It was nearly dark, after an afternoon of hard work for five members of the party, and an afternoon of wonderful sport for Dick Prescott.
A crude raft had been built. That part of the work had been easy, and it was swiftly performed. But three trips with the small raft had been needed to bring over the tent, the supplies, the push cart and everything belonging to the old camp.
Now the new camp stood pitched at a short distance from the cave, but near to the edge of the lake. The tent had been put up in a natural clearing, behind a line of timber, so that the canvas was not visible from the other side of the lake.
At trout fishing Dick had proved himself more than an expert.
Now that darkness was coming, Dick was bending over a low fire, watching a frying pan in which four speckled beauties, well dipped in batter, were sizzling merrily.
"This is the finest food I've ever had," declared Greg Holmes, swallowing another mouthful of trout and leaning back with a contented sigh.
"It certainly is great," agreed Dave Darrin. "Fellows, I've wasted some of my life in the past, for I never before knew the taste of brook trout."
"I tried 'em once," said Reade, "but they didn't taste as fine as these. With trout, I've heard, a tremendous lot depends upon the way they're cooked."
"Of course the cooking has a lot to do with bringing out the full flavor," Dick admitted modestly. "But, Tom, perhaps you hadn't done any hard work before eating trout that time. Exercise brings hunger, and hunger is the best sauce that food can have—-as we all ought to know."
"Exercise?" repeated Tom, with a laugh. "Yes; I've had that this afternoon, all right. You had me guessing when you told me you had such an important job for me. I didn't know, then, that you wanted me to boss the raft building and transporting the camp over here. It was exercise, all right. We ought to have taken an entire day to it."
Dick rose with the frying pan, dropping hot trout on four plates in turn, omitting only Holmes.
"You shall have a trout out of the next serving, Greg," Dick promised.
"I'm not worrying about myself," Greg returned. "But are you going to have anything left for yourself, Dick?"
"I'm not worrying about that, either," laughed Prescott. "It was mighty nice of you fellows to do all the work this afternoon, and leave me to enjoy myself all the time at sport. So the trout belong to you fellows."
"I don't suppose you worked at all, Dick," said Tom quizzically. "Of course whipping up and down a stream in rubber boots, over stones and all sorts of obstacles, isn't anything like work."
"It would be pretty hard work for a fellow who didn't like trout fishing, I suppose," Dick answered. "But, to me, it was only so much glorious sport. Here's your trout, Greg. Who else wants some more?"
"Don't ask foolish questions," chuckled Danny Grin.
But at last the five boys had to admit that they had eaten their fill out of the splendid result of Dick's afternoon of sport. There were still several trout left, all cleaned and ready to be dipped in the batter.
"Now, you sit down at the table, and let us wait on you," urgedGreg, going over to Dick.
Dave took hold of one of young Holmes' suspender straps, pulling him back.
"You simpleton," expostulated Darry, "are you going to spoil Dick's reward by letting a chump cook attend to the trout? Dick wants to cook his trout for himself, but we'll do everything else. I'll appoint myself to make the coffee for all hands."
Dick soon had a pan full of trout ready for his own plate. As he seated himself at the table he was fully conscious of how tired and sore he was from the afternoon of whipping up and down stream after these handsome, speckled fish, but he was careful not to admit his fatigue to the others, who, also, were very tired.
Dick had to fry a second pan of trout, eating the last one of the lot he had caught, ere he found his appetite satisfied.
Then, with only the light of a lantern on the table, the boys sat about sipping their coffee and feeling supremely contented with their day of effort and its results.
"There are not so many mosquitoes over here," Tom announced.
"They haven't found us out yet," chuckled Danny Grin. "They will do so, later."
"I'm ready for bed any time the word comes," confessed Harry Hazelton.
"But, see here, fellows," suggested Dave soberly, "we're now right in the enemy's country. That is to say, we're on the same side of the lake with the man of mystery and his companions, if he has any. I don't doubt that resentful eyes have watched the erecting of this camp on its present site."
"Sorry to have hurt anyone's feelings," yawned Tom. "Still, I guess we've as much right here as anyone else."
"But the point is this," Dave went on. "Last night some persons must have crossed the lake in order to annoy us. To-night we're on the same side of the lake with them. We'll be much more accessible to the people who object so strenuously to our presence."
"Where did these unknown people find a boat for crossing the lake?" queried Reade. "We couldn't find one anywhere until the canoe was left at our camp."
"Anyone might have a boat or canoe here, and keep it hidden easily enough when not in use," Dave asserted. "Just as we—-have brought our canoe up here and hidden it in the tent, for instance. Now, we'll all have to admit that we're extremely likely to have unwelcome visitors here to-night? Are we going to keep a guard?"
"It might not be a bad idea to keep someone on watch through the night," Dick suggested.
"I'll stand the first watch trick," proposed Dave. "It need be only an hour long. I'll drink some more coffee, and then walk a while, so as to be sure to keep awake."
"I'll take the second trick," nodded Dick.
The schedule for watch tricks was quickly made up. Then all but Dave hastily sought their cots. Darkness was not an hour old when Dave was the only member of the camp awake. Had the high school boys been less healthy and sturdy their hearty suppers might have summoned the nightmare, but they slept on soundly.
Dick, however, stretched, gaped, then sprang up when Darry called him. Some of the others, when their turns came, did not respond as readily, and had to be dragged from their cots and stood upright before they were thoroughly awake.
It was shortly after one o'clock in the morning when Tom Reade, then on watch, stepped lightly into the tent, passing through the round of the cots, shaking each sleeper in turn.
