All he had to do was to keep his eyes open, and look. Nature had ten thousand deeply interesting and curious things that appeal to the one who knows how to enjoy them.

And so from that day Step Hen was noticed to be eagerly on the watch for new sights. He asked many questions that proved his mind had awakened; and Thad knew that that half hour when the scout had lain alongside the mountain road down in North Carolina, had possibly been the turning point in his career; for he would never again be the same old careless, indifferent Step Hen of the past.

“There comes another canoe down the river!” suddenly cried Bumpus, who was still squatting in the bow of the leading canoe, industriously rubbing his right shoulder as though it pained him considerably; a fact Thad noticed, and which had caused him to promise that he would take a look at the lame part when they stopped for their midday meal, very soon now.

There was only one man in the canoe that was approaching, and presently Jim Hasty remarked that he knew him.

“It’s sure Hen Parry, from up where I used to hold out,” he went on to say; and then called out to the approaching Maine guide, as his make-up pronounced the other to be; “hullo, Hen, howd’ye? Glad tuh see yuh. Come closer, and shake hands. How’s everybody up to the old place?”

The other dark-faced fellow seemed pleased to his old friend, and immediately gripped the extended hand.

“Guess ther putty well up thar, Jim; an’ no need o’ my askin’ how ye be’n, ’cause yer lookin’ prime,” he remarked; and then suddenly an expression akin to dismay flashed across his weather-beaten face, as he continued: “By the same token I got er message fur ye, Jim, in case I run up agin ye on my way down to Squawpan, where I gotter meet a party that’s bound up huntin’. Ye won’t like to hear it, neither, I kinder guess, ’cause it’s from a feller ye got no use for.”

“Cale Martin?” burst involuntarily from the lips of Jim Hasty, while his face turned a shade whiter under its coat of tan.

“Ther same critter,” Hen went on. “He’s still runnin’ things to suit hisself up thar around the Eagle chain, an’ larfin’ at all ther game wardens in Aroostook county ter stop him ahavin’ his way.”

“Why should he tell yuh anything tuh say tuh me; an’ how’d he know I was acomin’ up this aways?” asked Jim, firmly.

“He sez as how he heerd thet you was agoin’ to bring a pack o’ boys along up to the Eagles; p’raps it kim in a letter he hed from somebody, I don’t know jest how thet mout be; but he seemed to know it, all right, Jim. Sez he to me, ‘Hen, ef ye happens to run acrost thet thar measly little skunk what sails by the name o’ Jim Hasty, jest you tell him fur me thet if he dares to put his foot up hyar in my deestrick, I’m bound to pin his ears to a tree, and leave ’em thar to give him a lesson.’ An’ Jim, I guess from the look he had on thet black face ob his’n when he says thet, Cale meant it, every blessed word. And if ’twas me, I’d feel like turnin’ back, to take my people another way.”

Thad fixed his eyes on Jim’s face to see how the shorter guide took it. He realized that Jim was at least no coward, even though he might fear the wrath of such a forest bully as the ex-logger, and present lawless poacher Cale Martin; for he had shut his teeth hard together, and there was a grim expression on his face, as if he did not mean to knuckle under to any such base threat as that.

CHAPTER III.
THE MAKER OF FIRES.

“How about that, Jim; must we turn around, and go back, just because this feller that thinks he owns the whole north of Maine, says so?” asked Giraffe; who was really a fearless sort of lad, and could not bear to be ordered around by a bully.

Jim was looking a little “peaked,” nor could Thad blame him, after hearing what a terror this Caleb Martin had been in the community for years; and how even the officers of the law had never as yet dared arrest him, even though there were rewards out for each one of the three men.

“Naw, we don’t turn back, if I knows it,” said Jim, doggedly.

“Bully for you, Jim!” exclaimed Step Hen, eagerly. “There’s eight of us, all told, in the party, and I think for my part that it’s a pretty howd’yedo now if we can’t stand up for our rights against just three cowards. I call them that because all bullies are, when you come right down to it. My father says so; and I’ve seen it among the boys in school.”

“Yes, Jim,” remarked Bumpus, with a grand air, though he immediately made a grimace, as a quick movement gave his sore shoulder a wrench; “we’re going to stand by you, through thick and thin, ain’t we, fellers?”

“Eight guns in the crowd!” remarked Davy Jones with an air of confidence. “Sure we ought to hold the fort, and then some, if deadly weapons count for anything up here, and I’m told they do. P’raps, instead of pinning your ears to a tree, Jim, this same Mister Cale’ll consent to walk back with us, and give himself up to a game warden of the great and glorious State of Maine. We mustn’t forget that we’re all sworn-in officers of the said State, and bound to assist any game warden who is trying to do his duty, and earn his salary.”

Presently the other guide said good-bye, and turning his canoe down-stream, shot away with the current; while the scouts headed up further toward the wilderness that lay around the country of the Eagle chain of lakes, close to the northern border of the State.

They landed presently to have a bite at noon. Thad took advantage of the opportunity to look at Bumpus’ shoulder. As he anticipated, he found that there was quite an ugly black-and-blue bruise there, which would cause the boy considerable pain for several days; though he declared that nothing was going to keep him from practicing with his new gun, which seemed like a toy in the hands of a child.

“I’m sure you could not have held the butt close against your shoulder when you fired,” Thad ventured, as his opinion.

“That’s just what,” admitted the other, with a sigh. “Know better next time, though, Thad; and thank you for making it feel easier. But I wish I’d got that bear. How fine it would be to eat steak from a big bear I’d killed with the first shot from my new gun.”

“Make that plural, Bumpus, for you fired both barrels, remember,” laughed Thad.

They were soon on the move again, and pushing steadily up against the current of the Little Machias. An hour or two passed. The air was not nipping cold at this time of the day; but as the season was now considerably advanced they expected to meet with considerable frost, and even some ice, before coming back once more to the home town.

Lest the reader who has not made the acquaintance of the Boy Scouts in the previous volume, should think it strange that these six lads were able to be away from their school duties for such a length of time at this season of the year, it may be best to enter a little explanation right here.

An unfortunate epidemic of contagious sickness had broken out in Cranford, and as a number of the scholars of the school were affected, the trustees had reluctantly decided that the session between early Fall and New Years must be abandoned. If all were well at the later date, after the usual holidays, school would be resumed. But the health of the community demanded that the boys and girls be separated for the time being.