It was rather late in the afternoon, some days later, when a light covered wagon drawn by a stout though rather lazy horse, could have been seen moving along the valley road among the famous Pontico Hills. Three boys dressed for rough service in the woods sat upon the seat, with Jack doing the driving just then, though both Toby and Steve had taken turns at this work during the long day they had been on the road.

They were many miles away from Chester now, and pretty close to the end of the journey, as Jack informed them.

“We’ll strike the old logging road just above here, you see,” he explained, “and by following it a mile or so we are due to come on the place where I’ve been told we’ll find a dandy camp-site, with running water near by.”

“Lucky for us you managed to get hold of that old map, and copy it, I tell you, Jack,” ventured Steve. “This is certainly a pretty wild country up here, and with mighty few settlers around. I doubt if you could run across a single farm in four square miles of territory.”

“It’s really worse than that, Steve,” admitted 10 the other. “I think you’d have to go three or four miles in any direction before you struck a living soul; and then the chances are it’d only be some wandering timber-cruiser, taking a look at the fine lumber prospects, with a hazy idea that he might be able to strike a bargain with the party who owns all this land up here.”

“If they at one time started in to cut this timber,” said Toby, glancing around at the myriad of lofty trees that stretched their tops toward the sky, “they didn’t get very far before being called off, did they, Jack?”

“I believe the land fell into other hands, and the new owner had no desire to clean it of the timber. So operations stopped. But many an envious eye has been turned in the direction of the Pontico Hills of recent years. They say it carries the finest batch of uncleared land left in the county, if not the whole State.”

“How about that grown-up road ahead of us, Jack,” called out Toby, who had very keen eyesight; “do you reckon now that might be the logging trail we’re looking for?”

“Just what it is, my friend,” chuckled Jack; and upon reaching the spot he forced the horse to make a turn to the right, though the animal seemed a bit loath to obey the pull at the lines, apparently anticipating harder work ahead.

They found it no easy task to push along the road over which the logging teams had once made their way, so overgrown with vines and small saplings 11 had it become. Steadily they advanced, all of them eagerly observing the many interesting things that caught their attention.

“There’s something moving back of that hanging vine, fellows,” suddenly whispered Toby, hoarsely; “and I can’t tell whether it’s a man or a sheep!”

“Why, it’s a doe and a spotted fawn, as sure as you live!” ejaculated Steve just then, as two objects flashed off with graceful bounds that carried them lightly over fallen trees and all other obstacles. “First time I ever saw wild deer in their native haunts. We’ve got a gun along, but of course nobody’d think of shooting deer out of season; and the law especially protects those with young.”

“We’ve fetched that gun with us only as a sort of protection,” said Jack, positively. “None of us would dream of hunting in July. Fact is, I didn’t mean to carry it at all, but the lady suggested that it might be just as well, since you never can tell what might happen.”

Toby and Steve exchanged quick and suggestive glances at hearing Jack say this. Somehow it struck them as meaning there might be a trace of danger in the secret mission which Jack had undertaken for their mysterious benefactress. And doubtless from time to time they would have further reasons for believing that there was something deeper in their errand than merely taking photographs of the wild country for the edification 12 of the lady, who, for all they knew, might be the owner of these miles and miles of wooded land.

“The sun is getting pretty low down in the western sky, fellows,” observed Toby, after a while.

“And I should say we’d come all of a mile since leaving that valley road,” Steve added.

“I’m expecting to strike the place any old time now,” Jack went on to tell them in a soothing tone. “Here and there you can see where trees have been cut, though they grow so dense around here the slashes hardly show. Keep a bright lookout for the bunch of oaks that makes a triangle, because that’s where we pull up and make our camp.”

Two minutes afterwards and Toby gave an exultant cry.

“I see them, Jack, sure I do, and I tell you they’re beauties in the bargain. A better landmark it’d be hard to find. Well, for one I’m right glad our journey is done.”

“Tell that to Moses the nag, here,” laughed Jack, “because he’d be mighty happy to know his work is through for a long spell. We’ve fetched plenty of oats along, and mean to rope him out days, so he can eat his fill of grass. Yes, that answers the description given on my map, and we’ve finally arrived.

“Yes, and if you listen,” went on Steve, eagerly, “you can hear a soft musical sound like water gurgling over a mossy bed. That must be the little stream you told us was close by, and which 13 would supply all our wants. Why, I’m as thirsty as a fish out of water right now, boys; me for a drink!”

