r end of Schroon Lake, where they hired a crank
little row-boat, and rowed up to Schroon. There was a fresh northerly
breeze which delayed them; and the spray from the bow of the boat
sprinkled them, so that they were uncomfortably wet when they reached
the village. By this time they were very hungry as well as tired, and so
they went to the hotel for dinner. It was half past six o'clock when
they started to row down the lake, and several men who saw them warned
them that they were running a great risk in attempting to return at so
late an hour.

The trip down the lake was certainly a rather foolhardy one, for there
was a good deal of wind and sea, and long before they reached the
landing-place it was quite dark. But the boys were anxious to get back
to their camp, and for the first time during the cruise they acted
somewhat recklessly. However, they met with no accident; and when they
had returned the boat to its owner, they set out to cross the hills.

The path was not easy to find in the daylight, and it was next to
impossible to find it in the night. A dozen times the boys lost
themselves, and were compelled to depend entirely upon the stars to
direct their course. The woods had been all cleared away for a space of
a mile or a mile and a half wide between the two lakes, except just
along the shore of Brandt Lake; so that it was not absolutely necessary
for them to keep in the path, as it would have been had they been
passing through a thick forest. Still, it was not pleasant to lose the
path, and stumble over stones and stumps, and of course it made the
journey longer. They must have walked at least seven or eight miles on
their way back before they finally reached their own lake at midnight,
at the point where they expected to find Jim waiting for them.

Neither Jim nor the boat was there. He had waited until ten o'clock, and
then, making up his mind that they had decided to spend the night at
Schroon, he rowed back to the island, and went calmly to bed. An hour
later a dense fog settled over the lake; and when the tired boys reached
the shore they could see but a few yards in front of their eyes.

It was a terrible disappointment, but Harry tried to be cheerful. "We
shall have to stay here to-night, boys," said he; "but we will build a
good fire and keep warm." Tom said that he thought that was the best
thing to do, for without a fire they would suffer severely from the
cold, wet fog, and he asked Harry if he h