more ground. We are getting anxious about Bert."

Of course the object of the boys in leaving the cabin was to meet the
Boy Scout who had signalled to them from the window. When they turned
the corner of the cabin, they found a thin, pale lad in a torn and faded
khaki uniform leaning against the outer wall.

"Why don't you come in?" asked Will.

"Is the miner in there yet?" asked the boy.

"Yes, he says the cabin belongs to him, and he's going to remain all
night! What do you know of him?"

"Nothing at all!" replied the boy, "except that I've been following him
for half a dozen miles in the hopes that he would lead me to some place
where I could eat and sleep."

"Did you call out to him?" asked Will.

"No," was the answer. "I was afraid he would send me back if I did.
Miners in this section are not fond of leading strangers to their
claims."

"Where do you belong?" asked Sandy pointing to the Bulldog badge
displayed on the boy's ragged coat.

"Bulldog Patrol, Portland," was the reply.

"How'd you get out into this country in such a plight?" asked Will.

"My chum and I," was the reply, "started out to seek our fortunes. We
got to Katalla and couldn't get a thing to do. Sam--his name is Sam
White--insisted on remaining in town, but I made a break for the
country."

"How long since you've had anything to eat?" asked Sandy.

"About twenty-four hours," was the reply.

"Well, come on in, then, and we'll feed you up."

"Of course I'll go, now that I know that you are running the camp,"
replied the boy. "I suppose I should have gone in anyway, directly, for
just as I came up I heard the man knocking at the door. I was still
afraid I'd get kicked out if I put in an appearance at any miner's cabin
and asked for food, but I should have risked it."

"I didn't know that miners did such things," Sandy observed.

"Some of them do, and some of them don't," replied the boy.

"You haven't given us your name yet," suggested Will.

"Ed Hannon," was the reply.

"Well come on in the cabin, Ed Hannon," laughed Sandy, "and we'll fill
you up, but you mustn't say a word about having seen that miner, and if
he talks to you about the route by which you approached the cabin lie
like a thief! Which way did he come from, anyway?"

"He came from the west," was the reply. "I plumped into him not far from
one of the little rivulets which joins Copper river not very far away."

"There!" said Sandy. "Now I guess we've got somet