r again, so that he could copy the names in his
note-book. He'll learn them by heart, and use them some time in
conversation and so get the reputation of being a very smart and a
very learned boy. If he does it in your presence, I want you to let
folks know that he is showing off on the strength of _my_ brains. I
don't suppose the ignoramus ever knew before----"

"Well, who cares whether he did or not?" exclaimed Bob, impatiently.
"That's a matter that doesn't interest me. Is Dave Evans going to
make that hundred and fifty dollars and cheat me out of a new
shot-gun? That's what I want to know!"

"Of course he isn't," replied Lester. "We can't stop him by the aid
of the Sportsman's Club, and so we will stop him ourselves without
the aid of anybody. Let him go to work and set his traps, and we'll
see how many birds he will take out of them. We'll rob every one we
can find and keep the quail ourselves. In that way we may be able to
make up the fifty dozen without setting any of our own traps. We'll
write to that man, as you suggested, and when Dave finds he can't
catch any birds, he'll get discouraged and leave us a clear field.
But first I want to touch up Don and Bert Gordon a little to pay them
for the way they treated me this evening. That shooting-box shall be
laid in ashes this very night. I expected an invitation to shoot
there last spring, but I didn't get it, and now I am determined that
they shall never ask anybody there. What do you say?"

"I say, I'm your man," replied Bob.

And so the thing was settled. Lester put his horse in the barn, went
in to supper, which was announced in a few minutes (Bob found
opportunity before he sat down to the table to purloin a box of
matches, which he put carefully away in his pocket), and when the
meal was over, the two boys went back to the wagon-shed, where they
sat and talked until it began to grow dark. Then Bob brought a couple
of paddles out of the corner of the wagon-shed, handed one to his
companion, and the two walked slowly down the road. When they were
out of sight of the house they climbed the fence, and directed their
course across the fields toward the head of the lake. Then they
quickened their pace. They had much to do, and they wanted to finish
their work and return to the house before their absence was
discovered.

Half an hour's rapid walking brought them to the road just below
General Gordon's barn. The next thing was to make their way along the
foot