hat she wanted rabbits,
but it had become a mania with her, and there were so many of them that
as they grew accustomed to us they sat round our camp in a ring and
criticized our housekeeping. She thought if she got a good many skins
she could have a fur robe made for her automobile. As a matter of fact
she found another use for them.

It was that night, then, that we were sitting round the camp-fire on
stones that we had brought up from the beach. We had seen nothing more
of the bear, and if we had been asked we should have said that the
nearest human being was twenty-five miles away.

Suddenly a voice came out of the woods just behind us, a man's voice.

"Please don't be alarmed," said the voice. "But may I have a little of
your fire? Mine has gone out again."

"G-g-g-good gracious!" said Aggie. "T-Tish, get your revolver!"

This was for effect. Tish had no revolver.

All of us had turned and were staring into the woods behind, but we
could see no one. After Aggie's speech about the revolver it was some
time before the voice spoke again.

"Never mind, Aggie," Tish observed, very loud. "The revolver is here and
loaded--as nice a little thirty-six as any one needs here in the woods."

She said afterward that she knew all the time there was no thirty-six
caliber revolver, but in the excitement she got it mixed with her bust
measure. Having replied to Aggie, Tish then turned in the direction of
the voice.

"Don't skulk back there," she called. "Come out, where we can see you.
If you look reliable, we'll give you some fire, of course."

There was another pause, as if the stranger were hesitating. Then:--

"I think I'd better not," he said with reluctance in his voice. "Can't
you toss a brand this way?"

By that time we had grown accustomed to the darkness, and I thought I
could see in the shadow of a tree a lightish figure. Aggie saw it at the
same instant and clutched my arm.

"Lizzie!" she gasped.

It was at that moment that Tish tossed the brand. It fell far short, but
her movement caught the stranger unawares. He ducked behind the tree,
but the flare of light had caught him. With the exception of what looked
like a pair of bathing-trunks he was as bare as my hand!

There was a sort of astonished silence. Then the voice called out:--"Why
in the world didn't you warn me?" it said, aggrieved. "I didn't know you
were going to throw the blamed thing."

We had all turned our backs at once and Tish's face w