ugh thick and thin! We've met up with you in about the
queerest way ever heard of; and after getting you off that ledge up
there, don't think we want to call it quits. You're a scout, a fellow
scout in trouble; and we wouldn't deserve the name we bear if we
didn't promise to back you up to the limit. How about it, boys?"

"That's the talk!" declared Giraffe, with great vim.

"He can count on us, every time," said Step Hen.

And so it went the entire rounds of the little circle, every boy
echoing the sentiments that had made Thad, as the patrol leader,
promise the harassed lad all the assistance that lay in their power.

After that the camp quieted down, and the boys went about their
ordinary pursuits. Davy was fiddling with his little camera, the fever
growing stronger in his veins with each passing day. Indeed, where
some of his chums talked of shooting Rocky Mountain sheep, grizzlies,
timber wolves, panthers and the like, the Jones boy could be heard
expressing his opinion that "shooting" the same in their native haunts
with a snapshot camera, was more to his taste.

And there was Step Hen, as usual, loudly bemoaning the loss of
something that he just felt sure he had had only five minutes before,
but which was now gone as completely as though the earth had opened
and swallowed it up.

"'Taint as though it was the first time, either," he was saying, in a
grumbling tone, as of one deeply injured, while he eyed his chums
suspiciously; "it's always _my_ stuff that's bein' so mysteriously
moved about, so that I never know where to put my hand on the same.
Now, I reckon more'n a few of you saw my service hat on my head just a
little while ago; but tell me where it is now, will you? If one of
you snatched it off in your slick way, and is just hiding the same,
let me notify you right now it's a mean joke. Thad, can _you_ tell me
where my hat is?"

Having the question thus put directly at him, the patrol leader felt
compelled to make a reply.

"Well, Step Hen," he said, slowly and convincingly, "I can't exactly
do that, but I think I might give a pretty good guess, knowing you so
well. Just five minutes ago you showed up, after having gone to get a
drink at the little stream that runs through here. There's a regular
place where we bend down to drink; and I can just see you taking off
that campaign hat of yours, laying it nicely on the bank, getting your
fill of water; and then deliberately coming back to camp, leavin