“Seemed like it, that’s all I can say,” he replied.
Once again everybody listened. They could hear the crackling of the flames as the fire seized upon another half-dead pine tree not far away, mounting upward with fierce rapidity.
“There, didn’t you hear that?” demanded Ralph suddenly.
Several of the other scouts admitted that they had caught some uncertain kind of sound, though unable to say just what it seemed to resemble.
“It may have been a crow cawing,” suggested Jack Durham.
“Or else a dog barking in the woods?” added Bud Morgan.
“Whatever it can be,” persisted Ralph, “it’s headed this way, because all of you heard the cry that time and you couldn’t before.”
Hugh turned toward the widow.
“Who lives nearest to you over that way, Mrs. Heffner?” he asked her.
“The Bargers—oh! I wonder if he got back again last night?” was the answer she made.