Half a dozen boys started to cry out at once, as they stared at the great bulky object that was apparently settling down, after passing around a spur of the mountain above.

"She's coming right at us, fellows!" shouted one.

"Ain't that a pilot hanging to the old basket?" demanded a second.

"Nixy it ain't, Jasper. Go get your glasses, so you can see better. That basket is plumb empty, and that's a fact. The bally old balloon's deserted, boys!" Lil Artha declared, and as he was known to have particularly trustworthy vision, the balance of the group accepted his word as the right thing.

Apparently the balloon had been steadily losing gas of late, for the enormous bag had a collapsed look. It seemed to have gotten into some circular current of air, once beyond the mountain, for it kept moving around in spirals, all the time dropping slowly but positively. So that unless a new breeze caught it, the chance seemed to be that it would actually alight on the shore of the lake, close to the camp.

"Get ready to man the boats if it falls in the lake, boys!" called Mr. Garrabrant, who recognized the fact that such a balloon must be worth considerable to his little troop in the way of salvage, and was determined to do what he could to save it from sinking out of sight.

But in the end it managed to drop on the pebbly beach. The very first to touch the collapsed gas bag was the exuberant Toby Jones, wild with delight over this remarkable happening that had come to him.

"I claim it by right of discovery, and the first to lay a hand on the balloon!" he shouted, as he fondly ran his fingers along the strong material of which the air vessel was constructed.

"Where on earth could it have come from?" more than one of the boys asked, as they surveyed the immense girth of silken cloth with wondering eyes.

"There's a circus over at Warrendale," announced Ted. "Perhaps she broke away from there in a wind storm, or else bucked the aviators out. Whew! think of tumbling down hundreds of feet! Guess I couldn't 'a' been of much use around there, if that's what happened to the air navigators; the more the pity," and Ted actually looked discontented, as though another golden opportunity had slipped past him.

"Sounds like a good guess, Ted," remarked Elmer; "but there happen to be several things to knock it silly."

"As what?" demanded the boy with the long legs, who always wanted to be shown.

"For instance, you know where Warrendale lies, off to the east from here," the scout leader explained, in the most accommodating way possible, "while this thing must have come from the west! You saw it sail over the mountain up there, and we've been having constant west winds for several days now. Isn't that so, Mr. Garrabrant?"

"Every word of it, Elmer," replied the gentleman, who was never happier than when listening to this wide-awake scout substantiating his claim.

"And besides, here's a name sewed to the balloon—Republic! Seems to me, sir, I've seen that name before. Unless I'm away off it was one of the big gas bags entered for that long-distance endurance race, which was to come off away out in St. Louis, or somewhere along the Mississippi River."

"Oh! my, just to think of it, fellows!" gasped Toby, his face fairly aglow with overwhelming delight, while he continued to fondle the material of which the collapsible balloon was constructed, as though he might be almost worshiping the same.

"Why, that's hundreds and hundreds of miles away!" declared another incredulous one.

"Don't seem possible, does it, that a balloon could sail that far?" a third had the temerity to remark, when Toby turned upon him instantly, saying:

"Say, you don't read the papers, do you? If you did you'd know that in a drifting race a balloon went all the way without touching ground from St. Louis up into New England, while another passed over into Canada away up above Quebec, and won the race. Others fell near Baltimore, and such places. There can't be any doubt about it, boys, this wanderer has drifted all the way from the old Mississippi. But whatever could have become of her crew?"

The thought saddened them for the time being, but it was difficult for Toby to subdue the excitement under which he was laboring.

"Oh! if I only knew how to manufacture gas so as to fill her up again, mebbe I wouldn't like to take a spin, and surprise the Hickory Ridge people, though! Think how my dad's eyes would bulge out, fellows, when I landed right in his dooryard, and asked how ma was? Ted, you know lots of things—can't you tell me how to make hot air?"

Ted did not answer, only grinned and looked toward Lil Artha so very suggestively that the rest burst out into a howl, for the long-legged boy was known to be something of an orator, who could speak for half an hour if warmed up to his subject.

"None for sale!" remarked that individual, promptly, whereat Toby pretended to be grievously disappointed, for he gave the tall boy a look of scorn, saying:

"There he goes again, fellows; declining to make a martyr of himself for the sake of science. Why, I even heard Dr. Ted offering to sew on his finger again so neat that no one could tell where it had been separated, and would you believe it, Lil Artha was mean enough to abjectly decline? But I'm going to think over it, and if I can only fill this big bag with gas I'll leave camp on a little foraging expedition, to bring back more grub. For Ginger is eating us out of house and home, ain't he, Mr. Garrabrant?"

So they laughed and joked as they continued to gather around the balloon that had seemingly dropped from the skies. Elmer alone was thoughtful. He could not but wonder what the story connected with the Republic might be. Had the brave pilot and his assistant been thrown out in some storm which they were endeavoring to ride out? If that proved true, then the history of the fallen balloon must be a tragic one.

Under the direction of the scout master they dragged the tremendous bag, now emptied of its gaseous contents, and piled it up close to the camp. When the time came for the return trip possibly they might find some means for transporting the balloon to the home town, and when the fact of its discovery was published in the great New York dailies, the name of Hickory Ridge would become famous.

