rub my
eyes and figure it all out again. You see I'm so used to telling time by
clocks that it seems queer to use the sun for it."

"No signs of Toby so far, I suppose, Steve?" asked Jack a little later,
as he emerged from the tent after putting his camera safely away.

"Not a thing," announced the other. "I hope you're not worrying about
him, Jack, and sorry already you let him go off alone. Mebbe I ought to
have kept him company, sore heel or not."

"Don't fret about it, Steve. Toby has common horse-sense, and could
hardly get lost if he tried his hardest. You see, the formation of the
valley is calculated to always set a fellow straight, even if he gets a
little mixed in his bearings. It runs directly southeast to northwest
around here. Besides Toby has the compass, and the sun is shining up
there full tilt. He may not be in for another hour or so; but I wouldn't
be alarmed even if the sun set with him still away. The light of our
campfire would serve as a guide to him, once darkness fell."

"Yes, that's a fact, Jack. We could build a roaring blaze that might be
seen a mile and more away. I did hear one thing that surprised me."

"What was that?" demanded the other, looking expectant, as though he
could give a pretty good guess himself, which was as much as saying that
he had heard the same sound.

"Why, there must be some sort of mining going on not many miles away
from here," argued Steve, "because that was surely a blast I heard half
an hour ago. First I had an idea it meant a coming storm, but there
wasn't a sign of a cloud in sight. It seemed to be a deep, heavy
reverberation, just like I've heard dynamite make at the red-sandstone
quarry near Chester when the workmen at noon set off their blasts. Of
course you noticed it, too, Jack?"

"Well, I should say so," the other admitted, "and during the night both
Toby and myself were awakened by just the same sort of far-off dull
roaring sound."

"I must have been sound asleep then, because I never caught it,"
acknowledged the other, frankly; "but if you two boys talked it over,
what conclusion did you arrive at, may I ask?"

"We were undecided," said Jack, warily. "We sort of inclined to the
opinion that either a railroad was being cut through the hills over to
the north, or else there might be some sort of mining or quarrying being
carried on there. I told Toby that while it was an unknown quantity to
us now, the chances were in our scouting around while ca