CAUGHT IN THE STORM
So plain was the trail of the wanderer that they had no trouble in
following it at quite a rapid pace. Indeed, Elmer calculated that
they were proceeding even faster than Perk himself had gone along;
for as a rule the stout chum was not prone to make speed except when
circumstances demanded that he let himself out—in a baseball game;
or it might be a sack race for a prize.
More than once did Elmer mentally take himself to task for not
starting out much sooner. The afternoon was closing in, and it would
not be a great while before night came on. Even another precious
half hour of daylight might have proven of considerable value to
them; but then Elmer knew it was useless now to indulge in vain
regrets.
By the time it began to get so dusky that even his keen eyes had
difficulty in making out the trail, he decided it was necessary to
make use of the lantern.
They had come quite a distance, Wee Willie figuring it out as
possibly a couple of miles, which must have been a conservative
guess, Elmer agreed. So he struck a match, and presently when the
trail was taken up again the lantern light allowed them to see
Perk’s heavy tracks plainly.
Already they had changed their course considerably. Perk aimed to
avoid pushing through many of the thickets, and rough places he
encountered; which had a tendency to throw him now to the right, and
again to the left, until naturally he became bewildered, and
doubtless for the life of him could not decide in which quarter the
cabin lay.
From the indications Wee Willie judged that he had stopped to cast a
stone into numerous thickets, in expectation of starting a partridge
out, which he hoped would betray that queer trick the other boys had
been speaking about. When after much wandering, and repeated
failures to score, Perk finally made up his mind that it was time
for him to turn his face toward camp, he must have been thoroughly
disgusted to discover that he did not have the slightest idea as to
whether the cabin lay on the right, the left, before, or behind him;
and that he was really and truly lost.
But then that did not have any great terror for Perk. He had been
lost so many times before that it was getting to be an old story.
Doubtless he would keep on trying to “find himself” until he
realized the hopelessness of it all, when he would philosophically
sit down, to make a fire, and toast his shins, until such time as
his mates came along with a rescue party; for he knew they could
easily follow his tracks.
Perk, however, did not take certain possibilities into
consideration, if he figured it out that way, for one thing the
coming of the storm. At no other time when he played the part of the
“babes in the woods” had anything like that overtaken him; and if
there was one particular type of Nature’s moods which Perk disliked
most cordially it was a storm.
The lightning always made him jump; the thunder awed him; while the
roar of a violent wind through the trees, sounding like a runaway
railway train coming down the slope, made his flesh fairly creep. So
that it can be seen an experience he would not soon forget faced the
reckless woods wanderer on this occasion.
They had not been moving again very long after the lantern was
lighted when Wee Willie called their attention to the moaning of the
wind through the tops of the tall trees.
“That always means storm, according to my weather education,” he
affirmed; “anyhow, I never yet knew it to fail. The clouds are
working up all the time, too, boys. Guess we’ll be swimming before a
great while. Worst of all is the fact that once the water comes
down, good-by to our tracking, for even Perk’s heavy trail would
soon be washed clean out.”
“And not a single little woods varmint have we run across,”
suggested Elmer, who never failed to notice everything, “which shows
that their instinct tells them there’s something afoot, and that
they’d better hug their underground holes, or hollow trees, for
shelter.”
“How weird that wind does sound through the treetops,” said Amos,
shuddering as he spoke. “You could almost imagine it came from some
unseen spirits, or that the trees were gossiping, just like a pack
of old women over their teacups.”
Wee Willie had not thought of that, because he was a practical sort
of fellow; but then Amos happened to be built along different lines,
being given a lively imagination.
“Here’s where Perk commenced to hurry some,” observed Elmer at that
juncture. “He must have begun to realize he didn’t seem to be
striking the river very fast, for he even ran a short distance,
lumbering along like an ice-wagon, and falling more than a few
times.”
“Huh! getting some anxious, I warrant you,” grunted Wee Willie.
“Began to be afraid he’d miss his supper if he didn’t do better.”
“Don’t say that,” urged Elmer, reprovingly; “I’d rather believe Perk
was thinking of the worry he might cause the rest of his chums.”
“Say,” snapped the other as quick as a flash, “forget what I said,
please, fellows; it came from the lips, but not from the heart. I
didn’t mean it, that’s right. Perk isn’t the chap to think of
himself first; there never was a more loyal comrade, or one who
wanted more to be of service to his pals.”
