hen a man suddenly appeared from behind a tree a few
yards ahead, and beckoned them anxiously with his finger.

"Come in here a minute, you fellows," he whispered hoarsely, when the
canoes were close to him.

The boys ceased paddling, but hesitated to obey.

"I don't mean any harm," added the man. "It's for your own good."

"I wonder what he wants," said Clay. "Perhaps it's something about the
boys. Let's talk to him, Nugget."

They ran the canoes into a shallow inlet where dry land had been but a
few hours before, and the stranger came quickly toward them. His
appearance was not calculated to cause the boys any alarm.

He looked to be about six and twenty. He was poorly dressed, and his
rather boyish face was covered with a stubbly growth of light hair.
Something in his features seemed to wake a chord of recognition in
Clay's heart, and he struggled with his memory to account for it.

The man came close to the canoes, and after casting a furtive glance up
and down the shore, said in a low voice:

"You needn't get out. I won't keep you long. Where are the other two
chaps that belong to your party?"

This unexpected question amazed the boys, and they regarded the stranger
with sudden suspicion.

"I don't mean any harm to you, indeed I don't," he added. "It's just the
other way."

There was unmistakable sincerity in his words and manner, and after a
brief deliberation Clay told him how the other boys had started after
the tent, and had not come back.

"I thought you wanted to tell us something about them," he concluded.
"Did you just come up the creek?"

"Yes," replied the man. "I was as far down as the next dam, but I didn't
see a sign of your friends. I reckon they're below that somewheres, so
you'd better push on and find them. I want to give you chaps a warning.
Keep your eyes open for a big man with a purple face. If you run across
him get out of the way as quick as you kin. He's somewhere about this
neighborhood, too, for I seen his--"

The man stopped abruptly, and after another cautious survey of the
woods, resumed in a whisper:

"If you fellows do chance to get in trouble through this party, why
mebbe I'll be near at hand to help. It ain't certain, mind, because he
may easily give me the slip again. If I kin find him afore he gets away
this time, it ain't likely he will give you any trouble."

"I don't quite understand," said Clay in a perplexed tone. "Who are you,
and who is this man that you