nk, drew an automatic from under his
pillow, and fired point blank at the glass. There was a crash and
the cabin grew cloudy with powder smoke.

Thede sat down on the floor abruptly and began rubbing his eyes.

"I guess I walked in my sleep," he said. "I do sometimes."

The shot had awakened Tommy and Sandy, who came bounding to the
floor.

"What'd you shoot at?" they asked.

"The Little Brass God!"

"I guess you've got the Little Brass God on the brain!'' grinned
Sandy.

"Yes," Tommy cut in, "you've gone and busted a perfectly good pane
of glass when there isn't another one within a hundred miles."

"Did you hit any one?" George called feebly from the bunk.

"I don't know!" replied Will. "I'm going out to see in a minute."

But Tommy and Sandy were out of the door and chasing around the
corner of the house before Will could disentangle himself from the
blanket.

Instead of passing outside, then, he stepped over to the window and
looked out. The boys were there looking over the freshly fallen
snow with an electric searchlight.

"Did I see anything?" asked Will with a note of victory in his
voice.

"Somebody saw something!" answered Sandy. "There's blood on the
snow! Some one found a bullet!"

"I'm going to dress and find out where these tracks lead to!" Tommy
declared. "This is too much mischief for me!"

"Stick your face up in the air," advised Will with a grin.

"Snow!" shouted Tommy with a gesture of disgust. "These tracks'll
be full of the beautiful before we could walk forty rods!"

"That's about the size of it!" agreed Will. "So you may as well
come back into the house and we'll go back to bed."

When the boys entered and closed the door again, it was four
o'clock and they decided not to go back to bed again that night.

"How'd you know there was some one there?" Sandy asked of Will.

"I heard the window sash rattle, then a strong perfume--something
like opium or hasheesh--was forced into the room, then the fellow
on the outside began to work his hypnotic spell."

"You say it right!" exclaimed Tommy.

"It's just as simple as anything you ever read in a daily
newspaper," declared Will. "This Little Brass God we are tracing
up belongs either in a Hindu temple in India, or the Hindus think
it belongs there. At any rate, some dusky old hypnotizer has been
sent after it!"

"You'd better get a new dream book!" Sandy broke in. "Whoever came
to the window tonight, came there to f