could make a fire some way or
other."

"I'm afraid that's going to be out of the question," Frank told him.
"Of course we have matches in plenty, but we couldn't get dry wood
after that deluge. You see we had no chance to look around us for a
dead tree, and we have no camp hatchet along with us to do any
chopping."

"Oh, well, I guess we can stand it, Frank. Morning is bound to get
here sooner or later. We've gone through as bad times as this more
than once, haven't we?"

"I should say we had," Frank immediately replied, anxious to buoy up
the spirits of his companion as much as possible. "And for one thing,
that wind isn't going to reach in under here to any extent."

"You're right about that," admitted Will; "it comes from back of the
ledge, now that it's shifted into the west. Surely we have lots to be
thankful for. But of course we'll feel pretty hungry, because neither
of us is used to going without supper, you see."

At that Frank laughed.

"I thought I'd do it for a joke, first of all," he remarked; "you see
I'd been reading about the way the Indians make their pemmican by
drying venison, and how they carry a handful in their pouches when
they have a day's journey afoot to make, munching on it once in a
while."

"But what has that to do with us, Frank; we have no pemmican in camp,
have we?"

"No, but that piece of dried beef made me think of it, and for fun I
carved off a small hunk, intending to spring it on you as a joke if
you happened to say you felt hungry, I've got it here in the pocket of
my coat."

"Well! of all the luck, that takes the cake!" exclaimed Will. "We can
grind our teeth on that once in a while, and make believe we're
enjoying the most magnificent camp dinner going, eh, Frank?"

"It's apt to make us thirsty, of course, but just now it happens that
pools of water can be found for the looking, so that needn't bother us
any. So we're fixed in the line of grub; and there's no danger of
starving to death yet awhile."

By the time the last of the storm died away in the distance it was
almost night; in fact Will discovered the first star peeping through a
rent in the clouds overhead. Therefore the two chums started to make
themselves as comfortable as the hard conditions of their shelter
allowed, thankful that they had been spared being caught in the open
by that fearful summer storm.

CHAPTER XIII

TAKING A BEE-LINE FOR CAMP

Frank and Will were not apt soon to forget t