Part 6 (1/2)

All at once Ha in excitement to his feet He pointed toward the lower side of the ravine

”Look!” he cried ”Oh! it's gone now I saw a face peeping from behind the trees”

”What did the fellow look like?” demanded Jerry

”I don't knoas the reply ”He was only there for a couple of seconds He had savage, black eyes, and no ht on hi,” declared Jerry ”Couns and to light a lantern Then they boldly cli the trees

But not a trace of the intruder could be found There were no footprints on the few bare patches of snow

”Are you sure you weren't mistaken?” asked Jerry

”Not a bit of it,” replied Hanantly ”I saw the face as plainly as I see yours now”

The boys listened in silence for a moment, and then they made another short search In all directions were dense thickets of undergrowth

Through this aa trail

”We o back,” said Jerry ”We can't find the spy, whoever he was”

For the next half-hour nothing else was talked about Hamp was positive that he had seen the face, and his companions believed hier been an honestactions and hasty flight seen

”We'll have to be on the watch, that's all,” said Ha for a chance to steal so”

”I don't believe he'll come back,” replied Brick ”He knows by this time that we're not to be trifled with”

About nine o'clock Jerry slipped away on the pretext of getting a drink

He took an ax with hi to chop the ice he went on to the headland

Here he quickly climbed a tall pine tree Fro forest But all was dark and silent Nowhere was the gleaers had pushed on into the wilderness, and were no longer in the vicinity With a relieved mind he descended from the tree and started back He was now really thirsty, so he stopped to get a drink

There were pretty deep shadows around hilow of the campfire shut in from the ice He found a spot that had been chopped open at supper time, and was since frozen over to the thickness of several inches He stooped down, ax in hand

Just as he dealt the first stroke a loling cry caused him to look up Out on the lake, and less than twenty feet distant, crouched a long, grayish beast With stealthy steps it ca its thin tail over the snow

Jerry uttered one terrific screech that echoed far and wide through the forest He flung the axto look behind, dashed for camp at his top speed The beast was actually in pursuit, but it stopped at a distance of thirty feet, and uttered a yowl of disappoint heard Jerry's first yell of terror Hamp lifted his rifle, and fired at random He missed, of course, but the flash and the report scared the savage creature away

It was a full ibly

”It would have scared the bravest man alive to be ju on the ice, and the brute nearly had oner”

”What was it?” asked Haest one I ever saw You can bet he's hungry, and savage, too”

”Do you think it's the saht before last?”