“We’ve got to find our way somewhere pretty soon!” the other replied.  “If we don’t, we’ll freeze to death!”

The boys walked for what seemed to them two hours more, and then Thede, who was in advance, stumbled over a tree bole lying at the foot of a gentle slope.  He rose rubbing his elbow and turned the flashlight toward the front.

“I know where we are now,” he said.  “We’re about eight miles from the cabin.  This place here is called Bear Ridge, and it’s about the only collection of rocks and caverns that I know of in this district.”

“Can’t we find a cavern to crawl into?” asked George, his teeth chattering with the cold.

“If we find a cavern,” advised Thede, “we’re likely to find a couple of bears packed away in it!”

“I don’t care if there are a hundred bears!” grumbled George.  “I’ll freeze to death if I stay out in this snow another minute!”

After a long and difficult climb the boys came to a ledge of rock and crawled into a small opening revealed by the searchlight.

“The beds are all full tonight, I guess,” George said shivering.  “I hear Bruin kicking about being disturbed.”

CHAPTER V

A BOY SCOUT TRICK

“Where’s that fool boy going now?” asked Tommy as George, in pursuit of the spy, dashed into the thicket.

“What did he see back here that caused him to let out a yell like that?” asked Sandy.

“I don’t believe he saw anything!” Will declared.  “He just thought he’d give us a good scare by pretending he’d bumped into a band of Indians, or something like that.”

The boys looked over the ground in the rear of the tent, and finally Tommy came to the place where the spy had punctured the canvas.

“Who made this hole in the tent?” he asked.

The boys gathered around the opening through which the spy had inspected the interior of the tent, and looked at each other with wonder expressed on their faces.  Tommy was first to speak.

“George must have caught a man here looking in,” he said.

“That’s why he disappeared so suddenly,” Will argued.

“Yes, he was chasing the Peeping Tom,” Sandy agreed.

“I wish we knew the direction they took,” Will mused.  “The boy may get into serious trouble, chasing off into the forest along in the night.  He should have told us of his discovery so one of us could have gone with him!  We may be able to find him yet.”

“Aw, he’ll come back before long!” Tommy argued.  “He can’t make any headway out there in the underbrush, and the fellow who was here will probably run away from him before he gets three rods from the tent.”

“I hope so!” answered Will.

“But what was that gink prowling around the tent for?” asked Sandy.  “That must have been the same fellow we heard using the paddle a short time ago.  If it is, he’s mighty liberal with his bullets!”