"No, we've got to do something else," he declared out loud. "I have
it!" The boy brought his pony up standing and gazed off over the plain
to a point about a quarter of a mile beyond, where the plain rolled
into a hollow, a "hog hollow" as it was called down there.

Butler galloped back to where his companions were standing anxiously
awaiting him.

"We are wasting time, Tad," cried the professor as the lad rode up.
"It is my opinion that we had better ride into that canyon there and
make camp in some secluded spot where we shall not be easily found."

"I am afraid that won't help us any, Professor," said Tad. "How
could we expect to hide ourselves in there so completely that a
mountaineer would not find us? No, sir, it is my opinion that our
only safety lies out there in the open, at least for the rest of the
afternoon and the night."

"What, ride out there to be shot up again?" demanded Stacy. "No, sir,
not for Stacy Brown! I've been shot up once. I don't propose to make
a bull's-eye of myself again."

"Stacy is right, boys. It would be foolishness to follow such a
course and---"

"Wait till you hear my plan, sir," urged Butler.

"We will hear it. Proceed."

"Out yonder about a quarter of a mile from the base of the rocks is a