gue boots, the way you get over
ground. And just after I've gone and made away with a monstrous supper,
too," he managed to say, between gasps. "Let me get my breath, and I've
got something to tell you."

"Is it about Ted Slavin and his cronies?" asked Paul, suspiciously.

"Hit it the first shot," returned Bobolink; "who told you?"

"Why, I haven't heard a word; only I thought that if there was anything
going on, Ted would be apt to have a finger in the pie," returned the
other, grimly.

"Well, he has, all right, as usual. Anyhow his mouthpiece, Ward Kenwood,
has, and it's the same thing. I was taking something in to the dominie at
our church (my mother is at the head of a committee, you know) when he
asked me if I was going to join the new Boy Scout patrol that was being
organized in Stanhope."

"Whew, but those fellows don't believe in letting the grass grow under
their feet, do they? Never thought a thing about it till they heard us
talking matters over; and here they're getting all the credit for being
first in the field," and Jack shrugged his shoulders ruefully as he
spoke.

"Didn't I say we'd have to get up early in the morning if we hoped to
keep from taking their dust? No matter what else you can say about them,
Ted and his crowd are alive, and wide-awake fellows all the time,"
returned Paul.

"Well, the minister was some surprised when I told him all about it. He
said he was delighted, and I guess he meant it too. The more patrols the
better for the community, he said. And he seemed to know all about the
meaning of the thing, for he showed me several books along the subject,
that he promised to lend us."

"Bully for him!" cried Jack, with perhaps more energy than reverence;
but had the genial old man heard the words he would have felt highly
complimented, knowing that whoever succeeds in getting the approval of
live, wide-awake boys must consider himself fortunate indeed.

"There's Nuthin's house," remarked Bobolink, just then.

"And Tom Bates going in, with the Carberry Twins. I hope we can enroll
a dozen good fellows for a start. The rest will flock over after a bit,
when they get to know what fine times we expect to have," remarked Paul.

They found that there were just a dozen present, counting A. Cypher, who
as host was much in evidence. Besides Tom Bates, the new boys were Philip
Towns, Jud Elderkin, Joe Clausin and Andy Flinn; the latter of Irish
parentage, but well liked, even though his w