"Those of you who want to listen to something interesting, get up instantly!" Tom exclaimed in a low voice.
Three boys drowsily rolled over, going immediately back into sound slumber. Dick and Dave, however, got up, pulling on their shoes.
"What's all that racket across the lake?" was Dick's prompt question as he stood in the doorway of the tent.
"That comes from the former camp site," chuckled Tom.
"Guns!" cried Dave Darrin in amazement.
"It sounds like a big fusillade," Dick cried, as he stepped out into the night.
"But surely no one can be trying to attack our camp, thinking we are still there," Tom protested. "We don't know any people who are wicked enough to plan an attack upon our camp."
"No," Dick agreed. "But this much is sure. There are those who dislike us enough to try to spoil our rest night after night."
Dave began to laugh merrily.
"I half believe it's Dodge and Bayliss," he remarked quietly.
"I don't," Reade objected. "Both of them are too lazy to motor up into the wilderness each night, over such rough roads, all the way from Gridley. No, no! It's someone else, though who it is I can't imagine. If it were the man of the lake mystery, or any of his people, they'd be likely to know that we're on this side of the lake."
From the edge of the timber line near by came the sound of a crackling twig, followed by a groan as of a soul in torment.
Wheeling like a flash, Tom Reade produced the pocket flash lamp.
Staring toward the boys, his face outlined between the close-growing trunks of two spruce trees, were the startling features of a man.
"That's he—-the Man of the Haunting Face!" came from Tom Reade in a hoarse whisper.
"Then we'll get him!" cried Dick Prescott, leaping forward. "Hold the light on him!"
Yet even as the three boys dashed toward the two spruce trees the light went out.
Tom pressed frantically on the spring of the lamp as he ran, but the lamp gave forth a flickering gleam that was little better than no light at all.
The long use of the lamp in the cave had weakened the storage battery.
"Give us the light!" called Dave, as they reached the tree.
"Can't! The battery's on a strike," answered Reade grimly.
Dick Prescott, who was ahead of his companions, now halted, whispering to the others to do the same.
The man they sought had vanished. No betraying sounds came to indicate where he had gone.
"Dave and I'll stay here," whispered Dick. "Tom, run back for a lantern. Hustle!"
Fifteen minutes of eager searching, after the lantern was brought, failed to give any clue to the whereabouts of the man whom they sought.
"This is more ghostly than human," laughed young Prescott.
They felt compelled to give up the search. As they returned to the camp the firing on the opposite side of the lake broke out anew. At the distance, however, it was not loud enough to disturb the other three, who still slept in the tent. Dick flashed the lantern inside to make sure that the sleepers were safe.
At intervals the racket across the lake broke out anew.
"It's my turn to go on watch again," said Darry, glancing at his watch by the light of the lantern. "You two might as well turn in."
"We'll dress and bring our cots out into the open," Dick proposed. "You might as well have us, Dave, where you can get us instantly, and ready for action, by just touching us on the shoulder."
But the night passed, without any further disturbances than the occasional distant firing, and the rousing, every hour, of a new watchman for the camp.
It was past seven in the morning when Dick finally turned out, to find Greg and Harry busy preparing breakfast, while Darrin still slumbered.
"Where are Tom and Dan?" Prescott asked.
"Look through the trees, and presently you'll discover them out in the canoe," answered Greg. "Tom simply couldn't wait any longer to go out after bass."
"I'm going trout fishing, if I can do it without shirking," saidDick, as he rose and stretched.
"And if no one kicks I'm going with you," added Darrin, opening his eyes. "How about it, Greg? Are you and Harry willing to do the camp watch this morning?"
Greg had turned around eagerly, seeing which, Hazelton broke in:
"Go right along with 'em, Holmesy, if they'll take you. There won't be much to do in camp after, the dishes are washed."
"But it's rather a shame to leave you alone," hinted Greg wistfully. He wanted, with all his heart, to see some of the rare sport that Dick had described, but he didn't want to be unfair to anyone.
"I won't be lonesome," protested Hazelton. "We have some good books along, and I can read one of them."
"But what if the camp should be molested?" asked Greg. "You know, there is at least the Man with the Haunting Face, and there may be others."
"Whoever tries to molest this camp will be molested in his turn, I promise you," laughed Harry. "I'm no weakling, so run right along, Holmesy. Even if serious trouble should arise, I have this, you know."
He produced a long-barreled fish horn that he had used in celebrating the night before the Fourth of July.
"Two or three loud blasts on this bugle would carry a long way, and you fellows would know what I wanted," finished Hazelton.
"All right, then, I'll go," said Greg, his face beaming.
"We've trout flies in plenty, you know," Dick went on, "but we've only two poles that are suited to trouting, so we'll have to take turns."
"You may keep one pole all the time. Dick," suggested Darry."Greg and I can take turns with the other pole."
"That will hardly be fair to you two," replied Dick, with a shake of his head.
"It wouldn't be fair to the whole crowd to take your pole away from you any part of the time," retorted Greg. "Remember, Dick, you are the expert trout fisherman of the party, and all the fellows want some more trout. We'll never forget those of last night."
Greg and Hazelton now had breakfast ready. It was eaten rather hastily, after which all hands fell to setting things to rights.
"Here, come out of the tent," called Hazelton, as Dick started inside to use a broom there. "You fellows are the providers, and I can do the little housework that's left to do."
So Dick, Dave and Greg brought out their long-legged rubber boots and got into them with little delay. Then there came a sorting of flies, and the rigging of lines and reels. Within a few minutes the three were ready to start out.
