careful there, Dick!" called Tom Reade, warningly. "If
you get a tumble-----"

"I'm not a booby, I hope," Dick called down, as he went to still
loftier heights. He was now among the slender uppermost branches,
where a boy would need to be a fine climber in order to make such
swift progress. Even Dick Prescott might readily enough snap
a branch now, and come tumbling to earth.

"Stop!" warned Tom. "If you don't you'll butt your head into
a cloud, the first thing you know."

"Can you see anything?" called Danny Grin.

"I see quite a cloud of dust to the northward."

"How far off?" asked Dave.

"About a mile, I should say, and it's headed this way, coming
closer every minute."

"What's behind the cloud? Can you make out?" Greg bawled up.

"I'm trying to see," Dick replied. "There, I got a glimpse then.
It's some kind of animals, heading for this camp at a gallop."

"It can't be cavalry," shouted Reade. "You don't see any men,
do you?"

"No," Prescott called down, shielding his eyes with one hand.
"Say, fellows!"

"Have you guessed what it is?" demanded Harry Hazelton.

"I know what it is---now!" Dick answered. Then he began to descend
the tree with great speed.

"Careful, there!" shouted Tom Reade. "That isn't a low baluster
you're sliding down."

"Keep quiet, until I reach the ground," gasped Dick. As he came
nearer those below saw that he looked truly startled.

Then Dick reached the low branches, and began to look for a chance
to jump.

"We've got to get out of here, fellows!" he called. "You know
the trick that cattle---owners have in this part of the county
of turning their cattle out to graze in one bunch. That bunch
is headed this way---hundreds strong, and it's going to rush through
this camp, trampling everything in the way!"

CHAPTER VII

FIGHTING THE MAD STAMPEDE

"Nothing doing, and don't get excited," replied Tom Reade, shaking
his head.

"There will be a lot doing in three or four minutes," Prescott
retorted excitedly. "The cattle are stampeded, and they'll sweep
through here like a cyclone."

"The trees will break up the stampede," Tom insisted coolly.

"Not much they won't," Dick answered. "The cattle are headed
along a natural lane, where the trees are less thick than in other
parts of the forest."

"The trees will stop 'em before they get here," Reade insisted.

"The trees will do nothing of the sort," uttered Dick, glancing
swiftly about him. "T