CHAPTER XVI

WHERE WOODCRAFT PAYS

Progress of course was utterly out of the question while all this racket continued. Indeed, even with the aid of the lantern, and the almost incessant flashing of the lightning, they could never have found the marks left by Perk in his erratic wanderings; for already had the downpour of rain washed them completely out of existence as though the trail had never been.

“No telling how long this is going to last, of course?” called out Amos, and his voice quivered more or less, despite his brave efforts to appear quite unconcerned, as a veteran of camp and trail should.

“It may soon be over,” replied Elmer, “and again there’s always a chance of such a storm holding out all night.”

“Wonder if we couldn’t find some sort of shelter?” ventured Wee Willie, doubtless voicing the thought that was in each of his companions’ minds.

“Let’s bear off in this direction,” suggested Elmer, turning toward the right, and as he carried the lantern the others were compelled to follow him.

“But the trees seem to be getting smaller over here, Elmer,” protested the tall chum.

“Sure thing, I know that,” called the guide over his shoulder, “but we’re not looking for any big hollow oak, with all this lightning around, you know. Notice that the ground’s getting rocky, and that it begins to lie in queer ledges? I’ve seen just such places before, and I’m hoping we’ll run across a ledge that’ll hang out far enough to let us crawl underneath.”

“Wow! that’s the stuff!” admitted Wee Willie, apparently giving in to the judgment of his leader without any dispute.

“Something up ahead there that looks like it might pan out,” called Amos just then; though he could not feel sure he saw correctly, because of the water that ran down his face, and seemed at times to act as a sort of curtain hiding out the wretched picture.

“We’re in great luck!” cried Elmer, ten seconds later, “for here’s just the sort of ledge I had in mind, with plenty of room for all of us to creep under the outcropping shelf of rock.”

Down on hands and knees they went. This was no time for being particular, when the situation was so desperate; a little dirt did not matter, for who does not know how the average boy manages to keep on good terms with grime, without letting its presence interfere at all with his appetite, or enjoyment.

“Whirr! whirr!”

“Hey! what’s all this?” bellowed Wee Willie, already screwed up in a knot, as he doubled his long legs in the endeavor to push further under the friendly shelf of rock, one of Nature’s freaks in that neck of the tall timber, but wonderfully acceptable to those caught in the wild storm.

“Only a covey of partridges we’ve scared out of their hiding-place,” Elmer instantly called back. “They thought they owned it, but we’ve put in a quit claim. All under, boys?”

“Say, this isn’t half so bad!” Amos exclaimed.

“It’s all right,” ventured Wee Willie, “if only we don’t get drowned in the water that’s going to ooze from our clothes. I reckon I weigh close on a ton right now; why, I could hardly lift my leg toward the last, I carried such a cargo of soaked stuff with me.”

They lay there panting for a while, “resting up,” as a boy would put it.

“Any port in a storm, the sailor says,” Elmer presently sang out, “and this time we can understand what that homely old phrase means.”

“Getting some chilly though, don’t you think?” said Amos, his teeth chattering as he spoke.

“Oh! that’s because we’re wet to the bone,” the tall chum asserted. “Since we can’t help ourselves we’ve just got to grin and bear it. Lots of fellows may be a heap worse off than we are right now.”

He was thinking of Perk, of course; but Amos had another person in mind when, during a brief lull in the roaring of the storm he was heard to groan, and say half to himself:

“I wonder where he can be; and if he’s out in all this terrible storm, poor old dad!”

Wee Willie might have reassured him had he chosen. He could have told Amos that those who have descended to the low level of becoming plain ordinary hoboes, tramping the highways, and counting the railroad ties in their peregrinations to and fro over the country, are as a rule, able to foresee the coming of bad weather, and generally manage to find some shelter in advance.

However, he did not say this, because to do so would hurt the feelings of Amos; who seemed still to have considerable love for the father he had not seen nor heard from for several long years.

How the minutes dragged!

Wee Willie, too, had now begun to shiver, though he would not have admitted that he was cold had he been accused of such a thing. While the rain did not gain admittance to the space under the overlapping ledge of rock, the wind could not be kept entirely out; and owing to their being so wet this caused them much inconvenience, to say the least.

“Don’t you believe it’s letting up some, Elmer?” pleaded Amos, after a bit.

