The Bobbsey Twins at Cedar Camp Part 18

"I think he did," said Mrs. Bobbsey, trying not to let the small twins see how worried she was.

"Oh, Freddie Bobbsey, look what you did!" suddenly cried Flossie. "You knocked over my steamboat!" For Freddie had toppled over the pile of blocks that Flossie had erected on the foot of her bed.

"Never mind. He didn't mean to," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "You can make another boat, Flossie."

"An' I'll help," offered Freddie.

Thus the two smaller Bobbsey twins amused themselves, with little thought of Bert and Nan except, perhaps, to wonder when they would come home with the chestnuts.

Meanwhile Mr. Bobbsey hurried through the fast-gathering darkness and the storm to the cabin of Jim Denton. Like the other men in the Christmas tree and lumber camp, the foreman had stopped work when the storm came with such blinding snow and a wind that turned bitter cold toward night.

"What's that?" cried Jim Denton, when Mr. Bobbsey called at his cabin.

"Bert and Nan not back from chestnutting yet? Why, I s'posed they were back hours ago!"

"So did I, and I wish they were," said Mr. Bobbsey.

"Oh, shucks now! don't worry," said the jolly foreman. "We'll find 'em all right. We'll start right out."

He put on his big boots and warm coat and went with Mr. Bobbsey to the cabins of some of the lumbermen. Soon a searching party was organized, and away they started through the storm along the path that earlier in the day Bert and Nan had taken to go to the chestnut grove.

"They took their lunch with them," said Mr. Bobbsey, "so they wouldn't be hungry until now. But they may be lost or have fallen into some hole and be half snowed over."

"Or they may have found some logger's or hunter's cabin, and have gone in," said Jim Denton. "There are plenty of cabins scattered through these woods."

"I hope they have found shelter," said Mr. Bobbsey anxiously.

On through the storm went the father of the Bobbsey twins and his lumbermen searchers. They stopped now and then and shouted, but no answers came back.

They had been out about an hour, and had gone more than a mile along the path that it was supposed Bert and Nan had taken, when one of the men called:

"Wait a minute! I think I heard someone call."

They all stopped and listened. Above the blowing of the wind and the swishing of the fast-falling snowflakes, a faint and far-off voice could be heard.

"Help! Help!" it called.

"There they are!" shouted one of the lumbermen.

"That doesn't sound like either Bert or Nan," said Mr. Bobbsey. "But it may be someone who started to bring them back to camp and he, too, became lost."

They all listened again, and once more came the call, but still faint and far away.

"Help! Help!"

"It's over here!" cried Jim Denton. "Over to the right!"

Through the storm and darkness the rescue party hurried, sending out calls to tell that they were on the way. Now and again they heard the cry in answer, and it sounded nearer now.

At last Mr. Bobbsey saw a dark figure huddled in a heap near a pile of snow, which had drifted around a large rock.

"Here's someone!" cried Mr. Bobbsey.

A moment later he and the lumbermen were standing over the figure of a man, partly buried in the snow.

"Why, it's Jim! Old Jim Bimby!" exclaimed Jim Denton. "I know him. He lives several miles from here. He must have been lost in the storm, too.

Jim! Jim!" he cried. "What you doing here?"

"I--I started to town for victuals," said old Jim Bimby, in faint tones.

"The storm was too much for me. I was about giving up."

"We heard you call," said Tom Case.

"Did you see anything of two small children?" eagerly asked Mr. Bobbsey.

"Twins, a boy and a girl! Did you see them?"

Anxiously he bent over to catch the old logger's answer.

CHAPTER XIV--SNOWED IN

Having been out in the cold and storm so long, Jim Bimby seemed to have become half frozen. He did not appear to understand what Mr. Bobbsey asked him. The old logger staggered to his feet, helped by some of the men from Cedar Camp, and looked about him.

"What's the matter?" asked Old Jim in a faint voice. "Did something happen? I remember startin' off to get--to get something to eat for my wife and me. Then I fell down, tired out, I guess."

"I guess you did!" exclaimed Tom Case. "And if we hadn't found you, you'd have been done for. We must get you to shelter."

"Take him around behind this big pine tree a minute," suggested Jim Denton. "He'll be out of the wind there, and we can give him a drink of the hot tea we brought along."

Some hot tea, mixed with milk, had been put in a thermos bottle and taken with the party to have ready for Nan and Bert, should the Bobbsey twins be found. Now this hot drink would do for poor old Jim Bimby.

Some of the men managed to light lanterns they carried, though it was hard work on account of the wind and snow, and the whole party, including the rescued man, went to the side of the big pine tree, which kept off some of the storm.

"There! I feel better," said Old Jim, as he swallowed the warm drink.

"And now can you tell us whether or not you saw my two children, Nan and Bert--the Bobbsey twins?" again asked their father anxiously.

Old Jim shook his head.

"No," he answered. "I didn't see any children. I came straight from my cabin, over the hill trail, to go to the village to get some food. The cupboard is almost bare at my house. I didn't think it was goin' to storm, and I was all taken aback when it did. I kept on, but I must have lost my way."

"Guess you did," said Mr. Peterson. "And you're not likely to get back on it in this storm, either."

"What!" cried Old Jim. "You mean to say I can't keep on to the store and take some food back to my wife?"

"Not in this storm!" said Tom Case. "You're miles from the store now, and more miles from your cabin. You'd best come to Cedar Camp with us, and in the morning, when the storm is over, you can go on again. Your wife has enough food to last until morning, hasn't she?"