"What's the matter?" asked Ned. "Did you see another bear, Bart?"
"I thought I heard some one walking around," was the answer. "It's snowing again. I don't see any one."
He went back to bed, every one sleeping more in comfort now that the tent was warmer. In the morning, Bart was the first one up, and he opened the tent flap. As he looked out, noting that the sun was shining, though the weather was cold, the lad uttered a cry of astonishment.
"What's the matter?" asked Fenn, pausing in his dressing operations.
"Some one _was_ sneaking around last night!" declared Bart. "See the footprints!"
The campers rushed from the tent in various stages of negligee, and stared at a track of human footprints, clearly visible in the new-fallen snow.
"Whoever it was he came close to our tent, and was evidently going to look in, when I must have frightened him off by getting up to put wood on the fire," said Bart.
"I'm sure I don't know," responded Bart, "only it was some one who evidently wanted to get away unobserved. Look, you can trace where he came out of the woods, approached our tent very cautiously, and then, when I frightened him, he took it on the run." This was easy to confirm by the spaces between the footprints, for when the midnight visitor had approached slowly and stealthily the marks were comparatively close together, but where he had run they were far apart.
"Let's get dressed, and have a look around," said Fenn. But though they searched for some time they could not find the intruder, even if his footsteps were plainly visible, leading off into the forest.
"We'll get breakfast and trace him up," suggested Frank. "Might as well do that as anything else."
"Let's look and see if he's taken anything," suggested Fenn.
"No need to do that, Stumpy," was Bart's opinion. "You can tell by his tracks that he wasn't near enough to our camp to have stolen anything. Even the bear meat is safe," and he looked to where it was suspended on a tree limb, by means of a long rope, a precaution taken to keep it out of the way of prowling animals.
With their guns in readiness for any game, the four chums set out after breakfast on the trail of the unknown, midnight visitor. The marks were easy to follow, for very little snow had fallen after Bart had replenished the wood in the stove.