“Well, that’s a new idea,” admitted the other, “and one that didn’t come to me, I’ll own up.  A meteor can fall at any old time, day or night, though we only see them shooting 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 flash.  Some say there is a fearful crash when it strikes.  Stranger things have happened, I take it, Bud, than to believe that was a falling meteor of a pretty good size.”

“But don’t shooting stars generally fall in the summer time, Hugh?” questioned Bud.

It had become a habit with most of the scouts to ask the Wolf leader any and all sorts of questions, as though he might be looked upon as a walking encyclopedia or dictionary; and it kept Hugh pretty busy accumulating information in order to be well posted for these constant demands on his time and patience.

“Yes, I believe the earth does pass through the greatest showers of meteors in August, but then there are lots of them loose at any time.  I’ve read 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, it would be a feather in the caps of the scouts.  Some old professor would be hustling up this way as soon as we let them know at Yale or Harvard.”

“Then we’ll try to find where it struck!” declared Ralph.

“It would be as bad as hunting for a needle in a haystack in all this big wilderness,” ventured Bud; “though there’d be no harm in our trying,—–­that is, if I’m in any shape to go with you after I’ve had my little innings.”

Again did Ralph wear a puzzled frown as he heard Bud make this significant remark.  He must have wondered more than ever what it could possibly be that the other had conceived this 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.  But then, all great inventors must make a beginning.  It is not expected that genius can take the saddle at one bound.  Persistence counts more in such cases than anything else.

The fellow who has faith in himself is apt to get there in the end, no matter what grievous disappointments waylay him on his course; that is, if he really amounts to more than a flash in the pan.  Bud sometimes comforted himself with reflections along this order.  He was not easily cast down, and that counted for a good deal.

The three scouts sat in the shack crosslegged, like so many Turks, and chatted busily as time passed on.  Ralph was easily induced to speak of his various experiences when he used to trap in this same neighborhood during past winters.  He had run across a number of strange things that were well worth telling; and Hugh especially showed the keenest kind of interest in all he had to say.