"I wonder if the wind could have done it," the other mused. "It does play some queer pranks, I happen to know from past experiences. Guess that fastening is a bad one, and don't hold worth a cent."
"It's too late for us to bother fixing anything now, Bud," said Ralph; "though to tell you the truth I always thought the door held as tight as anything."
"Then what opened it, do you think?" demanded Bud, as they continued to approach the shack, the soldier who was accompanying them to take back the horse interested in what they were saying.
"I don't know, if you ask me point blank," Ralph admitted, frankly. "It might have been that you didn't fasten it the right way. Then again p'raps some one has passed along here, and stepped in to see if there was anything worth taking."
"Whee! I hope that last isn't the right answer," was what Bud hastened to observe; "I've got a few little things there I'd hate to lose, let me tell you. Now, if you come right down to—-oh! Hugh!"
"What's the matter with you?" demanded the one whose name had been uttered so wildly.
"Didn't you see that—-where were your eyes that you didn't see what poked out of the open door just then?" cried Bud, coming to a complete standstill in his astonishment and perplexity.
"I'm sorry to say that I didn't happen to be looking that way just when you spoke," Hugh admitted. "But tell us what it was you saw, Bud!"
"A head! A bear's head!" exclaimed Bud.
"That begins to sound interesting," said Ralph, as his face lighted up.