Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/204

 up from Jasper Peak showed that they were still there, watching and ever watching. Game began to be scarce in the restricted limit the boys allowed themselves for hunting, so that they fell to  dipping deeper and deeper into Oscar’s stores. Everything was kept in the small shed backing up against the cottage with its door opening into  the main room. This place was carefully inspected every day, according to instructions.

“For,” Oscar had said, “if the fieldmice get in and chew up your bacon or a leak comes in the  roof and spoils your flour and meal, where are  you? In case of bad weather your lives might depend on these supplies being safe.”

The vigilance of Nicholas sniffed out any overbold mouse that ventured within, while the boys’ watchfulness prevented any mischance from wind  and rain, so that for a time all went well. They began, indeed, to feel such a sense of security that  it did not seem possible anything could go amiss  and it appeared that, when Oscar returned, the  report given him would be quite barren of adventure. Hugh, however, thinking of those