h struck
by a cyclone, Max expected there would be something doing. He knew the
crisis was close at hand, and his cough warned the others to be on the
alert. Bandy-legs shuffled a little nearer the recumbent bulldog, and
the hand he held behind him really clutched his open knife, with the
keen blade ready to do its duty by that rope. Shack and Toby sat close
together. They had their hands clasped around their knee but were
prepared to bound to their feet like a flash; and close beside them lay
their war clubs "ready for business at the old stand," as Toby would
have said had he been given the chance to express his opinion.

The men were now very close to the end of their meal. It had been a
fairly bountiful spread, considering the conditions, but from the
rapidity with which those two unwelcome guests caused it to vanish it
looked as though they might still be far from satisfied.

The taller one began to crane his neck after the manner of a diner in a
restaurant looking to see whether the next course was on the way or not.

"Hopes as how that ain't all you means to hand out, younker?" he went
on to say, with a little menace in his manner that did not seem to be
just the right thing for one to display who had been treated so well.

"As our stock of food isn't so very large, and we don't know just how
long we may have to camp out, it's all we can spare just now," replied
Max, in as amiable a tone as he could command.

After all it was a mistake to suppose that men like these desperate
rascals would allow themselves to feel anything like gratitude. Their
instincts were brutal to the core, and they only knew the law of force.
These boys and girls had plenty to eat, and they were far from
satisfied. If further food was not forthcoming through voluntary
means, they would just have to take things as they pleased. They could
have nothing to fear from interruptions, in this lonely neighborhood;
and as for these four half-grown boys putting up a successful fight
against two such hardened characters as they were, was an absurdity
that they did not allow to make any impression on them.

Still the taller man did not want to rush things too fast. There was
something about the cool manner of Max Hastings that warned him the
conquest might not be the easy task they thought, he may have sensed
the fact that the young leader of the camping party was not an ordinary
boy; and then too Shack Beggs had a husky sort of look, as