s he was finishing it, he said aloud: "I
don't see how it can be that, either. For if it's due to any trouble of
that kind they want big, husky fellows, and Merritt can swear in any one
he needs." So giving up the problem as temporarily insoluble, Wilbur
went to bed early so as to make a quick start in the dawn of the
morning.

It turned out to be a glorious day, with but very little wind, and
Wilbur's mind was quite set at rest about the question of fire. But when
he reached headquarters he was surprised to see the number of men that
were gathered there. Not laughing and joking, as customarily, they stood
gravely around, only eying him curiously as he came in. The boy turned
to McGinnis.

"What's wrong?" he said.

For answer the lumberman held out a piece of wood from which the bark
had been stripped. Underneath the bark on the soft wood were numberless
little channels which looked as though they had been chiseled out with a
fine, rounded chisel.

"Oh," he said, "I see." Then he continued: "But I didn't know there was
any bark-beetle here."

McGinnis waved his hand around.

"Does this look as if we had known very long?" he said.

"Who found it out?" asked Wilbur.

"Rifle-Eye," was the reply, "or at least Merritt and he found traces on
the same day and brought the news into camp. Merritt only saw signs in
one spot, but the old Ranger dropped on several colonies at different
parts of the forest, so that it must be widespread."

The boy whistled under his breath. He had heard enough of the ravages of
the bark beetle to know what it might mean if it once secured a strong
footing on the Sierras.

"I remember hearing once," he said, "that over twenty-two thousand
acres of spruce in Bohemia were wiped out in a month by the Tomicus
beetle."

"This is the work of a Tomicus," said McGinnis. "And what such a
critter as that was ever made for gets me."

"What's going to be done?" asked Wilbur.

McGinnis pointed to the house whence the Supervisor was just coming out.

"I have notified the District Forester," he said, standing on the steps,
"and if I find things in bad shape he will send for Wilcox, who knows
more about the beetle than any man in the Service. I don't know how much
damage has been done nor how widespread it is. There are eight of us
here, and we will divide, as I said before, each two keeping about fifty
yards apart and girdling infected and useless trees. Loyle, you go with
Rifle-Eye."

Wilbur w