"Oh! somehow I seem to have gotten over my sleepy spell," admitted the other, frankly; "perhaps it was the excitement over seeing that prowler outside that did it. I'm as wide awake as a hawk right now." "Well, it's just the other way with me," X-Ray remarked, yawning almost as furiously as Lub had been doing before; "I'm getting dopey, and mean to turn in pretty soon. If nothing else happens to bother, nobody's going to hear a word from me after I hit the hay." Lub looked at him painfully, but he did not think it best to ask further questions lest he stir up a hornets' nest. There was something on Lub's mind. Phil understood this from various signs. He began to get an inkling as to what its nature might prove to be, when several times he saw the other lean forward and look long and earnestly up the chimney. "What d'ye expect to see up there, Lub?" asked Ethan, who had also it seemed been watching the other. "This isn't the time for old Santa Claus to come down with his pack of toys. His reindeer need snow for their sledge, you know." "Will you let the fire go out when we turn in, Phil?" asked Lub, ignoring all such little annoyances as this. "Why, I suppose so," he was told. "If it was cold weather it might be a different thing; but to-night is pretty warm, and we'll get little air in here, with the door closed. Yes, the last wood has been thrown on the fire; and to tell the truth there's only a handful more in the house, which we'll save to start things with in the morning." "What did you ask that for, Lub?" X-Ray made this inquiry. He realized that the other must have something on his mind, or he would not have spoken as he did. And X-Ray was curious to know what its character might turn out to be. "Oh, nothing much; only it strikes me that's a whopping big chimney, that's all," replied the other, a little confused. "I see what you mean," said Phil; "you're thinking that even if we do close the door as we intend, if a thief wanted to get in here he could creep down such a wide-throated chimney? Well, I shouldn't be at all surprised if he could, providing he took the notion." "I hate to think of being sound asleep, and not know a single thing about it," pursued Lub, "You know how I caught that darky stealing our chickens last winter? I set a trap for him, and gave him such a scare that he just crouched in a corner of the coop with all the hens cackling like mad, till father went out and got him by the scruff of the neck." "Mebbe you'd like to set one of your fine traps here then, Lub," suggested Ethan. "I think I could do it, if the rest of you didn't object," Lub pursued. "Please yourself," said Phil. "I'm off to bed right now," added X-Ray Tyson, "so you c'n have the whole blooming field to yourself. Be sure you don't get nabbed in your own contraption, Lub. Now, you may smile at my saying that, but it wouldn't be the first time a bitter got bitten."