r even in their wildest dreams of what might happen during this
cruise. So Tom and his canoe friends turned in and worked with the
others, while all introductions and explanations were left for some
future time.

Young Jabe made trip after trip in the small boat between sloop and
shore, carrying a big load every time, and in this work he was assisted
by such of the canoes as had cockpits of any size. Thus provisions,
bedding, a huge tarpaulin, several casks of fresh water, pots, pans, and
a certain amount of table-ware were soon conveyed to the beach, and
there piled in a promiscuous heap. Last of all, the shipwrecked Rangers,
to whom the whole affair was a delightful novelty, were transferred to
the island. There, no longer restrained by a polite sympathy for
Captain Crotty, they gave vent to their feelings in a series of whoops
and howls, combined with antics that would have done credit to a band of
young monkeys.

"Whoop-pee!" shouted Si Carew. "Here we are shipwrecked, and cast away
on a desolate island. It's the real thing too, and not a bit of
make-believe about it."

"Just like _Robinson Crusoe_ or _Swiss Family Robinson_," chimed in
little Cal Moody, joyously kicking up the warm sand with his bare feet;
"only I hope there won't be any savages or pirates."

"More like the mutineers of the _Bounty_," suggested Hal Bacon, "for we
did really mutiny, you know, and came out ahead, too."

"You did!" exclaimed Tom Burgess, in open-eyed amazement. "How did it
happen? Tell us about it."

So the story of the cruise and its double mutiny had to be told then and
there to Tom and the other canoe-boys, who listened with envious
interest.

"Well!" declared Tom, when from the confused recital of half a dozen
Rangers at once he had gleaned the main points of the story. "It beats
anything I ever heard of outside of a book, and I only wish I'd waited
in Berks so as to come with you. But look here! You fellows haven't been
over to our camp yet. So come on, and see what you think of the New York
style of doing things."

The Rangers, only too ready to see or do anything new, sprang up, and
would have followed him in a body, had they not been restrained by
practical Will Rogers, who called out:

"Hold on, fellows! We've got our own camp to fix first. It's most
sundown now, and it wouldn't be much fun working in the dark. Besides,
we've got supper to think of."

"I'm thinking of it now," laughed Mif Bowers, "and wondering w