CHAPTER XV

CAUGHT IN THE STORM

So plain was the trail of the wanderer that they had no trouble in following it at quite a rapid pace. Indeed, Elmer calculated that they were proceeding even faster than Perk himself had gone along; for as a rule the stout chum was not prone to make speed except when circumstances demanded that he let himself out—in a baseball game; or it might be a sack race for a prize.

More than once did Elmer mentally take himself to task for not starting out much sooner. The afternoon was closing in, and it would not be a great while before night came on. Even another precious half hour of daylight might have proven of considerable value to them; but then Elmer knew it was useless now to indulge in vain regrets.

By the time it began to get so dusky that even his keen eyes had difficulty in making out the trail, he decided it was necessary to make use of the lantern.

They had come quite a distance, Wee Willie figuring it out as possibly a couple of miles, which must have been a conservative guess, Elmer agreed. So he struck a match, and presently when the trail was taken up again the lantern light allowed them to see Perk’s heavy tracks plainly.

Already they had changed their course considerably. Perk aimed to avoid pushing through many of the thickets, and rough places he encountered; which had a tendency to throw him now to the right, and again to the left, until naturally he became bewildered, and doubtless for the life of him could not decide in which quarter the cabin lay.

From the indications Wee Willie judged that he had stopped to cast a stone into numerous thickets, in expectation of starting a partridge out, which he hoped would betray that queer trick the other boys had been speaking about. When after much wandering, and repeated failures to score, Perk finally made up his mind that it was time for him to turn his face toward camp, he must have been thoroughly disgusted to discover that he did not have the slightest idea as to whether the cabin lay on the right, the left, before, or behind him; and that he was really and truly lost.

But then that did not have any great terror for Perk. He had been lost so many times before that it was getting to be an old story. Doubtless he would keep on trying to “find himself” until he realized the hopelessness of it all, when he would philosophically sit down, to make a fire, and toast his shins, until such time as his mates came along with a rescue party; for he knew they could easily follow his tracks.

Perk, however, did not take certain possibilities into consideration, if he figured it out that way, for one thing the coming of the storm. At no other time when he played the part of the “babes in the woods” had anything like that overtaken him; and if there was one particular type of Nature’s moods which Perk disliked most cordially it was a storm.

The lightning always made him jump; the thunder awed him; while the roar of a violent wind through the trees, sounding like a runaway railway train coming down the slope, made his flesh fairly creep. So that it can be seen an experience he would not soon forget faced the reckless woods wanderer on this occasion.

They had not been moving again very long after the lantern was lighted when Wee Willie called their attention to the moaning of the wind through the tops of the tall trees.

“That always means storm, according to my weather education,” he affirmed; “anyhow, I never yet knew it to fail. The clouds are working up all the time, too, boys. Guess we’ll be swimming before a great while. Worst of all is the fact that once the water comes down, good-by to our tracking, for even Perk’s heavy trail would soon be washed clean out.”

“And not a single little woods varmint have we run across,” suggested Elmer, who never failed to notice everything, “which shows that their instinct tells them there’s something afoot, and that they’d better hug their underground holes, or hollow trees, for shelter.”

“How weird that wind does sound through the treetops,” said Amos, shuddering as he spoke. “You could almost imagine it came from some unseen spirits, or that the trees were gossiping, just like a pack of old women over their teacups.”

Wee Willie had not thought of that, because he was a practical sort of fellow; but then Amos happened to be built along different lines, being given a lively imagination.

“Here’s where Perk commenced to hurry some,” observed Elmer at that juncture. “He must have begun to realize he didn’t seem to be striking the river very fast, for he even ran a short distance, lumbering along like an ice-wagon, and falling more than a few times.”

“Huh! getting some anxious, I warrant you,” grunted Wee Willie. “Began to be afraid he’d miss his supper if he didn’t do better.”

“Don’t say that,” urged Elmer, reprovingly; “I’d rather believe Perk was thinking of the worry he might cause the rest of his chums.”

“Say,” snapped the other as quick as a flash, “forget what I said, please, fellows; it came from the lips, but not from the heart. I didn’t mean it, that’s right. Perk isn’t the chap to think of himself first; there never was a more loyal comrade, or one who wanted more to be of service to his pals.”