“I was just thinking so myself when you spoke,” came the reply. “Yes, the rain, you see, has almost stopped, though the wind keeps up a great roaring in the treetops. But it’s lost some of its fury to boot; I haven’t heard a tree crash down for some time.”

“Huh! guess all the weak brothers have been knocked silly by now!” grunted Wee Willie, using this method of speaking because he could disguise the fact that his teeth were rattling like the castanets he had once seen a Spanish dancer use at a concert.

“Make up your mind, the performance is over for to-night,” Elmer thrilled them by declaring five minutes afterwards.

“Well, for goodness’ sake, don’t let’s do anything to coax an encore,” begged Amos. “But I can hear the rain coming down still, Elmer.”

“I reckon now that’s just the water dripping from the trees you hear,” he was assured, which turned out to be the case.

They hugged their confined quarters for a short time longer; then Elmer made a move as though meaning to crawl out.

“Come along, boys!” he called; “we’ll feel a heap better to get on our feet, and start the blood to circulating again.”

“You said it, Elmer,” honestly confessed Amos; “why, I’m shaking like I had the ague right now. And I’m not sure but that Wee Willie’s going to fall to pieces soon if he keeps on the way he does, he’s so loosely made up, you know.”

“Oh! I guess not _yet_ awhile,” snapped the one referred to, who however lost no time in creeping out from under the ledge where the wise partridges had taken up their quarters for the night, anticipating a wet time.

No sooner was Elmer on his feet than laying the lantern aside he commenced slapping both arms violently about him, at the same time jumping up and down after the manner of a savage indulging in a dance.

“The only way to get your blood to circulating!” Wee Willie admitted, as he hastened to imitate the others example; and presently there were three dancers hopping about, and making wild gesticulations with their waving arms.

All of them began to feel considerably better, though their breath was soon coming in short pants.

“This is an improvement,” Elmer called out, “but we ought to have a fire!”

“Fire!”

That word always appealed to Wee Willie, even as a red rag does to an aggressive bull; he never needed more than half a hint to find an excuse for building one.

“Whoop! watch my smoke, fellows!” he cried, delightedly. “I’m some boy when you need a blaze. Don’t either of you dare to offer to help; because I’m the fire-maker of this circus!”

One thing that the tall chum always insisted on when in the woods was to carry his pet camp hatchet along with him wherever he went. Many times it was likely to prove a grievous burden, but should the occasion arise when its value could be fully appreciated, like the present, Wee Willie felt amply rewarded for his forethought.

He had it loose and ready before Amos could have said “Jack Robinson,” and picking out an old stump near by attacked it with great vigor, Elmer holding his lantern so that the chopper could see what he was doing.

Of course the fire-maker was after the dry heart of the stump, which could not have been soaked by the recent downpour. Soon he was collecting small splinters of this inflammable wood, until he had quite a decent pile laid by. At the base he inserted the finest and most tempting of fibers, to which he meant to apply a match presently; since this was certainly no time for him to show off his knowledge of wonderful though tedious ways for making a fire without the aid of common, every-day matches.

It matters little to one who had made a hobby of the subject, that everything around may be reeking with water; because he knows a variety of ways for producing the desired result. Many fellows less wise would have tried in vain, and used up their whole stock of matches in endeavoring to coax wet tinder to burn.

Amos gave an exclamation indicative of solid satisfaction when in response to the click of the match, carefully protected by Wee Willie’s hat, a tiny blaze sprang up that rapidly increased in volume.

“Hurrah for you, Wee Willie! You’re surely the champion fire-builder of the universe. You’ll set the world on fire some of these days, if they don’t watch you pretty close. My but that feels fine already!”

“Oh! but I’ve got to have heavier stuff to put on top, or it’ll peter out on us,” objected the other, bustling about.

He must have figured on just where he could lay hold of the necessary supplies, for almost in a jiffy he started piling dead branches over the leaping blaze, which, rapidly drying out began in turn to take fire, until there was a delightful roaring pyramid of flames leaping cheerily upward, and sending out such glorious heat that the boys had to move back a foot at a time.

Their clothes also began to send out clouds of steam as the genial warmth commenced the drying process. Everybody showed signs of feeling a thousand per cent more comfortable; and there was no longer any necessity for their performing those wild antics, like warriors before the hunt or battle.