smoke and rest; for if there is anything in the world which a hobo
really enjoys, it is rest.

It was only a little bit after dark--and the night was not a dark one at
that. Already the moon was shining down upon the world.

But around the immediate vicinity of the camp fire it seemed quite dark
by contrast, and the light thrown back by the trunks of the trees
rendered the scene a picturesque one.

Nick Carter had purposely been the last one to arrive at the trysting
place, if such it may be termed; but he had been a close observer of the
arrival of the others, nevertheless; and he accomplished that by
arriving in the vicinity early in the day, and by later climbing among
the boughs of one of the trees, from which perch he was enabled to
watch the coming of his assistants.

Patsy came first. His eagerness led him to do that, and Nick had
expected it; and as the detective watched his youngest assistant he was
pleased to see the manner in which he made his approach.

Had Nick Carter, concealed in the boughs of the tree, been an enemy,
instead of a friend, he could not have had one suspicion aroused by
Patsy's manner.

The young fellow was most disreputable in appearance. His hair, and it
was his own, too, he had managed to dye to brick-red hue. His face and
his hands were grimy, and there was a considerable growth of beard upon
the former. He wore good shoes--just out of a store, they appeared to
be, and he carried a string of three other pairs, equally new, in one
hand. His coat was much too large for him, and he had turned the sleeves
back at the wrists for convenience. His hat had once been a Stetson; it
had also quite evidently been a target for a shotgun.

When Nick first spied him he was walking along the track, whistling; but
directly opposite the place of meeting he stopped, and, after a moment,
he dived quickly over the fence into the woods, and approached with care
the place which he finally selected for the fire.

And there he scraped some dried boughs together, made his fire, brought
an old tie from the track to aid it, arranged his crane of green sticks,
and, from a bundle that he carried slung upon one shoulder, he produced
the kettle, a package of meat, some bread, and other articles, with
which he began the preparation of his supper.

A little later a second figure appeared so suddenly out of the gathering
gloom that neither Patsy, at the fire, nor Nick, in the tree, had any
idea of its near appr