IN A FEVER "TO FIND OUT"

Our trio had nearly reached what they judged to be the scene of
the latest explosion when Dick suddenly gave a low, sharp "hist,"
at the same time bending over to the ground while still peering
ahead.

Palpitating with excitement, Tom and Greg halted, also looking.

Out of the shadow ahead emerged something only vaguely outlined
in the dark.  Whether wild animal or human being it would be hard
to say there in the darkness.  Indeed, the slight sound caused
by its progress close to the road had more to do with warning
Dick and his friends than anything their eyes saw at first.

"Come on!" whispered Dick, heading suddenly for the road.  In
a jiffy Tom and Greg were also in hot pursuit, though young Prescott
managed to keep somewhat in the lead.

But the object of their pursuit took alarm, too, and gaining the
road, flew like the wind.

"Hold on there, you!" challenged Dick.  "We want a little conversation
with you at once."

At that vocal warning the fugitive put on an even better burst
of speed.

"It must be a man!" exclaimed Dick.  "He evidently understood me."

"No use for you to try to get away!" shouted Reade.  "We intend
to get you if we have to chase you all the way to the seaboard."

That was enough to make the fugitive veer suddenly and dart in
under the trees.  Tom vented an exclamation of disappointment,
for he knew the chances were easy for escape in the deep shadows
of the forest.

At that instant Dick raised his right hand.  In it he held a small
stone that he had picked up at the first instant of discovering
the presence of the stranger.

Now Dick threw the stone, with the best judgment that he could
command in the darkness.

Ahead there went up a cry, as though of pain.  Then all three
pursuers distinctly heard an angry voice say!

"Hang him!  He hit me in the heel!"

If there were any reply to this from a confederate of the injured
fugitive neither Dick nor his chums heard it.

After a minute all three stopped at a low uttered order from young
Prescott.

"Hush!" whispered Dick.

"Sh!" confirmed Tom Reade.

As they stood there in the forest not a sound of another human
being was audible.

For some five minutes the trio of high school boys stood without
stirring from their tracks.

"We've lost the trail," whispered Dick at last.  "We could remain
here, of course, waiting for more things to happen, but my belief
is that daylight would find us still standing here, like so many
foiled dummies.  We might as well return to camp.  What do you
think?"

"Yes; we'd better go back to camp," assented Tom.

"I'm agreeable," murmured Greg

So back to camp they went, going by the open road as much of the
way as served their purpose.

"There's the camp," muttered Tom, as they caught sight of a light
between the trees.  "Why the fellows have started a campfire."

"What do you say if we slip up on them and give them something
to jump about?" laughed Greg.

"That might work with some people," negatived Dick, "but Darry
is there, and he's impulsive.  He might half kill us before he
discovered his mistake.  O-o-o-h, Dave!"

"Hello!" answered Darrin, coming away from the campfire.  Then
he waited until the trio were close at hand before he went on:

"I judge you didn't have any luck."

"We got close to one of the scamps," muttered Tom, "whom Dick
seems to have hit  on the heel with a stone, but he slipped away
from us under the trees."

"It's only half an hour to dawn," yawned Dave, looking at his
watch.  "We can turn in, now, I guess, for the rascals must be
about through with the guessing match they've put up for us."

"We could turn in now," suggested Danny Grin.  "We don't have
to go to sleep, you know, but we could lie in our blankets and
talk the time away until dawn.  The campfire will keep going until
after daylight comes on."

That seemed rather a sensible course.  Dick nodded, and all hands,
after Darry had thrown a few more sticks on the fire, went into
the tent, undressed, donned pajamas and slipped in under a single
thickness of blanket apiece, and lay there talking.

Yet it proved to be a case of gape and yawn.  One after another
their eyes closed and more regular breathing started.

Dick Prescott was the last one to drop off.  Yet he had barely
more than lost himself in slumberland when there came a blast
so close at hand that, to the boys, it seemed as though they must
have been blown from their cots.

"That was right up toward the road!" panted Dave Darrin, leaping
from his cot barefooted and clad only in pajamas.  "Don't stop
to dress.  Come on!  Chase 'em!"

"Go as far as you like!" chuckled Dick, stopping to pull on his
shoes and fasten them, as did most of the others.  Hazelton went
only to the doorway of the tent, but Danny Grin followed Darrin,
keeping at the latter's heels.

