n my plans, you see, boys."

"You mean you wouldn't a come here, is that it?" demanded Davy; "then
I'm glad you didn't know about it; because this just suits me. Whew!
don't it make a feller have just the nicest cold creepy feelin' run up
and down his back, though? I wouldn't have lost the chance for
anything."

Thad was compelled to smile at the odd way the other had of expressing
his pleasure in the thrill that passed over him, as he contemplated the
possibility of meeting with new adventures.

"Oh! no, I didn't mean that," he replied; "but I'd have asked you a lot
of questions before coming, and perhaps we'd have been better posted.
Then again, I might have brought a couple more scouts along, so we could
feel stronger, in case--" and he suddenly paused, with his head cocked
on one side as though listening.

"In case, what?" pursued Davy, who wanted to know everything.

"I thought I heard a voice somewhere, but it might have been a bird in
the bushes," Thad continued, in a relieved tone. "Why, I was only going
to say in case we had any trouble with these men. But they may not be
here at all now. I've got an idea they own another boat, in which they
could have slipped away last night while it was so dark."

"Then what's the use of our hunting all over the place as we're doing?"
asked Davy, fanning himself with his hat; for the day was turning out
warm, and it began to seem like tiresome work, and all for nothing,
too.

"In the first place," went on Thad, with that steady glow in his gray
eyes that bespoke determination; "I want to see if there really is a
hidden shack or a cave here, where they could be hiding out. Then I'd
like to learn if they're poachers, snaring the wild game, or the bass up
here, and getting it to market on the sly; or some tramps who have been
breaking into a store or a bank and are hiding from the constables."

"A bully good place to hide, all right," remarked Davy, as he glanced
around at the wild character of their surroundings, and heaved another
sigh in contemplation of further scrambling over those sharp-pointed
rocks.

"But Thad," put in Smithy, who had been listening all this time without
saying a single word, "have you changed your mind about what these
strange men may be, since you heard what Davy said about that man at our
camp-fire?"

"Well, yes, I am beginning to, right fast," answered the other, frankly.

"You don't think he was as bad as they are, and meant to join the