"That's what it is," Dick replied quietly. "Though I've never seen one before, it's hard to be fooled, for that chap looks just like his published photographs. And look at that queer, brownish, half-yellowish sky back of it. It certainly looks forbidding." "And we're going to have a stormy afternoon of it!" muttered Dave. "The waterspout will go by to the north," Reade conjectured, studying the oddly-shaped, rapidly moving and twisting blackish cloud, "but we're going to be right in line with the main storm that is traveling with it." "And we've got to prepare against the weather, too!" Dick cried, with sudden realization. "Fellows, the storm that is coming down on us isn't going to be any toy zephyr!" After leaving Ashbury the boys had decided to return to Gridley by a different road. "There's the place for us, if we can make it!" cried Dick an instant later, pointing toward the slope. "Dave, whip up the horse. He has to travel fast for his own safety. Tom and Greg, you get behind and push the wagon up the slope. We'll all help in turn. But hustle!" The crest of the rise of ground being made, the boys found themselves entering another forest. Dick here found the ground as favorable to his purpose as he had hoped it would be, for on the further side the land sloped downward again, and was well-wooded. "Drive in there!" called Prescott, pointing, then ran ahead to find the best spot for pitching the tent. "Whoa!" yelled Prescott, when he had reached the spot that he judged would do best for camp purposes. "Now, Dave, go over to the other side of the horse! Help me to get him out of the shafts. The poor animal must be our first consideration, for he can't help himself. The rest of you unload all the stuff from the wagon as fast as you can move." Slipping the harness from the horse, Dick fastened a halter securely, then ran the horse down into a little gully where the animal would be best protected from the force of the wind that would come with the storm. Driving a long iron stake into the ground, Dick tethered the animal securely. Then he ran back to help his chums. "Here's the best site for the tent," Prescott called, snatching up a stick and marking the site roughly. "Now, hustle! No; don't use the wooden stakes for the tent ropes. Drive the long iron stakes, and drive them deep!" Then Prescott ran back with oats and corn for the horse, leaving a generous feed for the animal. "You'll need plenty to eat, old fellow, for the storm is going to be a long and cold one." Then Prescott ran back at full speed to his chums who were erecting the tent. First, the four corner stakes were driven, and the guy-ropes made fast. "Greg and Dan can drive all the other pins, if they hustle," Dick announced. "Tom, you and Dave get the floor planks down, and rig up the stove---inside the tent." "There won't be time to lay the flooring," Reade objected, taking a hurried squint at the now more threatening sky.