looked grave when the incidents
of the night were related to them.

"It means," Will declared, "that we are suspected by the train robbers
of harboring a detective, and suspected by the detective of harboring
the convict and his son."

"Aw, they won't come back here again, any of them!" asserted Tommy.

"Don't you think they won't," replied Will. "Here," he added, as Tommy
dipped into the skillet of bacon and eggs. "What are you boys doing with
the third or fourth supper?"

"I cooked this for the train robber!" grinned Tommy, "How'd you like to
have a few bites of it?"

"I don't mind!" declared Will.

"Of the four parties representing four diverse interests," Will said, at
the conclusion of the meal, "two have been represented here tonight.
Before morning we may receive a call from the cowboys and the escaped
convict. The visits might not be very agreeable ones but, still, they
would complete the roll-call."

"You remember that trip to the Florida Everglades, don't you?" asked
Tommy, with a most satisfying yawn. "Well, if you haven't forgotten all
about it, you'll remember that we didn't have any sleep there for a
couple of nights, and that I actually began to grow thin because of
being kept awake so much."

"It was your own fault," insisted Sandy.

"That may be," replied Tommy, "but, all the same, I'm not going to let
anything like that happen on this trip. I'm going to bed right now, and
there's nothing on the face of the earth that can get me out of bed
again until morning."

"That's me, too!" declared Sandy.

The boys entered the tent recently vacated, drew down the flap and were
soon in bed, and asleep. Will and George, sitting by the fire,
discussing the unusual combination of circumstances, heard a succession
of sounds which any member of the Beaver patrol, Boy Scouts of America,
would have recognized instantly.

It was the beaver call which consists in slapping the open palms
together violently in imitation of the play of the flat tail of the
beaver upon the surface of the water.

"Slap, slap, slap!" came the challenge from the darkness.

"That's a Beaver!" exclaimed George.

"Slap, slap, slap!" went the reply from Will's open palms.

"Why doesn't he come in?" asked George in a moment.

"I guess I'll have to go and find out!" declared Will. "This, you see,"
he added with a smile, "is the third interest to be represented here
tonight. There is no doubt but that we'll hear from the cowboys b