Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/200

 Stanley, crowding forward and throwing himself on the rocky floor and indulging in the luxury of stretching out at full length.

“Not so loud and fast,” growled Abner. “He can’t git us in here, but if he knows we’re here we can’t git out. It’s like being cornered in a checker game, when ye have the double corner and t’other feller has a king and ye keep moving back and forth. Only, it’s worse, ’cause we’ve got to git out.”

“But why can’t we stay here till he gets tired, or believes we have escaped?” protested Stanley.

“Water,” briefly replied Abner.

“It’s only a matter of hours when you’d face all the Nicks in the woods for the sake of getting a drink,” supplemented Bub, gloomily.

“I was hoping we could remain,” lamented Stanley.

“We must dig out as soon as the moon rises. If Nick is as cute as I give credit fer being he’ll suspect some such trick and instead of trying to find us in the dark he’ll push right ahead to the foot of Hood Mountain and as soon as it begins to git light will beat back, trying to head us off.”

“Then we’ve let him get between us and our only place of refuge,” muttered Stanley.