oing to tell him there was soon about to come a change in the
conditions of the weather. He felt a slight puff of air on his cheek,
and coming from the south at that. It was only a breath, but straws show
which way the wind blows, they say; and when the next puff marked a
slight increase, Ned knew what would happen before a great while.

Once the wind did rise, and the fog would be blown out to sea, so that
in all probability they would be able to discover what manner of vessel
it was that had sent a boat ashore, for some purpose or other.

But Ned knew that when this came to pass, the rain would also start in.
It was his hope to discover some sort of retreat as they went along,
such as might serve them as a shelter against the storm.

Once, when a gun was fired at some little distance away and further in
shore, Jimmy ducked his head in a ludicrous fashion.

"Whee! that nearly got me!" he remarked, looking a little uneasy.

The others stared at him in bewilderment; but Ned quickly took him in
hand.

"See here, Jimmy, are you saying that just to make us think you had a
narrow escape, or did a bullet really swing past you?" he demanded.

The freckled-faced boy looked a little confused. When Ned took him to
task, in this way, Jimmy could never hold out. He would first of all
hedge, and then, if the accusation continued, his next step would be to
throw out the white flag of complete surrender.

"Why, you see, I thought I sure heard the whine of something like a
bullet, when I took the count," he started in to say.

"But was it a bullet passing that you heard?" persisted the patrol
leader, who knew that this was the only sure way to pin Jimmy down to
facts.

"Well, er, since you put it to me that way, Ned, I guess, after all it
must have been imagination. You see my brain was filled with all sorts
of stuff, and when that gun went bang! it struck me I was being fired
at, so I ducked and something went 'sh! 'sh! just then, so's to make me
get mixed up for a minute, and think it was flying lead. I know now it
was one of them little snipe zipping past. They fooled me a few times a
while ago, too."

"I knew that it must be a mistake," said Ned, "for a very good reason.
You noticed that shot was a long ways off, perhaps as far as a quarter
of a mile. Well, how in all creation could the shooter see us down here,
when we can't glimpse a solitary thing sixty yards off? It was some
hunter, more than likely, getting meat fo