"How long is it?" asked Jack, presently, as certain signs caught his eye
that told him the end was near.

"Just nine minutes; but--"

"Look at Wallace," cried Jack; "he's raising his hat. There goes an
inspector to see. He nods his head. The water must be boiling; and who
would have thought it? Hurrah for the Carberry Twin! Look at Ted and
Ward! They act as if they thought there was some trickery, for they're
running up to see. I guess they've tried this game, and come in under the
wire in about fifteen minutes. Hello! there's Bluff calling out. Good
boy! He's going to run Wallace a race next time. But I'd like to see you
make the test, Paul?"

CHAPTER XVII

CLEARING SKIES

Paul made no reply to this remark of his chum.

Having studied the charms of outdoor life always, he knew that he would
be placing his friends under a heavy handicap if he ever attempted to
compete with them in woodlore.

True, just as he said, Wallace was somewhat of an unknown quantity; for
he, too, seemed to have a deep love for everything connected with life in
the forest, and never tired of reading books that told of pioneers and
their ways.

The scout leader immediately started some of the boys along another tack.
They were given a chance to find a lost trail, to detect all manner of
signs such as would be apt to tell how long previously some one had
passed that way; and to discover where the tracks came out of the creek,
upon the bed of which the unknown had walked quite some distance.

Of course, Paul had made the trail himself in the morning, running out
here on his wheel so as to prepare the ground. And when they all failed
to find out just how the party had left the creek, since the marked
tracks did not seem to appear anywhere along the banks, he pointed to
where the limb of a tree hung down over the water.

"That's the ticket!" cried Bobolink, excitedly. "See, fellows, how it's
skinned where his shoes scraped along it."

"As sure as shooting he climbed up into that tree!" declared one,
excitedly.

"Then scatter, and examine the ground around the trunk!" said Paul.

A minute or so later a happy whoop announced that one of the searchers
had discovered the wished-for signs; and away the whole troop went on
a trot, following the leader.

Meanwhile the photographers managed to get in some of their efforts,
possibly unbeknown to the rest. Exposures where the subjects are
unconscious of their posing always turn out bes