dressing. But before they went,
Jim gave me to understand what they had some reason to suspect."

"The work of big Cale Martin and his crowd? Is that what you're aiming
to tell us, Thad?" demanded Giraffe.

"Here they come!" was all Thad said.

"Oh! my, I thought you meant the game poachers!" exclaimed Bumpus, who
had made a half movement in the direction of his gun, standing
conveniently near.

The two guides joined the circle around the fire. Eli held his hands out
to the blaze, as though they felt cold in that nipping night air. Jim
simply caught the inquiring eye of the scoutmaster, and immediately
nodded his head in the affirmative. And Thad knew from that they had
surely made some sort of important discovery.

"What is it, Jim?" he asked.

"They've been around here; we found ther tracks lots o' places," came
the reply.

"Do you mean Cale and Si and Ed?" asked the other.

"On'y Si and Ed," answered Jim. "Cale he wa'n't thar 'tall. We'd sized
up his big tracks ef he'd be'n. They was two men in thet canoe larst
night, ye seen; wall them must a be'n ther lot as fired the brush. I
guess as haow Cale, he muster gone back tew his shack by naow."

"But what on earth could they expect to get by burning us out?" demanded
Bumpus.

"Fust place they never oxpected tew burn ther camp," observed Jim; "ef
they hed, doan't yew believe they'd agone tew windward tew start thet
blaze? Wall, they hed a game wuth tew o' thet up ther sleeve."

"Tell us what it was, Jim," urged Thad, though he himself had already
jumped to a conclusion in the matter.

"I guess as haow they thort we'd hev tew make off a long distance away
frum the camp tew fight the fire; an' then they'd hev plenty o' time tew
clean her aout; but yeou see, we didn't get fur away 'tall, so they hed
all ther work fur nawthin'. But them tracks was as plain as anything,
wa'n't they, Eli?" Jim went on.

"They be," was the conclusive testimony of the older guide; and every
one of the scouts understood that Eli had set the seal of his approval
on all that Jim had said.

It was certainly very unpleasant to realize that they were objects of
desire on the part of even a pair of unscrupulous scamps, granting that
big Cale Martin had retired from the combination. The boys seemed to get
more indignant the longer they discussed the situation.

There was Bumpus, usually so mild and peaceful, fairly palpitating with
a desire to draw a bead upon those two unprincipled