e roof of the third shack ripping
off boards before they were well started. Others followed him up working
at the edge of the roof. Roy began lifting and hauling away the loosened
floorboards below. Most of the troop busied themselves clearing up the
site of the second shack. The work proceeded silently, almost gloomily.

The work had been going on in this way for about an hour when one of the
scouts working down at the edge of the roof called to Blythe who was up
at the peak that the roof beneath him was sagging.

The fact was that the uprights within the shack had been too soon
removed, which put a strain upon the all too slender horizontal timber
which they had supported. This had been pieced mid-way, an instance of
hasty and flimsy construction, and the weight of Blythe at this point
caused the strip to sag.

The slanting timbers which formed the framework of the roof, running
from the peak down to the sides, were being dislodged at their lower
ends by the scouts, which operation, of course, withdrew their support
from the horizontal beam on which Blythe was working. He acknowledged
the warning by springing the beam with his weight, at which an ominous
sound of straining and splitting was heard.

"Look out up there," Roy called from below.

"Get off there Blythey they--_quick!_" another shouted.

"Climb down here," another suggested.

Perhaps Blythe did not think as quickly as others think. Perhaps he did
not value his poor life as others value their lives. Who shall say? In
any case he did not descend by one of the slanting strips. In another
moment the timber under him was splitting and giving way at the cleated
join, and sagging threateningly. Then came the loud sound of final
splitting and breaking away, and a deep sagging preceding the complete
break.

A few brief seconds remained for Blythe to decide what he should do. He
might still descend to safety as his companions had suggested. The
increasing sound of splitting, and the sagging, warned him to quick
decision. Instead of moving he looked directly beneath him where Roy
was.

"What's the matter?" he called down.

"My foot is caught under the flooring," Roy said.

A ripping and rending, and then the buckling of the broken pieces of
timber followed. The whole flimsy structure on which Blythe clung
trembling in air....

CHAPTER XXV

THE GOOD TURN

What happened then, happened like a flash of lightning. For a brief
second they saw Blyt