oor little Bertha."

Thad hardly knew how to console his chum. Boy-like he was ready to
promise anything that lay in his power.

"Well, there are eight of us, and that's not as bad as being here
alone," he suggested, with a cheering pat of his hand on the other's
shoulder.

"You'll never know how much comfort I get out of that, Thad," the
Southern boy went on to say, in a broken voice. "You see, I've been
believing for a long time that there must have been something crooked
about the way Reuben Sparks came into possession of Bertha, and her
property. But how to prove it, when my father failed, is what gets me
now. But I'm full of hope; and what you keep saying gives me a heap of
solid comfort. I'm going to try and learn the truth while I'm down here;
and take her away from that man, if it can be done. I'm only a boy, and
he's a cold scheming man; but all the same, Thad, something inside here
seems to tell me my visit to the Old Blue Ridge isn't going to be
useless."

Bob White seemed to be sensibly encouraged after his little chat with
the patrol leader; for when he dropped back among the rest of the scouts
he had allowed a winning smile to creep over his dark, proud, handsome
face.

CHAPTER X.

THE VOICE OF THE SILVER FOX PATROL.

"WE'RE going to pitch our camp right here, boys!" said the scout leader,
some time later; "and remember, there's to be no shouting from this time
on. We're in the enemy's country, and must observe the rules of
caution."

"Oh! ain't I glad though," sighed Bumpus, who had been busily engaged
between wiping his perspiring brow, and avoiding stumbles over obstacles
that seemed to take particular delight in getting in his way, he
thought.

"But I hope you're not going so far, Thad, as to keep us from having our
regular camp-fire?" remarked Giraffe. "Without that, it'd be a sad
business, I'm thinking. And what's supper, without a cup of coffee?"

Thad had been talking again with Bob White; and evidently the boy who
was acquainted with the locality must have posted the patrol leader
regarding things.

"Oh! we don't expect to do without that, make your mind easy, Number
Six," he replied, with a laugh, knowing what a weakness Giraffe had in
the line of eating; though it seemed to do him little good, since he was
as "thin as a rail," plump little Bumpus used to declare.

With various exclamations of satisfaction the weary boys tossed their
burdens aside, and followed by throwin