As they went up the stream Dick cut and trimmed two crotched sticks on which to string the fish they might catch.
"That looks almost boastful," chuckled Dave. "It looks as though we thought it a cinch that we're going to get a lot of trout."
"It all depends on us," Prescott rejoined. "The brook is simply full of trout, that we can catch if we display the requisite amount of skill. The mystery to me is that this brook has escaped the knowledge of the trout fishermen in Gridley. Not even Mr. Morton ever heard of this stream."
"Well, Mr. Morton can't be expected to know everything," arguedGreg. "He's already the most capable sub-master in Gridley HighSchool and the finest coach the Gridley football squad ever had."
"He's also an A No.1 trout fisherman," Dick went on. "Fellows, we mustn't tell everyone about this trout stream, but Mr. Morton is such an all around fine fellow that I think we owe it to him to tell him, when we see him, just how to reach this brook."
"If the real estate men of Gridley knew of this place," laughed Greg, "they'd buy up the ground around here and then sell bungalows at fancy prices to amateur fishermen of means."
"And then the brook would soon cease to be a trout stream," retorted young Prescott. "A large proportion of the trout would be caught within a few days, and the rest of 'em scared away to safer breeding grounds. The only way to keep a trout stream in working order is not to let many people know about it. It sounds selfish, but it's good sportsmanship."
Dick soon halted, eyeing a pool so deep that its bottom could not be seen.
"This looks like a good place to start in," he announced. "I believe I'll go a little way up stream, and then whip down past this pool and below. Now, talk only in whispers, if you can remember, fellows. Trout are shy creatures. Has either of you ever fished for trout before?"
Both Dave and Greg shook their heads.
"Then I think you had better watch me for a while, and catch some of the knack of it," their leader advised. "Notice particularly how I whip. If I get a nibble, then note, particularly, that I don't make an immediate effort to land the trout. I play the line out a bit and let him play with the fly, and beat about and get himself better imbedded on the hook. When I am sure I have him well hooked, then you'll see the peculiar motion with which I bring him out of the water and throw him on the ground. That landing trick is one that you need to get just so. Study it, and develop it. Don't be disappointed if you lose quite a few trout. You will lose them often until you get the hang of the thing."
Some distance above the pool Dick stepped into the water. He walked along slowly, not stirring up much dirt from the bottom. All the time he kept his line behind him, frequently lifting it and whipping it into the water again. The gayly colored flies and the glistening spoon just above the hook flashed in the sunlight every time he made a whipping cast.
Not twenty feet had Dick gone when he felt a sudden, violent tug. With the true patience of the trout fisherman, Dick didn't become at all excited. His hand on the reel, he let the line fly out as the finny captive darted up stream.
Presently Dick played the fish in gently, then suddenly gave it plenty of slack line. These tactics were repeated, while Dave and Greg almost danced in their eagerness.
Suddenly Dick flipped his pole sharply. There was a swish of line in the air. Something speckled and glistening dropped on the ground at least ten feet from the brook, where it lay floundering and gasping.
"Hoo-ray!" yelled Greg, with all his pent-up enthusiasm.
"Do that again, Holmesy, and I'll chase you back into camp," warned Dick, with his patient smile. Then he stepped ashore, took the trout from the line and impaled it on a stick, which he gave Greg to carry.
Within two minutes there was another strike. The same patient tactics, and Dick had another trout—-this time a two-pounder as against about three quarters of a pound for the weight of the first trout.
The third trout got away, despite the most careful handling, but the fourth and fifth biters were soon landed.
"I can't stand this any longer," quivered Dave. "I've got to start in. Where do you want me to go, Dick?"
"Better go about a quarter of a mile upstream," Prescott suggested, "and then work down this way. Greg can go along with you and carry the stick for your string. I'll look out for my own string."
For nearly half an hour Prescott saw nothing of his friends. Then Dave and Greg came in sight. Dick held up a string now numbering eleven trout, some of them unusually large.
For answer Greg held up a crotched stick with not a single trout dangling therefrom.
"There's more knack to this game than I can catch," muttered Darry disconsolately, "but I'd give a good deal to get the knack of it."
"No man save the first trout fisherman of all ever learned without a teacher," Dick assured his chum. "Greg, you take a place farther down the stream, and I'll stay with Dave and try to show him some of the tricks. You may have my pole and line, Greg, for I shall be busy watching Dave."
Many a pull at his line had Darrin, and many a fish was lost ere, under Prescott's patient instruction, he managed to land a trout weighing about a pound.
"Whew!" muttered Dave, mopping his brow. "At this moment I believeI feel prouder than any general who ever captured a city."
"You'll soon have the hang of it, now, Dave," was his chum's encouraging assurance. "Now, I'm going to hunt up Holmesy, and see if I can show him some of the knack."
Greg proved a grateful though not very clever pupil. He was all enthusiasm, but the art of landing a trout appeared to him to be one of the most difficult feats in the world.
"I don't believe I'll ever land enough to fill a frying pan," he said dejectedly. "Dick, the fellows are depending upon you. Take this pole and use it for the next hour."
Later in the forenoon Greg had one small trout on a stick he had cut and trimmed for himself. Dave Darrin looked almost triumphant as he displayed three of the speckled ones. Both stared in envy at Dick's string of thirty-four trout.
"Of course it'll take a few days of patient study of the game to enable you to make big catches," was Dick's consoling assurance.
"I'd put in all summer, if I were sure I could master the trick in the end," said Dave.
