er if Mr. Marlin ever sleeps," said Charley to himself. "He's
probably on his way here now and I'm hardly out of bed. I'll make him a
cup of coffee and some toast anyway."

But when Charley came to make the toast, he could find only three slices
of bread. Lumley had cleaned him out of food. It seemed no time at all to
Charley before he heard the chugging of the forester's motor in the
valley. A short time afterward two men ascended to the cabin. Charley was
surprised.

"Let me introduce you to the Chief Forester of Pennsylvania," said Mr.
Marlin. Charley was suddenly abashed. He held out his hand and responded
to the Commissioner's greeting, but was at a joss for anything further to
say. He thought of his toast and coffee and was more than ever
embarrassed, because he had only three slices to offer. Nevertheless, he
set what he had before his guests.

"I'm awfully sorry this is all I can offer you," he said, "but I had some
visitors yesterday who cleaned me out of food."

"So I have heard," replied the Chief Forester, with a smile.

"You will be glad to know, Charley," said the forester, "that those same
visitors have confessed to their crime, or rather Lumley did. When we
produced the thumb-prints in the putty and in the clay and compared them
with Lumley's thumbs, he made a clean breast of everything. It won't
surprise you to learn that he set the previous fires in this virgin
timber. He wants to be state's evidence."

"Excellent!" cried Charley. "They won't burn any more forests--or rob any
more cabins. By the way, Mr. Marlin, did you bring me any more supplies?"

"No," said the forester.

Charley looked vastly perplexed, but said nothing. He didn't want to
bother the forester, but how he was to live without food he could not
imagine. Evidently his face must have mirrored his thoughts, for the
forester, after studying Charley's countenance, burst into a laugh.

"Charley," he said, "it's clear that you don't pay much attention to your
Bible."

"What do you mean?"

"Why, don't you recall that we are admonished to take no thought for the
morrow, as to what we shall eat, and so on? Here you are worrying over a
little matter like food. Don't you have any ravens out in these mountains
to bring you grub if you get hungry?"

"It isn't any laughing matter," replied Charley. "What am I going to do? I
haven't an ounce of food left in the cabin."

The forester's eyes sparkled. "Shall we tell him what he's to do,