When noon came the boys had put up a couple of elk, but at such a distance that no one but Bluff fired, and he because he knew no better.

“Do you think I wounded him?” he had the nerve to ask, whereat Jerry looked at Frank and just smiled broadly.

“Anyhow, they ran off faster after I fired,” asserted Bluff confidently.

“I should think anything would,” was all Jerry said, and if there was malice in the remark Bluff did not know it in his innocence.

While they sat down to eat the lunch they had carried along Frank called attention to the fact that the wind had risen.

“Perhaps Mr. Mabie was right, after all, and there is a rainstorm coming before long,” suggested Will.

“Then I hope it’ll have the decency to hold off until we get home,” said Bluff.

“Oh, a little wetting wouldn’t hurt us.  We’re not made of sugar or salt.  But perhaps we’d better not go any further.  We’ve come a long way since breakfast.  This valley seems to have no end, and it broadens out down here, too.”

“Yes; and, Frank, have you noticed how thick the trees grow, too?  Why, in some places a fat man would have trouble getting through between the trunks,” said Jerry.

“What ails Frank?  He seems to be sniffing the air like a hound,” asked Will.

“Oh, he always declared he had a fine scent, and I’ve noticed that he knows when dinner is ready, ahead of the rest of us,” remarked Jerry.

Frank laughed good-naturedly.

“To tell the truth, I was wondering, fellows, whether we could be near another camp,” he remarked.

“Did you hear anybody shout?” asked Will.

“No; but when there came a sudden shift to the wind I thought I got a scent of fire.  No, it wasn’t cooking, this time, Jerry, so don’t get ready to accuse me of that weakness again; just something burning.”

“Say! you don’t think it could be the woods afire, do you?”

“Talk to me about your ghost-seers, will you!  Will, here, can jump on to trouble quicker than any fellow I know.  Why, if the woods were on fire, don’t you think we’d have found that fact out before now, Mr. Faint Heart?  I guess such a thing couldn’t happen without a heap of smoke that would look like a pall, and appal us, in the bargain.”

“Well, all I can say is, I’m not hankering after any forest fire experience after what Mr. Mabie told us about those friends of his who were nearly burned to death seven years ago; and that was a prairie fire, too,” observed Will, continuing to cast anxious glances around.

“Amen to that,” remarked Bluff.

“Why, you must think I’m just wild to try my legs, with a healthy blaze jumping after me; but I’m not, all the same.  Come along, Lazy-bones!  We’re going to have the delightful pleasure of covering those ten miles back again,” and Jerry pulled Will to his feet.

“Ten miles!” groaned the other dismally, making a pretense of hobbling, as if his muscles had given out.  “How in the world can I ever do it?”