sing on the air, not a great distance off.

"Our camp fire and that of the Spink crowd!" exclaimed Snap. "I'll
wager a button on it."

"I believe you are right," answered Shep. "We'll make for the
nearest of 'em, anyway."

They set off at a brisk pace, taking as direct a route as the nature
of the ground permitted. On the way they came to a large patch of
huckleberry bushes and found the berries ripe and luscious.

"Let's pick some," said Whopper. "Then we can make huckleberry
dumplings, or something like that."

"What about huckleberry pie?" suggested Snap.

"Great!"

They stopped long enough to pick several quarts of the berries,
stowing the fruit away in one of the cleaned-out game bags. Then
on they went as before.

Soon they broke through the woods into a clearing, and on the
opposite side of this saw a camp, with several boys lolling around
a camp fire. They were members of the Spink crowd and included
Dick Bush and Carl Dudder.

"Say, where did you come from?" demanded Carl Dudder as he espied
them and leaped to his feet.

"From the woods," answered Shep calmly.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, Dudder, excepting to pass."

"Huh! You needn't look so innocent-like, Shep Reed! We know what
you did to our boat," put in Dick Bush.

"What did we do to it?" asked Whopper.

"You know well enough. Think you're smart, don't you?" growled Carl.

"We know what you were going to do to our boat," put in Snap.

"What?"

"You heard what I said. We only got ahead of you, that's all."

"We'll fix you for it, don't you worry," said Carl with a cunning
leer.

"Take care that you don't get into trouble," was Shep's answer.
Then he walked around the camp fire and his chums followed.

"Where are you going?" asked one of the other members of the Spink
crowd.

"That is our business."

At this answer the other lads merely scowled. There was an awkward
pause, and then Shep and his chums moved on and plunged into the
woods beyond the camp fire.

"They are a real sociable bunch," was Whopper's sarcastic comment.
"How I would love to stay with them!"

"I'll wager they fight like cats and dogs," put in the doctor's
son. "I don't believe they have one real pleasant day." And
he was right; the Spink crowd were usually wrangling from morn
to night and already one of the number had left and started for
home in disgust.

The boy hunters had the best part of half a mile farther to go,
but this they s