tary meteor should take a notion to
explode each night?"

No one answered this question, though Bud was too busy pondering on
the run of strange events that had fallen to their share of late to
notice the lack of interest his comrades seemed to take in the matter.

Once inside, they again sat around talking. It was Ralph this time
who gave utterance to a certain fact that had been in his mind, which
interested both his chums as soon as they heard it.

"I don't know," he started to say soberly, "whether either of you
happened to notice it, but there seemed to be something foreign
about the voices we heard after the big noise. Not a single word
could I understand, either, and yet they seemed to be pretty near
by."

"I didn't happen to notice that, Ralph," Hugh observed seriously;
"but if the men who spoke were your mysterious friends of the other
day, one thing is sure---they weren't the ones who sat in that
speeding monoplane."

"Eh? How do you know that?" queried Bud, becoming deeply interested.

"Well, in the first place," suggested Ralph, not waiting for Hugh's
reply, "the sound of voices came from the same level as our own
location. I'm dead sure of that fact. Then again we could hear the
swish of brush, and I even caught the sound of men crashing through
thickets and falling over logs."

"Yes," added Hugh, "and it struck me that they were in something like
a blue fright, as though the nearness of that explosion had given
them a bad scare. Only a sudden panic could make men rush through
thickets as recklessly as they were going."

"Everybody may not like meteors to drop all around 'em," Bud muttered;
"and I can't blame the fellows much, either. I came near being
knocked flat on my back, myself, when that one let go with a bang.
My ears are ringing yet, and I'm afraid I'll go deaf if I have to
hear much more of that sort of cannonading."

Although they continued to sit up for some little time and talk, Hugh
did not see fit to mention certain suspicions that had taken root in
his own mind. He believed he was on the track of the truth, but
until he had a little more positive evidence he hesitated to speak
out boldly.

They finally settled down and tried to sleep. Bud seemed to find
little difficulty in forgetting all his troubles and triumphs, for
his heavy breathing quickly announced that he was dead to the world.
With the other two it was a more protracted task, and possibly they
turned over as m