Greg said nothing, but felt less resolute about it than Darrin did.
"Why, it's only fifteen minutes before noon," cried Dave, glancing at his watch.
"Then it's high time to be going back," nodded Dick, "in case the fellows are depending upon us for their meal. If Tom has a lot of bass, though, we can store these trout in our new ice box—-the cave."
"And let the Man with the Haunting Face slip in there, after dark, and help himself!" grumbled Darry. "Somehow that idea doesn't make any hit with me."
"Then we'll have to put in the afternoon," proposed Prescott, "in building a log-lined pit in the ground and moving ice from the cave to fill it. Then we can keep our fish supplies right up under our noses in front of the tent."
"That's a little more satisfactory in the way of an idea," noddedDarry.
For the purpose of taking a short cut they soon left the brook, going through a stretch of woods on their way to camp.
Hardly had these high school boys entered the woods when they halted, for an instant, in intense consternation.
On the air there came to them a sudden scream.
"That was a girl's voice!" gasped Greg.
"Or a woman's," nodded Dick. "We've got to——-"
Again a piercing scream, then more screams in two voices.
"Hustle!" finished Dick, as the three boys broke into a run in the direction whence the sound of the voices came to them.
Clad in their long fishing boots, none of the boys made anything like his usual speed in running.
Grumbling inwardly at their clumsy gait, all three hurried as fast as they could into the near-by stretch of forest.
There, in a path, they came upon a middle-aged woman accompanied by four girls, all of whom showed signs of unusual alarm.
"Oh, Dave," called Belle Meade, "I'm so glad to see you!"
"You usually are," laughed Darrin, "but I never knew you to make so much noise about it before."
"What's the trouble?" Dick inquired, after a hasty greeting toMrs. Bentley, Laura Bentley, Belle Meade, Fannie Upham and MargeryWhite, the latter four all Gridley High School girls.
"A man—-he must have been crazy!" replied Laura. Her voice shook slightly, and she was still trembling, though the color was beginning to return to her face.
"Did he offer to molest you?" flared Dick.
"No, indeed!" replied Mrs. Bentley promptly and laughing nervously. "In fact, I think we must have frightened the man, for his desire seemed to be to get away from us as fast as he could."
"But that face!" cried Miss Fanny. "I never want to see it again."
"It must have been our Man of the Haunting Face," murmured Dick, turning to his chums.
"That was he—-just who it was!" declared Belle, with emphasis. "I don't know whom you're talking about, but 'haunting face' just describes the man who frightened us."
"It was so silly of us!" murmured Laura Bentley. "It was clear nonsense for us to be so frightened, but when, we saw that face peering at us from behind a tree we simply couldn't help screaming."
"Are you alone?" demanded Prescott in some astonishment, for these were carefully brought-up girls, and it was not like their parents to let them go into the woods without other guard than that of a chaperon.
At that instant Dick's question was answered by the appearance of Dr. Bentley, who, on account of his weight, panted somewhat as he ran.
"Did—-these—-young men frighten—-you so badly—-that you—-made such a commotion—-and caused me nearly to breathe—-my last in running to—-your aid?" demanded the good doctor gaspingly, his eyes twinkling.
"No, sir; we came, like yourself, when we heard the girls scream,"Dick Prescott explained.
Then, amid much talking, and with as many as three people speaking at once, the story was quickly recounted for Dr. Bentley.
"We've seen the fellow before," Dick explained, "but he always fakes alarm and vanishes. We call him our man of mystery—-the Man with the Haunting Face."
"Some poor, simple-minded fellow," suggested Dr. Bentley. "Probably one whose mild mania leads him to prefer to live in the woods, a regular hermit. My dears, I'm surprised that any of you should be so easily startled and make such noisy testimony to your alarm."
"I'm indignant with myself now—-when there are men standing by," laughed Belle. "But I wish you had seen that man's strange face, Doctor."
"I would like to see it, and punch it, too!" muttered Dave.
"Not a bit of it!" objected Dr. Bentley heartily. "No doubt the poor fellow is sadly afflicted mentally. He's what the Arabs call a 'simple,' and the Arabs have a beautiful faith that all 'simples' are under the direct protection of Allah. So, woe to him who offends one of Allah's 'simples.'"
"How do you boys come to be here?" asked Laura.
"I might ask the same question of your party," smiled Dick. "As for us, we are away on a vacation fishing and camping trip."
"I knew you were going away," said Dr. Bentley, "but I didn't know just where. We are touring again, in my seven-passenger car. We are headed for the St. Clair Lake House, eight miles below here. But the roads are so bad that the chauffeur said it would take us more than an hour to get through. So I proposed to Mrs. Bentley and the girls that we leave the car at the road and cross over here to have our luncheon on the shore of this second lake. I have been here before, and remember it as a beautiful spot. Mrs. Bentley and the girls started on ahead, and I brought up the rear with the baskets of food. But they got further ahead of me than I thought. Now I must go back after the baskets, which I set down before I started to run here. Greg, will you go back with me and help me bring the baskets?"
Greg at once accompanied the physician. When they came to the spot, however, they found but one basket, and that nearly empty. The second basket had disappeared altogether.
"Fine!" grunted Dr. Bentley. "Greg, our committee of two must go back and report the disquieting news."
"Not so very disquieting, sir," smiled young Holmes. "We have a camp full of food to offer you."
That invitation Dick and Dave very quickly seconded when the doctor rejoined the party.
"Especially if you can eat trout, sir," Dick went on.
