n, began auspiciously. It began with a grand feast
cooked out-of-doors in the brass kettle which was the pride of Roy's
life. That brass kettle stood upon a scout fireplace of stones, and from
its interior a hunter's stew diffused its luscious fragrance to those
who sat about, feeding the companionable fire. The scouts were quite
masters of the situation, their coming must have been like a freshening
breeze to the lonely visitant at the old deserted camp, and their fun
and brisk efficiency and readiness seemed to give him a new life and
afford him amusement which was expressed in that silent, likeable, yet
haunting smile. It was not often that he laughed aloud and he talked but
little, and then with a kind of diffidence that seemed odd in one so
much their senior.

"I'm going to leave that kettle to my ancestors when I die," Roy said.
"It's been all over and I've cooked everything in it except Cook's
tours; it's travelled more than they have, anyway. It's been to Temple
Camp and we fished it up from the bottom of the lake once and I guess as
many as ten thousand wheat cakes have come out of that kettle. Hey,
Pee-wee?"

"Nine thousand eight hundred is all Pee-wee can say for sure about,"
Westy said.

"Are you used to camping?" Doc Carson asked Blythe. "I thought maybe you
liked this kind of thing because you came here."

"It was just that I was out of a job," Blythe said frankly. "Anything's
better than nothing. I happened to wander in here and met a man with an
auto. He works for the concern that's going to tear the camp down; a
salvage concern. He got me this job. I don't suppose you'd call it a
job, it's an assignment. I picked out the three buildings and they sent
me a paper with the numbers on. I've only been here a couple of days.
Yesterday was the only time I was in Bridgeboro. I was going to give it
up. I didn't have any supplies and I didn't know who to get to help
me--I was mighty glad that friend of yours came up yesterday and said
he'd tell you fellows it was all right."

"He's our scoutmaster," said Pee-wee. "He's all right, only you've got
to know how to manage him. We'll start in to-morrow morning and we'll
show that savage concern all right. We'll show them what we can do."

"Maybe they won't be so savage," Roy said.

"Pee-wee can manage them," Westy observed.

"Oh sure, all you have to do is to know how to manage them," commented
Connie. "They can't come too savage for our young hero."

"He ca