odded his head violently; indeed, any one who did not know
how tenacious a hold it had on that long neck, might have been alarmed
lest he dislocate his vertebra through such contortions.

"Yep; and he said you was to come out and see for yourself," Giraffe
went on.

"All right, I will then."

Thad quietly picked up his little twelve-bore Marlin before quitting
the tent; and there was an air of business about his manner of doing
so quite different from the fussy way Giraffe had of doing things, but
which was apt to appear much more convincing in the eyes of any one
who could read character fairly well.

When the scoutmaster reached the open air he found quite a buzz of
excitement around the confines of the little camp. It seemed as though
the scouts must certainly be anticipating something in the line of
trouble; because every one who had a gun was nervously fingering the
weapon, and watching the coming of the three figures stalking toward
the camp from across the little valley.

There was Giraffe, first of all, gripping his big rifle eagerly, a
grim look on his thin face; Bumpus had his ten-gauge Marlin clenched
tightly in his hands, and perhaps some of the usual color was missing
from his fat face; but he had a reputation to sustain now, and knew he
must toe the mark like a little man; Allan had his rifle in evidence;
and Aleck having lost his at the time he was captured, was keeping a
hand close to one of his pockets in which reposed a small revolver
which one of the other scouts had loaned him.

Bob White did not have a gun either, since he had let Smithy go off
with his; but he did not mean to be caught defenseless, should trouble
arise; and back of him he was holding that handy camp hatchet.

The Fox,--well, if he was anywhere around the camp, Thad failed to
discover him; and even at that exciting moment the scoutmaster
remembered thinking that perhaps the Crow boy had hidden, not wishing
any of the Kracker crowd to see him.

Thad glanced around him. He had considered the situation before this,
like the wise general who notes down in his mind the promising points
connected with his chosen field of battle.

Speaking a few words to Allan, who knew what the plan of campaign was
to be, Thad sent the other over to a clump of rocks, from the crest of
which, not more than fifty feet away, he could have a splendid and
unobstructed view of the camp, as well as its surroundings. Indeed,
hardly a snake could have c