prize in the tournament, added Romper Ryan.

"Whoo-o-o-pe! Great! Let's get busy," shouted Nipper Knapp.

"Right-o," said Bruce. "But first of all let's tell our plan to
Assistant Scoutmaster Ford."

To be thoroughly familiar with Quarry Troop No. 1 you must know that it
was composed of three patrols in Woodbridge, Vt., and that its members
had created a reputation for themselves through their ability as
mechanics and electricians. Woodbridge has long been noted for its
electrically operated marble quarries and its many machine shops and
textile mills, and the boys of the town, as a result of their
surroundings, were by nature of a mechanical turn. Added to this, the
Woodbridge Academy was one of the first institutions of the country to
adopt a manual training course as part of its curriculum, and all the
lads received an early drilling at the lathes and forges.

Bruce Clifford, always the most self-reliant lad in town, first suggested
that he and his fellows establish "a troop of Engineers," and of course
his proposal was received with enthusiasm by the Academy boys. Bruce
took the plan to his father, Samuel Clifford, and to his father's friend,
Hamilton Townsend, a well-known consulting engineer in Woodbridge. Mr.
Townsend was delighted with the idea, and quickly consented to become the
Scoutmaster, while Mr. Clifford, to foster the interest of the lads along
mechanical lines, offered them the abandoned machine shop on the top of
Otter Creek Hill for their headquarters.

This was a real find for Bruce and his friends, for the old place had
never been dismantled.

Mr. Clifford was a builder of electrical stone cutting and polishing
machines and for a long time he had maintained his business in the little
two-story structure. But four years previous he had erected a fine new
concrete building just across the way, and abandoned the machine shop,
intending to tear down the building and sell the old equipment for junk.

This made ideal headquarters for a troop that desired to specialize in
engineering. On the first floor were the old hand-forges, bellows,
lathes, work benches, planing machines, and various other appliances.
They were all out of date, to be sure, and some slightly rusty, but still
quite usable after they had been cleaned up.

On the second floor of the building were two rooms, one of which was used
for meetings, while the other was converted into a wire room for the loop
telegraph line th