undings.

"You made a neat side step, old fellow," said the one addressed. "Some
of us, more clumsy, would have slid down into the cellar."

"Say, now, I wonder--" began Lil Artha, and then stopped to stare at the
treacherous plank that formed such a trap.

"You're wondering whether poor old Nat could have taken that tumble?"
suggested Elmer.

"That's what I was; what do you think?" asked the tall scout.

"Here, lay hold and we'll soon find out," remarked Elmer, bending over
the loose plank.

It required considerable tugging to get it out of the bed it had
occupied so long, even if it was fastened by no nails.

Both of them lay down and thrust their faces into the gap.

"Looks pretty dark down there, don't it?" asked Lil Artha, who was
secretly shivering with the anticipation of making a grewsome discovery,
but who would not have his comrades know the true condition of his
nerves for a good deal.

"It sure does that," was Elmer's reply.

"I can just make out something or other lying down there; it might be
an old log, you know, and again, p'raps it ain't."

Lil Artha did not venture to say plainly that he more than half feared
lest the object he could see might turn out to be poor Nat Scott. But
that was a fact.

"Well, let's find out for sure."

Elmer, while speaking, was taking something from his pocket. It proved
to be an old newspaper, from which he tore a sheet, crumpling it up into
a ball.

"I generally carry a newspaper along when I go into the woods," he said
in explanation. "And it's wonderful what a help it sometimes turns out
to be in case you want to start a quick fire. Now for a match."

"I'm sorry now," remarked Lil Artha.

"About what?" asked the scout leader.

"That I didn't think to fetch it along--that new electric hand torch my
father gave me on my birthday, you remember, Elmer?"

"Oh," laughed Elmer, "well, who'd ever think we'd have any need of a
torch on this hike! Why, it was an altogether daylight affair, and we
expected to be back home long before supper time. I even promised Mark
to practice battery work some this afternoon. There, now watch when it
drops. I hope there's nothing down there to take fire."

"If the old trap did go up in smoke I guess nobody would care much,"
muttered Lil Artha, as he pressed his face still further into the
opening, after Elmer released his fire ball.

The burning paper seemed to alight upon the damp earthen floor of the
cellar. Immediate