be, a fact that influenced
Bobolink to shout out:

"In the absence of a better name, fellows, I hereby christen this
waterway Snake Creek; any objections?"

"It deserves the name, all right," commented Spider Sexton, "for I
never saw such a wiggly stream in all my born days."

"Seems as if we had already come all of five miles, and nary a sign of
a cabin ahead yet that I can see," observed Phil Towns, presently, for
Phil was really beginning to feel pretty well used up, not being quite
so sturdy as some others among the ten scouts.

"That's the joke," laughed Paul; "and it's on me I guess more than any
one else. I thought of nearly a thousand things, seems to me, but
forgot to ask any one just how far it was up to the cabin from the
lake by way of this scrambling creek."

"Why, I'm sure Mr. Garrity said something like six miles!" exclaimed
Jack.

"Yes, but that may have meant as the crow flies, straightaway,"
returned the scout-master.

"At the worst then, Paul," Bobolink ventured to say, "we can camp, and
spend a night in the open under the hemlocks. Veteran scouts have no
need to be afraid to tackle such a little game as that, with plenty of
grub and blankets along."

"Hear! hear!" said Phil Towns. "And as the sun has set already I for
one wouldn't care how soon you decided to do that stunt."

"Oh! we ought to be good for another hour or so anyway, Phil," Tom
told him, at which the other only grunted and struck manfully out
again.

As evening closed in about them, the shadows began to creep out of the
heavy growth of timber by which the skaters were surrounded.

"Look! look! a deer!" shrieked Sandy Griggs, suddenly. Thrilled by the
cry the others looked ahead just in time to see a flitting form
disappear in the thick fringe of shrubbery that lined one side of the
creek.

CHAPTER XV

TOLLY TIP AND THE FOREST CABIN

"Oh! that's too bad!" exclaimed Spider Sexton, "I've been telling
everybody we'd taste venison of our own killing while off on this
trip, and there the first deer we've glimpsed gives us the merry
ha-ha!"

"Rotten luck!" grumbled Jud Elderkin. "And me with a rifle gripped in
my fist all the time. But I only had a glimpse of a brown object
disappearing in the brush, and I never want to just _wound_ a deer so
it will suffer. That's why I didn't fire when I threw my gun up."

"With me," explained Jack Stormways, "it happened that Bluff here was
just in my way when I had the chance