Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds Part 8

The earth outside was covered with a thick mat of snow, and the trees and shrubs of the forest were bending beneath burdens of pure white.

The fire had burned to ashes and it was miserably cold.

The Little Bra.s.s G.o.d was gone!

CHAPTER VII

AN EMPTY CAVERN

Perhaps a dozen yards from the fire, Tommy stumbled at a figure over which the falling snow was fast drifting. He called out to Sandy, who was only a short distance away, and the two lifted the unconscious form in their arms and staggered toward the fire.

"Why, it's nothing but a kid!" Sandy exclaimed.

"Don't you know who it is?" demanded Tommy.

"Never saw him before!" was the reply.

"It's Thede Carson!"

"Not that little monkey of a Thede Carson who's always getting the Beaver Patrol into trouble?" demanded Sandy. "What would he be doing up here? I guess you're losing the sense of sight."

"Sure, it's Thede Carson," insisted Tommy.

"Well, I guess he's about all in," Sandy volunteered.

"Get busy then, with your first aid," Tommy ordered. "Get some of his clothes off and get to work with snow, or his fingers and toes will drop off as soon as they thaw out."

"I don't believe it's the cold so much as it is exhaustion," Sandy ventured. "He seems to have been running a whole lot, for he's still panting, I reckon he just dropped down when he couldn't run any further."

"I guess that's about right," Tommy admitted. "He doesn't seem to be very cold. It may be that wound on his head," the lad added, pointing to a long gash in the scalp which, judging from the state of the lad's clothing, had bled very freely.

"What do you think of coming away up here in the Hudson Bay country and picking a member of the Beaver Patrol right out of the woods?"

demanded Sandy. "We seem to find Boy Scouts wherever we go."

The boys worked over the exhausted lad some moments, and then he opened his eyes.

"Now for the love of Mike!" exclaimed Tommy, "don't look around and say 'Where am I?' The correct thing to say in these modern days is 'Vot iss?' Do you get me, Thede?"

"Why, it's Tommy!" said the boy.

"Betcher life!" returned Tommy. "Did you run all the way up here from Clark street? Or did you come up in an aeroplane?"

Thede sat up and looked about for the tents and the boats.

"Why, this isn't the camp!" he said.

"We haven't got any more camp than a rabbit!" declared Sandy.

"We're lost! We've got to wait till morning to find our way back."

"It's a good thing you're lost!" exclaimed Thede. "I don't think I could have held out until I reached the camp. You see," he went on with a slight shudder at the recollection of his experiences, "I left George a long distance off."

"Left George?" repeated Tommy.

"I couldn't bring him with me," answered Thede, with a slow smile,

"Where did you leave him?" demanded Tommy.

"Why didn't he come with you?" asked Sandy.

"Because," replied Thede, "just as he was reaching up to the wall of the cavern to take hold of the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d, he got a tunk on the coco that put him out for the count."

"What do you know about the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d?" asked Tommy.

"I've seen it!" answered Thede. "It sat up on a shelf on the face of the wall, with its legs crossed, and its arms folded, and its wicked face telling me where I could go whether I wanted to or not."

"I guess something's gone to your head!" declared Sandy.

"But I'll tell you we found the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d!" declared Thede.

"George came to the cabin, and we started out to find the camp, and got lost in the storm, and brought up in a cave inhabited by two bears."

Sandy regarded Tommy significantly.

"And we found a bas.e.m.e.nt floor to the cavern, and went down the elevator and found a man asleep in front of a fire with the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d winking at him. Funny fellow, that Little Bra.s.s G.o.d!"

"You for the foolish house!" cried Tommy.

"Honest, boys!" Thede declared. "George came to the cabin and I started home with him after Pierre left us alone together. The storm chased us into a cave, just as I told you, and we kept on going until we came to the place where the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d sat up on the wall making faces at a man asleep at the fire.'"

"Go on!" exclaimed Tommy, at last understanding that the boy was in his right mind. "Tell us about it!"

"And George said he would get the Little Bra.s.s G.o.d without waking the man up. So he gave me his gun, and I was to shoot in case the man made any trouble. Then, just as George was reaching for the little Bra.s.s G.o.d, the man woke up and shot at him, Then the man shot at me, and I shot at him, and then he got my gun away from me and I ran out to find you."

"And you left George there in the cavern?" asked Sandy.

"I just had to!" was the reply. "I couldn't do anything with that giant of a half-breed, and I didn't have a gun and so I ducked.

"Can you take us back to that cavern now?" asked Tommy.

"Sure I can," was the reply.

"Oughtn't we to let Will know where we are?" asked Sandy.

Tommy looked at Thede questioningly.

"Can you tell us how to find the cavern?" he asked in a moment.