be able to prepare your food for cooking. Now we're all
ready for the fire, though, and you can bring me some dry bark and
small sticks from that pile of wood the pioneers laid in yesterday."

This was promptly done, and the lads watched the next step with
interest. They saw the scout master take a tiny pile of the sticks and
then light a roll of bark and thrust it into them.

"I thought you piled them up all criss-cross," remarked Hiram.

"No woodsman does that, my boy," was the rejoinder. "Now get me some
larger timber from that pile, and I'll show you how to go about it like
regular trappers."

The fire builder shoved the ends of the sticks into the blaze and then
the bean pot was hung in place.

"We won't put the potatoes on now, as they take less time," he
remarked; "those beans will take the longest."

Soon the heat was leaping up about the pots, and the cheerful crackle
and incense of the camp fire filled the air. As the sticks burned down
the scout master shoved the ends farther into the blaze, instead of
throwing them on top of it.

"Now, then, boys, you've had your first lesson in camp fire making and
cooking," he announced. "Now go ahead, and let's see what kind of a
dinner you can produce. I'm going for a tour of exploration of the
island."

Among the other things the pioneers had accomplished was the building
of a table large enough to seat the entire Patrol, with planks set on
logs as seats. Hiram put Walter to setting this, while he burned his
fingers and smudged his face over his cookery. Long before the beans
seemed any nearer to what experience taught the young cook they ought
to be, Walter announced that the table was all set, with its tin cups
and dishes and steel knives and forks.

Suddenly, while Hiram was considering putting the potatoes on their
hook, there came from the rear of the store tent the most appalling
succession of squeals and screams the boy had ever heard. Springing to
his feet, he dashed to the scene of the conflict--for such it seemed to
be though not without a heart that beat rather faster than usual. He
bad no idea what the creatures could be that were producing all the
uproar, and for all he knew they might have been bears.

Behind him came Walter, rather pale, but determined to do his best as a
Boy Scout to fight off any wild beasts that might be attacking the
camp. As he dashed behind the tent, however, Hiram was impelled to
give a loud laugh. The cont