ld of the "rescue" off Red Key Life Saving
Station, he exclaimed impatiently, "Why in the name of sense, didn't
you telephone me from Red Key? Here I have spent many hours in
needless anxiety."

The boys looked at one another in silence.

"It simply never occurred to us that we were back within communicating
distance," replied Alec at last. "We haven't seen or heard a
telephone since we left home."

"And really, Mr. Sands," said Roy Norton quickly, "when you hear
what strange, unusual experiences the boys have had, you will not
wonder at their forgetting the convenience of a little, every-day
matter like the telephone. For myself, I offer no excuse. I
should have been more thoughtful. But I, too, have dropped the
customs and responsibilities of home life about as thoroughly as
have the boys, I am afraid."

"That is all right, Norton," said Mr. Sands. "I spoke hastily,
for my nerves were a little frazzled.

"Now, boys, make yourselves comfortable and clean, and then come out
on the veranda and tell me the tale of the exciting trip."

It was an eager quartette of boys who responded to this invitation;
and when they finally started to relate their experiences, Mr. Sands
found it necessary to hear them in turn in order to get any clear
idea of connecting events.

At length, however, he had followed them on their trip south, in
imagination; had seen the panting tarpon on the deck of the _Arrow_;
had taken the winding waterways into the Everglades; had encountered
the revenue cutter and the filibuster; had watched through a night
of adventure with the scouts on picket duty; and had finally swung
safely through the dashing waves to the Life Saving Station.

"Well, boys, I little thought when I put you aboard Captain Lem's
sloop for a little cruise south that you would see so much variety
and excitement. But if you are not sorry, I am not. You are all
home again, safe and sound, and none the worse for your experiences.
Take it easy, now, for the rest of your stay here and have the best
time you can."

This advice the boys were not at all reluctant to follow. For a day
or two they lounged about the broad piazzas in hammocks and easy
chairs, reading books from Mr. Sands' well stocked library or from
Alec's own bookshelf.

On the second evening of this quiet home life, however, Billy's
uneasy spirit led him to say:

"Fellow scouts, I move you, sirs, that we take to the road. My hiking
muscles are aching f