another knock on the door and Laura Porter appeared, with a baseball
bat in one hand and her brother's cap in the other.

"Oh dear me!" she cried, and then stopped short, for a red sweater,
thrown by Roger at Phil, had missed its aim and landed on her head.

"I beg your pardon, Laura, really I do!" gasped Roger, as he sprang
forward and took the sweater from its resting-place. "I--I didn't mean
that for you."

"Oh, Roger, of course you did!" cried Phil, with a twinkle in his eye.
"That's the way he salutes girls always, Laura."

"Is this the way you are packing up?" demanded Dave's sister, with a
little smile, while poor Roger grew redder than ever.

"Oh, we were only waiting for you to bring my things, Laura," answered
her brother, coolly. "We'll be ready in three minutes and a half by
the factory whistles."

"Say, what is this I hear about a wild man?" continued Laura, as she
sat down on a chair Roger shoved towards her. "You've made Mrs.
Wadsworth and Jessie all excited over it."

"Oh, it isn't anything," burst out Phil, quickly. "I made a mistake
even to mention it."

"She came down and told Jessie and me that she was afraid you'd have
more trouble, when you got back to school. As if you haven't had
troubles enough already!" And Laura looked affectionately at her
brother, and then at his chums.

"Oh, this won't amount to anything, Laura," said Dave. "So tell Mrs.
Wadsworth and Jessie not to worry about it."

"But I want to know what it means?" demanded the sister; and in the
end Dave and his chums had to relate what they knew about the wild
man. As they finished the girl shook her head doubtfully.

"I don't like that a bit," she said. "I am sure you'll get mixed up
with that wild man somehow. Why, he might attack you and try to kill
you!"

"We'll be on our guard--when we go near the woods," answered Roger.

"You had better not go alone," insisted the girl.

"We seldom travel alone," said her brother. "Generally Roger, Phil,
and I are together, and very often some of the other fellows are with
us. But don't you worry, Laura, and tell Jessie and her mother it will
be all right."

"And there is another thing to be careful about, Dave," went on Laura,
as she prepared to leave.

"What is that?"

"Be careful of how you treat Nat Poole."

"Why, what do you mean?" cried Dave, and then he added quickly, as he
saw that his sister had something on her mind: "What has happened
now?"

"I don't know exac