r see a blacker, more peculiar looking cloud coming
than that one?" demanded Tom Reade, as the high school boys emerged
from the gloom of a long, narrow forest road into comparatively
open country.

"Is it a coming storm, or an optical delusion?" pondered Dick,
halting and staring hard.

"It looks like pictures I've seen of water spouts," Greg declared.

"That's what it is," Dick replied quietly. "Though I've never
seen one before, it's hard to be fooled, for that chap looks just
like his published photographs. And look at that queer, brownish,
half-yellowish sky back of it. It certainly looks forbidding."

"And we're going to have a stormy afternoon of it!" muttered Dave.

"The waterspout will go by to the north," Reade conjectured, studying
the oddly-shaped, rapidly moving and twisting blackish cloud,
"but we're going to be right in line with the main storm that
is traveling with it."

"And we've got to prepare against the weather, too!" Dick cried,
with sudden realization. "Fellows, the storm that is coming down
on us isn't going to be any toy zephyr!"

After leaving Ashbury the boys had decided to return to Gridley
by a different road.

"There's the place for us, if we can make it!" cried Dick an instant
later, pointing toward the slope.

"Dave, whip up the horse. He has to travel fast for his own safety.
Tom and Greg, you get behind and push the wagon up the slope.
We'll all help in turn. But hustle!"

The crest of the rise of ground being made, the boys found themselves
entering another forest. Dick here found the ground as favorable
to his purpose as he had hoped it would be, for on the further
side the land sloped downward again, and was well-wooded.

"Drive in there!" called Prescott, pointing, then ran ahead to
find the best spot for pitching the tent.

"Whoa!" yelled Prescott, when he had reached the spot that he
judged would do best for camp purposes. "Now, Dave, go over to
the other side of the horse! Help me to get him out of the shafts.
The poor animal must be our first consideration, for he can't
help himself. The rest of you unload all the stuff from the wagon
as fast as you can move."

Slipping the harness from the horse, Dick fastened a halter securely,
then ran the horse down into a little gully where the animal would
be best protected from the force of the wind that would come with
the storm.

Driving a long iron stake into the ground, Dick tethered the animal
securely.