o open up great possibilities. Then as they moved
closer and a better chance came to investigate, deep disappointment and
chagrin would follow; for after all it turned out to be only the end of
a log, or some such simple thing, and not the stern of the old skiff at
all.

Elmer happened to be a little ahead of the other boat at the time
Chatz, consulting his nickel watch, found it was just ten o'clock.
When he showed this to Toby the latter grinned as though very much
pleased.

"I nominated ten, didn't I, Chatz?" he remarked in a low tone; "when
you asked me to take a squint up at the sun, and say what the hour
might be?"

"You certainly hit it that time in the bull's-eye, suh," admitted the
Southern lad; "and I confess that I thought it half an hour later. I'm
still some shy, it seems, on telling time by the sun and stars."

A low hiss from Elmer just then, as he wielded the pole, caused the two
scouts to stop talking, and turn their attention to what was going on.
The first thing they discovered was that the skiff was now heading for
the near shore. Then looking further the boys could see that evidently
someone must have camped there, for to the practiced eye many things
indicated as much.

When the prow of the flat-bottomed boat ran gently up on the shore, at
a low order from the skipper, Ted, who happened to be further up in the
bow than any of the others, jumped to the land and began to draw the
skiff up.

There was a bank several feet high just beyond, but Ted waited until
the others had also disembarked before attempting to ascend this. By
now the other boat had also reached shore, with its crew tumbling out,
though avoiding any sign of confusion, for they were pretty well
drilled in the elements of obedience to orders, as all true scouts
should be.

No sooner had the boys gained the higher ground than they readily
discovered that it had been the site of a camp at some time in the not
far-distant past.

A number of things told them this, chief of which might be mentioned
the little pile of dead ashes that lay in plain sight. They could even
see the sticks that the unknown party had used when cooking some sort
of meat close to the red coals.

All of them gathered around. Elmer gravely examined the ashes, while
the others eagerly waited to hear his decision.

"Quite some time old," said the leader at last, having figured out the
solution by means of certain rules well known to those who have made