“This ain’t the right place,” growled Hoop-la, “this is the hospital. They must expect to kill about a hundred men every day. Hi! Jack! Come here. Where’s the bunk-room?” he asked as Gillis approached.
“Say! what you givin’ us? I wouldn’t dare sit down on one of them beds; ’fraid of dirty’n it.”
“Jack, can we put up a log shack for ourselves?” asked Blackie.
“You sure can,” responded Gillis tolerantly.
“All right, we’ll sleep in this morgue ’till we get a decent place,” said Blackie.
He poked his head in the door just as Andy, clad in white coat, entered by the rear.
“Say, nurse,” shouted Blackie, “get ready for twenty-two cases of delirium tremens!”
“That’s easy,” was Andy’s quick retort; “I’ve ’ad more than that by myself.” His eyebrows lifted in quick surprise as he saw the brilliant shirts.
“When does the blinkin’ circus start?” he grinned.
That evening in their explorations Blackie and Hoop-la found the log shack on the lake-shore.
“Say, Jack, can me and Hoop-la have that cabin down there?”
“You bet you can, Blackie. You and Hoop-la can have anythin’ round here,” replied Gillis heartily.
Blackie had turned to go, but on hearing this broad statement he stopped quickly. “Say, Jack, me and Hoop-la came away from Vancouver owin’ a little money—an’ I promised to send——”
“Ye’ve got me when the gittin’ is good,” interrupted Gillis. “How much do you want?”
“Let me see,” reflected Blackie, “I owe for my room in town; and I owe at Old Joe’s, and—and——”
“How much? Spit it out, I can stand the shock,” commanded Gillis.
“Whew!” whistled Gillis as he reached for his purse.
With Donald’s assistance the hundred dollars was found and Blackie ran joyously down the hill.
“Little devil!” smiled Gillis as he gazed after him. “Good-hearted a feller as ever lived,” he added feelingly, “but he can’t take one drink without goin’ crazy.”
The “redshirts” had been up in the woods looking over the logging operations, and they now came swinging down the hill, their bright shirts flashing in the sun. They were loggers, “every inch of them,” as Gillis had said.
Andy’s study of nature proved to be no idle whim, and Gillis had long since ceased teasing him. All his leisure moments were spent in scouring the hills and meadows for specimens, and regularly every Sunday afternoon he ascended the hill to Wainwright’s cabin with his collection for the learned Englishman’s inspection.