That was Wee Willie all over—too ready to say things of which he
immediately repented, when he would strive to make amends. But Elmer
liked him all the better on account of his quick temper, and habit
of speaking without considering the result; Wee Willie had his
faults, but to Elmer’s mind he was an angel compared with some sly
fellows who seemed to have a perpetual sneer in their tones, and a
curl to their upper lips.
“Wasn’t that distant thunder I heard then?” asked Amos.
“Just what it was,” Elmer admitted; “so we didn’t hit far out of the
way when we decided we were in for a storm.”
“But it’s a long way off yet,” urged the other.
“That’s true, but when the wind starts to blow it doesn’t take long
for a gale to strike home,” the boy with the lighted lantern
reminded him.
“About how long would you give us before it arrives?” continued
Amos.
“Anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour,” he was told. “Sometimes
they take a notion to swing around, and attack from a new quarter;
which holds things up more or less.”
“Huh! you never can tell what a crazy old storm will do,” grunted
Wee Willie. “I’ve had ’em die down on me, but just when I was taking
a good breath, slam bang! and the game was on again, the second
edition being a heap worse than the original dose. It pays to keep
right on the job when there’s a twister working your patch of the
woods.”
“It pays to keep on the alert, no matter where you are. Preparedness
has won many a battle on the field, in business, and with private
affairs. The fellow who is ready has three chances to one for the
shiftless chap caught off his guard.”
It was not long before the distant boom of the thunder grew
perceptibly louder, proving that the storm was advancing their way,
and could not be much longer delayed in transit.
“We might holler a few times,” suggested Wee Willie, “and if by
great good luck Perk is close enough to hear us, so much the
better.”
“Go to it, then,” advised Elmer, knowing Wee Willie had a voice that
would be apt to carry much further than his own, or that of Amos.
Without waiting for a second invitation the elongated chum threw
back his head and sent forth one of his shrillest yells.
“Perk! oh! Perk! Hey! there!” he bawled.
“Perk! hey there!” came a startling mocking answer that caused Wee
Willie to jump, and stare hard at Elmer.
“W-why, did y-you hear that?” he gasped.
“Only an echo,” the other told him. “It repeated your words after
you. As a rule it requires some sort of elevation to create an echo;
but they’ve been known to spring right up from what looked like
level ground. A lot depends on the condition of the atmosphere. I’ve
known of a mighty fine echo that would send back a double line at
you like fun, and yet it came out of a marsh. I admit echoes have
always been something of a puzzle to me; but that was one just now,
all right.”
“A queer thing,” Amos hurried to say, “and at first I really thought
it was Perk hiding close by, and mocking Wee Willie here. Can you
still follow his tracks, Elmer?”
“It’s as easy as falling off a log,” replied the one addressed, “but
for a fact I’m more than surprised at Perk keeping it up so long. He
must have been provoked with himself over getting lost, and
determined to make the punishment fit the crime. Why, we’ve come
more than three miles, up to now.”
“If we’re going to find him before that storm breaks, it’s got to be
done fast now,” Wee Willie told them, when a still more resonant
grumble followed what was plainly a distant flash of lightning.
“All we can do,” advised the guide with the lighted lantern, “is to
keep moving until we’re up against it, when of course we’ll have to
try to find some shelter ourselves.”
Wee Willie continued to let out a whoop from time to time. It amused
him, at least, and could do no harm, while there was always a
slender chance that Perk might hear and reply.
“Wow! things are getting pretty warm!” he announced shortly
afterwards, when a really deafening crash followed quickly on the
heels of a blinding electric display.
“I felt the first drop of rain on my face when I looked up at that
flash,” said Amos, trying to show the utmost coolness.
“Yes, it’s going to break right away,” said Elmer.
“Perk, I wonder where you are?” Wee Willie remarked on a hazard,
remembering what a dislike the lost chum invariably displayed toward
all kinds of strife among the elements.
“Listen! what’s that?” asked Amos. “Sounds for all the world like a
regular young Niagara going over the falls.”
“It means the rain is rushing down on us, and that we’re going to be
soaked through and through in a jiffy,” Elmer told him.
Five minutes afterwards and they found themselves in the midst of as
lively a summer gale as any of them had ever known, with the
artillery in the heavens keeping up an almost constant booming,
occupied by dazzling flashes of lightning; while to the right and to
the left they could hear terrific crashing sounds as trees were laid
prostrate before the fury of the hurricane wind!