e up trying!' You hear me, Bumpus?"

"No trouble about that, Giraffe. Tell you what I'll do, though, in the
generosity of my heart--make a wager with you about that fire business;
and it's a treat of ice-cream for the crowd, for the loser."

"I take you on that," quickly snapped back the long-legged Boy Scout who
was curled up in the stern of the canvas canoe that was being pushed
along by the energetic arms of a sturdy guide, as straight as his name
was the opposite, it being Eli Crooks.

"Then let's have a clear understanding," observed the fat lad, squatting
rather awkwardly in the bow of the same craft; "say, you other fellows,
d'ye hear what we're talking about?" and he raised his voice a trifle,
so that the occupants of the two other boats that were close by, might
listen; just as if they had not been keeping their ears wide open; for
when Bumpus and Giraffe got into a hot argument, there was generally
plenty of fun in the air.

One of the other canoes contained three scouts, as could be told from
various parts of their khaki uniforms that they wore, even when off on a
hunting trip. The clear-eyed fellow who seemed to be in charge of the
party was Thad Brewster; one of his companions was known as Step Hen
Bingham, because, as a little chap he had insisted at school that was
the way his name should be spelled, while the third was an exceedingly
wiry boy, Davy Jones by name, and who had always been a human monkey
when it came to athletics, climbing trees, and doing all sorts of queer
stunts.

In the third boat was a shorter Maine guide, a sort of slow chap who
came by the name of Jim Hasty just as the other did that of Crooks; and
the scout with him was Allan Hollister, a lad born in the very State
they were now exploring; and who assisted the scoutmaster in his duties.

All these six boys belonged to the Silver Fox Patrol connected with a
troop of scouts located in a New York town called Cranford. Two more had
been unable to take the Maine trip, which had already carried the bunch
through some adventurous times in another part of the State, whither
they had first gone in order to overtake a gentleman just then moose
hunting, and with whom Thad had to get in touch for certain business
reasons.

Now they were on the Aroostook River, the three boats, as well as the
party, having been transported from Grindstone by rail, and launched at
the junction of the Masardis with the first mentioned stream.

One of the