tains.

In the evening Randy entertained the country lads with a mouth organ
performance, and at ten o'clock the visitors went to their camp on the
other side of the brook.

It had been a long day, and the Jolly Rovers were glad to get to bed.
They were too drowsy to think about the possibility of another visit
from the mysterious boat, and in a very few minutes all were sound
asleep.

About midnight--as nearly as he could judge afterward--Ned sat up with a
start, firmly convinced that some danger was at hand. As he listened
with a wildly throbbing heart, soft footsteps cracked on the pine
needles outside, and then the tent flap was torn open, revealing against
the lingering embers of the campfire the semblance of a human form.

"Hi! you chaps in thar!" whispered a gruff and unfamiliar voice. "Get
awake, quick!"

The words had a soothing affect on Ned's fears, and satisfied him that
the visitor--whoever he was--had come in the guise of friendship. He
drew a match from his pocket and rubbed it on his trousers. It ignited,
and revealed the pale face of Batters, framed between the tent and flap.

"Great Caesar! Is it you?" exclaimed Ned. "What's wrong?"

"Hush! not so loud," whispered Batters. "Put that light out, quick!"

Ned obeyed in haste.

"Now rouse the other chaps, and do it quietly, so they don't make no
noise."

This was a pretty stiff order, and Ned had some fears for the result.
Happily all went well, and in two or three minutes an audience of four
trembling and well nigh panic stricken lads was sitting in the darkness,
listening to Batter's ominous tale.

"Joe waked me up a little while ago," he began, "an' said there was a
strange boat, an' two men in it, down by the mouth of the run. I tole
Joe ter stay an' watch our stuff. Then I sneaked along the shore an'
seen the fellows sittin' on the beach along side the canoes.

"I didn't dare go close enough to hear what they was sayin', so I come
right up to the tent. I reckon you uns had better make a move afore the
canoes get carried off. I'll do what I kin fur you. If we all take
paddles and run out yellin' an' screachin' mebbe the fellars will get
scared and make tracks without showin' fight."

This proposition rather staggered the boys.

"The thieves probably want more than the canoes," said Ned. "It's very
likely they are right outside the tent now. I hardly know what we ought
to do."

"Let's give them our money and watches, and anything else