"Don't! Don't be cruel!" remonstrated Dr. Bentley. "I used to eat trout when I was a boy, but they are now an extinct fish."
"Are they, sir?" inquired Dick, unwrapping a paper from around part of the morning's heavy catch, while Dave exhibited the contents of a similar bundle.
Dr. Bentley rubbed his eyes.
"Bless me, these are a fine imitation of brook trout as I recall them," he murmured.
"What did you mean by saying that trout were an extinct fish?" asked Laura.
"They're extinct for all but the wealthy," replied the physician. "Brook trout, in these days, generally cost all of a dollar and a half a pound, and I've heard of as high as two dollars a pound being paid for them."
"There are plenty hereabouts, just now," Dick replied. "But we may take them all out of the water before we move from here."
"Of course," nodded Laura's father. "That's what trout are for.They won't do anyone any good as long as they remain in the water."
"Let's hurry back, please," urged Dick. "I am anxious to see your luncheon under way."
"Yes," teased Belle, "the sooner you have satisfied our appetites the sooner you may expect to see us gone and be able to enjoy yourselves and your comfortable solitude once more."
"Now, just for saying that, Belle," uttered Dick reproachfully, "I'm going to consider the revenge of burning two of your trout in the pan."
"Mercy!" cried Belle Meade. "Are you going to cook the trout?"
"After you've eaten a trout cooked and served up by Dick Prescott," Dave declared, "you won't want them cooked by anyone else. Dick is the one trout chef in this part of the country."
"Where did he learn?" teased Belle with a pretense of suspicion.
"Mr. Morton—-Coach Morton, of our high school eleven—-taughtDick how to do it," Dave explained.
"Right here, young ladies—-attention!" called Dr. Bentley, holding up a warning finger. "If brook trout are as fine eating as they used to be when I was a boy, then you simply won't be able to keep it a secret that you've eaten some recently. Yet on one point I must insist. None of you must be dishonorable enough to name any spot within fifty miles of here as the scene of your trout luncheon. If you let the secret out all the trout fishermen in four counties will be swarming here to destroy all the fun your young men friends are having. So, please remember! Utter, dark, uncompromising secrecy!"
"Is it as bad as that?" asked Belle.
"Every real trout fisherman knows enough to keep his own secrets as to the streams that contain trout," Dave nodded.
By this time they came within sight of the camp. Nor was it long before Tom, Dan and Harry caught sight of the visitors and ran forward to meet them.
"Our friends have come just in time to have a trout feast," Dick announced.
"I shall be jealous if they eat the trout," Tom retorted.
"Or envious?" laughed Belle.
"No; jealous," Tom assured her. "Dan and I have been fishing, too. Come and see what we caught."
Tom led the way to where he had cleaned more than a dozen black bass, while in buckets of water lay nearly thirty more fine, sleek-looking fish.
"Didn't you catch anything but bass?" Dave asked.
"A few other fish," Tom admitted, "but we threw the inferior fish back into the water. Now, girls, which are you going to have—-trout or bass?"
"Both—-if we may," ventured Laura, with a smile.
And both were served at the meal. Motherly Mrs. Bentley laid aside her motoring dust coat and marshaled the girls for the various tasks to which she assigned them.
What a hubbub there was in preparing the feast!
Dick built two small fires for his own exclusive use. Tom built two more, while Dan and Greg skirmished for more wood. Dr. Bentley, his coat off and shirt sleeves rolled up, constructed a "warm oven" with stones topped by a large baking tin. Then he built another.
Dick fried the trout, while Dr. Bentley started low fires under the two crude warming ovens. As fast as trout were fried they were dropped into one oven, Tom's bass being dropped into the other. Potatoes were boiling in one pot, tinned peas in another, and tinned string beans in still another. Tinned pudding was set in another pot of water to heat, while Mrs. Bentley made a sauce, and the girls set the table and made the other necessary preparations for the luncheon.
Presently the meal was ready, though the boys did not seat themselves until they had seen their welcome guests served.
"Daddy," murmured Laura, "I don't blame you for regretting your boyhood, if you had many trout feasts."
"How's the bass?" asked Tom, almost jealously.
"Just splendid," replied Laura, sampling her first fork full.
"You boys are camping in a fisherman's paradise," declared Dr. Bentley. "I don't blame you for liking this life. When I was a boy fresh water fish were almost as plentiful as salt water fish. Now, we rarely find any fresh water fish in the markets. I can't understand how this choice retreat for fishermen has escaped notice, unless it is because of the almost total lack of inhabitants in this section, and the miserable apologies for roads. Once again I must caution all of you young women not to be indiscreet and spoil this fisherman's paradise for your young friends by talking about it to anyone."
All four of the girls promised absolute secrecy.
After they had all satisfied their hunger, Dick asked Dr. Bentley all about the St. Clair Lake House. He learned that it was a fine, modern hotel, accommodating about one hundred and fifty guests. It was just on the edge of the good roads, Dr. Bentley explained; this side of the hotel no roads worthy of the name existed. Dick was very thoughtful after receiving the information, for he had something on his mind.
"How about that chauffeur of yours, doctor?" asked Dave suddenly.
"Oh, we left him with a comfortable luncheon," replied Dr. Bentley."He can't leave the car, you know."
"Will you take him two or three trout, sir?" urged Dick.
"And a bass, sir?" added Reade.
"We'll wait for him to eat them in the car," replied the physician, "provided the poor fellow hasn't gorged himself on plainer food and has no room left for real fare like this."
