"
With this the young man went out into the darkness and began groping
about for wood with which to keep up the fire until morning.
In the mean time, Bim, left to his own devices, had struck the trail
leading from the hut to Winn's camp, and started along it, probably
thinking that his master was following him as before. The dog soon
discovered Winn, and undertook to establish friendly relations with him
by rubbing his cold nose against the boy's cheek. The suddenness with
which Winn started up caused the dog to spring back into the darkness,
from the shelter of which he regarded his new acquaintance
distrustfully. Just then Billy Brackett, to cheer the loneliness of
his log-hut, began to chant the ballad of "The Baldheaded Man," and
Bim, hearing his master's voice, darted off in that direction.
Now Billy Brackett, though very fond of music, and possessed of an
inextinguishable longing to produce melodious sounds, could not sing
any more than Bim could. His efforts in this line had so often been
greeted with derisive shouts and unkind remarks by his engineering
comrades that he no longer attempted to sing in public. When alone,
however, and out of hearing of his fellows, he still sometimes broke
forth into song. Bim always howled in sympathy, but the effect of
their combined efforts had never been so surprising as upon the present
occasion, when they caused the precipitate flight from the island of
the very nephew for whom the young engineer was searching.
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