couts
to serve as guardians of the camp.

Paul walked over to where Dobbin was munching the tender grass, being
secured against straying by a long rope.

A minute later Jack joined him, carrying a lantern. Together they walked
to the road not far away, and turned back over the ground they had
covered late in the afternoon.

"There's the bend," whispered Jack presently.

"I see it," replied his comrade; "and it must have been somewhere close
to this spot I saw that wheel appear, and then vanish so suddenly."

"Which side of the road did he dive into?" queried Jack.

"On our left. We'll look there first, anyhow, though if we find no signs
I'll turn the other way, for I might have been mistaken. Watch sharp,
now, Jack."

The light of the lantern soon showed them what Paul had expected to
find. The plain print of a pneumatic rubber tire was seen, turning
abruptly off the road, and running into the scrub alongside.

"Here, what do you make of that?" he asked, a tinge of triumph in his
voice.

"The mark of tires as sure as anything," replied Jack, bending down the
better to examine the imprint. "From the way they show up you can see it
was no ordinary bicycle that made the trail, but something heavier. Yes,
it was Ward on his motorcycle. But you didn't hear the popping of the
machine, did you?"

"For a good reason," returned Paul, immediately. "You see the road
descends for some distance, and he had just got over a long coast when
he turned this bend. The engine was shut off."

"But the machine isn't here now?" continued Jack.

"Of course not," Paul admitted. "But any one with half an eye can see
where he rolled it along here back of the brush, returning to where he
came from. If we followed it a little way, we'd be sure to find that he
hurried back up the road, pushing his machine, and in time stopped the
rest of the bunch as they came along."

"Well, that proves one thing then; they know where we are in camp,"
observed Jack, with a serious expression on his face; for he understood
Ted Slavin's tactics of old, and could easily guess what might follow.

"It proves more than one thing to me," declared Paul. "If they didn't
mean to badger us in some way why should Ward hurry back to tell the
rest, and keep them from showing up here?"

"Then we'll have to get ready for an attack. Do you think they would
dare stone the camp, and try to smash our tents?" and Jack gritted his
teeth at the bare idea.

"Would you