h a smile. "I guess that's the reason I'm that way,
if I really am, Pete. It isn't that I'm any more likely to think of
things than you, but that I've been trained that way. Whenever I said
anything reckless, or quick, Old Dan used to ask me why I said it, and
make me try to prove it. So I got to thinking about everything I said
before I let myself say it, and I've sort of kept up the habit."

"I'm going to try to be like that, too, Jack. I think it's a good way
to be."

"Well, here's Tom Binns! Want to go swimming with us, Tom?"

"You bet I do, Jack! Sure you feel well enough, though? You don't
want to take any chances on being sick after what you were up against
last night, you know."

"No. I'll be all right. Come on."

So they went off. The day was warm, but overcast, and there was a
threat of a thunderstorm in the sultriness of it. But they cared
little for that.

"If we're going to get wet," said Pete, "we might as well do it
comfortably. We won't be any wetter for a thunderstorm than if the sun
were shining if we're in swimming."

They changed their clothes in a little hut at the camping place, and
went in from the little sandy beach there, the presence of which was
one of the reasons the Scouts had favored it for a camping ground.

They had not been in the water very long before great drops of water,
began to fall, and then, with a howling of wind, the threatened storm
came down. They laughed and enjoyed the novelty of being in the water
in such weather, since they were in a sheltered cove. Presently the
wind died down and furious thunder and lightning came to take its
place, but that didn't bother them, either. It was not until, after a
vivid flash and an immediate roar of thunder, cries of distress came
from the lake, that they were aroused. They looked out, and saw a
burning launch.

"Gee," cried Pete Stubbs, his face white, "the lightning must have
fired their gasolene tank! Let's get out there and see if we can't
help."

At once they swam to the rescue.

CHAPTER X

THE BURNING LAUNCH

The launch fortunately was not very far out. Had it been more than a
hundred feet or so from shore no one could have done much for the
unfortunate party on board, since beyond the shelter of the cove the
lake was like a stormy sea, with white-capped waves defying swimmers,
and giving even the stoutest of the craft that had been caught in the
squall all they could do to make headway aga