ing?"

"Hounds?"

"Real bloodhounds," said her brother. "Sheriff's posse----"

"Hush!" gasped Laura, clapping a hand over his mouth. "Haven't you any
sense at all? Want to scare Lil and Nellie out of their next five
years' growth?"

"Wow!" muttered Chet.

"Shut Billy off, too. And then come and tell me all about it,"
commanded Laura.

Chet grabbed Billy by the collar and dragged him away from the girls.
Then, after whispering to the smaller boy, emphatically, for a minute,
he let him go and rejoined his sister.

"Now, what do you want to know, Sis?" he demanded.

"All about it," said Laura, eagerly. "Is there really a sheriff's
posse hunting him?"

"Who's who?" asked Chet, in much amazement.

"Why--whoever they are chasing," replied Laura, rather blankly.

"Just curiosity?" Chet wanted to know.

"You can call it that," responded the girl, smiling whimsically at
him.

"You never were just idly curious in all your life," declared Chet,
grinning at her. "Well! the men were after that fellow who stole from
the Merchants and Miners Bank of Albany."

"Oh!"

"They got wind of his being up this way. Somebody saw him, or thought
he did. Crackey! Do you suppose _he_ was the fellow who took the food
from your tent, Laura?"

"Yes, I do," admitted his sister.

"Then he's far enough away from the lake now," said Chet, nodding.
"That amount would have lasted him till he got over the Canadian
border."

"Perhaps," said Laura. "At any rate, those dogs won't be able to
follow his trail much after the hard rain of last night."

"Sure not," Chet rejoined. "That's what the sheriff said. He got us to
promise to let him know at Creeper Station if we saw anybody who
looked like Norman Halliday----"

"That's it!" gasped Laura, clapping her hands together.

"What's 'it?'" demanded her brother, wonderingly.

"His name."

"Of course it is. The fellow who stole the securities from the bank.
They will get him of course."

"With bloodhounds? How terrible!"

"Not at all. They are muzzled. And friendly brutes, at that. They only
follow the scent they are put on, and probably would do their quarry
no harm, even if they were unmuzzled."

"Well, it seems terrible, just the same," murmured Laura. Then she
added: "Suppose he was somebody _we_ had an interest in, Chet?"

"Humph! that _would_ be tough. But he isn't."

"Just the same, promise me something," urged Laura, clinging to his
shoulder with both hands.

"What i