ke was rapidly
increasing.

"It's not the fire that's making all that smoke," he exclaimed.

"What is it, then?" asked Tom.

"Perhaps it's water," said Joe. "I always thought that where there was
smoke there must be fire; but Harry says it isn't fire."

"I mean," continued Harry, "that we didn't leave fire enough to make so
much smoke. It must have spread and caught something."

"Caught the tent, most likely," said Tom. "Let's row back right away and
put it out."

"What's the use?" interrupted Jim. "That tent is as dry as tinder, and
will burn up before we can get half way there."

"We must get back as soon as we can," cried Harry. "All our things are
in the tent. Row your best, boys, and we may save them yet."

The boat was quickly turned and headed toward the camp.

"There's one reason why I'm not particularly anxious to help put that
fire out," Joe remarked, as they approached the island, and could see
that a really alarming fire was in progress.

"What's that?" asked Harry.

"As near as I can calculate, there must be about two pounds--"

[Illustration: DESTRUCTION OF THE CAMP.--DRAWN BY A. B. FROST.]

He was interrupted by a loud report from the island, and a shower of
pebbles, sticks, and small articles--among which a shoe and a tin pail
were recognized--shot into the air.

"--of powder," Joe continued, "in the flask. I thought it would blow up;
and now that it's all gone, I don't mind landing on the island."

"Everything must be ruined," exclaimed Jim.

"Lucky for us that we put on our shoes this morning," Tom remarked, as
he rowed steadily on. "That must have been one of my other pair that
just went up."

When they reached the island they could not at first land, on account of
the heat of the flames; but they could plainly see that the tent and
everything in it had been totally destroyed. After waiting for half an
hour the fire burned itself out, so that they could approach their dock
and land on the smoking ash heap that an hour before had been such a
beautiful shady spot. There was hardly anything left that was of any
use. A tin pan, a fork, and the hatchet were found uninjured; but all
their clothing and other stores were either burned to ashes or so badly
scorched as to be useless. Quite overwhelmed by their disaster, the boys
sat down and looked at one another.

"We've got to go home now, whether we want to or not," Harry said, as he
poked the ashes idly with a stick.

"Well, we meant