RAFE IS CROSS
Sammy Pinkney awoke to hear barking. But it was not Tom Jonah, as he
had dreamed it was. He was chilly, too, and when his eyes got used to
the semi-darkness of the cave he was sleeping in, Sammy discovered
that Rafe had deliberately removed the share of the bedclothes that
had been over Sammy and spread them over himself.
"Aw, say!" muttered Sammy. "Ain't he fresh?"
Then Rafe barked again.
"He certainly has one fierce cold!" muttered Sammy. "I ain't got the
heart to start nothing on him."
Instead he got up and crept over, to the fireplace where there were
still some red embers. Rowdy, or somebody, had evidently been up more
than once to put fuel on the fire, and now Sammy did the same and blew
the coals until the wood caught and blazed.
Beside the fireplace was a great stack of billets of seasoned wood.
Evidently this cave had been used as a living place for a long time;
or perhaps it had merely been stocked with fuel for a long time.
Sammy hoped it was well stocked with food, too. For Sammy was hungry,
right then! It seemed to him that the rabbit stew had been eaten a
long time before. There was no clock; but judging from the way he felt
he thought he must have slept the clock around.
He wondered if the storm had ceased. Was there likelihood of their
being able to get back to Red Deer Lodge this morning (if it was
morning), or would they have to remain until some one came to dig them
out?
The fire having sprung up now, and the flickering light aiding him to
see his way about the cavern, Sammy moved toward the entrance. This
aperture beside the huge bowlder was scarcely higher than Sammy
himself. Before it Rowdy and Rafe, the two strange boys, had hung a
piece of matting. When Sammy pulled this matting away he saw
snow--snow that filled the hole "chock-er-block," as he expressed it.
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" muttered the startled Sammy, "I guess it did snow
some. How are we ever going to dig out of here?"
There was a slab of wood standing beside the opening, leaning against
the rock. Sammy seized this and began to dig desperately at the snow.
So interested did he become in digging through the bank that filled
the cave entrance that he did not pay much attention to where he flung
the snow behind him. He was still digging like a woodchuck when
Rowdy's voice reached him:
"What are you trying to do? Going to fill this cave with snow?"
"Say!" said Sammy, "it's getting-up time. And there's an awful lot of
snow here. I guess we're buried alive, that's what I guess!"
Just then Rafe coughed again, and his brother hopped up and went to
him.
"Don't scatter that snow all about, Sammy," he commanded. Then to
Rafe: "What's the matter, Rafe, dear? Don't you feel any better?"
"I'm--I'm chilly," chattered the boy with the cough.
"I'll cover you up better," said Rowdy, getting his own blanket. "And
we'll have more fire and some breakfast. Are you hungry, Rafe?"
"I'm thirsty," said Rafe, rather whiningly. "I want some--some
coffee."
"I'll make some right away. Don't be sick, now, Rafe. I don't see what
we should do for you if you got sick. What _are_ you scratching for?"
"Because I itch," replied Rafe drowsily.
But he snuggled down under the coverings until the coffee should be
made. He seemed in a pleasanter humor, at least, than on the evening
before.
Rowdy bustled about, making coffee and stirring up some kind of bread
by the light of the fire. Soon the fuel heaped upon the blaze made the
cave warm again, although the smoke set them all to coughing.
The two little girls woke up. Dot demanded a light.
"I don't like this old smoky fire to see by," she complained. "Why
don't you keep your fire in a stove, Rowdy?"
"Haven't a stove," replied Rowdy promptly. "How did you girls sleep?"
"All right, I guess," Tess replied. "What are you doing, Sammy? Can we
go home this morning?"
Sammy was still digging. He tramped the snow into a corner behind him.
But the more snow he dug out of the hole the more there seemed to be.
He took a round stick as tall as he was himself and pushed it up
through the snowbank, and it let in no light at all.
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" he cried. "There's all the snow in the world blown
into this hole, I guess. We'll never get out of here!"
"Oh!" squealed Dot, "don't say that, Sammy. Of course we must get out.
It's coming Christmas, you know, and I've got to finish my motto that
I'm making for Ruthie. It's got to be done, and I didn't bring it with
me."
"But," said Tess, yet with some hesitation now, "the folks will surely
come to find us. Don't you say so, Rowdy?"
"If they know where you are," said Rowdy.
"But we didn't tell 'em," growled Sammy, coming to the fire to get
warm.
"That'll be all right," Dot declared, seeing no difficulty. "Tom Jonah
will find us. You know, we never can hide from Tom Jonah."
Tess explained to Rowdy that Tom Jonah was a dog, and a very good dog,
too. But she secretly had some doubts, as did Sammy, that the old dog
would be able to find them away down at the bottom of this hole where
they had coasted. She was careful to say nothing to frighten Dot, or
to discourage her.
