Maine guide might envy.

The heat of the fire was not unpleasant just then, for, as has been said before, the weather was singularly cool for early July. Frank felt a trifle drowsy. He allowed his eyes to droop several times, only to open them again as one of the cooks dropped enough of his pride to sing out and ask how a certain thing should be done.

Once, however, Frank found his eyes wide open, and without a query from either Jerry or Bluff, who had their heads together, tasting something they were concocting, and with which they meant to surprise their comrades.

Frank had chanced to be looking at the bark of a tree as he sat there, when, to his surprise, something began to project from the same. Even as he stared, a stick that was thrust out speared the loaf of bread that chanced to lie close by, and after it was raised from the ground it began to quickly vanish around the tree!

CHAPTER V

JED, THE RUNAWAY BOUND BOY

"Say, fellows, there goes your bread! I bet the ghost has got away with it!" sang out Will, at that juncture, proving that he had also seen the disappearing act.

Frank was already on his feet, filled with indignation. Once before had he known a supper to vanish mysteriously, when a couple of hoboes let down a rope over a little bluff, and by dexterously working a hook at the end of the same, caught up a kettle of stew, which was thereupon drawn up to satisfy their appetites.

"Hold him, Frank, ghost or no ghost. I'm with you!" bellowed Jerry, as he started after the other, while Bluff made a dive for his gun, that being the one thing ever uppermost in his mind when trouble came.

Frank appeared in view, and not alone.

He carried the loaf of bread under his arm, but his other hand was twisted in the shirt collar of a small boy, writhing and twisting in his grasp.

"Say, he's got him!" shrieked Will in delight. "Oh! if you would only let me get my camera out and snap you off that way, Frank!"

"Talk to me about quick action!" sang out Jerry. "That pard of mine has them all beat to a frazzle. Lightning isn't in it with him, fellows."

Frank came forward with his unwilling captive. It was noticed that he made no attempt toward hurting the boy, save that he held him in a grip that nothing could break.

"How's this?" exclaimed Jerry, looking again. "Don't appear to be any of that measly crowd Pet Peters trains with. Can this be the terrible ghost of Oak Ridge?"

Bluff burst out into a roar.

"Say, I know that shaver, all right! It's Jed Prouty!" he declared.

"And who might he be when at home?" asked Frank, still holding onto his prize.

"Know old Farmer Dobson, Jerry? Well, this is his bound boy. I saw him working when I went out to carry a message from dad, and I felt sorry for any chap who had to knuckle down under that old skinflint and tyrant. Say, I bet you he's run away!"

"And he must have been awful hungry, in the bargain, for he was tearing at our loaf of bread when I caught up with him," said Frank, causing the other to be seated, after which he removed his clutch.

The boy had a small, weazened face. He looked frightened as he crouched there, his eyes turning from one of his captors to another. There was also something of pleading in his gaze that touched Bluff.

"Look here, Jed, we ain't going to hurt you. Why didn't you come straight into camp and tell us, if you were hungry? Think we would give you over to the tender mercies of that red-faced farmer, eh? That ain't our way. Supper's just ready, and we invite you to stay and share it, eh, fellows?" he said heartily.

"Them's my sentiments," declared Jerry, with more emphasis than grammar.

"Of course he's quite welcome. After he's had enough to eat he can tell us his story, and we'll try and advise him whether to go back home or stay away," said Frank kindly.

"Ain't got no home. Wouldn't run away if I did. Looky here what he done to me," and eagerly the little fellow threw himself out of the ragged cotton shirt he was wearing.

"Wow! That's fierce!" cried Jerry as he saw the red welts on the bare back of the fugitive bound boy.

"It's an outrage, and the big brute should be made to answer for it in a law court. No matter if this boy is bound out to him, the law will protect him. You know that, Jerry. Your father is a lawyer, too," observed Frank, quite as filled with horror as his chum, though not as demonstrative.

"And I'm going to put it up to him. Dad will stand back of this poor chap, and see he has his rights. He must be taken away from old Dobson and put in the care of a decent farmer, who will treat him white," continued Jerry, waxing enthusiastic over the situation.

The boy sprang over to him, and his whole expression was one of gratitude.

"Thank you! Oh! thank you! That is all I want. I mean to do the right thing, but I'm only a poor, weak boy, and he wants me to do a man's work. I don't get enough to eat to make me strong. Oh! I've been wishing I could die, but now, somehow, I feel different. If you could only take me away from him. He beats me, and I'm awful sore!" he exclaimed.

"That's all right, Jed. Don't worry any more about it. We're going to stand back of you after this," said Jerry soothingly.

"But he's somewhere up here, looking for me. I saw him only to-day, and his big foreman, too. They carried blacksnake whips, the kind that cuts so bad. They will come here and take me away, and laugh at you, no matter what you say. Give me something to eat, and let me run away into the mountains, even if I starve to death."

Bluff laughed aloud.

"Oh, they will, eh? Well, let 'em try it. They'll find that two can play at a game like that, and that guns are much better to win with than whips," and he pointed to his beloved weapon as he spoke.

"Well, supper's ready, so sit around here, boys. Excuse me if I help our unexpected company first," observed Jerry, heaping a pannikin with some stew, and placing several slices of toast, already buttered, on top of this, after which he passed it along to the bound boy.

It was pleasure enough just to watch the look on his pinched face as he started to devour the appetizing food with the rapacity of a half-starved wolf.

"Bluff, get your gun and keep it across your knees. Sometimes kettles have a strange habit of vanishing just when you are expecting to enjoy the contents. This seems to be a bewitched country in that respect. Sticks poke out from behind tree trunks and spear your loaf of bread right before your eyes. We don't want to have those sort of tricks played on us any more, if we can help it, you know."

"Right you are, governor," said Bluff, only too glad to be appointed guardian of the feast by Frank; and the way in which he dragged his firearm toward him was satisfactory evidence that he would be faithful to his trust.

But there was no interruption to the feast. The boy ate until he astonished his hosts by his capacity for holding food. Finally all were satisfied, and they sat around the fire to consider what should be done in the matter.

"The sight of those welts is enough for me," said Jerry, "and I'm going to make my dad promise to befriend the poor chap. He never had any use for that red-faced Cal Dobson, anyway. Once they had a lawsuit over something, and the farmer got the better of it, I'm sorry to say, so I reckon dad'll be glad of a chance to turn the tables on the old fellow and show him up."

"And I'll influence my father to see that Jed is placed in a home where they'll be kinder to him. A boy is only a slave with that big bully. I saw him once, and he was threatening a parcel of little town girls from the factory section. Perhaps they had been annoying him by stealing fruit, or something like that, but he was talking to them like they were the worst criminals," declared Frank.

"He always swore he would be the death of me if I didn't move faster. I was so weak I