ch hand and landed
them with fatal aim on the respective heads of the other two.

"Gee," exclaimed Dick, as he and Bert rose in righteous wrath preliminary
to smothering Tom under an avalanche of bedclothes, "it's a lucky thing
you don't feel any better than you do. In that case you'd probably be
landing us with a couple of pieces of furniture."

"I'd like to do that, anyway," came Tom's muffled voice from beneath the
pile of pillows and blankets. "For Heaven's sake, let me up and quit
stepping on my head."

Thus adjured, Bert and Dick released their victim, and after what looked
like a miniature earthquake among the pile of things on the floor Tom
emerged, very red in the face.

"That's a swell way to start the day, isn't it?" he protested in an
injured tone. "Two minutes more of that and I'd have smothered, sure.
If you want to murder me, why don't you do it in a less painful manner?"

"Hush, my son," said Dick. "Who started it? Never start anything you
can't finish, my boy."

With this piece of good advice Dick started dressing, and the others
followed suit. After this they made up the lunch, eating a sandwich now
and then by way of breakfast. There was nothing fancy in the way in
which the sandwiches were thrown together, and the mothers of the three
boys would no doubt have been horrified could they have seen it.
However, "everything went," as Bert expressed it, and in a very short
time they had their packing done and were ready to start.

They slipped as silently as possible through the corridors, and in less
time than it takes to tell were in the outer air. It was still very
early, and the hot sun was not yet high enough to dissipate the heavy
mist that hung close over the ground. They knew this would not last
long, however, so started out on their expedition at a round gait.

They had resolved beforehand to strike into the wild country bordering
the path of the big ditch, and see it "at first hand," as Dick phrased
it. Each had a rifle with him, and they expected to bag some small game
if opportunity should offer, with which to supplement their lunch.

The country immediately bordering the Canal at this point was rather
barren and rocky, but at no great distance a thick tropical jungle sprang
up, and it was into this that the boys resolved to go. Accordingly they
picked their way over the rough flat, perhaps two miles in width, which
lay between them and the line of green jungle.

The going