always interested in all
that pertained to the cooking parts of an expedition.

"Everything is ready now," remarked Frank. "We'll go back to the inn, all
but Will, settle our score, and fetch what few things are left. I've got
a rough chart of the river, you know, boys, on which we'll have to depend
until we get to the gulf."

"And then?" asked Will.

"Oh, the Government charts will carry us, then, the rest of the way. They
have everything down, up to several miles off shore, and all the bayous
and cuts besides. Come on, Jerry and Bluff; get busy."

Left in charge of the boat for half an hour, Will sat there in the warm
sunshine, trying to picture what it looked like up around cold, bleak
Centerville just then. As he fondled his camera other memories were
called up, in which it had done its share in the way of perpetuating the
exciting events connected with the various outings enjoyed by the four
chums.

While Will sits thus and lets his mind wander back to other scenes it may
be just as well for us to take a quick survey of these same events, so as
to understand something of the ties that held these four boys together.

They formed the Rod, Gun and Camera Club, and their first outing had been
at the time a storm took part of the Academy roof off, allowing a short
Fall vacation on the part of the scholars. At that time they had gone
into the woods, and there encountered a variety of stirring adventures,
as set forth in the initial volume of this series called: "The Outdoor
Chums; or, The First Tour of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club."

At Thanksgiving time they planned for another little camping trip, over
on Wildcat Island, which had quite a bad name on account of the ferocious
animals known to exist in its dense thickets, and also because a wild man
was said to have been seen there many times. What the four chums saw and
did there, and the multitude of remarkable things that came to pass
while they were off on this trip, from the robbery on the steamboat to
the discovery about the wild man, are told in the second book of the
series, entitled: "The Outdoor Chums on the Lake; or, Lively Adventures
on Wildcat Island,"

In due time came the summer vacation, and as they had a couple of weeks
to be together before going away to seashore or mountains with their
parents, the boys arranged to spend this time in the Sunset Mountains,
that lay ten miles back of Newtonport, which place was on the west shore
of the lake, opp