the fellow he
admired and liked in spite of himself hadn't been quite so distant
lately. Besides, offish or not, just having Ranny in the same tent
seemed, curiously, to bring him nearer, and Dale settled himself in
the opposite bunk with an odd thrill of satisfaction.

Long before the hour for the afternoon swim the fellows were in their
bathing togs, impatiently awaiting the signal. When it came, there
was a regular stampede down to the beach, and in the space of thirty
seconds every scout, save only three of the advance-party, who had
been appointed life-savers, was splashing joyously in the water. They
enjoyed every minute of that half-hour, and responded to the dressing
signal with a reluctance that was considerably tempered by Mr. Reed's
announcement of an early supper.

There was no council-fire that night. The crowd that had come down was
too sleepy to do more than listen to a brief talk by Captain Chalmers
in front of headquarters tent, in which he repeated what Mr. Curtis
had told them of the need of refuting Mr. Thornton's peculiar ideas on
scouting and briefly explained the camp rules and routine.

Each of the six tents, which were numbered, was to be daily assigned to
special duty such as sanitary squad, cook's helpers, commissary, and the
like. In addition there would be a daily tent-inspection, and before
each meal an inspection of the tables, which corresponded to the tents
in number and for which the boys occupying those tents were responsible.
All of these marks would be carefully kept, and the tent having the
highest at the end of each week would be the honor tent, to be accorded
special privileges besides having its individual marks go toward the
winning of a camp emblem. This emblem, the captain explained, would
be the highest honor a scout could obtain in camp, and when he had
finished, almost every one of his hearers was keenly determined to
carry the coveted trophy back to Hillsgrove on the front of his jersey.

It was barely dark when the talk was over, but already more than one
tired scout was nodding and the clear notes of taps sent them stumbling
tentward. Dale Tompkins lost not a moment in shedding his clothes and
crawling in between the blankets. He heard vaguely the complaining
tones of Harry Vedder as he climbed into an upper bunk, and the joshing
comment of those who watched the diverting process. But even these
sounds barely penetrated to his brain. In a moment more he was lost
to t