brushing all around. We'll look quite respectable, after all!"

"Gentlemen," remarked Tom Reade solemnly, "I have the honor to
make a motion to the effect that Messrs. Darrin, Holmes and Dalzell
be appointed a committee of three to take Dick Prescott away and
drown him in the nearest sizable body of water!"

"Carried!" proclaimed Hazelton.

Instead, however, all hands fell to work putting up the tent and
preparing for supper.

"Rah, rah, rah!" rose joyously on the air. Then, out of the woods
behind the camp appeared eight young men in multi-colored raiment.
Gorgeous bands surrounded their straw hats; their blazer coats
resembled so many rainbows. Yet, apart from their coats of many
colors, these young men were smartly dressed, and it was plain
that they carried with them considerable of an estimate of their
own importance. Their average age appeared to be about twenty-one
years.

"Rah, rah, rah!" rang the chorus again. Then one of the eight,
moving in advance of The others, called back:

"Fellows, what have we here?"

"Gipsies!" called another.

"Plain hoboes!" from a third.

"It's a gang of juvenile desperadoes escaped from some reformatory,"
declared a fourth.

"Rah, rah, rah!"

With noisy yells the eight young men descended upon the camp.

"Don't you think you'd better steer off?" called Dave, putting
himself as much as he could in their way.

"Why, it talks!" cried one of the rah-rah-rah fellows, in mock
astonishment.

"Just like a human being!" added a third.

"Wonder what these animals are doing here?" propounded another.

So they invaded the camp, poking their heads in at the tent entrance,
examining the wagon with a good deal of curiosity, and poking
into the boxes containing the food that Dick and Greg had just
laid out with a view to starting preparations for supper.

"Now, gentlemen," called Dick, "if you think your curiosity has
been sufficiently gratified, do you mind clearing out and letting
us alone?"

A variety of mocking replies greeted that proposition.

"We don't like to be disagreeable, you understand," Dave hinted,
"but, really, we begin to feel that we have had a great sufficiency
of your company, gentlemen."

"What are you going to do about it?" demanded one of the eight
intruders rather aggressively.

Dave Darrin doubled his fists, ready to fight, now, at any further
provocation. Even good-natured Tom looked about for some sort
of club. But Dick answered, co