ing hungry!" cried Phil. "I really believe I could
choke down a chicken sandwich, if I was forced to do it!"

"'Forced' is good!" answered Dave. "Girls, be sure to keep the hamper
away from Phil, or he won't leave enough behind to feed a canary," and
this remark brought forth the first laugh since the trouble on the road.

They drove as close to Lookout Point as the road allowed, and then
placed the two cars in a safe place under the trees.

"We must keep our eyes open," whispered Dave to the other boys. "That
other crowd may sneak up and try to damage the machines, so as to make
us walk from here."

"We'll watch out," answered Roger; and the others said the same.

While the boys started a campfire over which to boil some coffee, and
obtained a bucket of fresh drinking water from a nearby spring, the
girls spread a tablecloth over some flat rocks and set around the dishes
and the things to eat. There was more than enough of everything to go
around, and it was particularly appetizing after that long ride in the
fresh air.

"I tell you, this is something like," cried Dave, munching on a sandwich
and a stalk of celery. "I shouldn't mind having a picnic like this once
a week regularly."

"Make it twice a week," returned Roger, who was eating a sandwich from
one hand and a hard-boiled egg from the other.

"Who'll have some coffee?" cried Phil, coming up with a pot of the
steaming beverage. "I've got to strain it through the corner of a
napkin, but I guess that won't hurt it."

"Napkin, indeed!" cried Jessie. "There is a strainer in the spout."

"Oh, is there? I didn't look in to see. Well, here goes! Coffee! Ten
cents a cup, or two cups for a nickel! Good for the complexion and
warranted to cure the blues!" cried the shipowner's son gayly, and swung
the pot around over his head.

"Hi! Look out there!" roared Sam, clapping his hand to his ear. "I like
coffee, but I don't drink it that way!" And he wiped off a few drops
that had reached him.

"Phil is fined one horseshoe nail for spilling the coffee," cried Dave.

"Don't nail me so soon!" answered the shipowner's son gayly.

"Shoo! Just to hear that!" murmured Roger.

"I'm too hoarse to answer to that!" said Ben.

"Say, do you know why a lawyer likes to drink coffee?" asked Sam.

"Why?" asked the girls, in a chorus.

"Because there is always a fee in it for him," was the answer. And then
the joker had to dodge an olive and a pickle that Dave and Phil hurle