forward as one, with a common grunt of terror.
Facing around, they saw that it was only a round stone such as the
chimney was built of. But that it might have fallen naturally did not
lessen the fresh shock to their demoralized nerves. Their teeth
chattered. They stuck close together, with terrified and sheepish
glances at each other.

"By God!" muttered Big Jack. "Ice or no ice, to-morrow we move on from
here!"

"I never believed in--in nothing of the kind," growled Shand. "But
this beats all!"

"We never should have stopped here," said Husky. "It looked bad--a
deserted shack, with the roof in and all. Maybe the last man who lived
here was mur--done away with!"

Young Joe was beyond speech. White-faced and trembling violently, the
big fellow clung to Shand like a child.

"Oh, hell!" said Big Jack. "Nothing can happen to us if we stick
together and keep the fire up!" His tone was less confident than the
words.

"All the wood's outside," stammered Husky.

"Burn the furniture," suggested Big Jack.

Suiting the action to the words, he put his barrel-stave rocker on the
embers. It blazed up generously, filling every corner of the shack
with light, and giving them more confidence. There were no further
untoward sounds.

Meanwhile the fifth man had been sleeping quietly in the corner. The
one who goes to bed early in camp must needs learn to sleep through
anything. The other men disregarded him.

The table and the boxes followed the chair on the fire. The four
discussed what had happened in low tones.

"I noticed it first yesterday," said Big Jack.

"Me, too," added Husky. "What did you see?"

"Didn't see nothing." Jack glanced about him uneasily. "Don't know as
it does any good to talk about it," he muttered.

"We got to know what to do," said Shand.

"Well, it was in the daytime, at that," Jack resumed. "I set a trap
for skunks beside the trail over across the creek, and I went to see
if I got anything. I was walkin' along not two hundred yards beyond
the stable when something soft hit me on the back of the head. I was
mad. I spun around to see who had done it. There wasn't nobody. I
searched that piece of woods good. I'm sure there wasn't anybody
there. At last I thought it was a trick of the senses like. Thought I
was bilious maybe. Until I got the trap."

"What was it hit you?" asked Husky.

"I don't know. A lump of sod it felt like. I was too busy looking for
who threw it to see."

"What about