nto this it will be for the fun
we hope to get out of it."

"I think I can guarantee you some entertainment. I presume you two will
be the only ones on the boat beside myself."

"You mustn't overlook my first mate, Mike Murphy. It would break his
heart if we should go on a cruise and leave him behind."

"I am afraid he is too impetuous and too fond of a fight."

"He may have a weakness in those directions, but his good nature, pluck
and devotion to my friend and me more than make up."

"It strikes me----"

"I can't help how it strikes you," broke in Alvin, who did not intend to
accept any commands at this stage of the game. "Mike goes with us
wherever we go."

"I feel the same way," added Chester. "The _Deerfoot_ can never brave the
perils of the deep short-handed. The first mate is indispensable."

"As you please then. When will you be ready to start?"

"When do you wish us to start?"

"Say to-morrow morning?"

"This is so sudden," said Alvin, whose spirits rose at the prospect of
the lively times ahead. "We ought to have a little while to think it
over. However, if my second mate, who generally has views of his own,
will agree, we'll get under way to-morrow after breakfast."

"I'm wid ye, as Mike would say."

"Suppose, Mr. Calvert, we leave it this way: if we decide to go into this
business, we'll make the venture to-morrow morning."

"I shall stay at the Squirrel Inn to-night and be on the wharf a little
before nine, on the lookout for you. If you do not show up then or soon
after I shall not expect you. Your boat will be in plain view all the
time, so I shall see you when you start."

"Why not stay with us over night? We shall be glad to have you do so,"
was the hospitable invitation of Alvin Landon.

"Thank you very much," replied Stockham Calvert, rising to his feet; "but
I came over in a rowboat which is waiting to take me back. I engaged my
room at the inn this afternoon."

He bade them good night and walked briskly down the slope. The boys stood
in front of the bungalow until they heard the sound of the oars and saw
the dim outlines of the boat and its occupants heading eastward toward
the twinkling lights from the inn and cottages on Squirrel Island.

"What do you make of it all?" asked Alvin of his chum, when after some
minutes they returned to the big sitting room.

"I don't know how to answer you," replied Chester. "It looks to me as if
we are bound to have lively times before we get