s buzzing with the information that the
Boy Scouts' lost uniforms had been found under most surprising
circumstances; and the editor of the Hampton News, who was just going
to press, held his paper up till he could get in an item about it.

It was this item that caught Jack Curtiss' eye, the next morning as he
and Bill Bender and Sam were seated in Bill's "club room."

"Confound those brats, they seem always to be putting a spike in our
schemes!" muttered Jack, as he handed the paper to Bill for that
worthy's perusal. "Which reminds me," he went on, "that we haven't
attended to the case of that young Digby yet."

"I wish you'd leave those kids alone for a while, Jack," objected Sam,
in his usual whining tones. "You've had your fun with them. They've
had to do without their uniforms for a long time. Now let up on them,
won't you?"

"Oh, you're feeling friendly toward 'em, now, are you?" sneered Jack.

"Oh, no, it isn't that," Sam hastened to assure him; "nothing of the
kind. What I mean is that we are liable to get into serious trouble if
we keep on this way. I saw Hank Handcraft the other day, and I can
tell you he's in no very amiable mood. He wants his money for the
other night, he says, and he intimated that if he didn't get it he'd
make things hot for us."

"He'd better not," glowered Bill Bender, looking up from his paper.
"We know a few things about friend Hank."

"Yes, and he knows a good deal about us that wouldn't look well in
print," retorted Sam gloomily. "I wish I'd never gone into that thing
the other night."

"Pshaw, it was just borrowing a little money from the old man, wasn't
it?" snorted Jack. "We'll pay it back some time."

"When we get it," rejoined Sam more gloomily than ever; "and I don't
see much immediate chance of that."

"Oh, well, cheer up; we'll get it all right somehow," Jack assured him.
"And in connection with that I've got a scheme. Why shouldn't we three
fellows go camping after the motor-boat races?"

"Go camping--where?" asked Bill, looking up surprised.

"Well, I would have suggested Topsail Island, but those pestiferous
kids are going there, I hear. However, there are plenty of other
islands right inside the Upper Inlet. What's the matter with our
taking possession of one of those?"

The Upper Inlet was a sort of narrow and shallow bay a short distance
above Topsail Island, and was well known to both Bill and Jack, who had
been there in the winter on frequent