When the time came that the guests must really leave, five of the boys accompanied the party to the road. Hazelton remained to watch the camp.
"Now, let's hustle!" urged Dick, as the car rolled out of sight."When we get back to camp we have many long hours of work to do."
"Work of what kind?" inquired Tom.
"First of all," replied Prescott, with his most mysterious air, "we are going to build, close to camp, a make-believe ice-box. Then we're going to fill the box with ice."
"And what will all that be for?" Dave wanted to know.
"If you can't guess now," smiled young Prescott, his eyes gleaming, "you'll soon begin to see daylight through my plan! I don't know—-but I believe that the plan I have in mind is going to work out in great shape!"
"That's the longest eight miles I've ever done," muttered Hazelton.
"The map is wrong. It's a hundred and eight," affirmed Dave.
"No matter, if the trip turns out to have been wisely planned," remarked Dick, a wistful look coming into his eyes. "Of course, I may have overshot the mark."
"That's a chance we had to take," declared Dave promptly. "We won't be disappointed if we find that we haven't made such a big move, after all."
The three high school boys had halted in the shade of some trees by the highway. A quarter of a mile away, around the head of the body of water known as the third lake, stood a handsome hotel, the St. Clair Lake House.
It was now nearly nine o'clock in the morning. Dick and his two comrades had been on the way, over the rough road, propelling the heavily laden push cart, from which water now dripped from melting ice. The boys had built their ice-house, or ice-box, whichever one preferred to call it, and they had stocked it with ice from the cave. Dick, Dave and Greg had whipped up and down the stream in turn; Tom and Dan had trolled the lake for bass. As fast as the fish were brought in they were stored on the ice. After two days of hard fishing the boys arose before four o'clock in the morning, for Dick was now ready to test his venture.
"Stay close by that box, Harry," warned Dick, as he took hold of the handles of the push cart.
"Won't I, though?" Hazelton demanded.
Dick and Dave trudged onward, taking brief turns at the cart. Thus they entered the hotel grounds at the rear, continuing until they were close up to the rear porch. Then Dick ascended the steps and knocked at the door. As no one answered, he stepped into the corridor.
"What do you want here?" asked a well-dressed, portly man of fifty, who stepped out of a nearby room.
"I would like to see the manager, or steward, sir," Prescott replied.
"We don't want any help," replied the man.
"I haven't any help to offer, sir," Dick smiled. "Can I see the steward, or the manager?"
"I'm the proprietor, if that will do," answered the man, giving Dick a sharp look. He saw that his youthful visitor was evidently a well-bred boy, but that did not prove that Dick was not looking for work. College boys often serve as bell-boys or waiters at summer hotels.
"If you will step outside then, a moment, sir," Prescott continued,"I think I can show you the nicest lot of black bass you ever saw."
"A string of bass, eh?"
"No, sir; quite a load."
"I'll look at them," said the proprietor briefly.
When he saw the quantity of bass, and noted the plumpness of the fish, the proprietor was more interested. It is always a problem, with a summer hotel, to serve enough novel food. But the proprietor offered less than half the price Dick named. The high school boy, however, stuck to his price.
"I can't deal with you, then," said the owner, with a shake of the head, starting to reenter the hotel.
"The Kelway House is about a mile and a half below here, isn't it, sir?" asked Prescott, preparing to push the cart along.
"Yes; but they won't buy fish at that price."
"I'll try them, anyway, sir. Thank you for the trouble you've taken for me. Good morning, sir."
"Hold on, there," interrupted the hotel proprietor. "PerhapsI can offer you a little more."
In his own mind the hotel man was determined that the rival KelwayHouse should not have the chance to serve these bass.
More haggling followed, but Dick stuck to his price. In the end he got it. Scales were brought and the fish weighed. The total came to eighteen dollars and thirty-three cents.
"I suppose an even eighteen dollars will satisfy you?" asked the hotel man.
"Yes, sir," admitted the greatly delighted Prescott.
While the money was being counted over, Dave slipped away with the push cart.
"In about ten minutes, sir," said Dick, after he had pocketed the money and had thanked the hotel man, "I'll have something else to show you."
"What?" asked the man, eyeing Dick keenly.
"Now, if you don't mind, sir," coaxed Dick, with a smile, "I'd rather not destroy, in advance, the keen delight you're going to feel when you see the next cartload."
"How many of these cartloads have you lying around?" asked the proprietor quickly.
"The next one will be also the last, sir. May I call you out when my friends get here with it?"
"I—-I guess so," assented the hotel man, and then went inside.Dick found a seat on a nearby bench and waited.
Dave and Harry presently came along with the cart. Dick once more went after his prospective purchaser.
"What have you now—-more bass?" asked the hotel man, eyeing the heavy box on the cart. Water was dripping from the ice and running to the ground.
"No, sir; just look!" begged Prescott, lifting some jute bagging from the top of the box, then digging down through the top layer of cracked ice.
"Brook trout?" cried the hotel man. "Where on earth did you get them?"
"We have a factory where we turn 'em out nights, sir," volunteeredDave, with a grin.
"What do you want for them—-same price as for the bass?" demanded the proprietor.
"We could hardly afford to do that, you know," Prescott replied. "Down in a town like Gridley these brook trout ought to retail for a dollar and a half a pound. We'll offer them to you, sir, at sixty cents a pound—-flat."
"Take 'em away!" ordered the hotel man, with an air of finality.This time it was plain that he did not propose to purchase.
"You won't be sorry after we're gone, will you?" asked Dick politely.
