ing an
accurate account of our entire trip," he announced; "though what good
that could do them I'm at a loss to understand."

"Oh! they just believed it would make you feel bad," explained Carl;
"and that would tickle Tony, he's such a mean sort of fellow. Perhaps
he expects to read it out to the others while they sit by their fire,
and then throw it away. I hope you can write it all over again, Tom."

"Too bad!" declared Josh, "when you went to such trouble to jot
everything down just as it happened, thinking you might take that prize
offered for the best true account of a hike by scouts."

"I'll make sure to write this latest adventure out while it's fresh in
my mind," remarked Tom, bent on making the best of a bad bargain.

"Well," observed Felix, "all I hope is that we decide not to give up
the ship for such a little thing as being without provisions. It'll
make us hustle some to lay in a supply; but, after all, the experience
is going to be a great thing for us."

"And if it comes to a vote," added Horace, showing unexpected stamina
in this emergency; "count on my voice being raised against giving up.
Why, I'm just getting interested in this game, and I find it pretty
exciting."

"Just what I say!" echoed Josh.

"And I!" came from every one of the others, without even the exception
of poor Billy, who seemed to feel that he might be mostly to blame
because the raid on the camp had been conducted while he was in charge.

Tom smiled on hearing so unanimous an expression of opinion. He knew
that even such an apparent catastrophe as had befallen them was not
going to cause these gallant fellows to "take water."

"How long ago was it that the raid took place, Billy?" asked Josh, as
though a sudden idea had struck him.

"Oh! I should say about an hour or more," replied the other, after
thinking it over. "I suppose they watched the camp for a while to make
sure I was the only one around. Then when they saw me so busy down
there by the pond they just started to root. They may have been poking
around half an hour, for all I know; I was keeping my eyes on my work
and thinking of poor Walter."

"Tom, would it pay us to follow them right now?" demanded Josh, while
his eyes sparkled with the spirit of retaliation, as though he could
picture them pouncing on the spoilers of the camp, and making them pay
dearly for their frolic.

The patrol leader, however, shook his head in the negative, much to the
disappointment