“Looks kinder like things’d be mighty well soaked after all that downpour,” affirmed the shrewd Yankee-Canadian; “so it’d be a tough job coaxin’ stuff to take fire. But wait a minute, partner—I didn’t get a chance to tell you that I spied what looked like an ol’ tumbledown shack over to windward—I guess now it might be abandoned, but just the same, partner, we’d be apt to run across some dry wood inside.”
“Suppose you step over and take a look-in, Perk,” suggested the other. “I’ll stand by the crate here, and keep our little glim working, so you’ll get your bearings when you start back.”
“You said it, Jack,” acceded the lanky one, always eager for any sort of service; “an’ by the same token now I’ll tote my gun along—never c’n tell what sorter game you’ll stack up against on these here Texas plains, I’m told. I feel like I could knock over a wolf er two, just to get my blood to movin’ at a faster clip—how ’bout it, boss?”
“Suit yourself, Perk,” he was told, as Jack climbed back into the cockpit so as to manipulate the light he mentioned, and which would prove sufficient to serve the wanderer as a beacon when wishing to retrace his steps.
Accordingly Perk wandered off, having decided as to the quarter where he had glimpsed what looked like an old and lonely shack or cabin, faintly seen in the moonlight.
He came back in a short time, bubbling over with satisfaction.
“It’s all right, Jack—just like I guessed, it turned out to be an ownerless shack but the roof looks like it might’ve shed the rain, an’ oh! boy! heaps o’ dry wood inside, with a whoppin’ big fireplace where you could slap on the biggest log agoin’. Mebbe I ain’t glad you thought o’ this game. Come along, an’ we’ll fetch the stuff for a warm snack—coffee, crackers, an’ bacon in the bargain. Talk to me about luck, it’s comin’ to us in big chunks.”
“Oh! we’ve got to get used to that sort of thing,” said Jack, in the most matter-of-fact tone imaginable; “when you’re on such a wonderful lay as this anything’s likely to happen, and all kinds of surprises spring out at you.”
“I wonder,” was all Perk could say in reply; but he lost no time in gathering together such articles as aluminum coffeepot, skillet, cups, and such other things as he knew would be needed to complete their little midnight spread.