"Thunder. It's beginning to lighten again, and I think we're in for a worse storm than any we've had yet."
"Maybe it will be a clearing-up shower," suggested Ned.
"Hope so," commented Tom.
He drove on, the lightning flashes coming more vividly and oftener now. Ned came forward to sit beside his chum, and once, during the period of a vivid flash, both of them saw something that caused them to start and Ned to cry:
"Did you see that man with a gun?"
"I did!" answered Tom. "Just ahead!"
The lightning had revealed a sinister face peering out from behind a bush.
"Better slow up, hadn't you?" asked Ned, straining his eyes through the added darkness that followed the flash to get another glimpse of the armed man.
"No, I think we'd better hasten on," was Tom's opinion. "He may have been only a hunter who has lost his way."
"I hope he isn't hunting us," said Ned grimly.