he trio were close at hand before he went on:

"I judge you didn't have any luck."

"We got close to one of the scamps," muttered Tom, "whom Dick
seems to have hit on the heel with a stone, but he slipped away
from us under the trees."

"It's only half an hour to dawn," yawned Dave, looking at his
watch. "We can turn in, now, I guess, for the rascals must be
about through with the guessing match they've put up for us."

"We could turn in now," suggested Danny Grin. "We don't have
to go to sleep, you know, but we could lie in our blankets and
talk the time away until dawn. The campfire will keep going until
after daylight comes on."

That seemed rather a sensible course. Dick nodded, and all hands,
after Darry had thrown a few more sticks on the fire, went into
the tent, undressed, donned pajamas and slipped in under a single
thickness of blanket apiece, and lay there talking.

Yet it proved to be a case of gape and yawn. One after another
their eyes closed and more regular breathing started.

Dick Prescott was the last one to drop off. Yet he had barely
more than lost himself in slumberland when there came a blast
so close at hand that, to the boys, it seemed as though they must
have been blown from their cots.

"That was right up toward the road!" panted Dave Darrin, leaping
from his cot barefooted and clad only in pajamas. "Don't stop
to dress. Come on! Chase 'em!"

"Go as far as you like!" chuckled Dick, stopping to pull on his
shoes and fasten them, as did most of the others. Hazelton went
only to the doorway of the tent, but Danny Grin followed Darrin,
keeping at the latter's heels.

Prescott and Reade were hardly sixty seconds later in heading
up the slope toward the road, Greg and Harry remaining at the
camp.

As they came out from under the trees and into the road Dick discovered
that the first signs of dawn were appearing. In a few minutes
more it would be possible to see clearly over a stretch of road
more than half a mile in length. Already objects were beginning
to take shape. Dave was coming back, followed by Dan. Both were
limping slightly, for neither boy was accustomed to traveling
barefoot and both had picked up slight stone bruises in their
progress.

"Did you sight anything or anyone?" called Dick.

"No," grumbled Darrin, in deep disgust. "The odds are all against
us, anyway. The scoundrels know which way they are going; we
can only guess at their course."

"One t