garments exceedingly thin, they continued to huddle in the open doorway, listening and watching.

Even Perk refused to go back again to his snug blanket so long as the other three remained there; and once Elmer heard him saying softly, as though to himself:

“Poor thing, just to think of him out of his mind, and wandering at large in these big woods, hungry, and without even a blanket to hug nights. I almost wish he’d crept in, and cribbed that last loaf of bread we fetched along.”

That was Perk all over, full of feeling for any one apt to be suffering; and it was this spirit of wanting to be of service that endeared him to the hearts of all his boy friends in Chester.

“There’s the hound picking up!” snapped Amos, suddenly.

“But you want to notice there isn’t a note of eagerness in his baying,” added Elmer, quickly. “If he’s found any sort of scent at all, it isn’t what he’s been searching for. You can even detect a sort of disappointed sound about his mournful notes.”

“That’s what!” echoed Wee Willie. “Either the lunatic has been too smart for the trackers, or else it wasn’t him after all, and the dog knows it.”

Elmer shut the door again, though only with an effort, owing to its really dilapidated condition. And Perk, as if in duty bound, proceeded again to adjust his rope guard. It had served them one good turn already, he figured; because had those two guards burst suddenly in upon them, their consternation must have been many times aggravated.

“A nice state of affairs, I must say!” Wee Willie was grumbling. “We came all the way up here to camp in solitude and peace, and now see what we’re up against! Gee whiz! can you beat it?”

“No, but mebbe we’d better beat it for home,” Perk faintly suggested, as if even the thought gave him fresh pain.

“Here, none of that, Perk,” sternly rebuked Elmer. “We’re not the kind to be frightened off by such a silly little thing as that. We’ll stick it out, no matter what comes along!”

“Hear! hear!” came from Wee Willie; while Amos too added his voice to the chorus, and even Perk hastened to say:

“Oh! I didn’t really mean it, I assure you, boys, and you can believe me. I’ll hang on as long as the next one, no matter if the whole asylum breaks loose.”

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