he was
particularly anxious to make a good rabbit stew. Kiddie helped him
only so far as to skin and dismember the rabbit and peel the onions.
He was himself a capable camp cook, but he did not wish to interfere
with Rube's personal satisfaction in doing the work.

"Say, Kiddie," said Rube, when he had fixed the saucepan firmly in the
fire; "if we ain't goin' ter quit this yer pitch 'fore ter-morrow,
you'd best sleep to-night along o' me in the wigwam. That rattlesnake
wasn't many yards away from you, an' if you'd bin bit I dunno what I
should ha' done. Thar ain't no good in hangin' around after that lynx,
whatever its colour. Why shouldn't we quit?"

"Where would you go, Rube?" Kiddie inquired.

Rube looked out across the lake.

"I got a idea of paddlin' across an' makin' camp in one of them
canyons," he said.

"Tut!" objected Kiddie. "You want to do some exploring, eh? Want ter
get into some lonesome place where nobody has ever been before? What's
the matter with this forest? I reckon we're the first civilized humans
that have ever spent a night in it. Prowl around in it; search in
whatever direction you like, you'll find no sign of any sort that a
human being has been here in front of us to leave his mark on a tree,
to drop a button or a chip of crockery, or to lift a stone from the bed
of the creek. It's all as Nature meant it to be, centuries and
centuries ago. Growth and the weather alone have changed things."

"All right," nodded Rube; "so long's you're satisfied, so am I.
Suppose we get at that honey 'fore the bees come back."

The sulphur fumes still lingered in the hollow tree, and scores of bees
had fallen stupefied among the roots. Rube, being the smaller, entered
the hollow and looked up.

"Thar's pounds an' pounds of honeycomb here, Kiddie," he called out;
"but I can't reach it without somethin' ter stand on, an' we shall need
that biscuit tin ter hold it."

Kiddie fetched the biscuit tin, and a spar of firewood, and stood by
while Rube handed out to him the dripping combs of honey.

"Thar's heaps more, higher up," said Rube, standing on tip-toes and
reaching upward.

Then somehow his foot slipped, the decayed substance of the tree
crumbled under his weight. He screamed in terror as he fell in a heap
at Kiddie's feet, followed by a shower of dust and strange, dry
rottenness that was mingled with the syrup from the honeycombs.

"What is it?" cried Kiddie. "What made you scream?