“Seeing that fire we made for Luther Snow just put me in the notion of having one for ourselves,” Bluff remarked, as he toasted his shins there beside the blaze he had created, with the aid of several logs, found near the spot.
“Wonder what’s become of the old fellow; and if we’ll ever see him again?” Will said, in a meditative manner.
Frank did not choose to tell anything he thought, but listened with an amused smile as his comrades discussed the chances the man had of making his intended destination before his only daughter sailed for the other side of the world.
The hour began to grow late, and once or twice Will started to yawn. Frank was just about to propose that they go aboard, after putting out the camp fire, as he had learned to always do on breaking camp, when Jerry called his attention to a strange ruddy hue in the sky.
“Can that be the storm coming?” asked Will, as they all gazed.
“If it is, she’s going to be a scorcher!” remarked Jerry.
“You forget that the storm is over to the southwest, boys, and this red light lies in the east, or southeast rather. I think it must be a house afire,” Frank at that moment remarked.
The idea of a poor family being burned out appealed to the boys strongly; and when Bluff boldly proposed that they lock the door of the cabin securely, and see if they could arrive on the scene in time to be of any assistance, somehow even timid Will and conservative Frank fell in with the idea at once.
The result of the vote being unanimous in favor of going, they hastened to shut the windows, and fasten the padlock on the door. Bluff insisted on carrying his precious gun, though admitting that it must look odd to see a boy hurrying to help a family that was being burned out, and carrying a shotgun along.
“But you never can tell what will happen,” said Bluff, stoutly; and so Frank, remembering that other occasion only too well when the presence of that same gun had prevented a fierce hammering from Fredericks and his crowd, wisely held his peace.
“Listen! is that somebody shouting?” cried Frank, after they had run along the road in a southerly direction for half a mile.
“Sounds like it to me,” ventured Will, between pants for breath.
“Now, on my part,” declared Bluff, “I thought it must be the screech of a locomotive; because, you know, there’s a railroad line on both sides of the river right along up here.”