happened to you."

"There did. Tad was knocked out and I was lost up a tree," added the fat boy eagerly. "Oh, what a fine time we're having!"

"Where is the guide?"

"We are going back to look for him, Professor," answered Butler. "I don't know what has become of him."

"And we don't care what's become of the Jonah," scoffed Chunky. "Got anything that looks like food in this outfit?"

"Yes. By the way, Professor, how about the stores? Have you saved any from your packs?" questioned Tad.

"I am afraid the provisions are in a sad state," answered Professor Zepplin ruefully.

"But surely the canned stuff must be all right," urged Tad.

"Yes, but where is the canned stuff? The pack holding the canned goods came open and everything spilled out," Walter Perkins informed them.

Chunky groaned.

"I see my end! Not satisfied with trying to drown me in a raging flood, you now propose to starve me to death! But I won't be starved. I'll go out and shoot a deer. I understand they are plentiful in this range of rocks."

"I reckon you will have to get out of Smoky Pass before you carry out any of your well-laid plans," answered Ned.

At Tad's suggestion, such stores and equipment as they had saved were taken from the packs and spread out on the ground to dry. Most of the biscuit were so soaked that they were falling apart. Not a single can of food was left, although a ham had been preserved from the wreck. Their extra clothing, too, had been saved from the flood, and merely needed drying to be fit for use.

"We can live on ham for a long, long time," said Tad encouragingly. "Then there is the coffee which will be usable after we have dried it out. I propose that we leave all the stuff here with someone to watch it, while the rest of us go upstream to see what we can pick up, and at the same time look for Chops. I am mighty glad that we haven't lost our tents. Professor, will you stay here while we take the trail?"

"Yes. But you will be careful, won't you?"

"Of what?"

"That you don't get into other difficulties."

"No danger of that," answered Tad laughingly. "Everything that could occur already has happened, unless Stacy were to climb the side of the pass and fall off."

"No, thank you," objected the fat boy. "You may stir up all the excitement you like, but no more for Stacy Brown until he is at least dried out from the last mixup."

Tad now suggested that he and Ned go back to look for their lost property and their guide.

"The rest of the party will remain here," he directed. "No need for you to go with us, but suppose we have something to eat first—ham and coffee, for instance."

"We have no matches to start a fire with," reminded Walter Perkins.

The boys looked very solemn. Chunky groaned dismally.

"I knew you fellows would find some way to my distress—to the awful gnawing on the inside of me," he complained.

"Never mind, young men," spoke up the Professor. "Find some reasonably dry wood or bark, and I will attend to the lighting end. Fortunately my match safe is intended for just such an emergency as this, and I do not believe we shall find any difficulty in making a fire, provided you rustle the fuel."

The Pony Rider Boys gave a cheer for Professor Zepplin. The problem of finding wood, however, was almost as perplexing as had been that of the matches. Tad immediately jumped on his pony and trotted up the pass. He returned half an hour later, with a bundle of bark, dry sticks and a few pieces of pitchpine. A roaring fire was going soon after his arrival. The warmth from it felt good, indeed, to the wet and shivering Pony Riders.

Breakfast that morning was limited, so far as variety was concerned, though there was plenty to eat, and the ham had grown perceptibly smaller when they finished, and not the least of this had found a resting place in the person of Stacy Brown. Stacy was quite willing to remain with Walter and the Professor.

Tad and Ned started up the pass immediately after breakfast, and on the way up they recovered the missing ponies, except the pack animal, which must have been carried away with most of their stores. Later in the day they discovered Billy Veal fast asleep in the sunlight on a ledge of rock, some eight feet above the channel of the creek. How he had succeeded in getting up there neither Tad nor Ned could imagine, nor did Billy seem to know what had happened to him. He sat up, regarding them with wide eyes, after they had called to him several times. Great was their relief when they found him, but the next problem was how to get Billy down. This was solved by Tad's ever-ready rope. One end of this was tossed up to the guide with instructions to pass it about a nearby sapling, tossing the free end down to them. In this way Tad would only have to pull on one rope after the colored man had come down, then the rope would slip back to its owner. Shortly after that Billy was standing in the creek channel beside them.

"Did you get wet, Chops?" asked Rector.

"Yassir, nassir."

"Did you get drowned?" asked Tad with a grin.

"Nassir, yassir, I done—"

"He doesn't know what happened to him," scoffed Ned.

"You come along with us. There's work to be done today and if you don't do your share, I shall have something besides words for you," threatened Butler.

They made the guide walk until they came up with his pony. Chops grinned broadly, delightedly, when he discovered his horse browsing contentedly beside the stream.

"Wah-hoo-wah!" he shouted, flinging his arms above his head.

"Who would have thought him to be so near human?" cried Ned.

"Yes, there's hope for Chops yet. But we shall see," answered Butler.

It was considerably past noon when they reached their companions on the return journey. A few of their belongings had been picked up in the pass, but not enough to relieve their critical situation.

"Boys, I have been thinking, since you left. We shall have to find a place where we may replenish our stores, else we shall have to go back. Guide, do you know of a store anywhere near here?" asked the Professor.

"Yassir."

"You forgot something," laughed Tad.

"Nassir," jeered Stacy. "Chops, you're a Jonah. I've said it before, and I say it again. Why, you couldn't go to the aquarium without some of the whales biting you."

"That will do, Stacy. Now, guide, where is this store that you know about?" urged the Professor.