passage without difficulty.

Kendrick headed straight for the half concealed entrance to this
channel. The stranger had gone tearing off to round the point. The
result of the channel manoeuvre was that Phil came out into open water
directly in the path of the fleeing launch just as it had rounded the
point.

At once the intruder shut off his engine, put a foot on the gunwale and
took a header into the lake, swimming vigorously for the shore close
by. This was confession of an intense anxiety to escape and for the
moment it did look as if his chances of getting away were excellent;
the unexpectedness of the action made it necessary for Phil to make a
wide parabola to bring his boat equally close inshore and to check its
speed. Without a moment's hesitation, however, Kendrick also shut off
his engine and dove overboard as he swept by. A strong swimmer, he was
soon climbing ashore.

By this time the man he was after had started away, _swish-wish_
through the underbrush; but he was only a few rods in the lead, and one
of thickset build was no match for Kendrick in a footrace. As Phil
overhauled him he turned suddenly and fiercely grappled with his
pursuer.

This again was something at which Kendrick was proficient and he threw
the man easily enough with a half-nelson. They were wrestling it out
in an open space in the bushes where the light was not quite so dim,
and at last Phil had the hold for which he had been playing.

"I can break your arm--quite easily," he panted in sharp warning. "Are
you ready to behave if I let you up?"

Upon receiving a strangled grunt of affirmation he released his
antagonist.

"Gee! 'bo, aint there nothin' y' aint good at? That's second
time--y've got my nanny fer fair!"

At sound of a familiar voice Phil opened his waterproof match-safe and
struck a light. He found himself gazing with some amazement into the
grinning homely face of "Iron Man" McCorquodale, the ex-pugilist with
whom he had exchanged sparring compliments the night of the fog.

"McCorquodale! How'd you get here?"

"On the too-too," responded the Iron Man, rapidly recovering both
breath and good humor.

"Don't get fresh, McCorquodale. What were you doing just now, sneaking
around our cottage over there?"

"Dry up, kid, on that 'sneak' stuff. I ain't answerin' a damn thing,
see,--not till we gets over to where I'm campin'. An' if that aint
suitin' you, y'knows what y'can do, don't youse?"

"You seem