pains he was beginning to get sleepy.

"Only a few miles as the crow flies," he was assured.

"Of course you've got the direction down all--er, what you call it,
pat, I suppose?"

Frank told him he felt sure he could take a bee-line for camp; and a
minute afterwards, there being no further questions, only the regular
breathing of a tired lad, he knew that Will had dropped off.

Neither of them managed to secure any great amount of sleep. Their
hard resting-place prevented such a thing. After a nap of possibly
half an hour Frank would awaken to find one of his legs numb under
him, while his muscles fairly ached with the severe strain to which
they were quite unaccustomed.

Twice both boys felt so numb with the cold that acting on Frank's
advice they crawled out from under the sheltering rock, and for a
short time went through with exercises devised to send the blood
leaping through their veins.

It was by all odds the longest night either of the lads had ever
experienced, in so far as their feelings were concerned. Twice the
eager and impatient Will gave a false alarm, under the impression that
he had glimpsed the dawn stealing in upon them. The first time Frank
showed him by his watch how impossible this was, for it had hardly
reached two o'clock.

But all things must come to an end, bad as well as good; and finally
Frank himself detected the coming of dawn. It was not by sight that he
knew this but through the twittering of birds in neighboring trees,
where the poor things had hidden to escape the terrible storm.

"I guess that's meant for a tune of thanksgiving and praise on account
of having escaped death in all that wind and rain," Frank told himself
as he listened to the faint songs taking form around him.

He did not awaken his chum, because there was no need. They could not
start at once, and the boy needed what sleep he could get after such a
wretched night.

It was broad day when Will awoke.

"Why! what's this, Frank?" he exclaimed, reproachfully, "how could you
let me waste time sleeping when we might have been on our way?"

"Oh! no hurry," he was told; "and you seemed to be getting forty winks
after such a tough night. But now that you've waked up, let's crawl
out of here."

Neither of them felt any sorrow at leaving their hard beds, though
that did not mean they could ever be anything but grateful for the
welcome shelter of that nook under the rocky shelf.

Frank had no hesitancy about po