"Oh, another terrible meteor! Why, we must be right in the middle of a shower of shooting stars! And let me tell you, that one hit the earth not a great way off, too! I'm going to take a look in the morning and see if I can find it. They say that college professors often pay big sums for being set on the track of these meteors that bury themselves in the ground. What if she had dropped right down on top of this shanty, boys? I'm glad we got off as well as we did, aren't you, Hugh?"
Hugh did not answer. Evidently he was thinking deeply at that particular moment. There was indeed plenty to concern him in connection with the mysterious aeroplane that nightly circled the region, always accompanied by that strange explosion.
"Seems to me I can smell something queer like burnt powder," Bud presently remarked. "Do meteors explode when they hit the earth, Hugh?" And would they send out a rank odor like that?"
"I don't happen to be up in the doings of meteors, Bud," answered the other, "but I should think it might be something like that. We'll all take a look after breakfast, and see what we can find. Perhaps it may surprise us. This seems to be a general all-around surprise party for the lot of us. We were taken aback to find Ralph here in the old shack; he had his surprise when he watched those two men carry on so queerly; then we had the shock last night of hearing thunder and seeing lightning when the sky was clear; after that, the fellow looking in at the window startled us. You were a little surprised your self, I reckon, Bud, at your success in trying out your stability device as applied to aeroplanes. And now comes the discovery that one of the air craft is skimming around here nightly, doing some stunt that we can't understand yet."
"We ought to call this Camp Surprise, then," announced Ralph.
"That's what," echoed Bud.
"Now let us go in again," suggested Hugh. "It seems as if the fireworks might be all over for this particular night. Even the aeroplane has gone off where none of us can hear the motor working any longer."
"Perhaps she dropped to the ground," remarked Bud. "There might be another open place not far away, like the old field where we tried out my little model this morning. And say, doesn't it strike you as funny that just one solitary meteor should take a notion to explode each night?"
No one answered this question, though Bud was too busy pondering on the run of strange events that had fallen to their share of late to notice the lack of interest his comrades seemed to take in the matter.
Once inside, they again sat around talking. It was Ralph this time who gave utterance to a certain fact that had been in his mind, which interested both his chums as soon as they heard it.