any as half a dozen times before surrendering
drowsily to the god of slumber.

There was no further trouble during the balance of that night, the
second they had spent in the old shack. Saturday morning dawned
with a clear sky, and it looked as though the day might be a
repetition of the two previous ones. This gratified the scouts
very much, for no matter how seasoned a camper may be, the weather
has considerable to do with his enjoyment. If rain continues to
pour down, there is very little pleasure to be found in spending
hours or days under canvas or the leaking roof of a cabin, wishing
in vain for a break in the weeping clouds. And so the three lads
expressed themselves as contented when they broke out from the
shelter of the shack on that morning and found the conditions so
favorable.

Bud hoped to make another try with his model before noon, since they
expected to be on the move shortly afterward. There was a long hike
before them ere they could expect to reach the road leading home,
where possibly a wagon might be hired to help get them into town
again.

One thing pleased them, and this was the fact that for the most part
the return journey would be down-grade. In consequence they expected
to make the distance separating them from the road in about half the
time it had taken in coming.

Bud hurried through the morning meal. Indeed, Ralph even joked him
on his seeming lack of appetite; for as a rule Bud was a good feeder
and came second only to Billy Worth, long recognized as champion in
the troop.

"Well, you see," Bud explained, "there are a whole lot of important
things I mean to do to-day, and the sooner I get busy the better
chance I'll have to go through the list. First thing of all is to
take a little tramp around toward the west of the camp, to see if I
can stumble on the place where that last old shooting star struck us.
I'm going to look sharp for a hole, because it seems to me such a big
lump of iron and other ore would smash into our earth at a pretty
lively clip."

"Hold on a minute and let's start fair!" called out Ralph. "We're
just as anxious as you are to make some sort of discovery, eh, Hugh?"

"Some sort, yes," the patrol leader admitted, with a queer little
smile that Bud noticed, but could not understand just then.

So the three boys started to comb the immediate vicinity of the shack,
spreading out in something like a fan formation. They took to the
west, because all of