here must be another
reason back of the determination to tell. These fellows had decided
that possibly suspicion might be directed toward them, and, as they
had had enough trouble already without taking more on their shoulders,
it would be the part of wisdom to start the ball rolling in the right
quarter.

"Well, we must be going," said Paul.

"Do you reckon on stayin' out your time up here?" queried Hank.

"We haven't decided that yet," replied the scout-master; "but the
chances are we shall conclude to cut the trip short and get back home.
This heavy snow has spoiled a good many plans we'd laid out; and we
might be having a better time of it with the rest of the fellows at
home. We're going to talk it over and by to-morrow settle on our
plans."

"Here's where we get busy and start on the return hike," announced Tom
Betts, just as cheerily as though he were not already feeling the
effects of that stiff plunge through the deep snowdrifts, and secretly
faced the return trip with more or less apprehension.

Hank and his followers came out of their den to wave a hearty farewell
after their late rescuers. Just then all animosities had died in their
hearts, and they could look upon the scouts without the least
bitterness.

"Sounds all mighty fine, I must say," remarked Bobolink, as they
pushed along, after losing sight of the quartette standing at the foot
of the snowy hill, "but somehow I don't seem to feel it's going to
last. That Hank's got it in him to be a tough character, and it'd be
next door to a miracle if he ever changed his ways."

"Do _you_ think he will, Paul?" demanded Jud, flatly.

"Ask me something easy," laughed the scout-master. "It all depends on
Hank himself. If he once took a notion to make a man of himself, I
believe he could do it no matter what happened. He's got the grit, but
without the real desire that isn't going to count for much. Time alone
will tell."

"Well, we've seen something like that happen right in our town, you
know," Bobolink went on to say, reflectively, as he trudged along
close to the heels of the one in front of him, for they were going
"Indian-file," following the sinuous trail made during their preceding
trip.

"I was talking with the other Jud," remarked Jud Elderkin just then,
"and he gave me a pointer that might be worth something. I don't know
just why he chose to confide it to me, instead of speaking out, but he
did."

"Was it, too, about the fire and the rob