till further.

"Better get out of here," said Nat Poole. "If the owner of the
ice-houses finds this out he'll make you pay for the busted slide."

"Well, I think we ought to pay for it, anyway," answered Dave, quickly.
"We broke it."

"Huh! I wouldn't pay a cent unless I had to," grumbled the
money-lender's son.

"What about our lanterns?" asked Roger.

"That's so!" exclaimed Ben. "They are all up in the ice-house, or down
in the sawdust pit."

"We can't leave them there,--they may set fire to something," said Phil.

"We'll have to get them," decided Dave.

"Oh, but that's dangerous!" cried one of the students who had just been
initiated. "Why, the slide might come down just as we were getting the
lanterns!"

"Yes, and I don't want to be killed for the sake of four or five
lanterns," added another.

"It's not a question of the worth of the lanterns," said Dave. "We
mustn't leave them here because of the danger of fire. If we left them,
and the ice-houses burnt down, we'd have a nice bill to pay!"

"Oh, don't croak so much!" growled Nat Poole. "I'm going back to school.
It's cold here."

"You stay where you are, Nat!" cried Ben, catching him by the arm.
"You'll go back with the rest of us, and not before."

With caution Dave, followed by Phil and Shadow, approached the
ice-house, and climbed up one of the ladders nailed to the side of the
building. Then they ventured out on a corner of the slide, and secured
two of the lanterns.

"We'll have to go down part of the slide for that other," said the
shipowner's son.

"No, don't do that, for your weight may bring the slide down," returned
Dave. "I'll get a long stick and see if I can't get the lantern with
that."

A stick was handy, and fixing a bent nail in the end, Dave reached down,
and after a little trouble secured the lantern. Then the boys went below
and secured the lanterns in the sawdust pit.

"Hi! what are you boys doing here?" demanded an unexpected voice from
out of the darkness, and by the light of the lanterns the students saw a
man approaching. He had a stick in one hand and an old-fashioned
horse-pistol in the other.

"Who are you?" questioned Buster, as leader of the Gee Eyes.

"Who am I? I am Bill Cameron, the owner of these ice-houses, that's who
I am! And I know you, in spite of them tomfoolery dresses you've got on.
You're boys from Oak Hall."

"You've hit the nail on the head, Mr. Cameron!" cried Phil. "Glad to see
you!" And h