" demanded Toby, "what do you think this man's got on Hen
that he's made him do whatever he wanted, tell us that, if you can?"

"I don't know," replied Lil Artha, promptly.

"See?" cried Toby, exultantly, "he backs down right away."

"There are a lot of things I don't know," added the tall scout; "but
it's my opinion that Hen's being held to that man through some kind of
fear. P'raps he's been made to believe he did something _terrible_,
and his only hope is to skip out before the police get him. But let's
wait till we find him, and then we'll know it all."

"A sensible conclusion," remarked Elmer, who had listened to all the
talk with considerable interest; "and as the hour is getting late
suppose we begin to settle how we're going to sleep through our first
night in Sassafras Swamp."

CHAPTER XI

A NIGHT ALARM

Up to then none of them had apparently bothered about figuring how they
would make themselves comfortable, so that Elmer's suggestion was like
a bomb thrown into the camp.

"I should think we had better get busy if we want to have a place to
sleep on," Landy exclaimed, for the hard ground did not appeal very
much to the fat scout, accustomed as he was to a feather bed at home.

"We have no blankets, remember," said Elmer, "and that is one reason
why I laid out to keep the fire burning in a small way through the
night."

"But luckily," added Mark, who apparently had been looking around more
or less since they came ashore, "there are plenty of spruce and hemlock
and fir trees close by. We can make our beds like hunters always used
to do, away back in Daniel Boone's time."

"Every fellow will have to shift for himself, then," said Elmer; "so
let's start in and lay a foundation for a soft and fragrant bed."

"Hay was good enough for me last night, suh!" declared the Southern
boy; "but I've got a hunch I can sleep just as sound on balsam."

"Hemlock for mine every time!" announced Lil Artha.

Then there was a bustling time as the entire seven scouts started to
break off small branches and twigs from the adjacent trees, laying them
in piles until it looked as though they had secured enough for their
purpose.

The beds were arranged in something like a circle around the fire, and
acting on the advice of Elmer, who had been on the cattle range and
knew what was right, each sleeper expected to keep his feet toward the
fire.

"Looks a heap like a big cart-wheel," observed Lil Artha.

"The f