This new event afforded plenty of topics for conversation. As usual the boys argued the matter pro and con. They even took sides, and debated with considerable heat the various phases of the happening.

Some of them got out paper and pencil to figure just how many hours it might take a balloon to come all the way from St. Louis for instance, granting that a westerly breeze prevailed. All sorts of ideas prevailed as to the number of miles an hour the wind had blown, ranging from five to fifty.

In the end, after all theories had been ventilated, the boys were no nearer a solution of the mystery than before, only it seemed now to be the consensus of opinion that the Republic must have been entered in some race, and possibly away out on the bank of the mighty river that divides our republic almost in half.

"About time some of our strollers turned up, I should think," remarked Mr. Garrabrant, as he and Elmer sat in front of the tents, listening to the jabbering of the disputants, though all the argument was carried on in good temper.

"Speak of an angel, and you hear its wings," laughed the scout leader, as a shrill halloo came from the woods close by.

Two of the boys who had gone forth to observe such things as they came across, presently appeared in camp. They looked tired and hungry, and began to sniff the appetizing odors that were beginning to permeate the camp, for several messes of beans were cooking, and Ginger was employed in preparing a heap of big onions for a grand fry that would just about fill the bill, most of the boys thought.

But while the incidents accompanying their long walk and climb were still fresh in their memories they were made to sit down alone, and write a list of those things they could recall, and which had impressed them most of all.

Presently two more weary pilgrims came in sight, limping along, and only too glad to get back safe and sound. Ted kept an eager watch and tally as they made their appearance. His face was seen to drop several degrees when, in answer to the solicitous inquiries of the scout master, they reported no accidents, and all sound.

"There goeth another golden opportunity!" Ted exclaimed, shaking his head in real or assumed disgust. "I never thaw thuch ungrateful fellers in all my life. Why, it begins to look like nobody would even get a finger thcratched. I expect after all I'll just have to get Tom Cropthey to let me pull that tooth of hith that aches like thixty. I hate to come down to it, but thomething's got to be done to thave the country!"

"It don't hurt now, I tell you," remonstrated Tom. "You needn't go to coaxin' me any more, because I tell you right off that I ain't meanin' to have it out when it acts decent like. Wait till she gets me goin' again, anyhow. And that's straight off the reel, take it or leave it."

The second couple were likewise settled off, each fellow by himself, and the balance of the troop ordered not to disturb the train of their thoughts until both had jotted down the smallest item that they had noticed. In the end the papers would be read aloud, and many interesting things be disclosed, showing what a fund of knowledge there lies all around one at any time, if only he chooses to take notice of the same.

"That leaves only Red and Larry to be heard from," remarked Mr. Garrabrant, who believed he had great reason to congratulate himself, as well as his boys, on the fact that thus far so little had happened to cause trouble, no matter how much the ambitious, and only too willing, doctor-surgeon might bewail his hard luck.

"They ought to be coming soon, sir, because it won't be long before dusk now. And I don't think either of those boys would care to be lost up here after nightfall," Elmer observed, listening as though he fancied he had caught some suggestive sound up the steep slope, that might betray the coming of the last pair.

"I wonder did any of the others happen to see them?" said the scout master. "Here comes the first couple, having finished their task. This way, boys, please; I want to ask if either of you in the course of your wanderings happened to run across Oscar Huggins and Larry Billings? They are the only missing scouts, and as the hour is growing late, I would like to get a point as to where they may be."

Neither of the returned ones, however, could give him the least information, nor was he able to succeed any better when he asked the other couple. Apparently the absent pair must have taken a course entirely different from any of their comrades.

The twilight now began to gather under the shelter of the high mountain, and Mr. Garrabrant looked a bit worried. If the boys had been unfortunate enough as to lose themselves, he knew that they had taken plenty of matches along, and moreover they had been instructed in various devices whereby they might communicate with their comrades, by waving a burning torch, for instance, from some high elevation, certain movements standing for letters in the Morse code, as used by the Signal Corps of the army.

"I think I hear voices up yonder, sir," remarked Elmer, coming up behind the scout master, who was watching the finishing preparations for supper that were going on at the several fires.

"Yes, I thought so myself, and what you say, Elmer, makes me more positive," Mr. Garrabrant observed, a smile taking the place of the grave look on his handsome face. "Yes, there they come yonder, looking as tired as the others. And it may be that I deceive myself, but it strikes me both lads seem to be greatly excited over something or other. I sincerely hope nothing has happened to injure them. I notice no limp in their gait, and each seems to have the full use of both arms. What can have happened to them now?"

"At any rate we'll soon know, sir, for here they are," said Elmer, encouragingly, as Red and Larry limped up to the camp, and with sundry grunts sank upon a log as if to signify how utterly exhausted they might be.

"But tired or not, sir, we're just ready to go out again with you, after we've had some supper," declared Red, to the utter wonderment of the clustering scouts.

"Then I was right in my surmise, and you have run across something out of the common, boys?" remarked Mr. Garrabrant.

"Yes, sir," Red promptly replied, "we certainly have; and many times we felt mad to think we came away to get help instead of staying there, and trying ourselves to investigate, so as to find out what the groans meant we heard coming from that lonely hut!"