e, and then found himself face to face with a mad cat he'd have
been near paralyzed too."

This seemed to mollify Lub somewhat, though he hardly liked that
reference to his having been paralyzed very much.

They pushed on resolutely and the minutes passed. Phil on hearing Lub
puffing and seeing that X-Ray lagged a little, cheered both of them up
by declaring that the time was now short.

"It wouldn't surprise me a whit," he said, cheerily, "to get a glimpse
of the lake any time now, through the trees. Unless all my calculations
are faulty we must be on my land right now."

"That sounds good to me, Phil," asserted X-Ray, joyously, as he took a
fresh spurt, and no longer limped as though he had a stone bruise on his
heel.

Even Lub grinned until his red face looked like a newly risen sun.

"We'll all be mighty glad to get there, believe me!" he declared; "and
think of the jolly time we'll have preparing our first supper in the
woods. This big aluminum frying pan of Phil's has kept digging me in the
ribs right along, until I'm afraid there's a black and blue spot there;
but I mean to take my revenge good and plenty when we fill it full of
onions and potatoes and such fine things. Take another squint ahead,
Phil, and see if you can't give us real good news."

"Well, just as sure as anything I see what looks like water!" called out
Phil, with an eager tremor in his voice.

"Whereabouts, Phil? Oh! I hope now, you're not joshing us?" Lub
demanded.

"Stop just where you are, everybody," the pilot of the expedition told
them, "and watch where I'm pointing. If you follow my finger you can see
if I've made a mistake or not. How about it, X-Ray? You've got the best
eyes of the crowd, I guess."

"It's water, all right, Phil," replied the other, glad that he could be
accounted as best in something.

"And that means Lake Surprise, doesn't it?" questioned Ethan Allan.

"Yes, because it's the only body of water for miles around here," Phil
continued. "That's one reason they let it alone so much. Other lakes lie
in bunches, and a canoe can be taken over a carry from one to another in
the chain; but Surprise is an awful lonely sheet of water."

"And that's how it must have got its name," added Ethan. "All the while
nobody dreamed there was any such lake up here; and then all at once a
wandering guide must have run headlong on the same, to his surprise."

"Wish we were there on the bank right now," grunted Lub.

"Another