Bud stared at Hugh on hearing this.

“Whee! do you really think so, Hugh?” he muttered, as though trying to grasp what all this might stand for, and yet hardly able to comprehend its full significance.

After all their talk, however, they were really no nearer a solution of the matter in the end than when they started to discuss it.  Hugh said they would have to wait and see what turned up next, before settling on any one explanation and both the other scouts agreed with him.

So they finally prepared to lie down and get what sleep was possible, which under the conditions could hardly be expected to amount to a great deal.

Their blankets were folded in such fashion as to give them the best results.  This wrinkle they had learned in the field of practical experience, than which there is no better guide.  Theory is all very well, but the book-taught scout has a great many ideas to change when he gets out into the open, with the stars shining down on him from the blue vault of heaven and the voices of Nature surrounding him on every side, instead of the bare ceiling and walls of his bedroom at home.

That night certainly dragged along fearfully.  Every now and then one of the boys would turn over and grunt, or else raise his head to look around him at the flickering light of the fire on the walls of the lonely woods’ shack.

As many as six times did Hugh crawl out from the warm folds of his blanket to replenish the fire, for the night air was chill; and after one has slept, his body is apt to feel cold, as the heart beats less rapidly, and the blood circulates with more difficulty.

But thank goodness, these things must all have an end, and Bud heaved a sigh of profound thanksgiving when finally he saw signs of dawn appear through the open window.

“Day’s coming on, and we’re all on deck with nothing gone wrong!” he observed loud enough for the others to hear him.  This chanced to be one of Bud’s ways of informing his chums that he thought it high time they turned out for “reveille.”

As there was no use in trying to sleep any longer with the anxious Bud on deck, since this was to be looked upon as his particular day, Hugh and Ralph followed the other’s example, and were soon hustling out to wash in water that nearly froze their fingers it was so cold.

The sun was nearing the horizon, and from all indications it promised to be just such a day as the one before had proved; which fact delighted Bud immensely.

“Because,” he explained after giving an exhibition of a Highland Fling to allow some of his pent-up enthusiasm to escape, “this is the day a Morgan is going to win fame or else make the grandest foozle you ever saw.”

CHAPTER V

THE “FOOL-PROOF” AEROPLANE

“That was a good breakfast, all right, but I’m glad it’s over,” Bud remarked some time later.