arose from the camp-chair on
which he had been sitting, and stretched himself. "But come on,
fellows," he continued. "There is no use of your worrying over our
troubles. We came on this little trip to enjoy ourselves, and I want all
of you to have the best time possible."

"And we certainly have had a good time!" cried Dave. "Just as good a
time as we had out in Yellowstone Park."

"That is, Dave, considering the girls are not along," remarked Ben, with
a wink at the others.

"Well, of course that makes some difference, Ben," returned Dave, his
face flushing a trifle.

"Sure it does! A whole lot of difference!" declared Roger. "Just the
same, we are having a dandy time, Phil," he added hastily. "The first
outing of the Oak Hall Club is a big success."

"It sure is!" broke in Shadow Hamilton. "Only I did hope we'd see a
whale or some sharks or something like that," he added, regretfully.

"I suppose if you saw a shark, Shadow, you'd jump right overboard to
interview him, wouldn't you?" queried Ben, and gave a snicker.

"Say, speaking of sharks puts me in mind of a story!" cried Shadow.
"Once there was a sailor who had traveled all around the world. He met a
lady in Boston who wanted him to tell her a shark story. Says the
sailor: 'Madam, I've seen sharks in the Atlantic an' the Pacific an' the
Indian Oceans, but all of them sharks wasn't a patch to the shark I once
met on land.' 'On land!' cried the lady from Boston. 'Do you mean to say
that you met a shark on land?' 'I did, Madam,' answered the sailor. 'I
met a shark right in New York, and he did me out of every copper I had
in my pockets. He was a hotel-keeper who played cards.'" And at this
little yarn there was a general smile.

"Pretty good for a fish story," was Roger's comment. "Just the same, I
don't want to fall in with any sharks whether on land or at sea."

"Before we land to-night, I want to settle about this outing we expect
to take at Mirror Lake," said Dave. "If you fellows are going along,
we'll have to make the necessary arrangements."

"Well, you can count on me, Dave," returned Roger, promptly. "I told you
at the start that I'd be glad to go with you."

"And so will I be glad to go," added Phil.

"I've got to find out what my folks want me to do first," said Shadow.
He looked curiously at Dave, who was gazing far out to sea. "What are
you looking at, Dave?" he asked.

"I'm watching that smoke out there," was the answer.

"That's only