nd.

CHAPTER XI

A STRANGE MEETING

"Something is wrong!" cried Snap, leaping up and feeling for his gun.
"What is it, Wags?"

The dog kept on barking and commenced to tug on the cord that held him.

"Shall I let him loose?" asked Whopper. All the boys were now on
their feet, and he and Giant were rubbing their eyes. The wind had
shifted and was blowing the smoke of the smoldering camp fire toward
the tent.

"Don't do it---yet," answered the doctor's son. "He might bite
somebody. Let us go outside first."

"Maybe it's that crazy hermit," suggested Whopper, and gave a little
shiver. He could still see that impish face glaring at him. "Be
careful."

One after another the young hunters stepped into the open, each with
his gun ready for use. Shep stirred up the camp fire and threw on
some lightwood, causing a renewed blaze.

"I don't see anything wrong," said Shep after a long look around.

"See any wild beasts?" asked Giant. "Wags would bark at a wild beast,
I am sure."

"Nothing in sight now."

All walked completely around the tent and the camp fire, but failed
to see anything out of the ordinary. The collie had now ceased
barking and was wagging his tail, apparently as happy and free from
anxiety as ever.

"The dog must have dreamed he heard something," grumbled Whopper.
"Hang the luck! I was so sleepy!" And he yawned broadly, setting
his chums to doing likewise.

"Well, dogs do dream sometimes," admitted the doctor's son. "But
what made him bark so loudly and look so mad?"

Nobody could answer that question, and nobody tried. They took
another look around the tent, fixed the fire again, and at last one
by one retired to rest once more, Wags at the foot of the tent pole
as before.

It was broad daylight when they awoke again, and for a while nobody
felt like stirring. At length Snap looked at his watch.

"Great mackerel!" he ejaculated. "Eight o'clock! Time we were
getting breakfast and moving."

"That's so," answered Shep. "Still, there is no great hurry. Our
time is our own. That's the charm of such an outing as this."

"I think we might stay here to-day," came from Giant. "It will give
us a chance to rest up and to fish. Remember, we won't have much
fishing after we get to the mountains."

"We can get brook trout," answered Whopper. "But just the same I'm
willing to stay here to-day and fish. Maybe we can get some big
maskalonge, same as we did before."

"A