ay
it's allus the new hands as get the best luck. We've got plenty now,
an' it ain't allowed to tek' more'n we can eat.'

This trout was far too big for Chippy to kill with finger and thumb, so
he whipped off his jacket, rolled the fish in it, and the two scouts
hurried back to the camp fire. Here Chippy despatched the trout by a
sharp tap behind its head, delivered with the handle of the tomahawk,
and the boys gloated over their prize. It was a fine, short,
hog-backed trout, weighing well over three pounds, and in the pink of
condition.

''Bout as much as anybody wants to lift out wi' a nut-stick,' commented
Chippy, while Dick stared entranced at his glorious shining prize.

'Time to turn in now, I shouldn't wonder,' said the Raven, and the Wolf
looked at his watch.

'Close upon ten,' said the latter.

'Well, we've just about 'ad a day of it,' said his comrade. 'I'll bet
we'll be off to sleep like a shot.'

CHAPTER XXXII

TERRORS OF THE NIGHT

It was not until they lay down and waited for sleep that the boys felt
the oddness and queerness of this first night in the open. Bustling
round, making the fire, cooking, rigging up their camp, eating supper,
fishing--all those things had kept at bay the silence and loneliness
which now seemed to settle down upon them like a pall. They were quite
comfortable. Each was wrapped snugly in his blanket. The bed of
larch-tips was dry and springy. The haversacks, stuffed with the
smallest tips, formed capital pillows. Yet sleep did not come at once.

After a time Dick spoke.

'Listen to the river,' he said.

'Rum, ain't it?' replied Chippy. 'Daytime it didn't seem to mek' no
noise at all. Now yer can't hear nothin' else.'

The river, as a river always does, had found its voice in the dark: it
purred and plashed, while over a shallow some distance below, its
waters ran with a shrill babbling, and a steady roar, unheard by day,
came up from a distant point where it thundered over a weir.

'Good job we made a rattlin' fire afore we turned in,' remarked the
Raven; 'seems like comp'ny, don't it?'

'Rather,' said Dick; and both boys lay for a time watching the dancing
gleams, as the good beech logs blazed up and threw the light of their
flames into the depths of the hanger which rose above the camp.

Sleep came to Dick without his knowing it, but his sleep had a rude
awakening. He woke with the echo of a dreadful cry in his ears. For a
moment he looked