and then fill the boat
with rocks and sink her," answered Ham.

"That will be doing 'em up brown!" chuckled Carl.

"Well, I don't know about this," answered Dick Bush doubtfully.
He was not quite so lawless in his ideas as were the others.

"Oh, it will be all right; we won't hurt the boat any," answered
Ham. "Come on; the quicker we locate the boat the better. As
soon as we've fixed their boat we can come back here and get our
things and hurry back to camp." And then the three boys moved
along down the lake shore.

"Well, wouldn't that jar you?" cried Snap, when the other crowd was
gone. "Hide our supplies and sink our boat! Well, I guess not!"

"They haven't turned in the right direction to find our boat,"
returned the doctor's son. "We can get it out of the way before
they come back."

"We ought to pay them for this," murmured Giant. "Let us take their
boat and row it up the lake. It will give 'em something to do to
find it."

"That's the talk!" cried Snap. "As the old saying goes, 'what
is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.' Jump in and we'll
take the boat to where we left our own."

They soon had the Spink rowboat untied, and leaping aboard they
shoved the craft out into the lake. Then Snap and Shep took the
oars, and they were soon moving up Firefly Lake. They kept close
to the overhanging trees and bushes, so that the other crowd might
not discover what was taking place.

The distance to where they had left their own craft was not quite
half a mile, and they reached the spot in less than a quarter of
an hour. They pulled inshore, to find their boat just as it had
been left.

"Now, the quicker we work the better," said the doctor's son. "I've
got an idea," he went on, as he caught sight of a tiny island
about a hundred feet from shore. "Why not tie their boat fast
over there? Then if they want it they can swim for it."

"Good!" cried Snap, and grinned.

Taking their own boat along, they rowed to the island, and there
the Spink craft was made fast on the side next to the main shore
and in plain view of anybody who might be passing. On the shore
of the island Snap stuck up one of the oars and on the top placed
a rubber boot he found in the rowboat---one of a pair Ham had
brought along in case of prolonged wet weather.

"Ham will recognize that rubber boot," said Snap. "And then he'll
know the boat is his." The sight of the rubber boot on the top of
the oar was a comica