some
moments, thinking the problem over. Then he walked slowly around the
burned area, examining it closely, but not stepping within the fire-line.
Then he wet a finger and held it aloft. Unmistakably the light breeze was
from the west. It had doubtless been blowing from that quarter all the
morning, though this particular fire had been extinguished when there was
hardly more than a suspicion of a breeze. The fire would have spread in an
elongated circle, or more exactly an oval. Charley tried to figure out the
exact starting point. He felt sure he could estimate it within a few
yards.

When he had decided about where the fire must have originated, he made his
way cautiously, a yard at a time, toward that point. He was careful not to
disturb the leaves any more than was necessary in putting down his feet.
Carefully he scrutinized every inch of the ground he covered. He was
looking for a mound of burned leaves or any other suspicious thing. But he
found none. Look where he would, the leaves seemed to have been disturbed
before the fire started.

Not far from the point selected by Charley as the probable place of the
fire's origin, the ground thrust up in a little, low shoulder, as though
there might be an outcropping ledge of rock there. Immediately around this
elevation the ground was clear of brush. No trees stood near. Charley paid
little attention to the mound until he noticed that it was hollowed out on
top. At the same time a piece of freshly dug earth caught his eye near by.
At least Charley judged it to be freshly dug, although it was blackened by
fire. He made his way very carefully to the little mound. Now he noticed
that the leaves about this mound had been raked together, for the ashes
lay thick in the hollow centre in the elevation.

Cautiously Charley began to scratch among the ashes at the edge of the
pile. His fingers encountered many rough chunks of earth, partly hardened
by fire. The rain, the frost, and the cold of winter would naturally have
broken those chunks down into loose soil. So Charley knew they could not
be very old. As he scratched more of them out of the leaves, he blew the
ashes from them and examined them critically. He could think of no
connection between these chunks of earth and the fire, yet something made
him scrutinize them closely.

All the time he was carefully digging the ashes away, and working toward
the centre of the pile. Suddenly he picked up a chunk that was quite
diffe