ing fissure's mouth, where the brief flicker
of a match now chased bogies.

"Humph! We can't head him off,
Jess." Her brother disclaimed responsi- ??J ??@
bility with a shrug--while the little lamp
winked sarcastically from his hatbrim--but
in the heedful tone of the boy who
had been trained to feel--as Toandoah
did with his little petticoated pal--that
Life was a game in which two could hunt
together, even upon the trail of a Thunder
Bird, and make good headway. "We
can't turn him back!" Stud shrugged
his khaki shoulders. "But he'll strike
a blind bargain in there. Ha! There
goes another 'niggling' match!"

A frippery flame, indeed, its reflection
flickered a moment, a gold tooth in the
fissure's grinning mouth--darkness followed
!

Two or three of the boy scouts--those
did not, like Stud, show incredulity,%
sarcasm gleaming, hawk-eyed, from a
ruby lamp hooked to a hatband, and
[[141]]

p140 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p141w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p142

v?