With that he hurled himself over the side of the wagon and went on a run in the direction of the soft sweet murmur which he had rightly guessed could only proceed from running water.

When a little later Steve, his raging thirst satisfied, joined his chums again, he found Toby unharnessing Moses, while Jack was investigating the immediate vicinity with an eye to locating the camp-site.

The wearied horse was led to water and then staked out with the long and stout rope fetched along for this especial purpose. They anticipated having little trouble with Moses while in camp, since all the beast would have to do lay in the way of feeding, and being led to water twice a day.

Next the wagon was unloaded, and from the pile of stuff that soon littered the ground, it was evident that the three lads had taken a fair advantage of their expenses being guaranteed, for they certainly had not stinted themselves along the “grub” line at least.

“We’ve just got to rush things, and do our talking afterwards,” suggested Jack.

“That’s right,” agreed Toby, “because already the sun is setting, and before long it’ll be getting plumb dark. Luckily enough we thought to fetch that lantern along with us, though, and a supply of oil in the bargain.”

14“I wonder,” said Jack, with an amused chuckle, “if there was a single thing we did forget to pack in the wagon. Talk about going into the woods light, when you’ve got a convenient wagon to carry things along, you’re apt to fetch three times as much as you really need.”

“I’m one of those fellows who like comfort every time,” admitted Steve; “and I suppose I’m responsible for a heap of these things right now; but never mind, Jack, some of them may yet come in handy; you never know.”

They seemed to be fairly well versed in the art of raising a tent; at least Jack knew how to go about it.

“Time presses too much to be overly particular how we get it up tonight,” he told the others when they suggested that it did not seem to be quite as firmly staked as seemed proper. “Tomorrow we’ll rectify all errors. Now, if Toby will begin to get the bedding inside, and sort over the cooking things, I’ll make a fireplace. Steve, would you mind taking the ax and cutting some wood?”

“Happy to do so,” chirped the big fellow, who had always boasted of being handy with an ax, as his muscular condition gave him an advantage over both the others. “The only trouble is I’m as hungry as a wolf right now, and so much extra exercise will make me wild for my supper.”

The sound of the ax soon announced that Steve was doing his duty, and that a supply of wood for the cooking fire was certain to be forthcoming.

15Meanwhile, Jack had started to build a fireplace with a number of stones which lay conveniently near by. From the blackened state of some of these the boy suspected they had served for just such a purpose on some former occasion.

When he had fixed this to suit his ideas of the proper thing he had arranged the stones so that one end of the fireplace was a little broader than the other.

Across this space he now laid a metal framework that looked like a grill, and which was two feet square. This was bound to prove a most valuable camping asset, since coffee pot and frying pan could be placed on it without much danger of those accidents that occur so often when they are balanced upon the rough edges of the stones themselves.

All was now ready for the fire itself, which Jack quickly started. Toby gave an exclamation of satisfaction the instant he saw the flames leap up.

“Too bad we were in such a hurry,” he went on to say, regretfully. “Some sort of ceremony ought to attend the starting of the first fire in camp. It’s going to be our best friend you know, when even we get ravenously hungry; and seems to me we might at least have joined hands, and danced around the blaze while we crooned some sort of song dedicated to the god of fire.”

“None of those silly frills go in this camp, Toby, you want to know,” said Steve, sternly, coming in just then with an armful of firewood. “This is a business camp, and not a make-believe one. We’re 16 up here to enjoy ourselves, and take pictures, but no barbaric rites can be allowed. Leave all that for the savages of the South Sea Islands, or those fire worshippers we read about. I love a fire as well as the next fellow, but you don’t catch me capering around a blaze, and singing to it like a foolish goose.”

Toby was too busily engaged then to attempt to argue the matter. He had arranged most of the provisions so that a choice could be made, and now he ran off a long string of edibles, most of which, however, would require too much time in the cooking to be chosen.

As is usually the case under similar conditions, they finally decided to cut off a couple of slices from the big ham, and with some of the already boiled potatoes fried crisp and brown, make that the main dish for their first supper.

Soon delicious odors began to arise and be wafted away on the evening air. If any of those curious little woods rodents that might be peeping from their covert at the invaders of their solitude had a nose capable of appreciating such perfumes, they must have been greatly edified by these queer goings-on.

But hungry boys have no thought save to satisfy their clamorous appetites, and so little unnecessary talking was done up to the time when the trio curled themselves up with their feet under them, tailor fashion, and proceeded to clean off their heaping pie pans of the savory mess that had been prepared.