The Bobbsey Twins at Cedar Camp Part 30

The wildcat, having eaten Bert's lunch, which did not take long, looked up at the boy on the rock. It sniffed at the base of the big stone, and reared up with its forepaws against it.

"You can't climb here!" called Bert aloud. "If you do I'll hit you on the nose with s...o...b..a.l.l.s!"

And then, as though to add to the boy's troubles, it began to snow hard, a wall of white flakes falling around the lone laddie on the big rock.

CHAPTER XXII--FOUND AT LAST

Bert Bobbsey was really frightened and alarmed, caught as he was in the storm on the big rock, with a wildcat sniffing around at the bottom. He could not even see well enough to throw s...o...b..a.l.l.s at the creature, and, even if he could have driven it away, he felt that it would not be safe for him to come down off the big stone.

"He can't get me while I'm up here, I don't believe," said Bert to himself. "But I can't stay here very long, or I'll be snowed under. What shall I do?"

Indeed he was in what he said afterward was a "regular pickle." And then Bert thought of calling for help. He wondered why he had not done that before.

Standing up on the high rock Bert sent his voice shouting out into the storm.

"Help! Help! Help!" he shouted.

Bert did not know just whom he expected to help him. He did not know how far he was from Mrs. Bimby's cabin, nor how far he was away from Cedar Camp. All he knew was that he was in trouble and needed help. The only way was to shout as loudly as he could.

At his first call the wildcat at the foot of the rock snarled, growled, and tried to leap up. But the sides were too steep and smooth. Bert could catch glimpses of the animal when the snow came down a little less heavily now and again, making a sort of opening in the white curtain.

"Help! Help! Help!" cried Bert again and again.

Curiously enough it was Flossie and Freddie, who in the blizzard had wandered near to the rock, who heard Bert's cry. Through the storm the voice came to them, though of course they did not know it was their brother calling.

"Hark!" exclaimed Freddie, who, with his sister, had been floundering about in the drifts, the small Bobbsey twins trying to find their former tracks in the snow so they could work their way back. But the flakes had fallen into their footprints, and had been blown over them so deeply that the prints were blotted out.

"Do you hear that?" asked Freddie of Flossie.

"Yes," she answered, as the voice came to her ears. "It's somebody saying he'll help us."

That is what she thought it was--someone wanting to help her and Freddie, not someone in need of help.

Again came the call, and it sounded so close that the two small Bobbsey twins knew which way to go to reach it.

"We're coming! We're coming!" shouted Freddie. "Come on, Rover! I guess that's daddy coming to help us! We're coming!"

With a bark the dog bounded through the storm after the two children, and you can imagine how surprised Bert Bobbsey on the rock was when he heard shouts in answer to his own. He did not know, of course, that Freddie and Flossie were anywhere near him. He thought it was his father and some of the men from Cedar Camp.

A little later the small Bobbsey twins came within sight of the big rock. They could not see Bert on it on account of the blinding snow. But Rover caught the smell of the wildcat, and with a savage bark he sprang to drive the creature away.

"Good old Rover! Good dog!" cried Bert, as the snow stopped for a moment and he caught sight of the dog that he knew. "Sic him, Rover!"

And Rover rushed at the wildcat with such fierceness that the beast scuttled back to its den under the half-fallen tree. And then Bert looked and saw Flossie and Freddie.

At the same time the small Bobbsey twins looked up and caught a glimpse of their brother on the rock.

"Oh, Bert!" cried Freddie, "did you come out to look for us? We're lost!"

"So am I, I guess," Bert answered, as he jumped down, landing in a bank of soft snow and beginning to pet Rover. "Where in the world did you children come from?"

"We came out after daddy and Mr. Jim and Mr. Case," Freddie went on.

"They're going to take some things to Mrs. Bimby."

"Mrs. Bimby!" cried Bert "Why, I left her and Nan this morning. They haven't got hardly anything left to eat. But where is the camp?"

"Don't you know?" asked Freddie. "We don't know. We're lost."

"That's bad," said Bert, looking at the swirling snow all about. "And the wildcat ate my lunch."

"We've a little left," Flossie said. "Did you save any chestnuts, Bert?"

"I brought some, but I ate 'em. But Nan's got some, back at Mrs. Bimby's cabin, if we can find it. You say daddy started out after us?"

"Yes, to find you and Nan and take something to Mrs. Bimby," explained Freddie. "Her husband was at our camp. He got lost in the snow, and he said his wife didn't have anything in the cupboard."

"She didn't--not very much," Bert said. "I shot a rabbit, but I guess that's all eaten now. But say, you two oughtn't to be out here alone!"

"We're not alone now," Flossie said. "We got you with us!"

"Well, I'm glad you met me," Bert said. "And I'm glad Rover drove that wildcat away. I scared one with s...o...b..a.l.l.s, but I couldn't hit this one very well. Now we'd better try to get back to camp. I guess there's going to be another storm."

"Will it snow a whole lot and cover us all up?" asked Flossie, anxiously.

The poor little girl had had quite enough of snow, cold wind, blizzards, and bad weather of all sorts.

"Oh, I guess maybe it won't snow so very hard," answered Bert. He did not want to confess to Flossie and Freddie that he was a bit frightened.

"Maybe Rover could show us which way to go to find Cedar Camp,"

suggested Freddie. "Dogs are smart, and Rover is a good dog."

"He was nice to us when we sat under the pine tree," went on Flossie.

"And he ran out and brought in pine cones and he shook himself and made snow fly all over me."

"You didn't try to eat pine cones, did you?" asked Bert.

"Oh, no," Flossie answered. "We just threw them for Rover to play with.

But I'm too tired to play now. I want to go to bed."

"Oh, Flossie, you don't want to go to bed now, do you?" asked Bert.

"Why, if you were to lie down in the snow you'd freeze."

"I don't want to go to sleep in the snow," Flossie said, and she was beginning to whine a little. No wonder, for it had been a hard day for her and Freddie.