“I didn’t seem to touch bottom,” answered the acrobatic youth.

“Let us examine it, just for fun,” said Pepper, and walked back before the others could stop him. He picked up a dead tree-branch and poked it into the hole.

“I can’t touch bottom,” he declared.

“You had better come away before you fall in,” said Jack.

“Do you know what I think?” went on the Imp. “I think it is an old well.”

“A well? out here?” came from Andy, with a skeptical look.

“Look for yourself.”

Both of the others were now interested, and made an examination.

“It certainly is a well, and the top had been choked up most likely for years,” declared the young major.

“I’ll stick a tree-limb in the hole,” said Pepper. “That will prevent somebody else from going down into it.”