That was Wee Willie all over—too ready to say things of which he immediately repented, when he would strive to make amends. But Elmer liked him all the better on account of his quick temper, and habit of speaking without considering the result; Wee Willie had his faults, but to Elmer’s mind he was an angel compared with some sly fellows who seemed to have a perpetual sneer in their tones, and a curl to their upper lips.

“Wasn’t that distant thunder I heard then?” asked Amos.

“Just what it was,” Elmer admitted; “so we didn’t hit far out of the way when we decided we were in for a storm.”

“But it’s a long way off yet,” urged the other.

“That’s true, but when the wind starts to blow it doesn’t take long for a gale to strike home,” the boy with the lighted lantern reminded him.

“About how long would you give us before it arrives?” continued Amos.

“Anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour,” he was told. “Sometimes they take a notion to swing around, and attack from a new quarter; which holds things up more or less.”

“Huh! you never can tell what a crazy old storm will do,” grunted Wee Willie. “I’ve had ’em die down on me, but just when I was taking a good breath, slam bang! and the game was on again, the second edition being a heap worse than the original dose. It pays to keep right on the job when there’s a twister working your patch of the woods.”

“It pays to keep on the alert, no matter where you are. Preparedness has won many a battle on the field, in business, and with private affairs. The fellow who is ready has three chances to one for the shiftless chap caught off his guard.”

It was not long before the distant boom of the thunder grew perceptibly louder, proving that the storm was advancing their way, and could not be much longer delayed in transit.

“We might holler a few times,” suggested Wee Willie, “and if by great good luck Perk is close enough to hear us, so much the better.”

“Go to it, then,” advised Elmer, knowing Wee Willie had a voice that would be apt to carry much further than his own, or that of Amos.

Without waiting for a second invitation the elongated chum threw back his head and sent forth one of his shrillest yells.

“Perk! oh! Perk! Hey! there!” he bawled.

“Perk! hey there!” came a startling mocking answer that caused Wee Willie to jump, and stare hard at Elmer.

“W-why, did y-you hear that?” he gasped.

“Only an echo,” the other told him. “It repeated your words after you. As a rule it requires some sort of elevation to create an echo; but they’ve been known to spring right up from what looked like level ground. A lot depends on the condition of the atmosphere. I’ve known of a mighty fine echo that would send back a double line at you like fun, and yet it came out of a marsh. I admit echoes have always been something of a puzzle to me; but that was one just now, all right.”

“A queer thing,” Amos hurried to say, “and at first I really thought it was Perk hiding close by, and mocking Wee Willie here. Can you still follow his tracks, Elmer?”

“It’s as easy as falling off a log,” replied the one addressed, “but for a fact I’m more than surprised at Perk keeping it up so long. He must have been provoked with himself over getting lost, and determined to make the punishment fit the crime. Why, we’ve come more than three miles, up to now.”

“If we’re going to find him before that storm breaks, it’s got to be done fast now,” Wee Willie told them, when a still more resonant grumble followed what was plainly a distant flash of lightning.

“All we can do,” advised the guide with the lighted lantern, “is to keep moving until we’re up against it, when of course we’ll have to try to find some shelter ourselves.”

Wee Willie continued to let out a whoop from time to time. It amused him, at least, and could do no harm, while there was always a slender chance that Perk might hear and reply.

“Wow! things are getting pretty warm!” he announced shortly afterwards, when a really deafening crash followed quickly on the heels of a blinding electric display.

“I felt the first drop of rain on my face when I looked up at that flash,” said Amos, trying to show the utmost coolness.

“Yes, it’s going to break right away,” said Elmer.

“Perk, I wonder where you are?” Wee Willie remarked on a hazard, remembering what a dislike the lost chum invariably displayed toward all kinds of strife among the elements.

“Listen! what’s that?” asked Amos. “Sounds for all the world like a regular young Niagara going over the falls.”

“It means the rain is rushing down on us, and that we’re going to be soaked through and through in a jiffy,” Elmer told him.

Five minutes afterwards and they found themselves in the midst of as lively a summer gale as any of them had ever known, with the artillery in the heavens keeping up an almost constant booming, occupied by dazzling flashes of lightning; while to the right and to the left they could hear terrific crashing sounds as trees were laid prostrate before the fury of the hurricane wind!