pon five high school boys seated outside.

"How did it all work out, Harry?" shouted Dick, leaping up as
soon as he saw his approaching comrade.

"It is working in great shape, you young scoundrel!" roared Editor
Pollock, gripping Dick Prescott's hand. "And the yarn is going
to make the biggest and best midsummer sensation that the 'Blade'
has ever had!"

Mr. Pollock and Len Spencer remained at camp for something like
an hour and a half, enjoying a trout luncheon before they left.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon when editor and reporter
reached the "Blade" office.

At five o'clock the "Blade" put out a bulletin, around which a
crowd collected in no time. The crowd grew to such proportions
that the policeman on the beat tried in vain to make it "move
on."

That bulletin read:

"Lake Tragedy All a Tremendous Hoax: Read the 'Blade's' six o'clock
extra."

At a few minutes before six o'clock Len Spencer began to arrange
one of the street windows of the "Blade" office.

First of all, from hooks, he suspended Dodge and Bayliss' "ghosts"
of the night before.

"What does that mean?" asked the wondering onlookers.

Then an unexploded bomb bearing the trademark of the Sploderite
Company was put in the window. It was followed by the _siren_ whistle
that Bayliss had dropped in his flight. Then four "Quaker" wooden
guns, a red-stained bandage and a partly used bottle of strawberry
ice cream coloring appeared.

Promptly at six o'clock newsboys appeared on the street with the
exciting announcement:

"Extree! Extree 'Bla-ade'! All about Dick & Co.'s latest! The
best joke of the season!"

Papers went off like hot cakes. Before the evening was over more
than two thousand copies of that edition had been sold. Many
more than two thousand people had crowded to the "Blade's" show
window to catch a glimpse of the exhibits described in the rollicking
news story.

"Pshaw! Dodge and Bayliss, the heroes!" shouted one man in the
crowd, as he ran his eye through the story.

"Punk heroes!" answered someone else in the crowd.

The story was cleverly told. Dodge and Bayliss were not mentioned
by name, but described only as a pair of amateur jokers whose
plans had miscarried. Yet the plain, unvarnished story cast complete
ridicule over Bert and his friend.

While the fever of the reading crowd was at its height someone
shouted:

"Here they come now!"

Bert and Bayliss had just driven around the corner in