Bud, like most promising candidates among those destined to become truly great, had a habit of forgetting that there were others present besides himself.  He would fall into a reflective mood and knit his brow as though wrestling with grave problems, upon the solving of which the fate of nations depended.

Ralph knew all about the habits of foxes, mink, otter, weasels, muskrats, raccoons, ’possums and divers other small fur-bearing animals such as give up their warm coats for the purpose of 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 interesting facts at first hand, Ralph was kept busy talking and answering questions, until considerable time had slipped by and there was Bud yawning as though threatening to dislocate his jaws.

“Guess we’d better be thinking of bunking down for the night,” suggested Hugh.  “Did you fetch a blanket along with you, Ralph?”

“Well, I’m too old a hand to be caught napping in the woods without thinking of the night that is coming,” replied the other, laughing at the same time.  “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 like an old friend when I get it tucked around me, and you’d think I was an Esquimo lying there, or one of those mummies they get out of Mexican catacombs.”

“That’s all right,” Hugh declared; “I thought you were too sensible to come up here and spend a night at this time of year without something 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 seen the time when I’d have given a heap to have my blanket along; and the only thing I could do was to get up and start the fire booming again.”

The three boys started to pick out the best spots for making their beds, each one being governed by some idea of his own.  It was lucky they did not all think alike, or they must have drawn straws for first choice.

Hugh was carefully laying his blanket down so that he could crawl into it as if it were a bag, after he had taken his shoes and some of his outer clothing off, when he felt a gentle tug at his sleeve.

“Hugh!” said a soft voice in a whisper.

“What is it, Ralph?” questioned the other, going right along with what he was doing in order not to show that there was anything amiss.

“Don’t act as if I was saying anything out of the common, Hugh,” said the other; “but first chance you get, peep out of the tail of your eye at the broken window, and you’ll find that we’re being watched!”

CHAPTER IV

READING A “SIGN” BY TORCHLIGHT

Of course it gave the leader of the Wolf patrol a thrill when he heard this low warning from Ralph.  You never would have known it, though, from any uneasy movement on his part.