“That’s hard to believe, for he isn’t the bad fellow some people say.  A little wild, but with a good heart.  I’d rather believe he lost it, and one of that crowd picked it up,” said Bluff, sturdily.

“That’s just like you, Bluff, standing up for a friend.  Well, I’m rather inclined to believe the same way.  Anyhow, it was a mighty mean dodge.  If that Andy Lasher keeps on he’ll get in a peck of trouble sooner or later.  Why, for such a thing as this he deserves a peppering of shot at a distance,” said Frank, indignantly.

“It was criminal, that’s what.  We might have been smothered in our beds,” remarked Bluff.

“Or my camera might have been utterly destroyed,” wailed Will.

Old Toby said nothing, but he cast many an anxious look around at the adjacent trees, as if he had an idea lingering under his woolly pate that in some way or other this new disaster might have a connection with the shooting of the wildcat.

Things assumed a normal aspect after a while, and only for the scent of burnt leaves no one would dream that the camp had come near destruction.

But all the inmates of Kamp Kill Kare slept, so to speak, “with one eye open” during the balance of that night.

There was no further alarm.

By the time breakfast had been disposed of they could look the matter calmly in the face, and it no longer appeared in such a terrible aspect as when they were scampering around in their pajamas fighting the flames and smoke.

The sun seemed unusually warm this morning, so Will declared that he meant to tramp over to the lake and try a little fishing, since they would have small opportunity to do any of this when the cold winds came again.

“I’m on too,” remarked Bluff, moodily; “a fellow without a gun is like a fifth wheel to a wagon, useless in camp.  Let’s make up some lunch, for it’s a long tramp, and we won’t come home until late.”

Jerry announced that he wanted to go over and have a further talk with Jesse Wilcox; after which he might take a tramp in a new region advised by the old trapper as opening a possible chance for big game—­perhaps a deer.

Frank declared he would stick to the camp; with such vicious characters around, he secretly thought it hardly safe for all of them to go away, leaving old Toby as the sole guardian.  They had too much at stake, since their pleasure would be destroyed if the camp were raided successfully.

Reaching the lake Will spent much of his time taking views, while Bluff set to work trying to entice the finny denizens of the water to bite his lures.

As time went on he was fairly successful, and when they ate their lunch he had quite a fair string of fish as the reward of his diligence.

Will proved to be a poor fisherman after all, especially when he had his adored camera along, for he presently wandered off again.

“Don’t go too far,” warned Bluff, as he sat on the end of a log that jutted out over the water a yard or more.