along."

"So do I," agreed Jack, as he looked at the cool water dripping from the
bodies of the brothers.

"Well, what if we haven't!" exclaimed Bob. "Don't let's stand here like
a lot of boobs. We can take off our shoes and roll our pants almost up
to our waists. Then we can wade along near the edge, while Fred and
Teddy do their looking further out in the river."

It was no sooner said than done, and they were soon wading along in the
shallower parts, each armed with a long stick, with which they poked
into every place that they thought might give results.

Fred and Teddy dived and dived again, keeping under water as long as
they could, and feeling along the river bed. They kept this up until
they were nearly exhausted, and had to go to the bank to rest.

"It isn't our lucky day," said Fred, puffing and blowing. "I'm afraid
the river doesn't know anything about those papers."

"I hate to go home without them," said Teddy, as visions of Uncle Aaron
flitted across his mind.

"Oh, well, you fellows have certainly worked like truck horses,"
remarked Bob, "but if they're not there you can't get them, and you
might as well make up your minds to it."

"Phew, but I'm hot!" complained Jim. "Say, fellows, how would some of
those peaches taste?" and he cast a longing look toward a peach orchard,
across the way from where they were resting.

"How would they taste?" repeated Jack, as he followed the direction of
Jim's glance. "Yum-yum."

"There's a lot of big mellow ones lying on the ground," went on Jim,
whose mouth was watering more and more. "They'll only rot, anyway, so
what's the matter with our getting a few? They're no good to Sam
Perkins, and they'd certainly do us a whole lot of good."

Fred and Teddy were hurrying into their clothes.

"We want to keep a sharp lookout for Sam," cautioned Fred. "He's got a
new dog whip, and he said that if he caught any boy in his orchard, he
was going to skin him alive."

"He's got to catch us first," said Teddy. "Let's take a chance."

They took it. Another moment, and they were over the fence.

CHAPTER IX

CHASING THE TRAMPS

The Rushton boys and their chums crouched low in the shadow of the
fence, and took a careful look around. All of them knew the violent
temper of Mr. Sam Perkins, and none of them wanted to make the
acquaintance of that famous dog whip he had recently bought at the
village store, loudly declaring at the same time the use he expected to