Prescott and Reade were hardly sixty seconds later in heading
up the slope toward the road, Greg and Harry remaining at the
camp.

As they came out from under the trees and into the road Dick discovered
that the first signs of dawn were appearing.  In a few minutes
more it would be possible to see clearly over a stretch of road
more than half a mile in length.  Already objects were beginning
to take shape.  Dave was coming back, followed by Dan.  Both were
limping slightly, for neither boy was accustomed to traveling
barefoot and both had picked up slight stone bruises in their
progress.

"Did you sight anything or anyone?" called Dick.

"No," grumbled Darrin, in deep disgust.  "The odds are all against
us, anyway.  The scoundrels know which way they are going; we
can only guess at their course."

"One thing looks rather certain, at any rate," yawned Dick, covering
his mouth with his hand.  "Whoever the unknowns are, they were
trying only to bother us.  Or, if they were trying to injure us,
they were rank amateurs at the destructive game.

"But what was it that blew up, anyway?" queried Dave.

"It sounded like a keg of gunpowder each time," Tom declared.
"Yet to carry around five kegs of gunpowder would call for a
lot of muscular work."

"I'm going back to camp to put on my shoes," Dave declared.

"So am I," Danny Grin added.

"We'll wait here for you," said Dick.  "When you come back there
may be light enough for us to look into matters a little."

Dave and Dan returned in a little more than five minutes afterwards.
The daylight was now becoming stronger.

"Are Greg and Harry keeping awake?" was Prescott's first question.

"They are," nodded Darrin.

"Then they can be trusted to look after the camp," Dick continued.

"And to look after the canoe," Reade amended.

"Now, we'll explore the woods a bit," Prescott went on.  "We know
about where we heard the explosions, and we'll look for whatever
evidence we can find."

For this purpose each explorer went by himself.  Ten minutes later
Dave Darrin set up a loud hello.  This brought the others to him
on the run.

"Give us another call," demanded Dick.

"Here!" called Dave, from the depths of the woods.

Dick went in, followed by Tom and Dan.

"I've found this much," Dave announced, holding up a scorched
bit of colored paper.  It was such paper as is used for the outer
wrapping of fireworks.

Dick took the fragment of paper, reading therefrom the title,
"The Sploderite Pyrotechnic Co."

"Nothing but fireworks, after all," ejaculated Danny Grin in great
contempt, now that it was broad daylight.

"But I would like to have seen the fireworks before they blew
up," retorted Tom Reade.  "They were surely the loudest I ever
heard.  I don't believe anything but the heaviest cannon could
make as much noise."

"Whoever touched off fireworks like these," uttered Dave, "didn't
care a hang whether or not he set the woods on fire."

"There was no fire danger," Dick rejoined.  "The grass and everything
in these forests is as green as can be.  But let's look about
and see if we can't find evidences of the explosion at this point."

"There ought to be a good-sized hole in the ground right under
where this piece of fireworks exploded," Tom guessed.  "We ought
to find, not far from here, some evidences of what explosives
can do in ripping up the ground."

"Now I remember that one of the explosions in the night sent something
whizzing through the air over our heads."

"Pieces of the pasteboard enclosing the mine, bomb or whatever
kind of fireworks it was," Dick suggested.  "But let's look for
other debris around here."

That single bit of scorched paper, however, was all that any of
them could find.

Tom discovered a spot where he thought the ground had been blackened,
but Dave thought the blackened appearance due to humus soil, and
so nothing came of the argument.

"I think," yawned Dick, "this search will lead to the same result
that the others did during the night.  About all we can do is
to go back to camp."

The sun was up by the time that all six members of Dick & Co.
were once more gathered about the remains of their campfire.

"I don't know what you fellows are going to do," yawned Tom Reade.
"As for me, at present a nap looks better than any shower bath
or breakfast that was ever invented.  No matter how much objection
I hear, I'm going to get an hour or two more of sleep."

That idea met with rather a hearty reception.  Within three minutes
all six high school boys were lying between blankets again, composed
for sleep.

No more explosions came to disturb their slumbers, which were
deep and broken only when at last Dick Prescott called out:

"Fellows, we're regular Rip Van Winkles!  It's half-past nine
o'clock!"

"And we've that lake mystery to solve today!" uttered Greg Holmes,
leaping up.