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136 creased. He found difficulty in telling the points of the compass. And finally it became absolutely impossible for him to make more than a half-way decent guess as to the quarter where the camp in all probability lay.

"I suppose I'm just about lost," he at length reluctantly admitted.

Still, Jerry was not one to be easily daunted. He had been in situations before now that called for a show of manliness and courage, and rather prided himself on being equal to any such occasion.

The thunder was booming heavily, and the rain ready to descend. He believed he could hear a distant roaring. It might be wind tearing through the forest, or a heavy fall of rain, perhaps both. At any rate it would mark the breaking of the storm.

"Better be finding that hollow tree I spoke to Jesse about," he concluded.

Once again luck favored the lad. Not thirty paces away he discovered what seemed to be a big stump, about twelve feet or more in height. t lt had an opening at the bottom, large enough for him to crawl through; indeed, to his mind, it was there especially for the very use he intended to put it.

Running forward just as the rain began to