were then
constructing for their own use and convenience. The unexpected loss of
this money caused the work to stop, while the workmen, including a
Swedish foreman, Nels Anderson by name, remained unpaid to this day.

Aside from the clubhouse, the nearest inhabitants to the boys' camp were
this same Anderson and his family, who lived in a small clearing five or
six miles away on the trail leading to Staretta, a small town perhaps
a dozen miles further on. This was the nearest town to Opal Lake which
was, indeed, a veritable "Lake of the Woods."

When Paul Jones, finally escaping through the cellar window, left the
clubhouse without being discovered, he ran across in the dark another
somebody who vanished, uttering strange and savage oaths. Paul also made
himself scarce in another direction and happened upon Chip Slider, whose
merry response to Paul's greeting caused both soon to become so friendly
that Paul took Chip to their camp, where a warm meal soon loosened the
boys' tongues and there was a general interchange of opinions about
game, fish, the big woods, and at last the abandoned house on the point.

Here the boys learned from Chip that a man named Murky was also in the
woods and supposedly after that lost or stolen satchel, thought by many to
be hidden somewhere near. They learned from Chip more of the robbery
of Grandall, the treasurer of the Longknives, by this same Murky; also
that Murky himself, through the connivance of Grandall, was held up by
Chip's father by the order of Grandall. The scheme seemed to have been
for Grandall to get the money thus entrusted to his care in a way that
would divert suspicion against himself and direct it elsewhere. After
sufficient time had elapsed, then Grandall would manage to use that money,
meanwhile placating Chip's father, supposedly by bribes.

So open, frank and friendless was young Chip that he won the Auto Boys'
confidence, and stayed on at the camp, proving himself a valuable aid and
an added link in their narrow social life.

Shortly before this Chip, encountering Murky in the woods, had been
badly beaten by the other, and had been seen with a bandaged head by
some of the boys. This induced much pity for the homeless lad, while
Chip's knowledge of Murky and matters connected with the robbery just
alluded to, made him serviceable in the matter of knowing more about
what was going on in and about the house on the point. It appeared, too,
that others of the boys d