list; so that at no time was the cabin unguarded while the night slowly passed.

But nothing happened to disturb the scouts; and as morning came at last they began to get up and stretch, rubbing their limbs as though the hard bed had not been the nicest thing possible. But there was little grumbling. They had learned to take things as they came; which is one of the finest results of Boy Scout experience. The philosophy of the woods teaches that in the very start—try for the best results; but after you have done your best, accept the situation with cheerfulness.

Again the notes of the bugle sounded the "assembly," as breakfast was declared ready; and half an hour later they left their shelter of the night.

"Good-bye old cabin!" sang out Bumpus, waving his fat hand back toward the wrecked log house; "you treated us pretty decent after all, and we'll never forget you. Long may you wave, and offer shelter to other pilgrims storm chased!"

As the sun climbed above the rim of the encircling mountains the spirits of the boys mounted in proportion. Davy Jones was up to his usual pranks, being hard to control. They would miss him for a short time, only to hear a whoop; and looking up, discover the acrobatic boy hanging by his knees, or it might be his toes, from the limb of a tree, thirty feet or more above the ground.

Thad knew from experience that it was next to impossible to restrain the Jones boy; he must have his frolic out; and so they only laughed at his antics, and wondered what next the daring Davy would attempt.

Ten minutes later he was seen standing on his head on the edge of what appeared to be a deep ravine or gulch, and kicking his heels in the air.

All sorts of dire things had always been predicted as going to overtake Davy sooner or later, unless he gave up these venturesome pranks; and this time it actually looked as though they were about to be fulfilled. For even as the seven other scouts were watching his antics, the earth at the edge of the gully appeared to suddenly give way.

Davy vanished from their view, the last thing they saw of him being his up tilted heels, waving what seemed to be a frantic farewell.

With cries of alarm the scouts rushed forward, fearful as to what they would see.

CHAPTER VI.

MORE SIGNS OF TROUBLE AHEAD.

"Oh! did you see him kick his heels at us as he went down?" gasped Bumpus, as they hurried forward to the spot where the venturesome scout had vanished so forlornly; "I'll never forget it, never! Just like the poor old chap wanted to say 'good-bye boys!'"

Bumpus was too honest and warm hearted a fellow to say this with any intention of being hilarious. He sincerely felt every word of it.

Of course the long-legged Giraffe had to be the first to arrive on the scene of the late tragedy. Thad felt constrained to call out to him in warning.

"Be careful there, Giraffe, or else there may be another of us down in that pocket. Look out for your footing, I tell you!"

The other had dropped flat on his chest. He was seen to stretch his neck in the endeavor to get the best results with a minimum of risk; and they did say that when Giraffe really and truly did his prettiest in this respect he could cover more territory than any one else ever seen.

"Oh! is he smashed flatter'n a pancake?" asked Step Hen, as he drew near, with his melancholy face looking longer than usual; and the whites of his eyes showing strongly, as they always did when he was frightened.

Giraffe twisted his head around with the utmost ease; indeed, from the length of his neck it looked as though he might continue the turning movement until he had actually made a complete revolution.

And when Thad caught sight of the grin on his face he felt immediately relieved; for surely Giraffe loving fun as much as he did, would not allow this smirk to decorate his angular countenance unless there seemed little danger.

Another minute, and all of them were ranged there along the edge of the gully, staring down at Davy Jones. It would seem that the other had been agile enough to clutch hold of a small tree that jutted out from the steep slope. He was hanging to it now, and straining the best he knew how to fling his legs upward, so as to relieve the situation, and the terrific pull on his arms.

He looked upward toward the row of faces peeping over the edge above; and there was a humorous grin on his face. He knew what his comrades were doubtless thinking about "the pitcher that went once too often to the well;" and that their natural alarm having passed, they would see only the humorous side of the affair.

Again did Davy strain. There was something connected with the way he was hanging there that seemed to prevent him from accomplishing the result he wanted to attain. For the first time they could remember the boys saw that the gymnast and acrobat of the troop had certainly met his match. Left to himself he would surely have had to invent some other method for drawing himself up on to the slender horizontal trunk of the little tree; or else let go, and drop.

As it was a matter of some twenty feet or so to the bottom of the gully; and the chances were that he might receive any number of bad scratches while making the transit, Davy of course would be averse to trying this plan.

"Guess you'll have to lend me a hand this time, boys," he called out, when once more he failed to make connection between his squirming legs and the body of the tree.

"Who'll go down, and yank him on to that tree?" asked Bumpus; knowing full well at the same time that no one could have the nerve to ask a fellow of his heft, when there were so many others better fitted for the task.

"Don't all speak at once!" advised the hanging Davy.

Somehow all eyes were turned toward Giraffe. As the most agile of the lot, he might be expected to volunteer; and yet with not a particle of footing between the top of the bank and that tree, some ten feet down, the job was hardly one that might appeal to any scout, however nimble.

"Oh! you needn't look at me that way," he complained; "because I'm long, and active, you just think I c'n stretch that far; but it's a mistake. But if somebody has to try and make the riffle, I s'pose it'll be me."

He started to take off his knapsack as he said this, when Thad stopped him.

"Wait, Giraffe," said the patrol leader, quietly; "perhaps, after all, nobody has to go down after Davy. You seem to forget, all of you, that we've got a stout rope along with us. What's the need of carrying such a thing, if it can't help us out in a pinch?"

"Bully! Sure we've got a rope, and a dandy one at that!" cried Bumpus, growing so excited that he came near falling over the edge, and had to clutch hold of the nearest scout to steady himself.

"If you'd gone that time, Bumpus, think what a splash you'd have made down there. Because Davy got hold of a tree don't think you could do the same. It'll have to be a whopping big one that could bear up under your weight, all right," said Step Hen, who chanced to be the one whom the fat boy had caught hold of in his sudden alarm.

It turned out that Bob White was carrying the rope. He had it wound around his body in a way Allan had shown him, so that it did not interfere with his movements, and was not coming loose all the time.

Quickly then was it unwound. In order to hasten this, the boys even began to turn Bob around like a teetotum, until he said he was dizzy.

"Lucky it's got a loop handy at the end,"