knack of it."

"No man save the first trout fisherman of all ever learned without
a teacher," Dick assured his chum. "Greg, you take a place farther
down the stream, and I'll stay with Dave and try to show him some
of the tricks. You may have my pole and line, Greg, for I shall
be busy watching Dave."

Many a pull at his line had Darrin, and many a fish was lost ere,
under Prescott's patient instruction, he managed to land a trout
weighing about a pound.

"Whew!" muttered Dave, mopping his brow. "At this moment I believe
I feel prouder than any general who ever captured a city."

"You'll soon have the hang of it, now, Dave," was his chum's encouraging
assurance. "Now, I'm going to hunt up Holmesy, and see if I can
show him some of the knack."

Greg proved a grateful though not very clever pupil. He was all
enthusiasm, but the art of landing a trout appeared to him to
be one of the most difficult feats in the world.

"I don't believe I'll ever land enough to fill a frying pan,"
he said dejectedly. "Dick, the fellows are depending upon you.
Take this pole and use it for the next hour."

Later in the forenoon Greg had one small trout on a stick he had
cut and trimmed for himself. Dave Darrin looked almost triumphant
as he displayed three of the speckled ones. Both stared in envy
at Dick's string of thirty-four trout.

"Of course it'll take a few days of patient study of the game
to enable you to make big catches," was Dick's consoling assurance.

"I'd put in all summer, if I were sure I could master the trick
in the end," said Dave.

Greg said nothing, but felt less resolute about it than Darrin
did.

"Why, it's only fifteen minutes before noon," cried Dave, glancing
at his watch.

"Then it's high time to be going back," nodded Dick, "in case
the fellows are depending upon us for their meal. If Tom has
a lot of bass, though, we can store these trout in our new ice
box---the cave."

"And let the Man with the Haunting Face slip in there, after dark,
and help himself!" grumbled Darry. "Somehow that idea doesn't
make any hit with me."

"Then we'll have to put in the afternoon," proposed Prescott,
"in building a log-lined pit in the ground and moving ice from
the cave to fill it. Then we can keep our fish supplies right
up under our noses in front of the tent."

"That's a little more satisfactory in the way of an idea," nodded
Darry.

For the purpose of taking a short cut they soon left the bro