out that. You said if we'd untie you, so you
could eat, you wouldn't run away. Well, we untied you, didn't we?"

"That isn't fair. You know what we meant," retorted Fitz.

"We know what you said," they laughed.

"Aw, cut it out," growled the man, from his own fire. "You make too much
noise. I'm tired."

"Chuck," called Walt, for supper.

They stuck us between them, and we all ate. Whew, but it was a dirty
camp. The dishes weren't clean and the stuff to eat was messy, and the
fellows all swore and talked as bad as they could. It was a shame--and
it seemed a bigger shame because here in the park everything was
intended to be quiet and neat and ought to make you feel _good_.

After supper they quarreled as to who would wash the dishes, and finally
one washed and one wiped, and the rest lay around and smoked pipes and
cigarettes. Over at his side of the little park the man had rolled up
and was still. But I knew that he was watching, because he was smoking,
too.

We couldn't do anything, even if we had planned to. We might have untied
the ropes on our feet, but the gang sat close about us. Then, they had
the flags and the burros, and the man had the message; and if they had
been wise they would have known that we wouldn't go far. Of course, we
might have hung about and bothered them.

They made each of us sleep with one of them. They had some dirty old
quilts, and we all rolled up.

CHAPTER VIII

A NEW USE FOR A CAMERA

We were stiff when we woke in the morning, but we had to lie until the
rest of them decided to get up, and then it was hot and late. That was a
lazy camp as well as a dirty one. The early morning is the best part of
the day, out in the woods, but lots of fellows don't seem to think so.

I had slept with Bat, and he had snored 'most all night. Now as soon as
I could raise my head from the old quilts I looked over to see the man.
He wasn't there. His horse wasn't there and his fire wasn't burning. The
spot where he had camped was vacant. He had gone, with our message!

I wriggled loose from Bat and woke him, and he swore and tried to make
me lie still, but I wouldn't. Not much!

"Red!" I called, not caring whether I woke anybody else or not. "Red!
General!" I used both names--and I didn't care for that, either.

He wriggled, too, to sit up.

"What?"

"The man's gone. He isn't there. He's gone with the message!"

The general exclaimed, and worked to jerk loose from Bill; and Fitz's