As he lay on guard, nearest to the cave's entrance, winking back at the stars, this brought him a happy sense of that wide brotherhood whose cradle is God's Everlasting Arms. From the well of his sleepy excitement two words bubbled up: "Our Father!" Rolling over until his nose burrowed among the fragrant evergreens, he repeated the Lord's Prayer, adding--because this had been an eventful day--a brief petition which had been put into his lips by his scoutmaster and was uttered under unusual stress of feeling, or when he remembered it: That in helpfulness to others and loyalty to good he might be a follower of the Lord of Chivalry, Jesus Christ, and continue his faithful soldier and servant "until the scout's last trail is done!" * * * * * It was almost morning when he awoke for the second time, having stirred his tired limbs once already to replenish the camp-fire. Now that hard-won fire had waned to a dull red shading on the undersides of velvety logs, the remainder of whose surface was of a chilly gray from which each passing breeze flicked the white flakes of ash like half-shriveled moths. "Whew! I must punch up the fire again--but it's hard to get the kinks out o' my backbone;" he straightened his curled-up spine with difficulty and stumbled out on the camping-ground. It was that darkest hour before dawn. The stars were waning as well as the fire. The trees which had been friends in the daytime were spectators now. Each wrapped in its dark mantle, they seemed to stand curiously aloof, watching him. He attacked the logs with a stick, poking them together and thrusting a dry branch into the ruddy nest where the fire still hatched. Snip! Snap! Crackle! the flames awoke. Mingling with their reviving laughter, came a low, strange cluck that was not the voice of the fire, immediately followed by a long shrill cry with a wavering trill in it, not unlike human mirth. It hailed from some point in the scout's rear. "For heaven's sake!" The stick shook in his fingers. "Can it be a wildcat--or another coon?" Stiffly he wheeled round. His eyes traveled up the great rock--in whose cave his companions lay sleeping; as they gained the top of that old grayback, they were confronted by two other eyes--mere twinkling points of flame! The scout's scalp seemed to lift like a blown-off roof. His throat grew very dry. At the same moment there was a noiseless flitting as of a shadow from the rock's crest to a near-by tree whence came the weird cry again. "_An owl!_ Well, forevermore! And my hair is standing straight still!" "_What is it?_ _What is it, Nix?_" came in muffled cries from the cave. "Only a screech owl; it's unusual to find one so far in the woods as this!"