhow, after I had put on a big log of pine on the coals in the fireplace, and the flame began to blaze up, I felt more cheerful, for it seemed to make my cabin alive with a hearty glow.