X-Ray, thinking to pick up some information, called the child's attention to the scorched places on the heavy board, apparently done with molten metal. "See what daddy did!" he went on to say; and immediately the others, guessing his game, waited to see the result. The little girl looked from X-Ray down to the scarred surface of the table. She shook her head vigorously in the negative, and looked indignant. "Daddy didn't!" she exclaimed, with a vigor that settled that question. "These marks were here when you came, were they, Mazie?" asked Phil. This time she nodded her little curly head in the affirmative. No more was said. X-Ray took out his new fifty cent piece and looked hard at it--but if he half intended asking the child whether she had ever seen any like it he changed his mind. Perhaps he did not fancy looking into those clear blue eyes, and coaxing the child to unconsciously betray her "daddy." After breakfast the boys started to do various things. Ethan and X-Ray Tyson were more than ever bent upon fishing. They counted exactly even now, and the excitement was running high. "But after this," said Ethan, who had the soul of a true sportsman, "we mean to put back all the ordinary trout that are uninjured. We're no fish hogs, you must know. We'll carry the little scales, and the foot rule along, so as to measure what we take." "That's a sensible arrangement," Phil told them; "but then it's only what I would have expected of you, Ethan." They were still gathering bait close by the cabin when there broke out a terrible din. "It must be Lub!" exclaimed Ethan. "Yes, I saw him wandering off in that direction a bit ago," added X-Ray. "What can have happened to him?" exclaimed Phil, his mind running to panthers, ferocious bobcats, hungry bears, and even an excited father, wild with searching for his lost child. "There he comes now!" cried Ethan. "How funny he acts," X-Ray went on to say. Indeed, Lub was carrying on as though he had gone suddenly crazy, leaping up into the air, threshing with his arms, and prancing madly to and fro. All the while they could hear him letting out hoarse yells. CHAPTER XI AN ENCOUNTER IN THE PINE WOODS "Help! Chase 'em off, somebody! Help a fellow, won't you? Ouch! they're murdering me by inches. Oh! my stars, what can I do?" "It's hornets!" shrieked X-Ray, always as quick as a flash. "Mebbe a swarm of yellow jackets!" suggested Ethan. "I can see something whirling around over his head. Gee! what if he runs here and gives us a dose? The cabin for mine." "Hold on," called out Phil, taking in the situation, and then raising his voice he shouted to the terrified Lub: "Throw off your hat as you run. There, that'll attract some. Now your coat. Never mind a sting or two, but do as I say." Lub, accustomed in matters of this kind to letting some one else do his thinking for him, hastened to obey. Immediately afterward he was heard calling piteously: