r. Eades merely smiled, and said he was satisfied
if I was."

"I'll bet he'd have gone to a two hundred dollar price," declared
Hazelton. "Dick, weren't you sorry, afterwards, that you didn't
hold out flat for two hundred dollars?"

"Not I," young Prescott answered promptly. "If I had been too
greedy I'd have deserved to lose altogether, and very likely I
would have lost. Fellows, I think we can be well satisfied with
the price we've obtained."

"I am!" declared Dave Darrin promptly. "We've realized a hundred
dollars above my wildest dream."

Incidentally it may be mentioned that Mr. Eades found, from his
friends, that he had a prize, indeed, in the fine old war canoe.
The grounds committee of another country club offered two hundred
and fifty for that same canoe a month later.

"Now, fellows," Dick went on, "suppose we leave here and decide
how we're to lay out this money for our summer camp?"

The vote was carried instantly. With a whoop of glee the chums
started for Dave's house.

CHAPTER III

THE HUMAN MYSTERY OF THE WOODS

"Now, get to work!" shouted Dick Prescott. "Destruction to all
shirkers!"

"Please may I beg off for five minutes?" begged Danny Grin, raising
one hand.

"Why?" queried Prescott sharply.

"I want to take that much time to convince myself that it's all
true," replied Danny.

"You'll know that it's all true when you wake up to-morrow morning,"
laughed Dick. "But it won't look half as real if any fellow shirks
any part of his work now. All ready, fellows?"

"Ready!" came the chorus.

"Tom Reade will make the best foreman, won't he?" appealed Prescott.
"Tom has a knack for just such jobs as this, and it's going to
be a tough one."

The boys stood in the middle of a half acre clearing in the deep
woods, five miles past the town of Porter. Here the woods extended
for miles in every direction. As these young campers glanced
about them it seemed as though they possessed a wealth of camping
material---far more than they had ever dreamed of owning.

The tent, twelve feet by twenty, and eleven feet high at the ridgepole,
with six-foot walls, was their greatest single treasure. It had
cost thirty-five dollars, and had been bought from the nearest
large city.

"We'll get the tent up first," called Reade.

"Of course," smiled Dave. "That's all you're boss of anyway,
Tom."

"Come on, then, and spread the canvas out," Tom ordered. "Bring
it over this way. We w