Attack of the Amazons Read Online Free PDF Page B

them with dried meat, and Reb frowned. “This isn’t very good bait. The firstfish we catch, we’ll cut him up, and use
him
for bait.”
    They caught a fine two-pounder within an hour, and soon all the lines were baited.
    The sun had gone down, and Josh and Dave had gathered enough wood to make a cheerful fire. The Sleepers gathered around it, cooking one of the fish that Reb had pulled out of the river. The smell of it made everyone’s mouth water—and when Sarah divided it up, they all burned their mouths, trying to eat too fast. The fish was white and tender and did not have the strong taste that many fish did.
    â€œBoy, this is good fish!” Reb said. “Not as good as a blue channel cat caught back in Arkansas, but pretty good for Nuworld.”
    â€œYou might as well stop thinking about Arkansas. It’s all gone,” Jake said shortly. His own home in New York was gone too, and it sometimes came home to him with a poignant shock that all that he had grown up with was now over. All of them had only memories of Oldworld.
    But Jake was basically a cheerful young man, and as he ate, listening to Reb’s tall tales about fishing and hunting, he grew more content. Looking around at the faces illuminated by the flickering light of the fire, he thought,
A fellow would go a long way before he’d find friends as good as these.
    â€œWhat’s the smartest dog you ever had, Reb?” Josh asked.
    â€œWell—” Reb scratched his head thoughtfully, “—I’ve had plenty of good hounds, but I guess maybe the smartest was Old Blue. Now that was a dog! I didn’t know how smart he was until the day Pap sold one of the cows.”
    He leaned back, picked up another piece of fish, and nibbled at it thoughtfully. “We had three cows, andevery day I’d send Old Blue out to bring ’em in. One day Pap sold one of the cows. A fellow came and took her, so I sent Old Blue down that day to get the other two. Well, that dog just wouldn’t believe it! He hunted and hunted, and I tried to tell him that Pap had sold one, but he just couldn’t seem to understand that there wasn’t a third cow.” Reb shook his head and looked mournful.
    â€œWhat did you do?” Sarah asked in a sympathetic tone.
    Reb grinned, his blue eyes flashing in the firelight. “Well, I showed him the check we got for that other cow! He was all right then.”
    A laugh went around the circle, and he said, “Some of you may not believe these stories, but they’s actual.”
    The next morning Josh roused them all before dawn, and as the light began to make a thin white line in the east, they cooked a quick breakfast of bacon, which they ate with a loaf of bread baked in the ship’s galley. Then they shrugged into their knapsacks and filled their canteens with fresh water from the stream.
    Josh said, “Let’s go. We want to make good time today.”
    They did make good time all morning. First they passed over a plain, very level, with trees in small clumps and crossed from time to time by wandering streams. The land began to rise a little by noon. Then they went down into a small canyon. Scrambling up the other side, they saw what looked like an oasis in the distance.
    â€œI bet there’s water over there,” Josh said. “Let’s go see.”
    The Sleepers headed toward the mass of trees andfound that a small creek had been dammed up by a rock slide and made a large pool. Throwing off their knapsacks, they washed their faces.
    Then Abbey said, “I want to have a bath. Let’s go upstream, Sarah.”
    â€œAll right.” Sarah was hot and tired herself, and a dip sounded good.
    They followed the creek until they found a deep spot in the shelter of several trees and were soon splashing in the water. Since Abbey had brought soap, they even washed their hair.
    As they dressed, Abbey said, “I wish I could go to a beauty