hered Step Hen was the fact that the sheriff had just said
they were likely to come upon the camp of the scouts on the way,
between then and morning, and in case they did, he promised himself
the pleasure of dropping in to take a bite of breakfast with the smart
scoutmaster and his chums, whom he would like to meet very much.

Step Hen worried over this very nearly all the time the two men were
eating. He thought those rat-like eyes of Artemus Rawson, so-called,
were often searching his face, as though the man suspected that he
knew something about the boy the sheriff had been engaged to find; and
that being the case, the man would even go out of their way to visit
the camp of the scouts, to see whether the one they sought might be
stopping there.

And how under the sun could Thad be warned of the impending trouble?

CHAPTER XVIII.

PURE PLUCK.

"Well, I'm glad they're departed; because somehow I couldn't fancy
that Mr. Rawson the least little bit," remarked Smithy, an hour later.

"Do you really think they have gone for good, Toby?" Step Hen asked,
eagerly; "or might they just make believe, and hang around here to see
if we had Aleck Rawson hidden away somewhere?"

"Oh! they're gone, that's right enough," replied the guide; "but I'm
kinder of the notion they'll make it a p'int to pay a visit to the
other camp by mornin', and p'raps sneak in on 'em by surprise like."

"Then you're of a mind that they have suspicions?" asked Step Hen.

"That thar Artemus Rawson I reckon he allers has s'picions of
everybody," replied Toby; "an' I seen him watchin' you two boys pass
winks an' nods when the sheriff, he happened to say the gent's name
was Rawson."

"Then he must have guessed that we knew something about Aleck?"
declared Davy.

"Reckon as how he did," Toby responded.

"But if that was so, how did it come that he never once asked us if we
knew a boy by the name of Aleck Rawson?" Step Hen went on.

"He was jest a leetle too slick for that," the guide answered. "He
knowed that you'd made up your mind to deny everything; and he guessed
how the land laid. So right now, I shouldn't wonder a bit but what
he's atellin' Bob all about it; an' showin' him how they'll as like as
not find the boy they want right smack in the camp of the Boy Scouts."

"You're right, Toby!" cried Step Hen. "Now I remember that the sheriff
seemed a little bit inclined to put up all night with us; but it was
the other who said he want