they are due to return tonight with furs.
Dick, Phil and I will estimate as near as we can the point on the line
at the back of Green's farm. Then we will take positions about a
sixteenth of a mile apart, perhaps a little more. We can mount one of
the taller trees, and with our glasses can keep a sharp lookout for the
point where they cross the line. It is likely that from force of habit
they will take the same route going as returning. That will allow us to
cover a quarter of a mile, counting in what we can see without glasses
on either side. Then on Saturday we can repeat the operation, if
necessary, thus getting a double check on the route. We know how to get
our bearings and mark the trail so that we can find it again, even in
the dark."

"That's the ticket. That will be your work for today then, while I go up
the line and arrange for a posse of Customs men and deputies to effect
the capture of Sunday night," said Fernald.

They could detect the welcome smell of boiling coffee and bacon and
eggs, and at that moment Ruth called them to breakfast.

CHAPTER XIX.

SMUGGLERS' LANE.

"Shall we give you a lift downstairs, Mr. Everett?" asked Garry.

"Say, do you fellows take me for a confounded child?" snorted Mr.
Everett. "Just because I get bruised up a little is no sign that I'm a
helpless invalid. I'll go downstairs by the help of myself and no one
else."

"What's that I hear, Granddad?" demanded Ruth, from the bottom of the
stairs. "You are not to stir a single step unless you let two of the
boys help you."

"There, dang it, Ruthie, can't you let me save my pride in front of
these youngsters? All right, all right, have it your own way. But I warn
you, one of these days you'll boss me too much, and then well see, we'll
see."

As the boys, a little embarrassed by the turn of events, were helping
him down the stairs, he whispered delightedly:

"Bosses me round just like a youngster, that girl does. Only way I can
save my pride is to let on that I'm awful put out about it. But Lord
bless you, if she didn't boss me, I wouldn't know what to do," he
concluded with another chuckle of pleasure.

The boys then perceived that Ruth's "bossing" was evidently a daily
occurrence, a sort of family joke, and joined in laughing with old Mr.
Everett, who seemed to take such keen delight in "saving his pride."

Breakfast was a jolly affair. The eggs were done to a turn, the bacon
crisp, the coffee like drops of am