heir blankets, and, rolled tightly in them, lay sound
asleep on the bare ground.

"Poor kids! Aren't you proud of each and every one of them, Hippy?"
glowed Tom.

"Oh, I suppose so. That is, I presume I should be if I weren't
famished."

Henry came ambling in at this juncture and, sitting down, began washing
his face with his paws, giving not the slightest heed to the tirade that
Joe Shafto was hurling at him.

"Ye git no breakfast to-day," raged the forest woman.

"Oh, don't be so hard-hearted," begged Hippy. "Give the poor fish a rind
of bacon at least. You don't know what it means to have an appetite."

Hippy's urgings bore fruit, and Henry got his breakfast, as did Tom and
Hippy, and their appetites fully equalled that of the bear.

"Come along, Hippy," urged Tom after they had finished breakfast.

"Wha--at? Where?"

"Let's have a look at the tree that so mysteriously fell on our camp."

"Have a heart! Have a heart, Tom! I want to lie down and sleep."

"So do I, but I cannot until I have learned why that tree came down as
it did, and what caused the report just before it fell. Come! The sooner
we start, the quicker we shall be in dreamland."

Hippy followed his companion begrudgingly.

"Look at that, will you?" demanded Captain Gray, pointing to the ground
about the hole which had so recently held the roots of the great tree
that had fallen on the lean-tos. The ground had been torn up for some
yards from the true base of the tree, and dirt and pieces of roots
hurled in all directions.

Lieutenant Wingate was instantly galvanized into alertness. The scene
reminded him of France where he had seen so many similar holes, the
result of the explosion of shells. He was down on his knees in a second,
crawling about in the hole, feeling and smelling the ground.

"Smell this, Tom," he said, handing up to his companion a bit of
cardboard. "What does it suggest to you?"

"Powder, I should say," answered Tom.

"Exactly. It is my opinion that our tree was dynamited. That's what
caused the explosion!" cried Hippy. "I wonder I didn't recognize it at
the time. Now what do you make of that?"

"I suspected as much, old man. I knew when I heard it that there had
been an explosion, and I suspected the reason," answered Tom gravely. "I
am glad the girls are not awake. This is serious, and the end is not
yet!"

Tom Gray's prophecy came true before the end of that already eventful
day.

CHAPTER XI

THE THR