They were all much interested in Rowdy's preparations for breakfast.
He produced a strip of bacon and he fried some of this in a pan while
the bread was cooking. There was no butter, and the coffee was rather
muddy; but not even Dot complained, as long as she got her share.
While they ate, they talked. At least, Rowdy and the visitors talked.
Rafe drank the coffee and ate his share of the breakfast, and then
went back to the bed and heaped almost all the coverings over him. He
had little red specks on his chest and arms, and he said he could not
get warm.
Sammy was desirous of getting out through the cave entrance to see if
it had stopped snowing and what the prospect was for clear weather.
But he dug for an hour after breakfast without accomplishing much.
Then Rowdy came to help him.
"I tell you what I think," said the Milton boy, in a low voice, so the
girls would not hear. "I b'lieve all that snow that was up on that
hill has just come tumbling down before this cave--so there!"
"An avalanche!" gasped Rowdy.
"I don't know what you call it. But that's what I think," repeated
Sammy. "We'll never dig out of here in this world."
"But I guess we've got to," said Rowdy sharply. "We can't live here
long."
"It ain't a bad sort of a place," said Sammy cheerfully. "I guess
Robinson Crusoe didn't have a better cave."
"He had more food than we have," said Rowdy thoughtfully. "And you
kids do eat a lot. If I'd known you were coming here to live I'd have
brought more stuff to eat--I surely would!"
"Can't we catch any more rabbits?" suggested Sammy.
"How are you going to catch rabbits when we can't get outside this
cave?" returned Rowdy. "I guess all boys are foolish. That sounds just
like Rafe."
"Say! You're a boy yourself," said Sammy, in surprise. "You needn't
talk."
"Oh!" rejoined Rowdy, and said nothing more for a time.
But they gave up digging through the snowbank. The snow seemed packed
very hard, and it was difficult to dig with a slab of wood. If there
had been an avalanche over the mouth of the cave their chances for
digging out were small, indeed. Luckily none of the children realized
just what that meant.
Living in the cave was some fun, as Sammy declared. At least, it had
the virtue of novelty. The time did not drag. They played games, paid
forfeits, and Tess told stories, and Rowdy sang songs. He had a very
sweet voice, and Tess told him that he sang almost as well as Agnes
did.
"And Agnes sings in the church chorus," explained Tess.
"And I think you cook 'most as good as a girl," said Dot. "I guess you
cook 'most as good as our Linda, at home, in Milton."
If Rowdy considered these statements compliments he did not say so.
Indeed, he seemed to be very silent after they were made. He sat
beside Rafe on the bed for some time, and they whispered together.
Rafe seemed to get no better, and he slept a good deal.
So did the other children sleep, after a while. Having no means of
telling whether one day or two had passed, after eating a second time
they all curled down, covering themselves as best they could, and
found in slumber a panacea for their anxiety.
It was not Sammy who awoke the next time, but Tess. She became wide
awake in a moment, hearing a sound from somewhere outside of the cave.
She sat up to hear it repeated.
Something was scrambling and scratching in the snow. She even heard a
"woof! woof!" just as though some animal tossed aside the snow and
blew through it. Tess was badly frightened.
"Sammy! Rowdy! Oh, please!" she cried. "Is it a bear?"
"Is what a bear?" demanded Rowdy, waking up in some confusion. "I
guess you've been dreaming, Tess."
"That isn't any dream!" cried the Corner House girl, and she sprang
up, seizing Dot in her arms.
Rowdy screamed now; not at all like a boy would cry out. He leaped
from the bed and ran to the other side of the room. There, hanging on
two pegs, was a small rifle. Sammy had eyed it with longing. But Rafe,
awakened as well, shouted:
"No good taking that, Rowdy! It isn't loaded. You know I shot away the
last cartridge at that old fox."
"Oh, Rafe! I told you then you were foolish," said Rowdy. "What shall
we do?"
"What is it?" yelled Sammy, tumbling out of bed.
"It's a wolf!" replied Rowdy. "I can hear it! Listen!"
Dot added her voice to the din. "Tell that wolf we haven't anything to
throw to him, so he might's well go away," she declared.
Rowdy ran to the hole in the snow. It seemed to be suddenly lighter
there. Was the beast that was scratching through letting daylight into
the cave?
Rafe shrieked and leaped out from under his coverings.
"You'll be killed, Rowdy! Don't go there!" he cried.
Dashing across the floor of the cave, he seized Rowdy and pulled him
out of the way.
"Give me the gun!" he ordered, wresting it from Rowdy's hands. He
seized it by the barrel and poised it as a club.
"Get out, Rowdy!" he commanded. "This isn't any place for a girl!"
At that amazing statement the little girls from the old Corner House
and Sammy Pinkney were so utterly surprised that they quite forgot the
savage animal that seemed to be trying to dig into the cave to attack
them.