must be Lub!" exclaimed Ethan.

"Yes, I saw him wandering off in that direction a bit ago," added X-Ray.

"What can have happened to him?" exclaimed Phil, his mind running to
panthers, ferocious bobcats, hungry bears, and even an excited father,
wild with searching for his lost child.

"There he comes now!" cried Ethan.

"How funny he acts," X-Ray went on to say.

Indeed, Lub was carrying on as though he had gone suddenly crazy,
leaping up into the air, threshing with his arms, and prancing madly to
and fro. All the while they could hear him letting out hoarse yells.

CHAPTER XI

AN ENCOUNTER IN THE PINE WOODS

"Help! Chase 'em off, somebody! Help a fellow, won't you? Ouch! they're
murdering me by inches. Oh! my stars, what can I do?"

"It's hornets!" shrieked X-Ray, always as quick as a flash.

"Mebbe a swarm of yellow jackets!" suggested Ethan. "I can see something
whirling around over his head. Gee! what if he runs here and gives us a
dose? The cabin for mine."

"Hold on," called out Phil, taking in the situation, and then raising
his voice he shouted to the terrified Lub: "Throw off your hat as you
run. There, that'll attract some. Now your coat. Never mind a sting or
two, but do as I say."

Lub, accustomed in matters of this kind to letting some one else do his
thinking for him, hastened to obey.

Immediately afterward he was heard calling piteously:

"There's some after me yet, Phil, and oh! how they do hit you! I'm
beginning to swell up right now. How'll I get away from the swarm, Phil?
You tell me what to do, and quick!"

"Run for the lake and jump in!" called out Phil. "Duck under, and keep
there as long as you can stand it."

Without thinking twice, and only too willing to blindly obey, Lub
galloped straight to the shore of the lake. He happened to strike a
little bank, where the water was quite deep.

"Here I go!" they heard him shout, and then came a tremendous splash.

"Oh! my!" gasped X-Ray, "that settles our fishing for this morning!
He'll scare every trout in the lake with his threshing around!"

Ethan was bubbling over with laughter, and even Phil had hard work to
keep from giving a shout when upon reaching the shore they saw what was
going on.

Lub stood in water up to his chin. He kept bobbing his head in an
anxious effort to locate any determined insect that still hovered near
by. Occasionally he would duck entirely out of sight, and move along a
dozen feet, as thoug