! Glen was glad to shake hands with Mr. Newton for
a good long minute so that he might wink back the suspicious moisture
that threatened to rush past the guardian eyelashes.
"Brick rides on my old motor-bike," exclaimed Chick-chick. "Same old
bike--it is."
"Brick walks with the troop," Glen decided. "Where did we get this dandy
road?"
"Built by the Buffalo Lake Summer Colony," explained Apple. "Do you
notice all the new stores in town--all because of the Colony? Wait until
you get to the Lake and you'll see something worth while."
A few minutes later Glen stood before Troop Three's splendid new
club-house in appreciative silence.
"Do you see what we've named it?" said Matt, patting him on the
shoulder. "Look up over the porch."
Carved in ancient script were the words:
YE BREAD BOX
"And you don't object to that?" asked Glen, looking into Matt's face.
"I object?" exclaimed Matt. "It's a compliment. I've learned to take a
joke as well as give one. We named it because the money that built it
was our share of the reward for the box in the cave, and the second box
was a lot like the first box only different."
"Different inside an' out," put in Chick-chick. "Jus' like old Matty is,
it was. Good old Bread Box. Go on in an' see what's inside, Brick."
"All right," Glen agreed. "Lead the way."
"Don't be 'fraid, Brick. Go in all your own self. It's a surprise."
Cautiously Glen pushed open the handsome door and stepped inside.
Nothing happened. He looked around the spacious room with its home-like
accommodations and its air of easy comfort. From a chair by the window a
gentleman arose and started leisurely toward him. Glen covered the
intervening space in two jumps.
"Will!" he shouted. "Will Spencer! Look out--you'll fall!"
"Never more, you good old scout," said Jolly Bill, as he flung a strong
arm around Glen's broad shoulders. "I can walk as gracefully as you if
not as powerfully. I'm all O. K., warranted not to slip or stumble,
ready to give a Castle Cakewalk or an imitation of a Highland fling at a
moment's notice. What do you think of your new home?"
"Splendid!" replied Glen. "Too fine for a scout camp, though. It makes
it too easy."
"And the easy life isn't the best life is it, you hard old Brick? But
Mr. Newton understands that. This isn't the camp--just the club-house.
You'll find the camp a half mile up Buffalo Creek as wild as ever, and
do you know what the
|