aying it, inch by inch, up here; while our gay guards walked back
and forth on post, as innocent as the babes in the woods. It gets me,
all right!"

None of the Banner Boy Scouts looked very happy. Like many other things,
a ham is never so much appreciated as when it has disappeared.

"Say, you don't think, now, it could have been one of that Slavin bunch,
do you?" demanded Bobolink, presently; "because I happen to know
Scissors Dempsey is mighty fond of pork, every way you can fix it."

"I've thought of that," said Paul, without hesitation; "but you can see
the foot is an extra long one. No boy's shoe ever made that. And it's
had a home-made patch on it, too. No, some man has been here, and made
way with our ham."

"Oh! won't it be bad for him if ever we meet the wretch!" threatened
Bobolink. "Just you see what the fellows say, when they know. Only
enough ham for one more meal! That's what I call tough."

There was a howl indeed, when the other campers learned what had
happened. All sorts of theories were advanced, and Paul laughed at some
of these.

"That old humpback rattlesnake oil man must have come to life again,
just like Rip Van Winkle," declared Nuthin, who seemed to have heard the
story somewhere; "and could you blame him for wanting ham, after
sniffing the _delicious_ smells that went up from this camp last night,
while William was busy?"

William thereupon made his lowest bow, with his hand on his heart.

"Oh! thank you!" he exclaimed, simpering; "this is too, too sudden; and
I've really left the speech I prepared, at home."

But while the rest were both growling and making fun over the secret
visit of the unknown, Paul noticed that there was one in the party who
said never a word.

That was Joe Clausin.

He listened to everything, without comment; but there was a puzzled look
on his face, as though he could not quite understand certain facts.

Paul realized that he was thinking about the man who looked like the
party he knew; but who was supposed to be at the other side of the world
just then. Joe believed it might have been this person who stole the
ham; and yet something seemed to upset such a theory. Possibly the
mention of that extra long foot, and the patched shoe, hardly agreed
with his ideas.

And while they were standing around, still engaged in disputing and
advancing new theories, some one gave a shout.

"I saw a man on a wheel just flash past that open spot back along the
trail!