on you."

Just then Bumpus, who had been wandering aimlessly about after drinking
at the cooling waters of the little spring that had been the main cause
of this temporary halt in the march, gave utterance to a loud
exclamation.

He had tripped over something that lay in the grass, and a splash
announced that with his usual hard luck the fat boy had managed to go
headlong into the spring. Scrambling out, with the water streaming from
his red face, he turned indignantly on the balance of the patrol, now
convulsed with laughter.

"What sort of--horse play d'ye call that--I'd like to know?" he
sputtered, trying to wipe his streaming face with a handkerchief that
looked far too small for the task. "Can't a feller--just stroll around
camp--without some silly putting out a foot, and tripping him up? Tell
me that, now?"

"I'm beginning to think we must have some sort of a hoodoo along with
us," remarked Smithy, anxiously. "All sorts of things seem to be
happening, and in the most mysterious way possible. We all know that
there wasn't a single fellow anywhere near Bumpus when he pitched
forward. Yet he says _somebody_ put out a foot, and he tripped over it.
I think it a remarkable phenomenon, for a fact, and worth
investigating."

"Well, somethin' _did_ trip me, and that's sure," grumbled the other,
possibly thinking that he had been too sweeping in his accusation.

"Suppose you look in that bunch of grass, and find out if the little
evil spirit that's playing all these pranks on you is lying there?"
suggested Thad, with a twinkle in his eye, as though he could give a
pretty shrewd guess what the result of the said exploration would turn
out to be.

So Bumpus, always willing to oblige, especially since his own curiosity
must have been aroused, proceeded forthwith to get down on his hands and
knees, and begin an examination of the tangle in question.

Half a minute later he gave a loud cry. At the same time he was seen to
hold up some strange black object.

"Look! Bumpus has caught his little evil genius!" cried Giraffe. "And
ain't it a hard lookin' subject though. Caught him right by the ankle,
and threw him straight into our spring. Lucky we'd had all the drink we
wanted before he started to wash there!"

"Why, blessed if it ain't my kodak!" ejaculated Step Hen faintly, as
though it shocked him to think how his lost camera should have been
lying there in all that tangle of grass, where it had undoubtedly fallen
a