e mine some day, won't it? Therefore it's
as good as mine now."

Although he didn't quite see the logic of the foregoing, Sam Redding
gave a sage nod and agreed that his leader was right.

"Yes, those kids need a good lesson from somebody," chimed in Bill
Bender.

"I think we had better be the 'somebodies' to give it to them,"
rejoined Jack Curtiss. "They are getting insufferable. They actually
twitted me this afternoon with being sore at them because I didn't get
my patrol--as if I really wanted one. That Blake kid is the worst of
the bunch. Just because his father has a little money he gives himself
all kinds of airs. My father is as rich as his, even if he isn't a
banker."

"I've been thinking of a good trick we can put up on them, but it will
take some nerve to carry it out," announced Bill Bender, after some
more discussion of the lads of the Eagle Patrol.

"Out with it, then," urged the bully, "what is it?"

In a lowered tone Bill Bender sketched out his scheme in detail, while
Jack and Sam nodded their approval. At length he ceased talking and
the other two broke out into a delighted laugh, in which malice as much
as merriment prevailed.

"It's the very thing," exclaimed Jack. "Bill, you're a genius. We'll
do it as soon as possible. If that doesn't take some starch out of
those tin soldiers nothing will."

Half an hour later the three cronies parted for the night. Sam went to
his home near the waterfront, for his father was a boat builder, and
Jack started to walk the three miles to his father's farm in the
moonlight. His way took him by the bank. As he passed it he gazed up
at the windows of the armory on which was lettered in gilt: "Eagle
Patrol of the Boy Scouts of America."

"That's a slick idea of Bill's," said the bully to himself, "I can
hardly wait till we get a chance to carry it out."

CHAPTER II

A CRUISE TO THE ISLAND

"Whatever are you doing, Rob?"

It was the morning after the consultation of Jack Curtiss and his
cronies, and Corporal Crawford was looking over the fence into his
leader's yard.

Rob was bending over a curious-looking apparatus, consisting of a bent
stick held in a bow-shape by a taut leather thong. The appliance was
twisted about an upright piece of wood sharpened at one end--which was
rotated as the lad ran the bow back and forth across it.

Presently smoke began to rise from the flat piece of timber into which
the point of the upright stick