ner.

"Oh, oh! let me get out of the way!" shrieked Codfish.

All three attempted to spring to their feet, Glutts knocking over a pot
of hot coffee as he did so. But the movement came too late, for the next
instant the six snowballs bowled over the three boys, hurling them in
all directions. One ball rolled through the lunch, carrying most of this
along, imbedded in the snow. Another snowball went directly through the
campfire, smashing that flat and leaving the embers hissing and
blackened.

"Don't let them see you," called Jack, as the twins were about to dash
down the slope. "Get back there out of sight."

"Oh, they'll know we did it, all right enough," answered Spouter. "Come
on down and have it out with them."

This was what the majority desired, and before Glutts and the others
could recover from their astonishment and dismay Gif and his crowd were
down the slope.

"Huh! so you were the fellows to roll those snowballs down on us,"
growled Bill Glutts, as he rubbed his leg where some of the hot coffee
had been spilled upon it.

"That's a fine way to treat a fellow," said Werner, digging some snow
from his ear.

"And you spoiled all the lunch!" wailed Codfish, looking around for his
cap, which had been knocked off. "Oh dear! I wish I hadn't come to this
out-of-the-way place!"

"Shut up your whining!" roared Werner. "You make me sick!"

"I don't care. I told you yesterday I wanted to go home," answered
Codfish complainingly. "I hate it up here!"

"Well, go home then!" snapped Werner. "Go home this minute if you want
to. I'm sick of having you around."

"You'd do much better, Codfish, if you wouldn't train with fellows like
Werner and Glutts," remarked Jack.

"If I leave them will you fellows show me the way back to Timminsport?"
questioned the sneak of Colby Hall pleadingly. It was plainly to be seen
that he had had no easy time of it since he had come up into the woods.

"That depends," said Gif, and caught the youth by the wrist. "Tell me,
Codfish, were you at our Lodge the other day--the day the whole place
was rough-housed?"

"No, I wasn't, Gif. Really and truly I wasn't!" cried the sneak, in
alarm.

"Were Werner and Glutts alone?"

"Yes, yes! I had nothing to do with it!"

"See here, Codfish, you keep your mouth shut!" roared Glutts, and he
moved forward as if to strike the small youth who cowered before him.

"You keep your distance, Glutts," admonished Jack. "If Codfish is tired
of st