eached the spring when all at once a shrill scolding
screech rang out, cutting the stillness as with a sharp knife.

Max heard a heavy sound as of something striking the ground. He also
caught the flutter of some hairy form that seemed to vanish amidst the
branches of the big tree under which Steve chanced to be at the time.

It all happened so quickly, and without the least warning, that although
Max was considered a very speedy boy, acting like a flash in a warmly
contested game of baseball, he did not think to raise the gun he was
gripping in one hand, holding his blanket about him with the other,
until the _thing_, whatever it might be, was gone from his sight.

Steve had come to a rigid standstill the very second that screech made
the echoes ring through the aisles of the forest; he seemed startled,
amazed and apparently frozen stiff in his tracks.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MYSTERIOUS HAM THROWER

"Where am I? Oh! what was that fell alongside me? Who's throwing stones?
Hello! Max, Toby, Bandy-legs, where are you all at?"

Steve had found his tongue apparently, and was shouting all this at the
top of his voice. Max thought it high time he showed himself, so as to
quiet the excitable chum.

"All right, Steve; I'm here at your elbow, you see," he remarked,
stepping out into plainer view. "You've only been up to your old tricks
again, and walking in your sleep. I think you must have had a bad case
of thirst, for you started straight for the spring, and you see you
nearly got there."

"You don't say?" ejaculated Steve, looking down in some dismay at his
bare feet, and his now shivering figure, clad only in thin pajamas. "But
what happened, Max? Sure that was a terrible screech that woke me up;
and I tell you I heard some heavy thing bump on the ground close by me!"

"So did I, Steve," added the other; "let's look and see."

Five seconds later and Max gave utterance to a bubbling cry.

"Great Caesar!" exclaimed Steve, staring at the object the other bent
over and picked up; "this is the funniest thing that ever happened to
me, Max. Why, if it ain't raining _hams_ up here in the woods! Some
farmer's smoke-house must have blown up, and we get the benefit."

"Wait a little, Steve," said Max, solemnly; "take another look, will
you? Perhaps you'll notice that this is only half a ham."

"Why, so it is, Max."

"Look closer, and tell me if you've ever seen it before," Max continued,
holding the smoked meat up s