The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron

ner all right!" excla

d shake under me when

e looking over there w

nearly b

" was the comment of Ralph, turning a perplexed face toward Hugh, as

look around. He came back almost immediately, and his face told them that

ind out, Hugh?"

seen in all the sky!" sa

queer, doesn't i

r. "I've seen lightning before, in February even, but always during a thaw. Fact i

uld it have been th

blast. You know we sometimes hear a faraway boom over home. Sound travels man

unteered Bud. "Still, they may be doing some blasting, just to keep things moving as long as the snow ho

of the unannounced explosion. And when once Hugh started to find out what thi

curiosity having been duly aroused. Hence he d

nced to be outdoors each night about ten o'clock. It's come much earlier this time, it seems; but, anyhow, that is getting to be a regular nightly performance I wonder if they are wor

aw could have had anything to do with that q

on. "But they didn't seem to have anything along with them at that time. I remember seeing the taller man take something out of his

solving the puzzle. Just then Bud came back, having fixed the door the same wa

er never yet was heard on a night like this. So I guess it must have been a blast. They do say dynamite shakes the ground a heap more than powder, because its force is

up to the head of th

nd here last winter he ever knew the air to be clea

alph, "and I don't know that I ever did hear w

oor I could hear the plain rattle of the machinery, though it died away quick enough. I understand that business is so goo

before you spoke, I would have said it was foolish to think we could hear

erry pace, give you my word on that. I even stepped out further and looked around, but there wasn't a thin

Hugh, "but seems as though we've dropped on the queerest sort of a mystery the very first thing. And as scouts a

explosives by the cartload, that oughtn't to interfere with the trying out of the little invention which the brain of a

o wondering what Bud had invented now; but the latter did not take the time or tro

trol leader, who knew how deeply in earnest his chum was. "But it may be that we'll find the time to look into this ot

more shocks like that would start all my joints loose, I do beli

ooting after dark sets in. When one of these fragments of fused metal and slag does rush toward the earth and bury itself in the ground, it makes just such a brilliant

enerally fall in the summer

though he might be looked upon as a walking encyclopedia or dictionary; and it kept Hugh pretty busy a

d of some remarkable ones being dug out of the earth in various places. If this should prove to be a big meteor and we could find where it struck,

find where it struc

wilderness," ventured Bud; "though there'd be no harm in our trying,--that

his time. On other occasions his efforts, while ambitious, had ended in smoke, and the rest of the boys often quizzed poor Bud most unmercifully on account of his shortcomings.

waylay him on his course; that is, if he really amounts to more than a flash in the pan. Bud sometimes comfo

d to speak of his various experiences when he used to trap in this same neighborhood during past winters. He had run across a nu

ting that there were others present besides himself. He would fall into a reflective mood and knit hi

keeping ladies' hands and necks comfortable during wintry blasts. He had had many amusing experiences with some of them, and as the scout patrol leader never wearied of learning interest

down for the night," suggested Hugh. "Did

"Over in the corner you'll see the bully red blanket that's hugged me tight on many a cold night when I was tending my line of traps. I feel that it is l

to keep you from freezing. Why, even on a summer night that starts in hot, it's apt to feel chilly along about three in the morning. I've see

, each one being governed by some idea of his own. It was lucky they di

into it as if it were a bag, after he had taken his shoes and some

a soft voice

ing right along with what he was doing in ord

d the other; "but first chance you get, peep out of the tail of your