with the feeling that he resembled
an unjustly whipped dog.

"So I've got to go away and rusticate somewhere for the summer,
have I?" wondered Bert angrily. "And all on account of such a
gang of muckers as the fellows who call themselves Dick & Co.!"

Nor did young Bayliss fare any better on his return home that
night. He, too, was ordered away for the remainder of the summer
by his father, who had just returned from abroad, nor was he allowed
to accompany Bert Dodge.

What of Dick & Co. during all this time?

They had gone away on an avowed fishing trip and they were making
the most of it.

Harry Hazelton attended to perch fishing, when any of those fish
were wanted. Tom Reade and Dan made the most of the black bass
sport, while Dick, with Dave and Greg as under-studies, went after
trout.

Several trips were made down to the St. Clair Lake House, and
on each occasion large quantities of bass and trout were sold
to the proprietor. He took all their offerings.

As a result of the sales of trout and bass some substantial money
orders were forwarded to the elder Prescott, to be cashed by Dick
on his return.

One afternoon Dick, who had gone trout fishing alone, returned
with so small a string of the speckled ones that some of Tom's
bass had to be added to the supper that night.

"I've been doing rather an unsportsmanlike thing, I fear," admitted
Dick.

"Then 'fess up!" ordered Tom Reade.

"The trout are beginning to bite poorly," Prescott went on. "The
fact is, we've all but cleaned up the stream."

"There must be a few hundred pounds left there yet," guessed Dave.

"There may be, and I hope there are," Prescott went on, "but I've
decided not to take any more trout out of the stream this year.
Whatever are now left in the stream we must leave for next summer.
No good sportsman would ever deplete a stream of all its trout."

"The bass are still biting fairly well," mused Tom aloud. "However,
they're not as easy to catch as they were. Had we better leave
the bass alone, also?"

"We might take out what bass we want to eat," Dick suggested,
"but not attempt to catch any more than that this summer."

"Too bad," muttered Tom. "I was in hopes that we were going to
put by a big stake in the bank, to be divided later on."

"We already have money enough for our purpose," Dick suggested.
"We have sufficient funds to take us all away on a fine jaunt
during August, and these are the last days of July, n