hing
them.

"What's gone now, Step-hen?" asked Thad, as they came up, still
wrangling.

"Why, just to think," called out Bumpus, "he says I never gave him back
that new compass of his, after he showed me how it worked, before we
started on this hike; and I say I did. As if I'd want to take his silly
compass, when I learned how to tell north from the mossy side of a tree,
and the way the sun hangs out up there."

"Well, I just can't find it on me anywhere," complained Step-hen; "and
as I remembered showing it to Bumpus, I thought he was setting up a game
on me by hiding it somewhere about him. He wouldn't let me look in his
pack, either, you know."

"Course I wouldn't!" cried the fat boy, indignantly; "because that'd
look like I half admitted the charge. Guess I know enough about law to
understand that. Just you think real hard, Step-hen, and p'raps you'll
remember where you put it; but don't throw it up at me, please."

The other grumbled something, but made no further charge. From the
suspicious way in which he looked at Bumpus out of the corners of his
eyes, it was plain that his mind was far from convinced, and that
missing compass would be apt to make trouble during the whole trip.

CHAPTER IV.

WHEN THE FIRE WAS KINDLED.

"How are you feeling now, Bumpus?" asked Thad, some time later, as he
once more stopped to allow all the stragglers pull up; for some of the
boys were beginning to look rather fagged, though they tried to hide the
telltale signs, being too proud to own up to any weakness that ill
became a scout.

"Pretty ragged, to tell the truth," replied the fat boy, who was puffing
as he came along. "It ain't the poison I've absorbed in my system, so
much as a weakness that just makes me shiver all over. And Thad, I've
walked this far before, and never felt like this, either."

"Oh! I expected that you'd have that sort of a spell," remarked the
other. "You see, that tumble, and the shock of feeling something biting
you, that was terrible because you were in the dark, must have given
your nervous system a bad jolt. But keep up if you can, Bumpus. In a
little while now we'll be near the lake, and our first camp."

"And just think of it, boys, what a roaring old fire we'll have
to-night," spoke up Giraffe, craning his long neck to glance around the
circle that had gathered about the leader.

"You'll just leave all that to me, Giraffe," said the patrol leader,
sternly. "Here we are about to