at's a
funny thing. What would make them hold heat that way, when there's not a
sign of anybody around?"

"There _has_ been somebody here, and only a short time ago, don't you
see?" explained Phil.

"And like as not they heard us cheering when we glimpsed the lake, and
cleared out in a big hurry," Ethan went on to say.

"Cleared out?" echoed Lub'. "Well, why should they run from us, tell me?
We don't look dangerous, as far as I can see. We wouldn't bother hurting
anybody; and didn't Phil say a while back that if we found some
fishermen in his shack we'd just shy off, and build one for ourselves?"

"Yes, but these people didn't hear Phil say that; we were half a mile
and more away from here at the time," explained X-Ray.

"And they couldn't begin to tell just who was coming," added Phil.

"It might be!" exclaimed Ethan, "that they took us for game wardens.
Mebbe now they've been shooting deer out of season, and got cold feet
when they knew some people were coming in to the lake."

Phil nodded his head in the affirmative, when he saw that Ethan was
looking to find out just how that suggestion struck him.

"I rather think you've struck the right nail on the head there, Ethan,"
he told the other. "It seems the most reasonable explanation for their
clearing out in such a big hurry."

"They tried to put the fire out too, didn't they, Phil?"

It was X-Ray Tyson who asked this. Those keen eyes of his had made
another discovery, and he was even then pointing the same out to his
chums.

"Yes, I had noticed that some one had certainly thrown water on the
fire," said Phil. "You can see where it washed the ashes off this
charred piece of wood; and besides, it made little furrows in the
ashes."

"That's an old trick in the woods," remarked Ethan, with a superior air;
"fact is, no true woodsman would think of breaking camp without first
making sure every spark of his fire was put out. Lots of forest fires
have come from carelessness in guides leaving red cinders behind them."

"Yes," Phil added, "because often the wind rises, and whirls those same
cinders to leeward, where they fall in a bunch of dry leaves, and begin
to get their work in. But when people live in cabins they seldom bother
wetting the ashes, unless they've got a mighty good reason for wanting
to hide the facts."

"And these people did," added Ethan, conclusively.

"Let's look around some," suggested X-Ray.

Two of the others thought this a good idea