“Yes, I guess that’s they all right,” Bob agreed.
As they started off again they at once plunged into thick woods which grew close to the river’s edge. Their progress was very slow as they had to exercise great care to avoid bumping into the trees.
“This dark is thick enough to cut,” Jack said after he had stumbled over a hidden stump and had barely escaped falling headlong into the snow.
It took them nearly another hour before they reached the point opposite to where they could still see the two lights out on the water.
“Wonder how long we’ve got to wait now,” Jack growled as he sat down on a log close to the edge of the river.
“Goodness knows,” Bob replied. “But it seems as though they ought to be about through by this time. It’s nearly eleven.”
“I’ll bet I could build a pier clear across the river in the time they’ve been at that job,” Jack declared.
“I guess they’re earning their money all right,” Rex said as he sat down beside Jack.
“Yes, and the joke is that they won’t get it, not if we succeed,” Bob laughed.
“Serve ’em right,” Jack declared. “A man who goes in for dirty work deserves to get stung.”
“I only wish that Ben himself was out there working in that cold water,” Bob said.
“It’s lucky for them that the weather turned warm,” Rex declared. “It seems almost like a night in June.”
“But, believe me, it hasn’t had time to warm that water up much,” Jack assured him. “And to think,” he chuckled, “that they’re doing it all for nothing.”
“Here they come,” Bob said a few minutes later. “See the lanterns. I guess they’re through at last and now we must get back in the woods and hide until they get a good distance off. If they should see us now it would spoil everything.”
It was so dark that finding a place where there would be no danger of being seen by the men was, as Jack declared, “the easiest thing they could do.” All that was necessary was to go back about twenty feet into the woods and keep perfectly quiet. And this they did.
“Dar, I tink dat pier hold dem log, oui.” Bob nudged Rex as the sound of the man’s voice came to his ears.
“But I’ll bet they don’t just the same,” he whispered.
“Dees water heem bon cold,” another of the Frenchmen declared, as he shivered only a few feet from where they were crouched.