The Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds | Page 9

tell whether we were going in the right direction
or not, all right!"
As the boy spoke, he lifted a hand to his face and raised the net which
protected his features from the mosquitos, still flying about, although
the night, apparently, was cold enough to freeze their wings stiff.
"They won't bother you much more," Thede commented.
"How do you know that?"
"Because there's a snow storm coming up!"
"Then we'd better be getting a move on!" advised George. "If we get
caught up here in a snow storm, it'll be 'Good-night' for us!"
"We're going as fast as we can," replied Thede, "but I don't know
whether we're going in the right direction or not. It seems like we've
walked far enough to be at the camp."
In five minutes the searchlight revealed a drift of snow in the air, and
ten minutes later the ground was white. A cold wind blew out of the

north, shifting at times to the west, and the boys shivered under the
chill of it. Still no welcome light from the camp.
"Can you find your way back to the cabin?" asked George after they
had walked at least an hour.
"We've got to find our way somewhere pretty soon!" the other replied.
"If we don't, we'll freeze to death!"
The boys walked for what seemed to them two hours more, and then
Thede, who was in advance, stumbled over a tree bole lying at the foot
of a gentle slope. He rose rubbing his elbow and turned the flashlight
toward the front.
"I know where we are now," he said. "We're about eight miles from the
cabin. This place here is called Bear Ridge, and it's about the only
collection of rocks and caverns that I know of in this district."
"Can't we find a cavern to crawl into?" asked George, his teeth
chattering with the cold.
"If we find a cavern," advised Thede, "we're likely to find a couple of
bears packed away in it!"
"I don't care if there are a hundred bears!" grumbled George. "I'll freeze
to death if I stay out in this snow another minute!"
After a long and difficult climb the boys came to a ledge of rock and
crawled into a small opening revealed by the searchlight.
"The beds are all full tonight, I guess," George said shivering. "I hear
Bruin kicking about being disturbed."

CHAPTER V
A BOY SCOUT TRICK

"Where's that fool boy going now?" asked Tommy as George, in
pursuit of the spy, dashed into the thicket.
"What did he see back here that caused him to let out a yell like that?"
asked Sandy.
"I don't believe he saw anything!" Will declared. "He just thought he'd
give us a good scare by pretending he'd bumped into a band of Indians,
or something like that."
The boys looked over the ground in the rear of the tent, and finally
Tommy came to the place where the spy had punctured the canvas.
"Who made this hole in the tent?" he asked.
The boys gathered around the opening through which the spy had
inspected the interior of the tent, and looked at each other with wonder
expressed on their faces. Tommy was first to speak.
"George must have caught a man here looking in," he said.
"That's why he disappeared so suddenly," Will argued.
"Yes, he was chasing the Peeping Tom," Sandy agreed.
"I wish we knew the direction they took," Will mused. "The boy may
get into serious trouble, chasing off into the forest along in the night.
He should have told us of his discovery so one of us could have gone
with him! We may be able to find him yet."
"Aw, he'll come back before long!" Tommy argued. "He can't make
any headway out there in the underbrush, and the fellow who was here
will probably run away from him before he gets three rods from the
tent."
"I hope so!" answered Will.
"But what was that gink prowling around the tent for?" asked Sandy.
"That must have been the same fellow we heard using the paddle a

short time ago. If it is, he's mighty liberal with his bullets!"
"I'm anxious about that boy," Will broke in. "I wish he'd come back!"
"Yes, this isn't a very desirable country to be lost in in the night!"
Tommy admitted. "He ought not to have gone away."
"What do you make of this gink prowling around our tent?" asked
Sandy. "Do you think he's doing it out of curiosity, or because he has
an inkling of what we're up here after?"
"Huh! How would any one away off up here know anything about the
Little Brass God?" demanded Tommy.
"Look here," Will argued. "The Little Brass God is stolen from this
house