"Oh, he’ll be here before long," interjected Joe. "I vote we do a camp in the shade for an hour or two; it’s hot enough to fry a steak."
This was good advice, and the boys made themselves as comfortable as circumstances permitted under the shade of the trees. So the hours passed without any sign of the trapper.
"Well, I declare," exclaimed Tom for the twentieth time in the course of the last hour, "it’s too bad of Nosey. I’m full up of waitin’ here with nothing to do. Can’t you leave a message somehow for the ole cuss?"
"Well, you are a greeney, Tom. Where’s the pen, ink, and paper to come from?"
"Old Nosey, be hanged! Of course he hasn’t, any more than he’s got a dress suit and a toilet mirror."
"I’ve got a pencil," said Joe, feeling in his pocket.
"No good in the world; where’s the paper to come from; an’ supposin’ we had pens, ink, paper, blotting-pads, writing desks, and whatever else you like to name in the scribbling line, what good ’ud it all be?"
"Meanin’ this, you dunderheads—it’s got to be read."
"Well!—of all the thick-heads, muddle-pates, soft-uns, hodges, and idiots that ever I came across——!"
"Here, draw it mild, young porridge-pot. There’s two to one against you: mind that, you red herring!"
"I’ll _mind_ more than that, if I am the son of a Scot, which is no great disgrace, after all," replied Sandy jeeringly. "But look here and listen, chiels. I’ll tell you a story—
"Once upon a time, when pigs were called swine an’ monkeys chewed tobacco, there lived a bully English captain, the commander of a man o’ war. This frigate, sailing up the channel on her return from foreign parts, sighted a French ship, not more’n about twice her size. Instead of closing with the Frenchy slap bang, an’ givin’ her what-for, she turned tail an’ showed her a clean pair of heels. This outrageous proceeding on the part of a British sea-dog demanded instant investigation, and so the jolly captain was promptly court-martialled. After the case had been put by the prosecuting officer, and not denied by the prisoner, he was asked by the president of the court why he did not engage the enemy. The captain, in reply, said that he had ten reasons. ’Name them,’ says the boss officer. ’The first is: I had no powder; it was all used up.’ ’Enuf sed,’ sings out the judge. ’We don’t want the other nine. You’re discharged, my man, without a stain on your character.’"