"I can't afford to put sixty-cents-a-pound fish on my bill of fare," said the hotel man.
At this moment two well-dressed, prosperous-looking, middle-aged men came strolling around the corner of the building. As Dick was about to cover his fish one of them caught sight of the speckled beauties, and stopped short.
"Hello! Aren't these fine, Johnson?" the man demanded of the proprietor. "Going to buy these trout for the hotel?"
"I can't afford to put such costly fish on the bill of fare," replied Johnson candidly.
"Man, you don't have to," replied the other. "Send these trout to the grill-room ice-box. Let guests who want brook trout order them as extras. Why, I'll eat a few of these myself, if you serve 'em."
"Certainly," nodded the other man.
Proprietor Johnson had caught a new idea from the suggestion of serving the trout as an "extra" in the grill-room of the hotel. All of a sudden he began to scent a profit.
"All right, young man," smiled Mr. Johnson. "Begin to unload.I'll have the scales brought out again."
The weight proved to be a little over one hundred pounds. Dick accepted an even sixty dollars, while Harry Hazelton nearly strangled himself in his efforts to keep from cheering lustily.
This money, too, was counted out.
"Are you going to bring any more fish this way?" asked Mr. Johnson.
"I can hardly say as to that, sir," Dick hesitated.
"If you do, I can't agree positively to buy, but I'll be glad, anyway, if you'll give me the first chance. I will see how these trout 'go' in the grill-room in the meantime."
"We'll give you the first call, sir," Dick nodded. "Thank you very much for this morning's business."
"That boy is a budding merchant," thought Johnson, staring afterDick as the three high school boys trundled their cart away.But in this estimate the hotel man chanced to be wrong.
"Let's hurry up and get away from the hotel—-a long way off," urged Hazelton.
"Why?" asked Dave. "It was a fine place—-for us."
"Yes; but I want to yell, with all my might," Darry declared."Seventy-eight dollars—-think of it!"
"Nothing to get excited about," Dick declared calmly.
"When did we ever make so much money in life same time before?" blurted Hazelton.
"Never, perhaps," Prescott admitted. "We made money, this time, because we had something that everyone wants, and the supply of which isn't large. We would have made far more money if we had had a cart full of diamonds in the rough."
"What are you talking about?" demanded Hazelton. "We don't know where to find diamonds."
"I didn't say that we did," Dick rejoined. "But we had something that is rare, and in demand. The rarer a thing is that everyone wants the better price can be had for it. The bass didn't bring anywhere near as much money as the trout, just because people don't call for black bass as much as they will for brook trout."
They were entering the little village beyond the hotel. They had to go there in order to mail their letters, for all the boys had taken advantage of this opportunity to write home.
"We'll be nervous with this seventy-eight dollars in camp, in addition to the few other dollars we have," Dave suggested.
"We won't keep a lot of money in camp," Dick replied. "I'm going to buy a money order for seventy-five dollars, payable to myself, and send it to my father to hold for me until we get back. Then I'll cash the order in Gridley and turn the money into our common fund."
"And we'll add to that fund," proposed Hazelton eagerly.
"If the bass and the trout hold out," supplemented Dick.
"Say, wouldn't it be mighty nice if only we could get some home letters here?" asked Hazelton, as the three left the cart at the curb and turned to enter the post-office.
"We can look for home letters on our next trip here," Dick suggested. "On Tom's, Greg's and Dan's letters I'm going to add a note on the outside of the envelope to the effect that letters may be sent to this office for us. And I'm going to add a postscript to my letter to my father and mother. You fellows had better do the same thing."
Dick's first move was to get a money order blank and fill out his application. Then all hands attended to their postscripts.
This done they went outside.
"There's a little grove down that street," said Dave, pointing."Why not go down there and take a brief nap?"
"I want a long one," Dick laughed. "Traveling over that road was harder work than I've ever done on the football field."
Their nap lasted until a little after noon.
"Whee! But I'm hungry," grumbled Hazelton.
"I think we may feel justified in finding a restaurant, and getting a good meal," assented Dick.
"I want a steak for mine," proposed Darry. "It seems a year since we've had one."
"Great idea!" nodded Dick. "And, while we're about it, we'll get steaks and some stewing meat the last thing before we leave town and take it back to the fellows. We've had so much fish that red meat will hit a tender spot with all the fellows."
"It will make a big hit with Tom Reade, I know," laughed Hazelton.
Pushing the cart through the street, the high school boys found a restaurant that looked as though it would be within reach of their purses. The boys put their cart in a back yard, then went in and asked permission to wash up. This being granted, they soon after took seats at a table in the restaurant.
It was an odd little place, equipped with several booths, each containing a table and seats for four persons.
"We'll take the booth away down at the end of the room, where we won't be seen by better-dressed people," proposed Dave.
Accordingly they occupied the last booth in the row. There they ordered a meal that made their mouths water in advance.
Hazelton, poking his head out of the booth as he heard some one enter, hastily drew it in again.
"Guess who's coming!" he whispered.
"Can't," replied Dick.
"Dodge and Bayliss," replied Harry.
"Keep out of sight, and don't talk," ordered Prescott.
Bert Dodge and his chum came down the room, taking the booth next to that of the high school boys, yet without seeing Dick and his chums.
When the waiter appeared Dodge ordered two ice creams.
"Queer what became of the mucker gang," observed Bayliss, after the waiter had departed.
"Not a bit queer," retorted Bert. "That was why I wanted to meet you here this morning. I've found out where they are."
"How did you find out?" demanded Bayliss.
