and this they
started to do, when, unexpectedly, a voice hailed them, and they saw a
student sitting in a tree that grew in the hedge which separated the
campus from the woods.

"Let that fire alone!" the youth called, angrily.

"Why, it's Nat Poole!" exclaimed Roger, in a low voice. "Whatever is
he doing in that tree?"

"I am sure I don't know," returned Dave.

"Is he alone?"

"He seems to be."

"Do you hear what I say?" went on the money-lender's son. "Leave that
fire alone."

"Did you build it?" asked Dave.

"I did, and I want you to leave it alone."

"All right, Nat, if you say so," answered Roger. "We thought it had
been abandoned and that it might set fire to the woods."

To this Nat Poole did not reply. Plainly he was annoyed at being
discovered in his present position. Dave and Roger looked around, to
see if anybody else was in the vicinity, and then, turning, walked in
the direction of the other bonfires.

"What do you make of that, Dave?" asked the senator's son, presently.

"It looked to me as if Nat was waiting or watching for somebody,
Roger."

"So it did. The question is, Who was it?"

"I don't know. But I've got something of an idea."

"Some of the students?"

"No. That wild man."

CHAPTER XII

PLANS FOR A SPREAD

"That wild man?" exclaimed the senator's son, stopping short to stare
at Dave.

"Yes."

"How do you make that out?"

"Because I think Nat is interested in the fellow, although just how I
won't pretend to say. But you'll remember how excited he got when he
found out that the wild man called himself the King of Sumatra."

"Oh, I see. You think he knows the fellow and thought that the bonfire
might attract him to the place."

"Yes. I've heard it said that crazy folks were sometimes attracted by
the sight of fire. Maybe Nat has heard the same and wants to see if it
will work in the case of this man."

"Shall we go back and see what happens?" suggested Roger.

Dave mused for a moment.

"Would it be just right to play the spy, Roger?"

"Well, this isn't playing the spy in the ordinary sense of the term,
Dave. That wild man ought to be locked up."

"But it may not be the wild man he is looking for."

"Oh, let us go back a little while, anyway," urged the senator's son.

They retraced their steps until within fifty feet of the bonfire and
then walked to the shelter of the hedge. They thought they had not
been seen, but they were mistaken.

"Humph! so