"The ashes warm, you say, Ethan?" he burst out with. "Now, that's a funny thing. What would make them hold heat that way, when there's not a sign of anybody around?" "There _has_ been somebody here, and only a short time ago, don't you see?" explained Phil. "And like as not they heard us cheering when we glimpsed the lake, and cleared out in a big hurry," Ethan went on to say. "Cleared out?" echoed Lub'. "Well, why should they run from us, tell me? We don't look dangerous, as far as I can see. We wouldn't bother hurting anybody; and didn't Phil say a while back that if we found some fishermen in his shack we'd just shy off, and build one for ourselves?" "Yes, but these people didn't hear Phil say that; we were half a mile and more away from here at the time," explained X-Ray. "And they couldn't begin to tell just who was coming," added Phil. "It might be!" exclaimed Ethan, "that they took us for game wardens. Mebbe now they've been shooting deer out of season, and got cold feet when they knew some people were coming in to the lake." Phil nodded his head in the affirmative, when he saw that Ethan was looking to find out just how that suggestion struck him. "I rather think you've struck the right nail on the head there, Ethan," he told the other. "It seems the most reasonable explanation for their clearing out in such a big hurry." "They tried to put the fire out too, didn't they, Phil?" It was X-Ray Tyson who asked this. Those keen eyes of his had made another discovery, and he was even then pointing the same out to his chums. "Yes, I had noticed that some one had certainly thrown water on the fire," said Phil. "You can see where it washed the ashes off this charred piece of wood; and besides, it made little furrows in the ashes." "That's an old trick in the woods," remarked Ethan, with a superior air; "fact is, no true woodsman would think of breaking camp without first making sure every spark of his fire was put out. Lots of forest fires have come from carelessness in guides leaving red cinders behind them." "Yes," Phil added, "because often the wind rises, and whirls those same cinders to leeward, where they fall in a bunch of dry leaves, and begin to get their work in. But when people live in cabins they seldom bother wetting the ashes, unless they've got a mighty good reason for wanting to hide the facts." "And these people did," added Ethan, conclusively. "Let's look around some," suggested X-Ray. Two of the others thought this a good idea, for they immediately started a search of the interior of the cabin, their idea being to find some clue that might tell just who the late mysterious inmates were, and why they had fled so hurriedly.