The men scarcely ventured to breathe and it seemed as though they were ages slowly sidling along, barely able to perceive that they really moved.

They must have gone a hundred yards or more before there was any alarm.

Then a voice spoke from the bank to the right, followed almost instantly by the flash of a gun and a sharp report.

The flare lit up the stream, and the bullet thudded into the log, without damage.
"What was it, Jack ?" the voice unmistakably Lacy's.

"Did you see something ?" "Nothin' but a floatin' log," was the disgusted reply, "but I made a bull's-eye." "That's better than you did any time before to-day.