I'm going to do it. Get that, don't you,
Bandy-legs?"

In spite of all their exchange of views it seemed that after all they
were no nearer a reasonable solution of the puzzle than in the start.

"We'll look around in the morning and see if it left any tracks," Max
suggested, after it seemed as though they had reached the finish of the
matter so far as deciding on the species of animal went.

"That's the best thing said yet," ventured Steve; "and as usual it was
left for Max to hit in with it. So, let's see if we can go to sleep
again."

They crawled inside the tent and adjusted their blankets again. Max
noticed that Bandy-legs changed his position somewhat. As he now lay no
one could crawl out of the tent by way of the regular exit without
brushing across his recumbent figure more or less. The other did not say
anything as to why he did this, but Max could give a pretty good guess.

Steve was too sleepy to pay any attention to what was going on, or he
might have taken Bandy-legs to task for trying to play sentry over him,
knowing that he must be in the other's mind when he laid this trap.

"We want you to notice, Steve," Bandy-legs told him the last thing,
"that Max fetched a bucket of fresh water in from the spring just now;
and so if you happen to get thirsty again before morning, just help
yourself. It'll save you a lot of trouble."

"Well, seeing that we've got all our grub inside here now, and there's
nothing more to be hooked, I guess I'll keep quiet. But you want to be
careful how you steal my thunder when the credit's passing around."

Saying which, Steve hid his head under the folds of his blanket, and
they knew he had spoken his last word.

The others relapsed into silence, and before long all of them had gone
soundly asleep. Nor was there any further alarm during the balance of
that first night in camp.

When Mas crawled out again dawn had come, and in fact the sun was
peeping up in the east. First Max looked to see that Ebenezer was all
right; for he had felt a little uneasy concerning the horse. He found
that the animal was already beginning to gather in what grass lay around
him, and apparently had not a care in the wide world.

Then the next thing he did was to pass over to the tree in which they
had secured the ham and bacon, although later on removing everything to
a more secure place of storage inside the tent.

Max carefully examined the ground underneath this tree. He was a pretty
fair