ly so they slept in the tent. So profound was their
sleep that they did not hear the dipping oars of an approaching boat
which came down the river after midnight. This boat was dilapidated
and leaky but it was a vision of beauty compared to its occupants.
These were none other than Slats Corbett, imperial head of Barrel
Alley, and his official staff, consisting of Skinny Mattenburg and
Spider McCurren. Such nocturnal excursions were not uncommon with them.

Nor were they surprised to see the new habitat of their official
sentinel bobbing against the wooded shore. Indeed, some tidings of
Joe's adventurous career (since he had run away to sea) had penetrated
to Barrel Alley and the only thing which had prevented the alleyites
from making an assault upon the island was the presence there of
Townsend Ripley. Him they had come to regard with a kind of
superstitious awe because he was so precipitate and decisive.

The fact that he had allowed no time for preliminary threats and
profanity, rather baffled these hoodlums. He had a quaint way of
cutting out all the customary boasts and menaces preceding an
encounter, and going straight to the heart of the matter.

Therefore, Slats Corbett did not undertake anything in the way of a
belligerent and retaliatory enterprise now. But he could not pass the
sleeping campers without in some way registering his mortal enmity, so
he did something which was altogether characteristic of him. He rowed
very quietly along shore and untied the rope with which the little
island was moored. Even this unheroic thing he did in fear and
trembling, for the spirit of Townsend Ripley seemed to pervade the
quiet spot. Then the trio proceeded quietly down the river in the
darkness.

CHAPTER XXXIII

KEEKIE JOE, SCOUT

The first one to awake in the morning was Keekie Joe. Going to school
on Monday was such an unusual thing with him that he had awakened at
five o'clock, and had not been able to go to sleep again. He had a
strange, nervous feeling as if he might be going to his own wedding.

The school would look strange on a Monday. Ordinarily after a week's
vacation he would have taken both Monday and Tuesday. But now, strange
to say, he wanted to go to school. He wanted to do what the rest of
them did. Oh, no, he was not a new boy all made over, he was just poor
little Keekie Joe, but he was going to do what the rest of them did
that day . . .

He now discovered, to his surpr