see what----" began Jack and then he broke off.

From outside the tent had come an appalling crash of tin dishes,
followed by unearthly grunts and squeals. The uproar was terrific. It
sounded as if every piece of tinware in the camp was being hurled and
battered around.

"What under the sun----?" gasped Jack.

"It's Indians; they've attacked the camp," cried Dick.

A weird screech split the night. Jack seized up a rifle.

"Come on, boys," he cried, but it might have been noticed that Dick
was not particularly alert in following.

Zeb and the professor rushed out of their tents and their shouts added
to the confusion. There was a bright moon and by its light Jack saw a
small, peculiarly-shaped animal charging about blindly here and there.
The next minute he saw, too, that the creature's head was caught fast
in an enameled cooking pot.

It rushed about and uttered the muffled squeals that had attracted
their attention. Jack raised his rifle and fired. The creature fell
dead at the first shot. Zeb and Jack rushed up to it.

"A badger!" exclaimed Zeb, "and he's got his greedy head stuck fast in
that mush cooker."

"And in charging about trying to get it off he'd made a wreck of our
pantry!" exclaimed Jack, looking at the tin utensils scattered in
every direction about the wooden box in which they were kept.

"It must have been that badger that came sniffing at my toes," said
Tom.

"Or maybe it was Indians," laughed Jack, looking slyly at Dick, who
was glad that they couldn't see how red he turned.

"Indians?" exclaimed the professor guilelessly. "Were there any
Indians about?"

"Dick thought he saw some," explained Jack with a chuckle.

The dead badger was pulled out of the pot into which it stuck its
head to lick out the remains of some oatmeal that had adhered to its
side, and the boys went back to bed. But they did not sleep much after
the uproar into which the camp had been thrown, and were glad when it
began to grow light.

Zeb cooked a fine breakfast to which he urged everybody to do justice,
as they had a long and possibly a trying day ahead of them. The badger
was given decent burial by Dick.

"Let its fate be a lesson to you," said Jack, at which they all
laughed, for Dick was always on the spot at meal times.

When the morning meal was finished and the things all packed away, the
Wondership was inflated and soared into the clear air. Nights and
early mornings on the desert are cool, and it w