of this everlasting scrambling
over logs, and crashing through tangled underbrush. Why, I reckon I'll
have the map of Ireland in red streaks on my face before I'm done with
it."

At that the other three boys laughed. They were not at all unfeeling,
and could appreciate the misery of their fat companion; but then Lub had
such a comical way of expressing himself, and made so many ludicrous
faces, that they could never take him seriously.

They were making their way through one of the loneliest parts of the
great Adirondack regions. There might not be a living soul within miles
of them, unless possibly some guide were wandering in search of new
fields.

The regular fishermen and tourists never came this way for many reasons;
and the only thing that had brought these four well-grown boys in the
region of Surprise Lake was the fact that one of them, Phil Bradley,
owned a large mountain estate of wild land that abutted on the western
shore of the lake.

All of the lads carried regular packs on their backs, secured with bands
that passed across their foreheads, thus giving them additional
advantages. In their hands they seemed to be gripping fishing rods in
their cases, as well as some other things in the way of tackle boxes and
bait pails.

Apparently Phil and his chums were bent on having the time of their
lives upon this outing. Laden in this fashion, it was no easy task they
had taken upon themselves to "tote" such burdens from the little
jumping-off station up the side of the mountain, and then across the
wooded plateau. There was no other way of getting to Lake Surprise, as
yet, no wagon road at all; which accounted for its being visited only
by an occasional fisherman or hunter.

Each year such places become fewer and fewer in the Adirondacks; and in
time to come doubtless a modern hotel would be erected where just then
only primitive solitude reigned.

Of course Lub (who at home in school rejoiced in the more aristocratic
name of Osmond Fenwick) being heavily built, suffered more than any of
his comrades in this long and arduous tramp. He puffed, and groaned, but
stuck everlastingly at it, for Lub was not the one to give in easily, no
matter how he complained.

Besides these two there was Raymond Tyson, a tall, thin chap, who was so
quick to see through nearly everything on the instant that his friends
had long ago dubbed him "X-Ray," and as such he was generally known.

The last of the quartette was Ethan