Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay | Page 9

lose all restraint and show that they were
disposed to act in an ugly way.
It meant that the former sense of security and indifference was a thing
of the past. From this time on the scouts must keep constantly on the
alert to guard against a sudden surprise. They must learn to watch for
danger in every quarter, and not allow themselves to sleep on post.
All this change was caused by the discovery of that one small spot of
shed blood. Even the usually talkative Jimmy seemed to have become
dumb for the time being, as though realizing the gravity of the
situation.
"Do we try to track the fellow, Ned?" asked Teddy.
"I don't think that would be a wise thing to attempt," came the reply.
"In the first place we couldn't make any headway without a light; and
that would expose the lot of us to his fire, if he found himself being
overtaken, and was still smarting under the pain of his wound. Then
again, we don't know who he may be, or what friends he may have
close by. No, the best thing for us to do is to go back to our camp, and
try to get a little more sleep. We'll put out the fire, and one of the
guides will sit up for two hours with me. Then we'll wake another
couple, and in that way pass the rest of the night."
"Sounds like business at the old stand," remarked Jimmy, "Many's the
time the lot of us have done that same thing. And, Ned, I'm in hopes
you'll be after lettin' me sit up with you. Never a bit of sleep is there in
me eyes at this minute. I'm staring like any old hoot owl in a Virginia
swamp. Don't tell me to beat it if you love me the least bit. My lamps
won't go shut, that's flat, and I might as well sit up with you as lie down,
and just stare and stare."
"Oh! suit yourself, Jimmy," Ned told the urgent one; "though of course
I'll be only too glad to have your company, if, only you'll remember to
keep still. When we have to serve as guards to the camp it's a still
tongue that counts for the most."

"I'll promise to be as dumb as an oyster, Ned," pleaded the other; and
so it was settled that he could help to stand the first watch.
The balance of the expedition once more settled down. Jack crawled
alone into the smaller tent, while Frank and Teddy occupied the other.
Francois and the Indian consulted with Ned, and then the fire was
wholly extinguished. Tamasjo went over to sleep in one of the canoes,
for if there should be any attack on the camp it was believed that it
would begin in this quarter, as the frail craft might be reckoned their
weakest and most vulnerable point.
Ned Nestor had often sat out a watch, and in the midst of a wilderness,
too; but somehow the conditions seemed vastly different now from
anything he had ever known before. In most other cases he could listen
to the various well-known voices of the night--from katydids and
crickets, to frogs in the marsh, night birds seeking their prey, or it
might be the small animals of the forest barking or giving tongue.
Away up here in the vast Northern solitudes a dreadful silence seemed
to hang upon all Nature. Insects there were none, of a species to cause a
humming sound, and save for croaking of frogs some distance away the
stillness remained unbroken for a long time.
The wolf pack broke loose again, doubtless hot on the track of a fleeing
caribou, perhaps the unfortunate one that had been wounded by Jimmy
on the preceding day when Frank knocked over the fine animal from
which their late supper had come. Ned listened to the chorus, and
allowed his thoughts to roam to other and more distant scenes, where
he had had exciting experiences with the hungry animals himself,
calculated to cause a shudder just to remember.
The time passed slowly. Several louder bursts of wolfish tongues told
when the hunting pack chanced to draw nearer the camp, but only to
grow fainter again in the distance, as the chase led the animals over
barrens where the caribou herd fed, and across wild cranberry bogs,
such as the boys could remember seeing up in Northern New York
State when camping in the Adirondacks.

When Ned reckoned that his time was up he woke Jimmy, who had
long ago gone to sleep as sweetly as you please, with his head leaning
against the butt of a tree. Ned told him he might just as well crawl
under the tent and get