"Do you see this post card?" demanded Bert, laying a card on the table. "It was written by Laura Bentley to Susie Sharp, and mentions their having had lunch at the camp of the high school muckers. And this message gives a clear enough idea of where their camp is, too. Laura must have dropped the card in the street, for that's where I found it."
"Say, that's a great find!" chuckled Bayliss.
"You may wager that it is," grinned Dodge. "We broke up one night of sleep for the muckers with those bombs, but I've an idea that the night we shot off sixty rounds of blank shotgun shells that they had already moved. But now I have a brand-new one that we can use and make them break camp and run for home as fast as they can go. Then we'll pass the story of their scare all around Gridley, and they'll never hear the last of the laugh against them."
"I'm all attention, old fellow!" Bayliss protested eagerly.
"So are we!" thought Dick grimly, as he glanced at Dave and Harry.
It was a wonderfully elaborate scheme to which the high schoolboys were privileged to listen. Such a scheme, really showedDodge, in a way, to be possessed of more brains than people inGridley commonly credited him with possessing.
But Dick smiled at Dave Darrin's scowl as the plot was unfolded in the next booth.
Fortunately for Dick and his chums the steak order was delayed in the serving. Thus Dodge and Bayliss finished their ice cream and left the place without discovering the presence of their intended victims.
"Say, aren't that pair just going to enjoy themselves at our expense?" chuckled Hazelton, after the plotters had left.
"Unless I miss my guess, they're going to dance to our music to-night," laughed Dick gleefully.
Their meal was served soon after, and eaten with relish. As soon as it had been finished Dick asked the waiter for a sheet of paper and envelope.
"Don't worry about any weird doings you may hear of from our camp,"Prescott wrote his mother. "We've just learned of a big scareDodge and Bayliss are planning to spring on us up at our camp.We're going to turn the tables on them—-that's all. But I writethis for fear you may hear some awful tales when that pair reachGridley."
As they left the restaurant, Dick returned to the post-office, mailing this second letter to his mother.
"Now, we must buy a few things here," Dick explained to his friends. "Then we must get out of this village by a back road, and we must make sure that we don't run into that pair of ex-soreheads."
The "sorehead" reference, as readers of our "High School Boys Series" will recall, had to do with Dodge and Bayliss, ere they had been chased out of Gridley High School. These boys had belonged to the notorious "sorehead faction" in the high school football squad.
Going in different directions, Dick, Dave and Harry were able to make all their needed purchases in a short time. Right after that, they got out of the village, and back upon the rough trail for camp without having met their enemies.
It was nearly seven o'clock when the three travelers, all but fagged out, pushed their cart in sight of camp and gave a hail that brought the other chums running to meet them.
First of all, word was passed as to the successful outcome of the fish-selling expedition.
"I thought you fellows would bring us some fresh meat," Tom cried, when Dave unloaded the cart. "Fresh vegetables, too? Wow! Won't we live? I told the fellows not to try to get supper until you got back, as you'd be sure to bring something that would make us sorry we had eaten. We've the fires all ready."
"And now, listen!" commanded Dick Prescott, after the first preparations had been made for supper.
Thereupon the young leader of Dick & Co. repeated the plot they had heard Dodge and Bayliss unfold that noon.
"Hang those two heathens!" sputtered Tom Reade indignantly.
"Oh, I'm glad they're coming," laughed Dick. "All I hope is that nothing will happen to keep them from coming to-night."
Then Dick outlined his plan. Tom Read, after listening for a few moments, lay on the ground, rolling over and over in his glee.
"Wow! But won't that be great?" demanded Greg, laughing until the tears ran from his eyes.
"Say, we mustn't talk any more now. We must eat supper, and then get ready if we're to play the reception committee successfully tonight."
At a very early hour, considering the lateness of the evening meal, Reade, with his knack in woodwork, and with no other tool than his jackknife, had fashioned the stocks for two "rifles." These Hazelton carefully treated with mud from the lake so as to give them a dark color.
"If the guns are seen by the light of the campfire, the stocks and barrels ought to be of different colors," Dick explained.
Dave was now fashioning two straight sticks into semblance of rifle barrels. These were lightly treated with mud and fastened to the two stocks. Then two additional "rifles" were to be manufactured.
Other work was performed, and all was gotten in readiness. Prescott had a number of mysterious-looking little packages that he had bought in the village.
"Oh, dear, but I hope nothing happens to keep Dodge and Bayliss from coming to-night," breathed Tom, as he labored fast. "David, little giant, hurry up with those barrels. There can be no telling how soon we shall have to defend ourselves with these 'Quaker' guns!"
As they worked, the high school boys indulged in many a chuckle.
"It takes something like this to keep me awake to-night," Dick yawned. "If there were no excitement coming, I'm so dead sleepy that I could go right into dreamland standing up."
"So could I," chirped Dave. "But I manage to keep awake by enjoying the thought of how thoroughly we'll wake up someone else tonight!"
"If our plans don't miscarry," warned Dick.
"Please don't croak about failure or disappointment," begged Tom tragically. "My warm, impulsive young heart won't stand any disappointment to-night."
So they toiled on, their preparations all along the line taking shape rapidly.
By ten o'clock they had everything completed, including the manufacture of the "Quaker" rifles.
"Now, to our posts," chuckled Dick, after a rapid distribution of things from the packages brought up from the village.
The campfire was allowed to burn low. Some light was still needed for the full success of their plans.
Tom and Dan took up their stand in front of the tent, each armed with a "Quaker" gun.